In this season of gratitude, does anyone have more to be thankful for than Lane Kiffin?
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College football fans know November as the month that offers the bittersweet swan song of their sport’s regular season and the deep, spiritual intensity of Rivalry Week.
Universally, though, November is the season of gratitude.
At the intersection of this Venn Diagram is Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.
Ahead of the Egg Bowl, which, if you aren’t well-versed in your Mississippi history, remains the biggest sporting event of the year in the Magnolia State, Kiffin has plenty of reasons to give thanks.
After an ignominious exit after 1 tumultuous season at Tennessee and the fired-on-the-tarmac flameout at USC, it was reasonable to wonder if Kiffin would ever again earn a high-level head coaching opportunity. Even after Kiffin helped Nick Saban modernize Alabama’s offense and win the 2015 national championship, proving yet again Kiffin’s offensive genius, questions lingered. After all, even Saban tired of the off-field wanderlust and sideshow Kiffin seems to attract like flies to honey. When Kiffin took the Florida Atlantic head coaching job late in Alabama’s run to the 2016 national championship, Saban dismissed Kiffin ahead of the National Championship Game, citing off-field “distractions.”
Lost in the impromptu, too-much-to-do sports scene of South Florida, Kiffin flew under the radar, more or less, at Florida Atlantic, save a handful of “Joey Freshwater” sightings at local watering holes that were occasionally reported by local media.
But mainly, for the first truly sustained period as a head coach, Kiffin won in Boca Raton, guiding the Owls to a 26-13 record in 3 seasons at the helm and winning his first (and only) 2 championships of any sort as a head football coach. The success, along with the quieting of the off-field noise, led Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter to tab him as the next University of Mississippi head coach in December 2019.
For that opportunity, Kiffin should be — and it should be said, seems to be — forever grateful.
Kiffin’s certainly made the most of the opportunity.
Off the field, Kiffin has found sobriety, peace, and joy in what he’s called a second chance to be a partner and parent. When his legendary father Monte passed away a season ago, the Ole Miss family (and yes, many around football nationally) embraced him as he began the non-linear, never truly ending process of grief. Kiffin has been forceful and consistent in expressing his gratitude for that warmth, grace, and growth.
On the field, Kiffin is 54-19 with the Rebels, with 4 seasons where he’s won 10 games or more, easily the best stretch of football for Ole Miss since integration. After blowing a Playoff opportunity in late 2024 with a disappointing defeat at Florida, Kiffin and Ole Miss appear to have gotten over the hump in 2025, heading into Egg Bowl week 10-1, with an at-large Playoff berth and home game likely and an outside shot at playing in the SEC Championship Game for the first time in school history.
That success, of course, has helped make Kiffin, and by association, the lovely town of Oxford, Mississippi, the center of the college football universe this autumn.
Kiffin is “Candidate 1” for 2 of the nation’s highest-profile job openings: LSU and Florida.
As rivalry week and the College Football Playoff draw nearer, scrutiny on Kiffin’s 2026 coaching destination has reached full moon fever.
We’re talking fan base Twitter wars, dueling message board battle royales, hysterical conspiracy theorists, flight tracking fanaticism, and real estate housing market wishcasting. We’ve even had politicians shaming Kiffin’s indecision publicly, because well, of course we have.
Being glued to a coaching search is as southern as believing on Saturday that God himself favors our football teams, no matter how many of us (and the coaches who lead our favorite teams) are backsliders and blasphemers 6 days a week. For Southerners, to say we do not care who remains or leaves Ole Miss or who is hired at Florida or LSU is to invite suspicion. When we say, “It just means more,” it’s not just a catchy phrase. It’s a cultural reality, as indelible a part of the fabric of our reality as Sunday school lessons. And no, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing that people care so much.
In fewer than 5 years, we’ve gone from the modernized plantation economy of “play for books, directions, and a degree” to a world where young men of across racial, economic, and social lines can build generational wealth on Saturdays.
Maybe that new universe is bothersome to you. Maybe you long for the days when playing for a degree and a logo was sufficient. Maybe you think pay-for-play and the portal have ruined the sport. The revenue streams and television ratings beg to differ, but I’m not here to lecture.
What I can assure you is that the genie isn’t going back in the bottle.
If you don’t think leadership choices matter more in the world of Saturday millionaires, I have a lovely bit of oceanfront property in Arizona I can sell you.
As such, Kiffin’s decision looms large, certain to be a centerpiece of discussion around plenty of Thanksgiving tables next week.
Kiffin’s efforts to obfuscate and dance around question after question only compound the intrigue.
Take this week’s SEC Media teleconference call.
Kiffin’s weekly 10-minute segment featured so many non-answers about his future that when asked whether it was flattering to be pursued by 3 programs and beloved (for now) by 3 fan bases, Kiffin deadpanned, “It doesn’t feel good on this call.”
The uncertainty won’t go away until there is certainty, and at present, perhaps not even Kiffin knows when that will be.
Reports from both the New York Times and ESPN this week have suggested that Keith Carter and Ole Miss are pressing — if not outright demanding — Kiffin to decide whether he intends to remain the head coach at Ole Miss before Thanksgiving and the Egg Bowl.
But Kiffin and Carter remain close, to hear them both tell it independently.
Carter praised Kiffin and the constant dialogue between the 2 in a conversation with Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger last week.
“We have a great relationship,” Kiffin reciprocated, speaking about Carter on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN on Wednesday this week. Kiffin also denied that there had been any ultimatum, telling McAfee, “I don’t know where that came from,” while casually noting he and Carter enjoyed hot yoga together on Tuesday morning.
“We’re having a blast. I love it here,” Kiffin added.
I don’t think anyone doubts, or should in good faith doubt, the authenticity of Kiffin’s love for Oxford and Ole Miss. Kiffin’s life has changed for the better in Oxford and, in Carter, he has one of the nation’s top athletic directors and the administrative commitment necessary to continue winning for a long time.
I also don’t think there’s any question that LSU is a top 5 job in the sport, a talent-rich state where LSU is the only show in town, blessed with resources and riches that outweigh the current insanity swirling around Brian Kelly’s exit, which appears headed for litigation, and the interjection of the Louisiana political machine into Kelly’s termination and dismissal of the man who hired Kelly, the now former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward.
I also don’t believe there’s any question that Florida is also a top job and one that’s always intrigued Kiffin, who grew up idolizing Steve Spurrier and who married and has children with Layla Reaves, a Florida native who attended the University of Florida where her father, John Reaves, was a Gators football legend. What’s more, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin has, by all accounts, given Kiffin everything he could hope for or ask for if he took the job at Florida. Long behind other programs in administrative support and commitment, Florida hasn’t just closed the gap — it is invested in winning football at a level unprecedented in its school’s history. It’s just a matter of finding the right leadership at the program Bear Bryant famously called the SEC’s sleeping giant.
Which brings us back to Lane, the former boy genius now turned 50-year-old man at the intersection of gratitude and desire, smack dab in the center of the college football universe.
If he leaves Ole Miss, he may learn quickly that you can’t ever go home again.
If he turns down Florida, a place he’s always wanted to be, he’ll never have another chance to be a Gator.
If he turns down LSU, well, where else will he ever receive the type of consistent resources coupled with in-state recruiting talent?
It’s the type of decision that would overwhelm many capable men. Earlier in his career, I’m confident it would have overwhelmed Lane Kiffin.
It’s also a scenario to approach with profound gratitude.
Kiffin has earned this moment. Now what?
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
