Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin showed off a little hypocrisy Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s Peach Bowl game against Penn State, as he expressed frustration about the timing of bowl season and the transfer portal frenzy.
The regular season college football stretch may be over, but activity hasn’t stopped. The transfer portal is buzzing. College recruits are signing early National Letters of Intent. Plus, it’s bowl season.
All those activities at once can put a lot of strain on a coaching staff — though you could argue that’s why they’re paid the big bucks. Still, some schools thrive in the chaos, including Ole Miss, which just landed the top player in the transfer portal, former Texas A&M defensive lineman Walter Nolen.
That colossal signing didn’t stop Kiffin from quietly (and rather calmly) slamming the system during a Tuesday media session where Max Ralph of All Penn State on Fan Nation asked him about the timing of schedules in December.
While noting that Ole Miss is on a normal week schedule with a game on Saturday, he expressed his frustration with the timing of recruiting from the transfer portal and likened it to the NFL having free agency start right before the playoffs. Kiffin said:
“Previous to this, it’s been a little chaotic, with not just
recruiting and flying around trying to get back for practice, a lot of the assistant coaches not at the practices, but then dealing with the portal, going to other universities to see kids and dealing with keeping our own kids.“Again, it’s a terrible system, and no other — I wouldn’t think any other sports, professional sports have ever set up a system where free agency starts while the season is still going. It really makes no sense.
“You can leave. You can stay. You can go other places. Coaches can call you. And our season is still going. It would be like before the NFC or AFC playoffs start in a couple weeks, all of a sudden, hey, free agency the week before open, so you can start recruiting other people’s players and fly them on trips and get them to transfer. So really in a really bad system.”
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