Lane Kiffin would do the EA Sports video game for free

Imagine you’re playing the soon-to-be-released EA Sports college football video game as Ole Miss and you dial up the perfect play. Your slot receiver runs a post-corner, but two defenders jump to cover the underneath route.

You press the circle button and quarterback Jaxson Dart, who already has opted into the game, fires a laser to the wide-open receiver for a 75-yard touchdown. When the game shows the replay, it chooses a sideline angle. As the receiver pops open but before Dart throws, the Ole Miss coach — wearing a COME TO THE SIP hoodie with his hair peeking just so out of his visor — launches his play sheet into the air in celebration.

This isn’t going to be possible under the current circumstances, but actual Rebels coach Lane Kiffin would love to see it. EA Sports doesn’t plan to put coaches in the game at the moment, but Kiffin would love to appear alongside his players.

EA Sports has offered players $600 and a free copy of the game to opt in. Certain players are getting more in exchange for promoting the game. Kiffin, due to make about $9 million from Ole Miss this season, wouldn’t have agent Jimmy Sexton trying to make a blockbuster deal to get a visored, hoodie-wearing Kiffin in the game. “I would let them do it without any deal,” Kiffin said. “I would just let them do it.”

Kiffin, whose 14-year-old son Knox is the target audience for the game, understands how much cachet just being in the game would provide. “The kids like to play it,” he said. “When they’re picking the team, you would want recruits to play with the coach.”

And at the end of the day, it all comes down to recruiting. So if EA Sports wants to reconsider adding coaches, Kiffin would be a bargain.

“My brain thinks about ‘What would help in recruiting?’ If you did pay me for that, I wouldn’t want it,” Kiffin said. “I’d want you to put it into our NIL.”