by Kyle Golik
It seems that when great expectations surround Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, his teams somehow always disappoint in some fashion. While at Southern California, Kiffin found ways to win despite the sanctions levied against the Trojans. Although Kiffin said his Trojans shouldn’t have been ranked No. 1 in the 2012 preseason, no one expected them to finish 7-6.
At Ole Miss, Kiffin has followed a similar pattern of exceeding early expectations, such as the 2021 team becoming the first in program history to win 10 regular-season games and last year’s team winning 11 games and the Peach Bowl.
How Kiffin has mastered recruiting and the portal, it seemed 2024 would be a season Ole Miss would realize their full potential under him. While most of Ole Miss’ goals—like an SEC Championship and a College Football Playoff berth—are still attainable, the head-scratching 20-17 loss to an unranked Kentucky team as the No. 6 ranked team raises concerns..
“I’m not going to overreact in loss, just like I don’t overreact in a tight win,” Kiffin said with calmness following the Kentucky loss. “You can’t let people hang around, especially in this conference.”
Kiffin then dropped this quip that might be just as big a head scratcher, “I’m a realist. I don’t think our opponents have prepared us for SEC play,” Kiffin said. “My hope is that our practice and our fall camp has prepared us.”
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The opponents Ole Miss had were Furman, Georgia Southern, Wake Forest, and Middle Tennessee State. Ole Miss defeated them by a combined score of 220 to 22. Ole Miss was leading the nation in scoring offense (55.0), total offense (670.8), explosive plays of 10 or more yards (100), and passing offense (422.8).
Kentucky held the nation’s top offense to just 353 yards of total offense and the Rebels, who were averaging 25 plays of 10 or more yards per game, had only 11.
I appreciate Kiffin’s honesty, but in my view, those “tune-up” games are meant to find efficiency. Let’s be honest—the SEC has a history of scheduling late-season tune-up games before major showdowns. Kiffin has played Liberty (2021) and Louisiana-Monroe (2023) prior to Texas A&M (2021) and Mississippi State (2023), won those games, and then successfully won the next week.
This game is a major indictment on Kiffin not being prepared to have his team ready for the SEC opener.
While Kiffin seemed to have built some equity in the Peach Bowl win over Penn State raising Kiffin’s record to 3-15 against Top 10 opponents, it’s losses like these that hold him back from reaching his full potential. Many see Kiffin as a Top 10 coach—ESPN even ranked him No. 8—but it’s losses like these and his record against elite opponents that fuel the overrated narrative.
To me, it is fair to ask about Kiffin being overrated. I believe he is, and after watching what happened Saturday, along with his reasoning, it only reinforces that belief. If you can’t get your team prepared for SEC play with four tune-up games, how can anyone trust Kiffin to be a Playoff or Championship-level coach? I don’t.
