Ole Miss desires readability from Lane Kiffin. He is not ready to present it

The strain is constructing in Oxford and Lane Kiffin is attempting to dissipate it with a pleasant interview.

A day after a wild scene of airplane monitoring and Kiffin members of the family caught on digicam taking a go to to Baton Rouge, the Ole Miss head coach appeared on the Pat McAfee Present to placed on a compelled smile and attempt to calm the waters. 

For those who wished any actual readability, this wasn’t the present for you. Essentially the most notable level was Kiffin denying that Ole Miss directors had ever issued an ultimatum that he should decide earlier than the Egg Bowl. 

“There was no ultimatum, something like that in any respect,” Kiffin mentioned. “And so I do not know the place that got here from, like numerous stuff that comes on the market. Like I mentioned, man, we’re having a blast. I like it right here.”

That’s ostensibly true — no supply CBS Sports activities has talked to has used the phrase “ultimatum” — however there may be extra to the story than merely what Kiffin mentioned Tuesday. What has been effervescent behind the scenes for weeks lastly got here spilling out on Monday after the unprecedented scenario of a sitting head coach’s members of the family, together with ex-wife Layla Kiffin, taking a non-public airplane for a campus go to to a rival faculty at which he was contemplating taking a job.

There had already been the same go to to Gainesville, Florida, the day gone by, sources informed CBS Sports activities, however the public nature of LSU’s efforts despatched the faculty soccer business right into a tizzy and had Ole Miss boosters livid over how brazen all of it appeared. 

Why had been Kiffin members of the family taking visits to Florida and LSU in latest days? All of it comes again to Ole Miss wanting readability on Kiffin’s scenario, in keeping with sources, and a recognition from Kiffin that laying aside a choice till after the Rebels’ season was now not potential. Because the timeline began to hurry up, Kiffin wished as a lot data as potential from trusted sources as he weighed his stay-or-go resolution.

For weeks now, sources have informed CBS Sports activities that if Ole Miss was satisfied Kiffin was not staying long-term in Oxford, it could not let him coach within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. After all, pondering that and even expressing that sentiment is totally different than really doing it and accepting all of the problems that include it. Nevertheless it has been an actual dialog taking place inside the Ole Miss athletics administration. 

It would sound loopy to suppose Ole Miss would not let Kiffin coach within the playoff — as the varsity’s choice is for readability earlier than the Egg Bowl — however in some ways it has been years within the making, relationship again to Kiffin’s very public dalliance with the Auburn job again in 2022.

Kiffin has since admitted he made errors in how he dealt with Auburn’s curiosity in him. The need-he-or-won’t-he drama derailed Ole Miss’ season and left a bitter style within the mouths of Ole Miss directors, boosters and followers. 

In some methods, Kiffin’s close to resolution to take the Auburn job helped spur Ole Miss into this second. It prompted a NIL fundraising drive to compete with Auburn’s perceived larger battle chest. Ole Miss followers rallied to do and provides all the things they needed to preserve Kiffin in Oxford, to point out him that he may have the assets essential to win massive. It was nonetheless fraught at instances, particularly when an 8-1 season imploded into an 8-5 end, which included an embarrassing Egg Bowl loss to Mississippi State.

In a scene first reported in my e book “The Value: What It Takes to Win in Faculty Soccer’s Period of Chaos,” a distinguished booster promised to make a $500,000 contribution to the NIL fund if Kiffin stayed at Ole Miss. And after the loss to Mississippi State got here an up to date supply from the booster: “I will give that f—er $500,000 to depart.” That is how irritating the entire course of was by the top, and that booster wasn’t alone in that pondering. 

All the successful within the three years since has made Kiffin the superstar du jour of Oxford, however that scar tissue did not go away. Ole Miss directors had been deeply annoyed by how the Auburn distractions derailed that doubtlessly particular season, in keeping with sources, and it seems to be having an impression on not wanting that to play out over again, even when it labored out for Ole Miss the primary time. The consternation is not remoted to athletics, both, as university-side of us have expressed frustration in latest weeks with Kiffin’s maintain over the varsity. 

