Bruce Feldman: It'd be hard for Lane Kiffin to say no to Auburn

Bruce Feldman believes the possibility of Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss to become the next Auburn football coach is more likely than many believe. With the Tigers firing coach Bryan Harsin in just his second season, Kiffin’s name has been one of the more popular ones to come up as a potential candidate.

Kiffin has so far declined to comment on his interest in the job, leaving the door open as the Rebels continue to chase an SEC West division title. However, in an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday, Feldman explained why he believes it’d be difficult for Kiffin to turn the Tigers down.

“Going in early this week, the name I’ve heard a lot was Lane Kiffin,” the college football insider said. “I think he would make a lot of sense there. I think it would be attractive to him. People say, ‘Well, he’s got a good job at Ole Miss,’ and he does, but no one has come close to winning a national title at Ole Miss in Lane Kiffin’s lifetime. Whereas, prior to Bryan Harsin getting that job, the two coaches, Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn, Gene Chizik won one and Gus came within a play of winning one.

“There’s a ton of money there. I think it would be really hard if Auburn goes after Lane Kiffin for him to say no. I just think he knows the potential of that job. …Lane Kiffin is probably the safest option Auburn has.”

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Feldman pointed to two main reasons why Lane Kiffin would be tempted to take the Auburn job. Firstly, Feldman believes it would give Kiffin a better chance at winning a national championship. Secondly, he thinks that the Tigers’ recent hire of former Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen to take over as their AD would be a good fit for Kiffin.

“I think (national title chances) is the biggest thing,” Feldman said. “Lane Kiffin is making a lot of money by relative standards in Oxford. Looking at the area where Lane Kiffin lives, he’s far away from his family. One of the things that would probably be an attractive piece of this is John Cohen just got hired as the AD there. He was Mike Leach’s boss.

“You have to have a certain level of flexibility and trust if you’re going to be Mike Leach’s boss. He’s going to spend a bunch of time in Key West. You’ve kind of let him do his thing or else you don’t have Mike Leach working for you. I think Lane Kiffin would probably, I’m not saying he doesn’t have a good situation at Ole Miss, but I think that would be attractive depending on who was gonna get the AD job.”

Auburn has not won more than six games since 2019, so Lane Kiffin would certainly have his work cut out for him if he accepted the job. However, his track record of rebuilding programs at Florida Atlantic and now Ole Miss, which is 18-4 over the past two years, makes him the perfect fit in Feldman’s eyes.

“I think if you’re Auburn where you just had a hire that did not fit at all and many people who wanted no part in Bryan Harsin,” he said. “Now you have a guy, if it’s in fact Lane Kiffin, who has shown he can win in the SEC West and he has no fear of Nick Saban or competing with him. He has a really terrific offensive mind, and another part of this with Lane, I think he fits. He has found his voice. You see it on social media. I think he’s more comfortable. Certainly more comfortable than he was as a young coach at USC. He has really taken to it and I think, if you’re Auburn, that could be very attractive to making us feel like we can compete with the people we want to compete with. Because right now, they’re pretty far away from that.”