11-14 at Mississippi is a lot more impressive than 17-26 at Penn St.
Timeline for Kiffin's inevitable departure to Florida
- Thread starter BulldawgFan
- Start date
Keystroke error. 11-24 at UM is more impressive than 17-26 at Penn St.
Don't recall Mullen ever stating that he loved Starkville. He said his wife loved it not that it matters.
Exactly. Living in Florida and at least in my area, Franklin is not on my friends wish list.
Well for one, nobody except Franklin and PSU know the exact buyout language.
But secondly, attorneys for Franklin would likely be able to argue that his market value is substantially less after being terminated, and for that reason the buyout money is significant to him. And Florida (or any other school, really) would also easily be able to argue that Franklin was considered a viable candidate, but only at XYZ price, due to the risk and uncertainty surrounding him after a midseason firing, and that if Franklin accepted those terms then that implies his market value has been met. That’s the Catch-22. You can’t claim the guy has a ton of market value, when your own organization chose to fire him not even halfway through the season….only 10 months after a CFP semi-final appearance. That has a very “rotten in Denmark” appearance to it.
Where it becomes more complicated is if another school offers Franklin the job for substantially more money, but he declines it to take the UF job for less…and somehow that info makes it back to PSU. That gets more into the weeds of personal preference / life choice related criteria in the job selection process. But there’s a lot of complexity since these offers / inquiries are going through Franklin’s agent first and he has some plausible deniability. Furthermore, there’s not a lot of incentive for another school to offer more than they have to, either, nor is there any incentive for them to disclose the offer to anyone outside of Franklin’s representation.
In general, I don’t think PSU would push the envelope too much, unless circumstances were especially public and egregious. To cite your previous example….Florida being able to get him for even $4 million per year would be an absolute steal. And $2-$3 million per year? Even moreso.
The ultimate point is that he’s an outstanding coach that can be had for a bargain, no matter how you want to look at it.
Except that he's probably going to make more than the buyout at his new school. Not that Florida is interested in him to begin with. He's not even really being mentioned for that job. Looks like their targets are Kiffin and Drinkwitz.
No way, He’s not going to abandon his first ever opportunity to compete for a major championship as a head coach just to get to his next destination a few weeks earlier. That makes zero sense.
Might wanna check yours. Kiffin only has 19 total losses while at OM.
It looks like a good job for Kiffin on paper, I'm not sure he will live Ole Dixie just yet. He will string this along and we shall see IF Florida is willing to play the waiting game. For some reason I think Kiffin would be more suited for the Lsu job which will come up soon. Also Fsu would be a better place to win "easier" and not as much pressure.
Also, checking Wikipedia, Kiffin is 9-10 vs ranked teams at Mississippi. Including wins over Penn St and Franklin, Indiana and Georgia.
That’s why you have a Memorandum of Understanding. Literally the entire point. It covers everyone and makes intentions clear. Florida will know whether to stand pat or move on from that.
Your point of “if he truly wants to go to Florida” ignores the reciprocal argument of “if Florida truly wants Kiffin”. I don’t see any school expecting a coach in the CFP to leave his current team in the middle of a postseason run. If anything, he’d make public his intention to take the new job, but still work it out to where he could coach OM through the end of their postseason run.
That might actually be more preferable than all the cloak and dagger mess behind the scenes of “will he or won’t he” from the players perspective while preparing for postseason games. That’s a much bigger distraction than if everything was known on the front end. And in the portal era where you have the high roster turnover anyway, it really isn’t going to matter that much to the players.
Good point, I wasn't aware of the possibility of an MOU. My understanding is that it's not legally binding but basically all that can be done to make intentions clear.
Maybe. They're both elite jobs and if the LSU job comes open, he might want that one. But I don't think you can turn Florida down to wait for the LSU job to come open. It might come open next year, or it might be 10 years. And Lane may not be as marketable when it comes open as he is now. Or he may really just be happy in Oxford and stay there for another 10 years or so.
