By Rock Westfall
Last week, before a road matchup against the Florida Gators, Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He revealed that several SEC coaches confessed to him that they would rather have a bye to the College Football Playoff than play in the SEC Championship Game. At that time, Ole Miss was very much in the mix for a trip to Atlanta and a shot at the SEC title.
Fortunately for Kiffin, he won’t have to worry about participating in the SEC Championship Game anymore. His Rebels flopped miserably in a 24-17 loss to the Gators as 13-point road favorites. With the loss, Kiffin and his Rebels almost certainly blew what fans and many media members expected to be a trip to the College Football Playoff.
Sloppy Ole Miss committed three turnovers and was 3-14 on third down conversions. Ole Miss outgained the Gators 464 to 344 in total yards but failed to finish. They had the look of a team that was distracted and not all in because of the needless and ill-advised comments of their head coach.
For some Ole Miss fans, the loss was a deal breaker and a reminder of how Lane Kiffin can giveth and taketh in the most annoying ways.
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The One Thing That Lane Kiffin Has Never Been Able to Handle
Lane Kiffin is the son of the late great defensive mastermind Monte Kiffin, who passed away earlier this year. To many observers and those in the coaching profession, Kiffin was born on third base as a coach. At age 31, he was named head coach of the NFL Oakland Raiders, a struggling but legacy NFL franchise.
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After getting fired four games into his second season in Oakland, he landed in the college ranks as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. After a promising 7-6 rookie campaign, Kiffin bailed in the dead of night to take over the USC Trojans, where he was an assistant under Pete Carroll in their glory years. Kiffin led USC to a 10-2 record in his second season but slipped to 7-7 and then 3-2 in his fourth season before being infamously fired on the tarmac of LAX airport.
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Next was a stop in Nick Saban’s rehabilitation clinic as offensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Kiffin knew it was necessary to serve a sentence of hard labor to atone for his past failures and to improve his image and career path.
Saban gives Kiffin credit for taking the Tide into the 21st century offensively, but told him to get lost before the 2016 national championship game for being too distracted about taking over as HC of the Florida Atlantic Owls, where he won two C-USA titles.
Kiffin took over at Ole Miss in 2020, ramped up recruiting, and is celebrated as the King of the Transfer Portal. Ole Miss has arguably never had as much talent as it did this year under Kiffin, yet the Rebels have lost three games, two of which were totally inexcusable flops against Kentucky and Florida. Additionally, a 29-26 overtime loss at LSU is looking worse by the hour, considering the struggles of the Bayou Bengals this year.
As was the case at Tennessee, after his 10-win campaign at USC, leading the most prolific Alabama offenses of the Saban era, and then getting touted as a CFP contender at Ole Miss, Kiffin eventually lets success go to his head.
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Every time it looked like Ole Miss was playoff-bound, it would flop against teams it was supposed to beat.
Lane Kiffin can’t handle success.
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Just What is Lane Kiffin, Anyway?
Now, at age 49, Lane Kiffin is, at best, starting his adolescent years. True, he tries to be more serious and certainly has drawn on his past experiences for increased success. He has never done a better job at coaching than what he has done at Ole Miss, yet it is far from enough.
Kiffin lacks the intense, obsessive, maniacal drive of Nick Saban, who saved his career. Kiffin will often serve as a court jester and needle the Nicktator but has never come close to matching his results. Kiffin dreamed of beating and replacing Saban but was never able to do so. Saban always had one more answer than his rebellious cutup student in the back of the classroom.
Lane Kiffin is a very good, although not brilliant, offensive mind. He is an excellent procurer of elite talent and has built a strong defense to complement his high-octane offense at Ole Miss. Certainly, he is the best head coach at Oxford since integration.
However…
Lane Kiffin remains a man-child social media troll who can’t quite get out of his way, and there is no sign that he ever will.
Lane Kiffin and his Ole Miss Rebels have been outed as overrated.
It’s way past time for Lane Kiffin to grow up.
