Herm Edwards explains why Lane Kiffin is perfect choice for Texas A&M

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher was fired on Sunday with two regular season games remaining in his sixth season with the program. And while the Aggies program will have to deal with paying him a record-setting $77.6 million buyout over the next few years, they also have to deal with finding a new head coach to lead their program moving forward.

An assortment of potential candidates have been floated around and rumored already as potential fits for Texas A&M, but former collegiate and NFL head coach Herm Edwards believes that the best man for the Aggies’ job has been coaching against them for the past four seasons.

“Well he just mentioned him, Lane Kiffin‘s the guy,” Edwards said Monday on ESPN’s ‘Monday Blitz’ with Michael Eaves and Booger McFarland.

Kiffin is in the midst of his fourth season as the head coach of Ole Miss, currently boasting a 31-15 during his time in Oxford. And while it’s not very common for head coaches to change teams within the same conference, Edwards believes his experience in the SEC would play in Texas A&M’s favor.

“Well he’s been in that conference, he understands how to deal with the people there right? He’s good, he’s brash, he’s confident, he brings in an offense that can score points,” Edwards said. “It’s just a matter of now the ability to recruit players and guess what, now you can recruit them because you have this new system of recruiting, it’s called you can actually pay the players.”

Recruiting and acquiring talent has not been an issue for Texas A&M during Fisher’s tenure, even boasting the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the country in 2022 according to On3’s Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. But Kiffin has been particularly effective in recruiting through the transfer portal with the No. 1 ranked Transfer Portal Index score in 2022 and the No. 6 ranked score this offseason per On3’s Team Transfer Portal Rankings.

“He’s one of those guys, he’s good in the living room, he’s a good communicator, he’s very brash. He’ll say what’s on his mind, he doesn’t mind that right? And his teams always seem to play offense, they can score points, and last time I checked in college football you better score points,” Edwards said.

Scoring points has never bee an issue for Kiffin at Ole Miss, averaging over 30 points per game in each of his seasons at the helm for the Rebels, and Edwards himself was known for his brashness as a head coaching during his coaching days.

Kiffin may be the perfect fit in the eyes of Edwards, but is he in the eyes of Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork and his brain trust who will be searching for and naming a new head coach? Only time will tell.