Last week Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter said an announcement on Lane Kiffin’s future as head coach of the Rebels was expected on Saturday, the day after the Egg Bowl.
The use of the word “expected” gave Ole Miss officials a little wiggle room as an “expected” announcement on Kiffin’s future has not come yet.
Here’s what we know.
Kiffin met with Carter and Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce for more than three hours on Saturday according to Yahoo Sports’ college football reporter Ross Dellenger.
Vehicles believed to belong to Carter and Kiffin left the chancellor’s home early Saturday night.
ESPN’s Marty Smith says the sentiment in Oxford is that Kiffin’s unwillingness to commit is his desire to go. If he wanted to stay, he would have already signed their contract extension.
But Kiffin is not ready to leave just yet. Smith and Dellenger both report Kiffin want to coach Ole Miss in the postseason.
Former LSU Tiger and ESPN college football analyst Booger McFarland said it well on Saturday.
“Kiffin wants his cake and eat it too,” McFarland said.
LSU has reportedly offered a seven-year contract worth more than 90-million dollars and LSU officials remain confident Kiffin will be the next Tigers head coach.
Former Alabama and LSU coach Nick Saban weighed in on the Kiffin saga during ESPN’s College GameDay.
“I think Lane’s decision is going to come down to one thing: where is the place that I can recruit the best players? And I think one of Lane’s apprehensions is that he’s had to use the portal to build his team at Ole Miss each year,” Saban said. “At LSU, he probably could recruit better talent and then just supplement his team by need with the portal.”
It really feels like Kiffin will be the next head coach, but who will blink first?
Will Ole Miss let him coach the team in the postseason or will Kiffin become frustrated and just resign so he can take the LSU job?
We have been talking about Kiffin to LSU for weeks, and it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer.