Lane Kiffin just agreed to a contract extension with the Ole Miss Rebels, but anyone who has been around college football long enough knows that it doesn’t mean he’s going to stay there, especially if a better opportunity or more money comes along.
The Oregon Ducks have an opening now that Mario Cristobal has left to take the job at Miami. And multiple college football insiders seem to think that if Kiffin is looking for an opportunity to head back to the West Coast, this could be his best chance.
On the @Cover3Podcast, @BudElliott3 said he thinks Lane Kiffin is a name to pay attention to in the Oregon search while @dannykanell said Kiffin should leave after Ole Miss' impressive season.https://t.co/TAqzX9AqhM pic.twitter.com/eqFFOhrSQR
— 247Sports (@247Sports) December 7, 2021
247’s Bud Elliott offered up his thought that Lane Kiffin would be an ideal candidate for the Ducks and college football analyst Danny Kanell agreed with that sentiment in a recent podcast appearance.
“I think if you’re smart, you bounce right now if you’re Lane,” Kanell said, via 247Sports. “You take advantage of the teams that were down — again LSU was down, Auburn was down, Texas A&M was 8-4. Bama was even gettable, and you couldn’t get them. I think you saw that you’re pretty much tapped. I think you cash out that one more time if you can.”
Meanwhile, CBE Sports’ Tom Fornelli had a similar thought during his appearance.
“I think that Oregon is a place where you can compete for national titles,” Fornelli said. “There aren’t a lot of those jobs around. Oregon has been to the College Football Playoff. USC hasn’t. So I think that with the financial backing that you have there with Nike, you can win national titles. It might be harder to get guys to Oregon from California, but Chip Kelly didn’t really have any problem pulling guys from California, Texas up to Eugene when things were rolling. And I don’t think if you get things rolling there, you’re gonna have much of a problem. Because it is a big brand. It is in the Pac-12, and if it’s competing for Pac-12 titles and it’s in the playoff regularly, I think Lane Kiffin would be able to recruit to Oregon pretty well.”
Kiffin has certainly earned a reputation with some as a guy who is always ready to jump for the next big thing. However, you could make the case his current job at Ole Miss is about as good as it gets and there’s no reason to try to remake another program when he’s got full control of an SEC football team with national implications. We’ll probably find out if there’s any fire behind this smoke soon enough.