It’s not legally binding per se, but does set forth legal requirements for both parties to move forward in good faith….according to the terms. If one does not, there is some legal recourse.
The biggest thing there is that if Kiffin signed like 5 MOU’s simultaneously - each with a different school - with terms that contradicted each other, them some or all of those schools would each have a pretty easy time proving that Kiffin wasn’t acting in good faith, and thus may owe them some restitution.
So essentially, it lets a candidate reserve his seat at his preferred landing spot. There’s typically language allowing a return to his current employer under certain criteria. Likewise, a school may have an out to keep their current coach if he hasn’t been fired yet. But there’s never an allowance to take another job, or for the school to select another candidate if terms are met.
Bottom Line - There’s no reason at all for a sitting HC to sign a MOU with another school unless they really, really want the job. And there’s no reason for a school to offer an MOU to a candidate unless they really, really want to hire them.
I can't disagree with what you are saying. But he has a little time to stoke the fire for money from Ole Dixie, and let's see what the Corndogs do in the coming weeks. I would think Florida want pull the trigger till Nov. unless someone say I will take it if offered.
He is in great position to milk Ole Dixie, he has it made their and he knows it.
I wouldn't leave Ole Miss if I was Kiffin personally. He's got it too good right now to go to Florida. Now LSU or another big time job I could see. But Florida doesn't have the shine it once did IMO. A lot like Tennessee.
And this is one of many reasons we're not P4 football coaches. You don't get there without being extremely competitively ambitious. There's never such a thing as good enough till you win a national title. And then you want a second one.
Agreed. If he decides to be OK with good but not great then he wouldn't be in the position he's currently in.
And if he does decide good is good enough then he will most likely be ran out of Oxford within 3 years. Since taking his foot off the gas will inevitably lead to a collapse.
Google say:
Lane Kiffin has a career record of 11 wins and 24 losses against AP Top 25 teams during his time at Ole Miss, according to CBS Sports. His performance against the top 25 includes a 6-0 record at the start of the 2025 season, before his first loss of the year. In a recent game, Sports Illustrated reported on Ole Miss's upcoming Top 25 matchup against Oklahoma.
I can see that the article they link lists career record against Top 25. So I guess I was misled. But that means his record against Top 25 isn't as good as Franklin and that includes time at Tennessee and USC.
I don't think his record at FIU and a USC team on significant NCAA probation/sanctions over a decade ago is relevant here.
Whether lane kiffin makes the playoff or not , it doesn’t matter . If he wants to go to Florida he will go to Florida , he won’t leave mid season either.
if Florida really wants him and he will come . They will wait. The portal will not open until January and anyway, you don’t hire the wrong coach because you are scared of your roster leaving . You hire the right coach and he will build you the right roster
ala Zach Arnett. You do not make a panic hire because of timing
if Florida really wants him and he will come . They will wait. The portal will not open until January and anyway, you don’t hire the wrong coach because you are scared of your roster leaving . You hire the right coach and he will build you the right roster
ala Zach Arnett. You do not make a panic hire because of timing
As opposed to Franklin, who inherited a program at Penn State that had no issues whatsoever.****
Kiffin has benefited from soft schedules since arriving at UM. He’s a benefactor of that and typical UM propaganda. Mississippi as a state always gets crapped on as a narrative, but somehow Oxford is an anomaly? Bull Crap.
Yes it's after they are one and done in the playoffs. Letter is probably already in draft mode in chatgpt
And what "big games" has Kiffin won? He has ridden a wave of easy schedules to a great record but what has he won? Do you think the Florida fan base would be happy with an 8-4 record ? The Florida schedule is as tough as the MSU schedule ...what would OM's record be with Florida's schedule? I'd say 4-3 at best .....
He l beat GEORGIA once and a terrible LSU team this year. He's taking them to the top!
