The coaching carousel is months away, but it is never too early to speculate. So speculate I will. It seems like the past few seasons Lane Kiffin’s name has been in circles of head coaching rumors. Two of the most recent were a few years ago when he was linked to the Auburn Tigers coaching job after they moved on from Brian Harsin, and it has been rumored for a few years now that Kiffin may end up coaching in Florida at some point.
Why would Lane Kiffin coaching the Florida Gators make sense?
Kiffin has ties to Florida being that he was the head coach of Florida Atlantic University from 2017-2019 before taking the job at Ole Miss where he has been since. Kiffin has re-built both FAU and Ole Miss into contenders, compiling two 10-plus win seasons at each school so far.
It is also known that Kiffin likes the state of Florida in general and beyond coaching himself has spent a lot of time there, although he did sell his house in Boca Raton a few years ago.
With the Gators having fallen on hard times the last decade or so besides a solid season in 2020, another rebuild could be a perfect potential landing spot for Kiffin.
Why will Lane Kiffin be the next head coach for the Clemson Tigers?
The Clemson Tigers seem to slowly be regressing in the college football landscape. The team just came off of a 9-3 regular season last year, which is the team’s first three loss regular season since 2014.
Head coach Dabo Swinney has also been in the headlines a lot lately for refusing to use the transfer portal, which has become a trend of necessity in the eyes of many, including Kiffin in college football.
In fact, Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels ranked third nationally in the transfer portal for 2024 according to On3
On the contrary, Swinney was on the ACC Network a few weeks ago and said, “most of the guys in the poral aren’t good enough to play for us.”
The schools of thought are counter, and so is the direction each program seems to be trending in with the Rebels on an upward swing.
What Swinney does have in common at Clemson that Kiffin seems to have going at Ole Miss is the fact that players like playing for him, and creating a culture of enjoyment for players.
The fact that for Kiffin this type of culture could easily carry over to a school like Clemson for him could be more of a draw than folks may think.
The Tigers also are not too shy to pay a coach what he is worth. Swinney is currently on a 10-year contract for $115 million, which makes him one of the highest paid coaches in college football at $11.5 million salary annually.
Kiffin is not far behind him however and recently got a contract extension in December 2023. Kiffin makes around $9 million per year.
Why could Lane Kiffin stay put at the head coach of Ole Miss?
Given his past when Kiffin left the Tennessee Volunteers without any warning for the job with the USC trojans back in 2010 after only one season and then being fired a few years later by USC, it would make sense that Kiffin may want to stay put.
After the firing at USC, Kiffin had to work hard to rebuild his coaching career and coached under Nick Saban with the Alabama Crimson Tide as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2014-2016 before leaving for the head coaching job at group of five, FAU.
Kiffin would actually take a pay cut going to FAU despite it being a head coaching position, but was willing to risk it in an effort to ascend back towards the top of the college football mountain of coaching.
Eventually Kiffin ended up in Oxford as the head coach and in a press conference stated, “I needed Oxford more than it needed me.” This comment to many lends itself to believe Kiffin is grateful to Oxford for the second chance as a head coach at a power five school given his challenges as a younger head coach in the past. And it could ultimately be the reason he stays put.