Kiffin has a lot of baggage. It’s not nefarious type baggage, its bad moves and burning bridges type coaching baggage. That’s actually in many ways worse and longer lasting than the nefarious stuff. There aren’t many programs that will hire him. Ole Miss was the epitome of the kind of program that would. They were desperate And they are, well, Ole Miss. Auburn would…at times. Saben leaving made that LESS likely. Most if not all of the top tier programs won’t touch him. Most equal level programs won’t touch him. I hate to tell y'all, but he will probably retire at Ole Miss unless Auburn REALLY comes after him or Ole Miss fires him.
Auburn mod on Kiffin
- Thread starter BulldawgFan
- Start date
It's the opposite--OM is the luckiest school. They get passes bouncing off defenders helmets right into WR hands, they have had some of the easiest schedules in the SEC for many years now, and they got lucky with Kiffin. OM had several bad coaching hires in a row, then Kiffin. No one other than Arkansas wanted Kiffin, and Arkansas got an OL coach instead.
He has zero baggage in over a decade. He very well may retire at Mississippi. But it will be because he chose to. Cause he will have, and does have, other really good options. And I’m not talking about freaking Auburn.
But it also comes with a lot more pressure. He can win 7-9 games a year at OM and get raises with job security. Would he be treated that well at Auburn? No way.
He's doing a good job at OM, just depends on if he wants that added pressure not. I would like to see him move on for obvious reasons, but he's got a really good gig at OM.
He's doing a good job at OM, just depends on if he wants that added pressure not. I would like to see him move on for obvious reasons, but he's got a really good gig at OM.
That to me would be a big consideration. In MS is a 4 year contract still the max? Cignetti just got an 8 year redo at Indiana. If I could go get an 8 year contract based on the current pay scale with a big buyout, would definitely have to take a hard look before saying no.
No coach backs away from a challenge because of the pressure. At least not any coach you’d want. And if you want to win a national championship you’re not going to do it in Mississippi.
It’s very debatable at present time. When considering all factors, I think its a wash. Again, Hugh Freeze is struggling hard right now, and he’s doing so without Saban at Alabama. He did much better at OM. Now, part of that was OM going above and beyond in the cheating / pay-for-play before it was legal, and now that advantage is no longer there for him. But, he wasn’t the first HC overseeing that operation in Oxford, and still had far more success than anyone else there until Kiffin.
When looking at the whole picture, including expectations, annual schedule, in-state competition / rivalry, salary, and quality of life, it’s really hard to argue that Auburn is the better job. I mean, would you rather have to recruit in-state against Alabama and play them and UGA every year….or recruit in-state against MSU and play them and LSU every year? It’s a no brainer to me.
Even if Auburn was still a better job, its not so much better that it is a great decision to jump from OM. Neither Auburn nor OM are Top 10 jobs. Leaving the #15 job to take the #12/#13 job (at best) isn’t really a great idea for most folks.
Auburn used to be literally double the size of OM as recently as 15-20 years ago. You now have 27,000 undergrad at Auburn and around 19,000 at OM. That number has closed substantially, and enrollment size really doesn’t matter all that much as far as quality of job for a football head coach.
Academic rankings? That means less than nothing to a football coach, and if anything higher academic standards can be more of a hinderance than a benefit to recruiting quality players.
Auburn has one bona fide national title in the modern era, again from cheating their asś off to sign the most physically dominant college football player in history. That’s no longer an option that’s on the table for them, so its ancient history at this point. They were still really lucky to get that one, if you think back to the Iron Bowl meltdown with the 25 yard forward fumble from Ingram, Broomfield dropped pick 6, etc.
Their “dip” may be more of a new baseline in the post-portal/NIL world. They’ve never been special without brazen cheating. Look no further than 2010 or their early 90’s teams as evidence of this.
He may not want to leave. He probably thinks he can win a natty in Oxford, successfully coaches are chock full of self confidence. Plus all he has to do is look at Mullen, Dan had it made at State, he left for a better job, but not a top job, and we see what happened. Dan could still be the coach at State and would be making $8 or $9 mil/year, even with down years.
Florida is one of the top 15 jobs in the country. They have won national titles with multiple coaches.
At one time I don't think he was. He just seemed like a drunk frat dude who was looking for a few dollars. He's the "new, improved, non-drinking, yoga practicing" Kiffin who seems to have his head 110% in the game now. Other schools will see the success he is having in North Mississippi and at the very least consider him.
in a time when they were in a very weak SEC east and with an "up and down" SEC, before Saban got it rolling. Still a top 15 job though.
Lame will likely only leave for a top 5 job. UGA/Texas/TOSU/Bama/LSU and maybe Oregon. Bama probably wouldn't offer him (due to history). UGA and TOSU aren't coming open and likely not Texas. Oregon would only come open if Dan leaves for another job and I doubt that is happening. I only add Oregon due to them having an alleged near unlimited NIL war chest. It's a different story if the NFL comes calling.
LSU may be the easiest place to win a natty, they've won two in the last 20 years with very mediocre coaches.
UF has been a dumpster fire for coaches since Urban left.
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Why?
2 years ago, the Alabama job opened up. They hired a guy with an elite W-L record who had just played for the natty at Washington.
3 years ago, LSU opened up. They hired a long tenured coach at the most storied program in all of college football….who also had a NC game appearance. ND then opened up, and they hired in-house with an experienced guy from the midwest who has paid off for them.
Last year, Michigan opened up way, way after the end of the coaching carousel. Because of that, they got stuck going in-house with the replacement hire, who likely is getting fired very shortly.
There have been no other jobs to open up since Kiffin’s breakthrough 10 win season in 2021 that would even remotely qualify as an upgrade for him. 2 of 4 schools that would be desirable got more qualified candidates. 1 was irrelevant because they had to go in-house based on timing. Only Notre Dame hired a guy with a worse resume than Kiffin in the normal hiring window at the time of the hire, and its pretty hard to argue at present time that it still wasn’t the right move for them based on the results.
There will probably be at least 2 schools this cycle that qualify as big upgrades from OM….maybe more. I won’t pretend to know or care if Kiffin has interest in them. But to say they won’t be interested in him is pretty naive.
Yep. Counting elite jobs I come up with 12. And 8 are in the SEC & 3 in state of Florida.
Bama
LSU
Texas
A&M
Georgia
Florida
i count 12 elite programs. 6SEC, 3 Big 10, 2 ACC & Notre Dame. Florida is one of them. If you want an elite job, you can’t wait around to pick & choose cause those jobs don’t come open that often & the competition when they do is fierce.