The noise is all too real as Ole Miss takes on Florida in the Lane Kiffin Bowl
By David Wasson
Published:
Unless you’ve been living under quite the sizable rock these past few weeks, Lane Kiffin has become the Belle of the College Football Ball.
Everyone wants a piece of the loquaciously controversial Ole Miss coach, from the bayou to the edge of Paynes Prairie – and certainly all the fine folk who have ever frequented The Grove. Heck, there might not be a Southeastern Conference program out there that wouldn’t want a piece of the ol’ Lane Train if they had the opportunity.
Which is what makes Saturday’s game between Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels and the Florida Gators (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) even more interesting – as if the Rebels’ march toward a first-ever College Football Playoff berth wasn’t interesting enough at face value.
Why? Because Florida is currently without a coach and working desperately behind the scenes to queue up at the ticket window for an express pass on said Lane Train. By all accounts/speculation/innuendo, Kiffin has been target No. 1 for the Gators from the moment athletic director Scott Stricklin showed Billy Napier the door.
Did someone say awkward?
Listen, we aren’t dumb/naïve enough to suggest that Kiffin is doing anything less than fully preparing Ole Miss to absolutely pulverize Florida on Saturday night in Oxford. To suggest otherwise would be foolhardy, not to mention fireable on Kiffin’s end. But every decibel of Kiffin-tuned noise that emits from Gainesville (and Baton Rouge, and the New York Football Giants, and anywhere else that might want to employ him in 2026…) is noise that couldn’t help but to reach Kiffin on some level.
In the few weeks since Napier hit the bread line, that noise was able to be diverted with all the usual platitudes. I have a good job. I am paid well. We have built a team ready to win at the highest level. Talk to my agent, Jimmy Sexton. Et cetera. But when the nexus of the noise stampedes straight into Kiffin’s current kitchen like it will Saturday, well, one would need noise-canceling headphones the size of Bundt cakes to block it all out.
Kiffin, naturally, isn’t one to follow someone else’s narrative when he is so adept at creating his own. The 50-year-old coach hasn’t been hired-fired-hired-fired-hired-fired-hired at the pace he has by accident. In addition to being a genuinely gifted and talented football savant, Kiffin knows how to play the noise game better than anyone out there. Dare we say, he has even thrived on the noise in Oxford while helming the Good Ship Sip to a 53-19 mark over the past few seasons.
Still the noise persists, growing louder and more fervent each week. The lure is out there, sparkling in the sunlight just as it was 2 years ago when Auburn came calling for his services. That time, Kiffin credited his daughter Landry as a reason why he didn’t eschew Oxford for the Plains – but not until his dalliance with Auburn allegedly damaged Ole Miss team morale and enveloped the Rebels to the tune of 5 losses in 6 games down the stretch.
This time around, partially because the noise comes from both Florida and LSU, the decibel level has magnified so much only a bona fide narcissist would be able to enjoy it. And no one can know for sure just how the current crop of Rebels will react to their coach once again being flirted with by prestige SEC programs.
All the while, and by all accounts, Kiffin has steadfastly continued to pull all the correct levers to maneuver the Rebels to the precipice of the College Football Playoff – ironically the same spot Ole Miss was at last year when it went to Gainesville and absorbed a 24-17 upset loss to Napier’s Gators that controversially (at least in Kiffin’s mind) eliminated them from CFP contention.
Kififn himself was prodded to talk hypothetically this week about what makes a “good” college coaching job and the advantage those programs have compared to the have-nots of the world. His answer sounded an awful lot like… well… Florida?
“People will say [the gap has] narrowed, and some stuff has narrowed because you can’t stockpile [talent] at those blue bloods, or however you want to refer to it,” Kiffin said Monday to reporters. “But there are still things where you’re gonna struggle to beat those guys because kids get recruited, and they see the size of stadiums, traditions, Heismans and national championships. Then your location to talent. I think all of those are in there.”
That description could also apply to LSU, of course. But Ole Miss ain’t playing the Tigers this week – the Rebels already dispatched the Bayou Bengals 24-19 earlier this season when Brian Kelly was still their coach. This week, the clear and present danger of Kiffin’s potential future is rumbling headlong into the fanfare and glory of Kiffin’s present.
The College Football Playoff beckons for Ole Miss, so long as the Rebels don’t tune into the noise and again step into a Gators-sized pothole. And their coach? Kiffin has a job to do this weekend in the Lane Bowl, even if it hurts Florida’s chance of landing him.
Like we said. Awkward.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
