On what’s expected to be a sunny afternoon at one of college football’s most storied and idyllic settings, Lane Kiffin will lead the program he actually coaches against the program untold millions of orange-and-blue-clad individuals hope he’ll be coaching soon enough.

No. 7 Ole Miss will continue its push for an SEC championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff on Saturday, Nov. 15, when it hosts Florida at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. The game itself has national stakes. While the Rebels have a clear, easily navigable path to the playoff, they’ll need to win at least one of their two remaining regular-season games to feel good about their chances of making it into the 12-team field.

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At least before kickoff, much of the discussion around the game won’t be about the players on the field, but the coach standing on one of the sidelines. Since Billy Napier was fired as Florida’s coach last month—and if we’re being honest, well before that—Kiffin had been constantly speculated about as a potential replacement for the Gators.

On the surface, it’s a natural fit. Kiffin has turned Ole Miss into an improbable SEC power, one that has racked up 30 wins since the start of the 2023 season. He has done so on the backs of high-scoring, entertaining offenses, which fits in well with Florida’s identity during its most successful seasons in program history.

As the Rebels prepare to face the Gators, here’s a closer look at some of the connections between Kiffin and Florida:

### Why Florida wants Lane Kiffin

Florida is widely viewed as one of the best coaching jobs in college football—a school with significant financial resources that’s the only SEC member in arguably the most talent-rich state in the country. Having three national championships in the past 30 years doesn’t hurt, either.

Given those inherent advantages, the vacancy will be connected to some of the biggest names in the sport, one of a select handful of places where a wildly successful coach would leave a good, stable situation to go to. As the Gators’ search to replace Billy Napier continues, one name has come up far more frequently than the others: Lane Kiffin.

There’s perhaps no coach in college football right now more coveted than Kiffin. It’s easy to understand why. Ole Miss, far from an SEC powerhouse post-integration, has won at least 10 games in three of the past four full seasons and, at 9-1, is likely to reach that mark again this season. Since the start of the 2023 season, the Rebels are 30-6, with wins in the Peach Bowl and Gator Bowl.

This season, they’re 9-1, ranked No. 7 in the country and are well-positioned to make the playoff. While that resume would appeal to virtually any program, it’s especially attractive to Florida.

Kiffin’s not just a winner, but one of the game’s sharpest offensive minds, something that would bring the promise of the Gators returning to their high-scoring ways at the height of the Steve Spurrier era. Ole Miss has finished among the top 30 teams in the FBS in scoring offense in each of Kiffin’s five full seasons at the school. This year, the Rebels are averaging 37.5 points per game, the 13th-best mark among 136 FBS schools.

He has experience in the state, too, serving as the head coach at Florida Atlantic, where he went 27-13 in three seasons before leaving for Ole Miss after the 2019 season.

For all of Florida’s perks, there’s a lingering question of whether Kiffin would want to leave what he has built at Ole Miss to take over the Gators. Kiffin is already the 10th-highest-paid coach in the sport, making $9 million at Ole Miss, according to the USA TODAY coaches salary database. Though Florida would likely pony up to try to lure Kiffin, Napier was making $7.47 million.

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### Lane Kiffin-Stevens Spurrier ties

If something about Kiffin seems like a uniquely good fit for Florida, there’s a reason for it. As an offensive whiz who wears a visor and is widely regarded as the biggest trash-talker in the sport, Kiffin shares some unmistakable similarities with Steve Spurrier, the former Gators Heisman Trophy winner who won 122 games over 12 seasons at Florida, including the program’s first-ever national championship.

The parallels aren’t lost on Kiffin.

>”I wanted to be Steve Spurrier,” Kiffin said in an interview last month with “Pardon My Take”. “When I watched him and his offenses in the visor and kind of the way he’d throw jabs at other coaches and team and stuff, I was like, Steve Spurrier is the man. That’s what I want to be.”

### Lane Kiffin record

In 14 seasons as an FBS head coach, Kiffin has racked up an overall record of 115-53.

Kiffin got his first FBS head-coaching job, at Tennessee, when he was just 33 years old. He went 7-6 in his lone season with the Volunteers before leaving for the same position at USC, where he went 28-15 before being fired five games into his fourth season in 2013.

After a three-year run as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama, he went to Florida Atlantic, where his teams went 27-13.

Since arriving at Ole Miss, he has gone 53-19 entering Saturday’s game against Florida.

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As fans eagerly await the clash between Ole Miss and Florida, much attention will be on Lane Kiffin—not just for this game, but for the potential future of Florida Gators football.
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/ole-miss-coach-lane-kiffin-110709286.html