Lane Kiffin discusses how NFL background helps in college football’s NIL era

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has thrived early in a new era of college football that’s seen drastic changes as of late. Highlighted by NIL and the transfer portal dominating recruiting and completely changing the landscape in an unprecedented.

Roster management has changed significantly as a result, with some college football program’s even having general managers to help balance the new financial aspect that now comes with the game.

At SEC Spring Meetings, Kiffin was asked if his background in the NFL has had any impact on his current roster management process at the college level given the recent changes.

“A little bit, I think that just our approach in general of always trying to not just think outside the box but create a new box and take whatever situations come up and let’s figure out how to maximize them,” Kiffin said. “We don’t really do anything just because, we don’t accept things as hey we’re gonna do them just because that’s what we did five years ago.”

Kiffin led Ole Miss to their strongest season to date last year, boasting an 11-2 record with many believing that the Rebels can follow that with another impressive season. Largely due to the work Kiffin and his staff have put into the transfer portal this offseason, building a roster that is one of the most talented in program history thanks to numerous impact players joining Ole Miss from other schools.

But when it comes to his approach, Kiffin believes that it expands beyond just recruiting as Ole Miss looks to be forward thinking in numerous areas.

“And I think that kind of the offensive question of where our offense is today compared to five years ago, 10 years ago, way back with Sark (Steve Sarkisian) at USC’s very different. And I just think that’s how we take the approach with everything, and do a lot of research and a lot of analytics on things and a lot of studies to try to figure that out. What are the best ways to invest, and best ways to staff, and best ways to manage your roster,” Kiffin explained.

Ole Miss has added 23 new players to their roster this offseason through the transfer portal, and given their gains and losses, they rank No. 3 in the nation with an index score of 62 in On3’s 2024 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. But despite his success in the portal, per usual Kiffin made it clear that he’d still like to see changes surrounding NIL and the transfer portal when asked if it seems similar to roster building in the NFL.

“No, it doesn’t because the NFL has a system. So we don’t really have a system and we don’t have contracts and don’t have salary caps like all professional sports do. But in some areas, we want to be professional sports, but then we don’t in these other areas and that’s why you have that chaos that you have in college football,” Kiffin concluded.