Joel Klatt tells Lane Kiffin to stay at Ole Miss or risk credibility in the future
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Joel Klatt looked at Lane Kiffin from a far distance on Saturday morning and told the Ole Miss head coach to simply stay put.
The Fox Sports host and college football analyst appeared on the network’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show and discussed the saga that has taken over college football during the final weeks of the regular season. Kiffin is currently the head coach of 1 of the best teams in college football, with No. 7 Ole Miss completing an 11-1 regular season on Friday afternoon with a victory at Mississippi State.
But the LSU job is waiting on Kiffin’s decision, too, so he has a choice to make — stay in Oxford and try to coach the Rebels to a national championship or head to a rival SEC program starting in 2026. Klatt believes that choice should be easy.
“Here’s the thing, guys. (Kiffin) has the right to go anywhere he wants. But your currency as a coach is your credibility in front of your team and with recruiting. Will he have the credibility if he makes this move?” Klatt said. “This notion that he has to go to LSU to win a national title is false. In the modern college football, you can build a winner basically anywhere. He’s proving that at Ole Miss. Indiana is proving it with Curt Cignetti.
“You want to win a national championship? Then look in the mirror because it’s right in front of you right now at Ole Miss.”
Kiffin should be making his decision at any moment. Klatt just wanted to be there, from a distance, to look at Kiffin and tell him what he believes Kiffin should ultimately decide to do.
The college football world is waiting for that ultimate decision.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
