Inside Lane Kiffin’s decision about his future at Ole Miss

OXFORD, Miss. — Earlier than dawn on Tuesday morning, barely a day after Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin set the faculty soccer world ablaze with experiences that members of his household had visited Florida and LSU, he went to the one place he figured may cool issues down — social media.

In a submit on his X account, Kiffin inspired everybody to “have the most effective Tuesday ever” and included a photograph of a web page from Brianna Wiest’s self-development e book, “The Pivot 12 months: 365 Days to Turn out to be the Individual You Actually Need to Be.”

“How are you aware what to do subsequent?” the passage mentioned. “You ask your self, truthfully, what your 90-year-old self would advise you to do. What they’d have wished you had finished. You ask your self, truthfully, what you have sensed from the start. What you have got ignored, what you have got quieted and distracted your self from.”

Wiest inspired readers to make two lists, one of many positives and one of many negatives, and weigh them.

“And if there may be one factor on the left that overpowers the dozen issues on the appropriate, then you definately belief that,” Wiest wrote. “You ask your self what path will make you extra of the particular person you are supposed to be.”

That’s the dilemma 50-year-old Kiffin is dealing with. He has two potential paths.

Keep on the college within the small Southern city with the small stadium (64,038) and small (however rising) trophy case that gave him a second probability in big-time school soccer when most others would not.

Or take a job at an even bigger college with an even bigger stadium in an even bigger metropolis which may present him with a greater alternative to win an SEC title and nationwide championship.

Who’s Kiffin meant to be? The coach who has restored his once-sullied public picture and appears genuinely comfortable dwelling in the identical small city as two of his kids and his ex-wife? Or the coach whose ego will not let him go up a chance to educate in a stadium with greater than 100,000 seats underneath the brightest lights and on the largest stage, whereas doubtlessly leaving one other scorned fan base cursing his identify after one other ugly exit?

“With Lane, nothing is ever off the desk, as you in all probability know,” a supply accustomed to the scenario advised ESPN on Tuesday. “I believe that LSU is an actual menace. There was a lot smoke round Florida, however LSU is the one that basically scares you.”

Not way back, Kiffin was a coach with a checkered previous who many athletic administrators believed wasn’t definitely worth the danger. Now, he is the most popular commodity on this season’s teaching carousel after main the Rebels to a 10-1 file and the No. 6 spot within the School Soccer Playoff choice committee’s newest rankings.

With one regular-season sport left, in opposition to rival Mississippi State within the Egg Bowl in Starkville on Nov. 28 (midday ET, ABC), the Rebels are in line to make their first CFP look and presumably host a first-round sport at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Dec. 19 or 20.

“I’ll say what I’ve finished for six years, which isn’t speak about different jobs and that scenario,” Kiffin mentioned throughout Wednesday’s SEC teleconference. “I adore it right here and it has been superb. And we’re within the season that is the best run within the historical past of Ole Miss at this level — by no means been at this level. So I believe it is actually thrilling, and so I am simply dwelling within the second that incredible.”

Kiffin has finished it with a brand new quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, who spent final season at Division II Ferris State in Michigan, and a switch working again, Kewan Lacy, who leads the FBS with 19 speeding touchdowns. The Rebels are No. 2 within the SEC in complete offense (493.8 yards) and passing yards (305.1) and third in scoring (37.2 factors).

Certainly, these are heady instances for a program that has received just one nationwide championship, in 1960, within the 120-year historical past of this system. Ole Miss hasn’t captured an SEC title since legendary coach Johnny Vaught guided the workforce to a 7-1-2 file in 1963, and it hasn’t even performed within the SEC championship sport since its inception in 1992.

In an interview with “The Pat McAfee Present” on ESPN on Tuesday, Kiffin mentioned he reminds his gamers that these are the most effective of instances and to get pleasure from them.

“Hey, these good previous days, you are in them proper now,” Kiffin mentioned. “Sometime, 10, 20 years from now, you are going to be saying, ‘Man, do not forget that run we had at Ole Miss, and we had that Division II quarterback that may make all these performs, and the working again was main the nation in touchdowns, and there was a canine working round on the sector and the gamers had been dunking?’

“I mentioned, ‘You are within the good previous days proper now, so simply have enjoyable, get pleasure from it,’ and I believe should you watch our workforce, you see them doing that.”

Will the nice instances final in Oxford, although?

