With rumors swirling about head coaching vacancies in college football, Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin has been a name surfacing quite a bit. The Ole Miss head coach is considered by many to be the top candidate to become the next Florida Gators head coach.
There are other prominent positions available, including at Penn State, after the program fired James Franklin. Still, Kiffin has done his best to focus on pressing matters, including the team’s upcoming battle with ranked opponent Oklahoma.
Before the game, Kiffin appeared in an interview from the field for the SEC Network’s “SEC Nation.” When asked about the ongoing speculation and if he had a chance to address it with his players, he confirmed he “mentioned it to them yesterday.”
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“That’s a product of having a program with a lot of players and coaches doing a really good job,” Kiffin said, adding, “I wouldn’t even mention it because they’ve been through this every single year. Probably four years in a row.”
“But we have so many new players, I just told them, ‘Hey guys, this is what happens around here because we win games and people like the style that we play, and so that is all about a compliment to the players,'” he said.
Various members of the “SEC Nation” panel, including former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow, reacted to what Kiffin shared with his players and seemed to support his message.
Tebow said Kiffin is “telling the truth” because, for the past four years, he has been in the rumor mill for any SEC team that needs a coach.
“I think it was appropriate. The way he approached it,” Tebow told his co-stars.
“I like what he did. He didn’t attack the media like two other SEC coaches recently,” Paul Finebaum said, also adding, “It’s not fake. It’s real. Kiffin’s name is out there.”
Finebaum suggested that how Kiffin addressed the speculation is “the way to do it,” rather than ignore it and pretend “nothing else is happening.”
Kiffin delivered the big message to his team before their important game against the Sooners on Saturday, to help focus on what’s most important. With the game in Oklahoma, the home team was a 5.5-point favorite at many sportsbooks in a crucial battle of SEC foes.
The matchup featured two ranked teams with identical 6-1 records. Ole Miss entered the game at No. 8 while Oklahoma was at No. 13, with the winner likely to move closer to their goal of getting into the coveted College Football Playoff bracket at the end of the season and the loser having a lot more work to do.
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