The Gospel of Lane: The problem with Lane Kiffin's latest comments on NIL and the transfer portal
Lane Kiffin went viral again.
Not for a tweet or trolling another coach, but for sounding the alarm on college football’s problems with NIL and the transfer portal, and then back-patting himself for being a lone wolf truth sayer.
In a taped appearance on Marty & McGee during SEC Media Days that was released Wednesday, Ole Miss’ head coach bluntly detailed his issues with the sport’s current climate and what he called “a broken system.”
“It’s not like I’m the president giving the State of the Union about NIL and portal problems. I do that because you guys tell me afterward when I do those interviews how appreciative you are,” Kiffin said. “Or I see fans, or players’ parents or recruits and they’re like, ‘Wow, thank you, we didn’t really know that’s what’s really happening cause no other coach talks like that.’”
Much of what Kiffin said to Marty and McGee wasn’t particularly new or different than what he’s expressed publicly many times before. He is right that he’s an outlier in this regard. He will say what other coaches won’t.
He did last year in a notable national interview with Sports Illustrated. He repeated similar thoughts at the spring meetings this summer and then again at SEC Media Days last month.
But Kiffin is starting to cross the Rubicon of blunt honesty to biased candor when talking about the current problems with NIL and the transfer portal.
Is he telling the truth? Or is it Lane Kiffin’s gospel?
“You’re going to not have phenomenal culture.”
The most interesting comments Lane Kiffin made to Marty & McGee was his resignation that the “joy is not the same” coaching college football anymore. He then added that with so much player movement, it’s unrealistic for locker rooms to have a strong culture.
“I think, kind of accepting that you’re going to not have phenomenal culture,” Kiffin said.
“Doesn’t mean I don’t work on it, but I think I have to realize like hey, it just is what it is. Like, one, we don’t have many kids who are dying to be here. They didn’t grow up wanting to go to Ole Miss. These transfer kids are going to a place that fits them best at that time. It’s not about the school and you don’t really have them on their third, fourth, fifth year with you to where they know how we do it, they know expectations, the culture, the other players. Unfortunately, now it’s like plug and play.”
He continued, “They used to ask me, ‘Okay, coaching in the NFL, coaching in college, what do you like?’ And I was like, ‘I really like the college because it’s like the players care so much about where they’re at in college.’ A lot in that locker room, like that’s where they wanted to play for when they grew up, and the passionate fanbase and everything, and in the NFL, it’s business. So, it just makes for a very different dynamic and we’re now moved toward that to where it is really business and I would say the joy is not the same.”
There is a lot to chew on here.
The notion that the joy of the job is not the same likely is true. Many other coaches have at least expressed similar sentiments. The calendar is terrible and the challenges are real.
But does Kiffin sound like a coach who’s “working on” making sure his team’s culture is as strong as possible? It would be foolish to deny that cultivating a strong culture in today’s landscape isn’t more challenging. College football teams are built on chemistry and buy-in. But it sounds to me like a coach who’s simply embraced the mercenary lifestyle because it’s an easier sell in the game’s current economy. Even in a “broken system,” what’s more difficult: Paying for a transfer or developing relationships over time and building a roster through high school prospects?
Furthermore, are we sure that the rosters of Georgia or Alabama’s roster — both of which have huge swaths of out-of-state players — are mostly guys who dreamt of wearing the Red and Black or Crimson and White as little kids?
Some, sure. But the majority are former blue-chip recruits who chose programs that are the best at sending them to the NFL.
Kiffin can’t compete with that, or at least he doesn’t want to try to. He’s opted to devote his resources elsewhere (42 transfer signees the last two cycles during the NIL period), and that’s fine. Every coach’s strategy is different.
But his reality doesn’t make it the reality for all of college football.
Are Lincoln Riley, Mike Norvell and Sonny Dykes, all coaches who hammered the transfer portal this offseason, throwing in the towel on their team’s culture? Are they punting on optimal chemistry?
Does Clemson, which refuses to use the portal under Dabo Swinney, have a roster of 85 guys dying to play in Death Valley?
Kiffin has said plenty of good things about the ills of the current sport, but his latest comments weren’t so much speaking truth to the sport’s real problems. He was preaching from the Gospel of Lane. And there’s a difference.