Time is running out for Lane Kiffin to decide on his coaching future.
According to Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, Ole Miss has reportedly given Kiffin an ultimatum to make a decision on his future before the Rebels’ final game of the regular season against Mississippi State, a.k.a. The Egg Bowl, on Nov. 28.
The ultimatum comes amid reports that Kiffin’s family have taken trips on a private plane to visit Gainesville, Florida and Baton Rouge, Louisiana over the last two days as Kiffin remains a candidate for the LSU and Florida coaching vacancies, per The Advocate and On3.
Kiffin quickly emerged as a potential candidate for those two vacancies after LSU fired Brian Kelly and Florida fired Billy Napier midseason. Kiffin has remained coy about both of those openings, including on Saturday when he told reporters, “Today was awesome. I love what we’re doing here. To even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and how well they played today. We’ve got a lot of things going here, doing really well and I love it here.”
While Kiffin has transformed Ole Miss into a contender and has the Rebels on the verge of their first College Football Playoff appearance, Florida and LSU have long been viewed as superior jobs. Kiffin has ties to Florida and has long revered legendary Gators coach Steve Spurrier, while LSU is an incredible coaching opportunity with a great recruiting base.
Kiffin questioned those narratives in a recent interview with Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, saying, “I grew up picturing I’d be at one of the elite blue bloods where you can sign top-five classes every year because of your in-state talent and facilities and tradition. I wasn’t raised to think it was a program like Ole Miss, but I’ve also changed a lot over the years. I didn’t grow up thinking this was the final chapter of the story. Maybe it is.”
However, Kiffin still might not be able to turn down the allure of Florida or LSU. If Kiffin does decide he can’t pass up another opportunity, he will turn his back on the program where he’s seen a career resurgence. If Kiffin chooses he wants to coach at another program, or doesn’t meet Ole Miss’ deadline for a decision, it could leave the program with some extremely awkward decisions to make heading into the postseason.
Kiffin said on Saturday that talking about other coaching opportunities “would be so disrespectful to our players.” Does he have it in him to choose another program before the end of the regular season?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Report: Ole Miss Giving Lane Kiffin Ultimatum to Decide on Future by Nov. 28 Egg Bowl.
