Reporters suggest that Lane Kiffin could leave Ole Miss after 2022 season for major Power-5 coaching job
The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and Matt Fortuna suggested this week that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin could exit Oxford after the 2022 season. Feldman and Fortuna pointed out that Kiffin could be a target for Auburn if Bryan Harsin is fired or leaves the Tigers for another job after the season. From The Athletic: […]
The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and Matt Fortuna suggested this week that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin could exit Oxford after the 2022 season.
Feldman and Fortuna pointed out that Kiffin could be a target for Auburn if Bryan Harsin is fired or leaves the Tigers for another job after the season.
From The Athletic:
His (Kiffin) shoot-from-the-hip style may turn off some ADs and presidents, but he seems less risky than he did back in his FAU days and less so by the year in Oxford, where by all accounts, things have gone fairly smoothly on – and off the field. To their credit, the Rebels have stepped up considerably to support him and the program, paying him well over $7 million a year. Then again, if Auburn targets him to contend with his old boss Nick Saban, the Tigers would likely make a big move on him financially and could offer him more recent history to compete for championships.
I think this could be a very realistic scenario. Harsin isn't a good fit at Auburn. And after the drama from this past season, I could see both sides looking to move on after 2022. Harsin would probably like to head back to the west coast, while Auburn would like to find a better fit.
If the Tigers target Kiffin, it's going to be hard for Ole Miss to keep him. Kiffin was reportedly interested in the LSU and Florida jobs this past offseason, but those programs weren't interested in him.
Auburn is one of only six SEC programs to win a national championship since 1980. At this point in his career, I don't think there's any doubt that Kiffin wants to win a national championship. And he has a better shot of winning one at Auburn than he does at Ole Miss (Gene Chizik, a coach with a career 38-38 record won a natty at Auburn, which tells us all we need to know).
Other schools may have passed on Kiffin in recent cycles, but Auburn likely wouldn't. They were just fine with hiring Bruce Pearl as their basketball coach despite his past NCAA baggage, so I don't think they'd hesitate to hire Kiffin.
Coaches leaving one school in a conference for another school in the same conference isn't common. But after the completely insane 2021 coaching carousel, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen with Kiffin.
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