There’s additionally the true timeline points that might happen if Kiffin left for an additional program in January. With the early signing interval beginning Dec. 3 and the switch portal window opening Jan. 2, Ole Miss can be at a big drawback if it misplaced Kiffin after, say, a quarterfinal or semifinal recreation in early January. If there is no manner of adjusting Lane’s thoughts — and thus far, Lane has continued to inform folks he hasn’t decided, in keeping with a number of sources — Ole Miss is ready to show to both quarterbacks coach Joe Decide (the previous New York Giants head coach) or defensive coordinator Pete Golding as an interim coach and to start out a training search, in keeping with sources. 

That is not best and is driving numerous the angst and frustration Ole Miss followers at the moment are directing at Kiffin. 

Every thing Kiffin and Ole Miss directors and boosters dreamed of doing collectively in Oxford is going on this season. The Rebels (10-1) are all however assured to make the playoff, they usually may earn a bye or at the least a first-round residence recreation … if they will beat Mississippi State within the Egg Bowl.

That is presupposed to be the fruits of all of the blood, sweat and {dollars} spent to show Ole Miss right into a professional nationwide contender. This must be the height; as a substitute, Kiffin’s public flirtation with two rival SEC colleges has sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. That is not all Kiffin’s fault — the brutal school soccer calendar has put him in a personally enviable but inconceivable scenario of getting to handle outdoors curiosity whereas attempting to complete the season out. 

Kiffin is a mercurial menace in some methods, school soccer’s model of Loki. All of the trolling is a lot enjoyable whenever you suppose you are on the within of the joke. Once you suppose it’s possible you’ll as a substitute be the butt of it, these emotions can change in a second. That is what’s taking place proper now with Ole Miss boosters and followers. They really feel the person who had gone to painstaking lengths to show he has modified is again to his previous antics. They worry they’re being performed, that their hopes and desires are nothing greater than social media fodder for Kiffin. 

Will they settle for him again if he decides to remain? After all. 

However there’s a rising worry inside Ole Miss that Kiffin does not love the varsity fairly as a lot as he is publicly professed. He has complained, publicly and privately, concerning the fan base — together with a shot Saturday night time concerning the crowd for The Citadel recreation. He is lengthy been enamored with the thought of teaching a real blueblood once more, a chance LSU and Florida are each keen to present him. 

Maybe, as one booster who is aware of Kiffin nicely put it, he feels he is already executed all of it in Oxford. 

“He is run it like his city,” the supply mentioned, “and there is no chase for him anymore. And he is a chaser. The chase is gone trigger he conquered it.”

Kiffin hasn’t gained the last word conquest — a nationwide championship — however making a playoff at Ole Miss can be an incredible accomplishment. And if he left Ole Miss for LSU or Florida, it would be as a result of he felt he hit his ceiling in Oxford and had a greater shot at successful a nationwide championship in Baton Rouge or Gainesville, in keeping with sources. There are essential folks in Kiffin’s life advocating for all of the potential outcomes — some have mentioned LSU provides the very best title probabilities, others imagine he may win massive and be glad at Florida. In the end, it would come right down to the place he thinks he can win all of it and his household could be glad.

Deep down, Ole Miss simply desires to listen to Kiffin say he loves it and is not leaving. However Kiffin, nonetheless not sure of what he desires to do, per sources, cannot say these phrases. He cannot say out loud to McAfee that he is undoubtedly not leaving Ole Miss as a result of that’d be a lie. He would possibly.

In truth, a number of sources have informed CBS Sports activities over the past week they imagine it’s extra probably than not that Kiffin leaves, although there are at all times caveats of “you by no means know what he’ll do” in the case of him. Nothing is actually executed till he indicators the deal, irrespective of how many individuals inform you it is taking place, as Auburn discovered the onerous manner three years in the past. 

And whereas Kiffin will proceed to fall again on his stance that he does not take care of these items in-season — in fact, that hasn’t precluded him from contemplating different jobs in-season — it has put him on an island. In what’s already a wild teaching cycle, a number of of the highest names have taken themselves out of the combo in favor of an extension and lift at their present faculty.

Curt Cignetti and Indiana. Mike Elko and Texas A&M. Matt Rhule and Nebraska. Rhett Lashlee and SMU. 

If Kiffin wished to do the identical, he may. Ole Miss desperately needs he would. 

However every single day that passes indicators to Ole Miss of us that Kiffin could quickly be out the door. 

It is not over but. And there are some nonetheless clinging to the dream that Lane will quickly announce that whereas Florida and LSU badly wished him to come back save their applications, he was staying at Ole Miss to complete what he began. It is potential that he may. 

Greater than something, Ole Miss simply desires readability.