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Joe Burrow reacts to LSU Lane Kiffin hire, Ole Miss CFP status: 'Certainly not an ideal situation'

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels10 hours agoChandlerVessels

Joe Burrow offered a tame response to Lane Kiffin being named the next head coach at LSU. The Cincinnaiti Bengals QB, who won a national championship with the Tigers in 2019, was asked his thoughts on the hire during a press conference Wednesday.

Burrow didn’t have much to say, offering a curt response. It didn’t appear like the QB was up for much discussion about the matter.

“I think he’s a good coach,” Burrow said. “I guess we’ll see how it goes. Those are my thoughts.”

In a follow up, Burrow was then asked what he thought about Kiffin not being able to coach Ole Miss through the College Football Playoff. It didn’t seem that the QB even knew the Rebels were going to play in the CFP, but after getting clarification he offered another short response.

“It’s certainly not an ideal situation,” Burrow said. “Does the rest of the staff stay or do they go too? …Yeah, certainly not an ideal situation for a playoff run.”

Burrow played under Ed Orgeron during his time at LSU. However, after Orgeron was fired following the 2021 season, Brian Kelly took over. Kiffin now takes Kelly’s place after the latter was fired in the middle of this season.

The Tigers are now chasing that success that they haven’t tasted since Burrow was in Baton Rouge, and they hope Kiffin can be the one to get them there. But it doesn’t look like Burrow has much of an opinion on the matter.

Prior to now, the schools primarily discussed with Kiffin were Florida, LSU and Ole Miss. But Florida State also quietly made overtures for the coveted offensive mind.

ESPN reports that while Florida and LSU were more publicly associated with the hunt for Kiffin, Florida State was “making a stealth move to poach Kiffin.” That was based on a relationship that Florida State athletics director Michael Alford had with Lane Kiffin.

As the Worldwide Leader noted, Alford was an associate athletics director at USC from 2000-03. Kiffin served as tight ends and receivers coach there from 2001-03, so the two overlapped.

“The Seminoles’ recruitment of Kiffin continued into the middle of November, according to the sources,” ESPN’s Mark Schlabach wrote. “But after it became clear Kiffin wasn’t coming, FSU announced Nov. 23 that (Mike) Norvell would return for a seventh season.”

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.