On Sunday, Kiffin’s ex-wife, Layla; his son, Knox; and his brother Chris’ son visited Gainesville, Florida. Layla and different relations visited the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the following day.

On McAfee’s present Tuesday, Kiffin denied that Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter issued an ultimatum for him to determine about his future.

“Yeah, that is completely not true,” Kiffin mentioned. “There’s been no ultimatum, something like that in any respect. And so, I do not know the place that got here from, like lots of stuff that comes on the market. Like I mentioned, man, we’re having a blast. I adore it right here.”

Nevertheless, sources advised ESPN that Carter is urgent Kiffin for readability about his future by this coming weekend. Is Kiffin staying at Ole Miss or leaving for Florida or LSU?

Kiffin and Carter declined interviews for this story. An Ole Miss spokesperson advised ESPN that Carter prefers for each males to deal with beating Mississippi State, which might safe the Rebels the second 11-win season in class historical past.

When Kiffin was requested Wednesday whether or not he was conscious of any approach he would not coach in subsequent week’s Egg Bowl, he mentioned, “In fact, I am teaching. I imply, until you guys know one thing [that] I do not. Or I am getting fired and I do not realize it.”

It is unclear whether or not Carter will enable Kiffin to educate the Rebels in a possible CFP sport if he decides to depart after the season. Former New York Giants head coach Joe Choose is in his first season because the Rebels’ quarterbacks coach and is likely to be in place to function interim coach if Kiffin leaves.

Lawyer Thomas Mars, whose purchasers have included many school coaches and athletic administrators, reviewed Kiffin’s contract and located that, underneath its phrases, “Ole Miss can ‘change or reassign [his] duties’ underneath sure circumstances, which embody him ‘looking for or contemplating’ employment with one other college with out giving ‘prior written discover’ to the athletics director.”

If Kiffin or his representatives offered Ole Miss with prior written discover that he was speaking to Florida and/or LSU, Mars did not see something within the language of the contract that may legally forestall him from teaching within the CFP.

Kiffin’s listing of positives for remaining at Ole Miss is likely to be a prolonged one. After spending a lot of the early a part of his profession on the West Coast, as an assistant and head coach at USC and head coach of the Oakland Raiders, he has discovered an unlikely dwelling in Oxford.

The slower tempo has been good for him. He not drinks alcohol, would not eat crimson meat or bread, and does scorching yoga each morning at 6. In September, Kiffin advised ESPN that he spends many Saturday nights consuming pizza and watching school soccer video games along with his son, who’s a sophomore quarterback at Oxford Excessive Faculty, and his mates.

“That is what you do when you do not drink,” Kiffin mentioned.

His daughter Landry is a junior at Ole Miss. His youthful daughter, Presley, is a freshman at USC and member of the Trojans’ volleyball workforce.

When Kiffin was requested Wednesday whether or not he’d be extra hesitant to make a job change now that his youngsters are older, he mentioned, “I do suppose that individuals with time change. And perhaps once they’re youthful, you make actually quick selections, which I’ve gone on file and mentioned that earlier than, in life [and] in conditions. And I believe as you grow old and extra mature and take a look at issues in another way, perhaps you are taking longer to make the correct choice.”

Kiffin’s off-field habits raised considerations for directors throughout his earlier teaching stops at Tennessee and Alabama, the place he was an assistant coach underneath Nick Saban from 2014 to 2016.

He says he has discovered self-discipline at Ole Miss. He advised ESPN that he even leaves his cellphone in his automobile most mornings.

“I simply preserve making an attempt to provide you with issues to problem self-discipline,” Kiffin mentioned. “It began in coaching camp. I advised my assistants, ‘You guys are simply as unhealthy as these youngsters. All you guys are hooked on your telephones. I’ll present you.'”

Kiffin may test his cellphone at lunch to ensure there’s not a household emergency or downside involving a participant, however in any other case he would not use it once more till about 9 p.m.

“It is superior,” Kiffin mentioned. “It is superb how far more productive you might be. Like, till you do it, you do not understand how a lot time you waste. And I am not even a nasty cellphone man, as some persons are.”

On the sector, Kiffin has constructed arguably the most effective SEC program exterior of Alabama and Georgia, at the least by way of victories the previous six seasons. The Rebels are 54-19 in his six seasons — solely the Crimson Tide (66-12) and Bulldogs (70-8) have extra wins within the SEC because the begin of the 2020 season. The truth is, the Rebels have the eighth-most wins amongst power-conference groups throughout that stretch.

If Kiffin had been evaluating the Rebels to Florida and LSU six years in the past, it might need been a simple choice to depart. Nevertheless, which may not be the case anymore.

For the reason that begin of the 2020 season, the Gators are 36-37. With a 3-7 file to date this season, they are going to have their fourth dropping marketing campaign up to now six years. City Meyer led the Gators to nationwide championships in 2006 and 2008, however they’ve cycled by means of 4 coaches since he left after the 2010 season. Florida fired Billy Napier on Oct. 19 after his groups went 22-23 in 4 seasons.

Layla Kiffin, who moved to Oxford earlier this yr to be shut to 2 of their three kids, is accustomed to Gainesville. Her father, John Reaves, was a star quarterback for the Gators from 1969 to 1971. He left because the NCAA’s main profession passer with 7,581 yards and an SEC-record 54 touchdowns. After taking part in 11 seasons within the NFL, Reaves was an assistant underneath Steve Spurrier from 1990 to 1994.

LSU has been higher than Florida because the begin of the 2020 season, with a 46-27 file. The Tigers have misplaced at the least three video games in every of the previous six seasons after quarterback Joe Burrow led them to a 15-0 file and a nationwide championship in 2019.

Tigers coach Ed Orgeron was fired lower than two years later. His alternative, former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, was fired Oct. 26 after his groups compiled a 34-14 file in three-plus seasons.

There’s additionally the present political local weather to think about at LSU. Days after Kelly was fired, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry criticized then-LSU athletic director Scott Woodward for agreeing to a 10-year, $95 million contract with Kelly that left LSU on the hook for a $54 million buyout. Woodward stepped down underneath strain Oct. 30 and was changed by longtime LSU athletics administrator Verge Ausberry.

On Nov. 10, Kelly’s attorneys sued LSU’s board of supervisors after the college purportedly notified Kelly that it was looking for to fireside him “for trigger” to keep away from paying his full buyout.

“Loopy would not scare Lane,” a supply advised ESPN. “That is in all probability not going to scare him away.”

A former SEC coach, who hadn’t spoken to Kiffin in regards to the scenario, believed Florida and LSU had been nonetheless higher jobs than Ole Miss due to, amongst different components, the opposite colleges’ recruiting bases. Kiffin has relied closely on the switch portal in constructing his rosters up to now few seasons; the Rebels introduced in 29 transfers this previous season.

“It is actually exhausting to show over your roster like that yearly,” the coach mentioned. “You have to be nearly excellent in your defensive evaluations, and that is exhausting to do. You possibly can’t preserve doing it.”

On the very least, although, Ole Miss officers hope the on-field struggles at their SEC rivals will give them an opportunity to maintain Kiffin past this season.

“I believe he is going, ‘Effectively, perhaps I could be a nationwide contender right here, they usually give me every little thing I would like. They let me be me,'” a supply accustomed to the scenario mentioned. “I do know that is simple to say, however, , Lane’s not a simple man. I believe we have discovered how you can cope with him and how you can handle him and let him be him, and I believe he appreciates that. So, yeah, I do not suppose we’re out of it by any means.”

If Kiffin leaves Ole Miss, it would not be the primary messy departure in his teaching profession. When he abruptly left Tennessee after solely 14 months to return to USC as Pete Carroll’s alternative in January 2010, a whole lot of scholars protested exterior the soccer complicated, burning a mattress and T-shirts bearing his identify.

Kiffin lasted three-plus seasons with the Trojans and was infamously fired within the early-morning hours by athletic director Pat Haden at a personal terminal at LAX after an unsightly 62-41 loss at Arizona State within the fifth sport of the 2013 season.

Then, after Kiffin spent three seasons rebuilding his profession as Alabama’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Saban relieved him of his duties on Jan. 2, 2017, every week earlier than the Crimson Tide had been to play Clemson within the CFP Nationwide Championship. Steve Sarkisian known as the performs in Alabama’s 35-31 loss, and Kiffin left to turn out to be the top coach at Florida Atlantic, which had employed him three weeks earlier.

How will issues prove in Oxford? Nobody is aware of — at the least not but.

“If there’s one factor about Lane,” a supply advised ESPN, “it is that you just by no means know what he’ll do till he does it.”