Anonymous SEC coach reveals why Lane Kiffin is not considered an elite coach

Since getting to Ole Miss, head coach Lane Kiffin has done an excellent job building that program into one of the best in the SEC. Despite that, not every other coach in the conference looks at Kiffin as elite.

One of those coaches who doesn’t believe Kiffin is elite spoke to The Athlon anonymously. There, he pointed to the Florida game from last season as an example of what’s keeping Kiffin from rising to the ranks of his peers.

“They’re one of the best programs in the country at evaluating the portal,” the coach said. “And they’ve done a very good job integrating that talent and winning right away, but this is still an inconsistent program. The loss at Florida last year is an example of why [Lane] Kiffin isn’t considered an elite coach.”

Ole Miss traveled to Gainesville in late November last season. At the time, Kiffin’s team was 8-2 and coming off a win against Georgia. That left Ole Miss in a position to go to the SEC Championship Game. That is, until they dropped a third SEC game to a Florida team that was playing a freshman quarterback and was out of contention in the SEC.

The loss to Florida was certainly a frustrating one. It’s also not the only game last season that Ole Miss lost the Rebels likely should have won. Earlier in the year, a loss to Kentucky at home ended up being just as costly as the Florida loss.

For his part, Lane Kiffin has been at Ole Miss since the 2020 season. During that time, big games have consistently haunted his teams. In SEC play, he’s gone 5-8 against opponents who were ranked when they met. He’s also never beaten Alabama, though in 2024 he did have a massive win against Georgia. Still, in any individual season, he hasn’t been able to get over the proverbial hump and either play for the SEC Championship or in the College Football Playoff.

At the same time, it’s hard to deny that Lane Kiffin has done a good job of building Ole Miss into one of the SEC’s premier teams. He inherited a team that was coming off a 4-8 season, had recently dealt with NCAA penalties, and hadn’t won more than six games since 2015. Since then, their worst season was his first year, going 5-5. After that, he’s won at least 10 games in three of four seasons.

Overall, Kiffin is 44-18 at Ole Miss. That’s a .710 winning percentage. Over the course of the program’s entire history, Ole Miss has a .554 winning percentage.

Next season, Lane Kiffin will look to get over that hump with Ole Miss and bring himself and the program into the ranks of the elite. That’s going to mean taking care of business in those winnable games while also adding some big wins. It starts with a home game against Georgia State on August 30th.