Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin reveals exactly what makes a good head coaching job ahead of SEC showdown with Florida Gators

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Lane Kiffin just keeps on winning with his red hot Ole Miss Rebels and the buzz just won't stop when it comes to his future with the program. Many want to believe that he'll be heading to coach the Florida Gators (his opponent this week) next season. Others think it'll be LSU. Many "hot board" lists have Kiffin's name all over them because he's clearly one of the best in the game.

However, the longer that Ole Miss keeps winning, the harder it might be for him to make the jump elsewhere this offseason. Still, that was never going to stop the questions concerning his future. When asked about the exact aspects that make a good head coach job opening ahead of this week's game against Florida, coach Kiffin was surprisingly open and candid with his answer.

Last five years of Ole Miss and Florida Gators

  • Lane Kiffin has won 48 games in the last five seasons as the head coach for the Ole Miss Rebels
  • The Florida Gators have won 28 games in that same span
  • Lane Kiffin has gotten the Ole Miss Rebels ranked up inside the top nine teams in the country in each of the last five seasons
  • The Florida Gators have not been ranked inside the top nine even once in the last five seasons

Lane Kiffin shares what makes a good head coach job opening ahead of Florida game

Lane Kiffin has made it clear that he's changed as he's gotten older in terms of how he views life and the sport of football (so, hopefully he won't leave). His family loves it in Oxford, Mississippi. His son is still playing his high school football there, trying to get recruited by some of the top college football programs in the country. Kiffin gets exactly what he wants and needs to help build Ole Miss into one of the most competitive programs in the country, exhibited by his 48 wins in the last five seasons and current 9-1 record this year. However, his words on what makes a good head coach job opening might have Rebels fans a bit worried:

"I think that's evolved and changed. A couple years ago–this was before [what is now essentially a salary cap and player compensation model]–when people wanted to hire you or something, and interview, they'd ask, 'What questions do you have, what are you're concerns?' People used to say "facilities". How many practice fields? Those things. I think that's changed. I said it's going to change. It's going to be how much NIL do you have? When it was all collective. How is your collective? How's it run? How much do you have? Because before this, that was the salary cap. That's how much money you were going to have."

At first, Kiffin's answer sounds like he might have trended toward complimenting the job that Ole Miss has done in their NIL, collective, and salary cap work. Downplaying the facilities and things where Ole Miss may have historically trailed some of the major players sounded like he was going to perhaps turn this into an Ole Miss edge thing. Unfortunately he didn't. He did continue talking about how the gap has narrowed between the top programs, but also kept emphasizing just how important the money truly is with programs who want to win:

"People sometimes think, 'Well, okay, that's not a big deal.' Just look at professional sports, like baseball, and the payrolls. Over time, who wins and doesn't win? Somebody may have a year, outlier years, once in a while. Now [in college football] it's a little equaled out, but there's still how much are you giving the revenue to your football program? Then how much do you have collective-wise? People talk about how [the gap] narrowed. I've heard Coach Saban so it's narrowed. As I've referred to, because you can't stockpile those blue blood [talents] or however you want to refer to it."

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Ole Miss has done a great job narrowing the gap with their money situation, which has helped them procure some excellent transfer portal classes and field rosters that compete in the SEC. They've also stolen some major talent away from SEC programs that used to "stockpile blue bloods", so again, it sounded like he was perhaps trending towards a win for the Ole Miss job, but then he kept going:

"But there's still things there where you're still going to struggle to beat those guys because kids are still recruited. They see size of stadiums, tradition, Heismans, and national championships. And then your location [and proximity] to talent. So, all those are in there, but it's slid a little over time. Before, the question was, 'What is your assistant coaches pool?' Now it's, 'What is your player pool?'"

If we go down the criteria Lane Kiffin listed, it doesn't seem like the Ole Miss job fits what he considers a "top job" still. At least not when it comes to recruiting. Vaught-Hemingway ranks 12th in the SEC in terms of stadium capacity and size. Ole Miss has plenty of tradition and fun tail-gating, but they don't have any Heisman Trophy winners, and they haven't won a widely recognized national championship since 1960. Ole Miss is also not extremely close to a ton of the top talent in the country compared to several SEC programs. The top four states in providing high pedigree players to college football are still Georgia, Florida, Texas, and California. Mississippi ranks fairly far down the list.

What does this mean for Ole Miss? Does Lane Kiffin not think that the Ole Miss job is a good one? Not necessarily, but this does add a little fuel to the fire that other jobs may have more of the conventional criteria and modern monetary backing that the Rebels' program might still not quite match. Hopefully Ole Miss just keeps winning into January so Kiffin doesn't go anywhere.

We’ll be back with more Ole Miss Rebels coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

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This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Nov 10, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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