Many believe that the Billy Napier era at Florida football has come to an end, which would conclude a three-season stretch marked by underwhelming performance and missed expectations.
The Gators skipper is not quite out the door but the fanbase nonetheless has been clamoring for a replacement since the Week 1 loss at home to the Miami Hurricanes.
Presumably, the program is now searching for a replacement head coach to get things moving back in the right direction. There have been a number of candidates that fans have been hoping Florida can reel in, but none are as big as Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin.
Who wouldn’t want a coach like Kiffin? He brings the swagger, the charisma, and most importantly, creativity on the offensive side of the ball.
USA TODAY Sports writer Blake Toppmeyer wrote about a scenario that Florida football fans are hoping would happen to make everything line up to hire Kiffin.
“Florida fans who crave Lane Kiffin as their coach need the Rebels to lose a few games between now and Thanksgiving,” Toppmeyer wrote. “It’s a fine line: Win enough to still look desirable, but lose enough for Ole Miss to miss the College Football Playoff and make Kiffin wonder whether he’s hit his ceiling with the Rebels and ought to uproot and resettle in The Swamp.”
However, it may not be realistic at this point. Of course, we all remember back in 2009 when he suddenly left the Tennessee Volunteers to be the head coach for the USC Trojans after just one season, but things are different now.
He’s been in Oxford, Mississippi, for five years and has really enjoyed his time with the Rebels. Kiffin has settled in, and with the success he has going for him currently, it just doesn’t make sense for him to leave that all behind and start all over again in trying to man a rebuild for school.
Kiffin also has family ties with Oxford. His oldest daughter, Landry, is currently attending Ole Miss as a sophomore, and has been loving it. In fact, back in 2022 when Kiffin was rumored as the next head coach for the Auburn Tigers, it was Landry who convinced him to stay.
ESPN senior writer Chris Low revealed what Kiffin’s daughter, Landry, did to get him to stay with the Rebels.
Low wrote, “Kiffin was leaning toward taking the Auburn job toward the end of the 2022 season when Landry came to him with a heartfelt message. ‘You left me one time for another job when you went to Alabama, and now I’m here with you and you’re going to do it again?’ she asked her father.”
Low continued, “Landry and her friends created a slideshow, complete with music, showing all of them together with Kiffin at Ole Miss.”
It just doesn’t seem logical for Kiffin to leave a school that his family loves.
Having worked under Nick Saban with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kiffin may have learned the value of stability and long-term growth within a program. He might believe that continuing to develop the Ole Miss program will be more rewarding than jumping to a program that is currently in turmoil.
Kiffin has significantly improved the Rebels football program, achieving two seasons with at least 10 wins in the last five years, with the potential for a third this season. He has completely turned that program around and has helped his team make a bowl game every year he’s been there.
And now with the growth of Ole Miss’ NIL program, “The Grove Collective”, it has provided advantages in terms of recruiting and creating a presence with the transfer portal. Kiffin wouldn’t just throw that all behind and start from scratch at a new program.
With the way things are going with Florida in terms of desperately getting that program back to the mountaintop of college football, there needs to be an understanding that it will most likely take Kiffin some time to rebuild the program which can create pressure to produce immediate results.
While the allure of Kiffin’s coaching prowess and charisma may captivate Florida fans, the strong connections he has established at Ole Miss—coupled with the program’s recent successes and the stability he has built—suggest that it would be more prudent for him to continue his journey with the Rebels rather than embark on a challenging rebuild in Gainesville.
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