Lane Kiffin again calls out Wake Forest for canceling 2025 game
On Saturday, Ole Miss invaded Wake Forest and dominated the Demon Deacons 40-6. The programs had a deal to participate in a home-and-home series, with Wake Forest visiting Oxford, Mississippi, next season.
However, after the game, Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin revealed Wake Forest chose to “buy out” the remainder of the contract and, therefore, cancel its game against Ole Miss next season. On Monday, Kiffin provided more details on Wake Forest’s unusual decision.
“Really, a very abnormal thing for Wake [Forest] to do,” Kiffin said. “You usually don’t do that in the season before. It’s hard. There’s not people to play. It’s why you do scheduling in advance, and you make deals, and you go and play there, and they come back.
“I would just say that’s rarely ever done. I’ve never really heard of doing it, and it really puts us at a big disadvantage. And it is what it is. Obviously, it wasn’t appreciated very much to put is in that situation. And now we got to go find somebody and most people are all scheduled up. And even when you find them, you got to go pay them. So, it’s kind of an unwritten rule not to do that actually.”
It’s traditional for programs to create their non-conference schedules over a year in advance. With every team locking down quality future opponents as soon as possible, few programs will have open slots on their schedule this close to next season.
Although Wake Forest hasn’t revealed its reason for voiding its previously arranged agreement with Ole Miss, it’s safe to assume its loss against the Rebels on Saturday didn’t motivate the program to face them again next season.
In the win, Ole Miss’ offense steam-rolled over Wake Forest, tallying 649 total yards. Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart was efficient, completing 26-of-his-34 (76.5%) pass attempts. The Rebels’ defense excelled as well, squeezing three turnovers out of the Demon Deacons.
No matter what Wake Forest’s reason was for buying out its agreement with Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin was not happy.
“I find it really amazing that you wait until the week of the game to tell the team,” Kiffin said. “I mean if they thought they were going to disrupt us and [Wake Forest athletic director] John Currie was like, ‘Oh, we’re going to tell them the week of and disrupt them.’ So maybe that was their game plan.”
The game Wake Forest opted out of against Ole Miss was scheduled for Sept. 13, 2025.