Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway detail what position Ole Miss will be put in if Lane Kiffin leaves

On Saturday, Ole Miss will reveal whether head coach Lane Kiffin is returning next season or leaving the program for another job. It’s unclear if Ole Miss will allow Kiffin to coach in the College Football Playoff if he won’t be returning in 2026. On the Nonstop podcast, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway discussed how Ole Miss may react to Kiffin accepting an outside job offer.

“You and I, and I think alumni, they look at a situation like this, and it’s a little personal,” Herbstreit said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, if he’s taking that whatever job, good riddance. Get out of here. We want a guy that’s all in.’ But, I think you bring up a good point about the players. The players in 2025 are very, very different.

“It’s a year-to-year relationship. A lot of these guys look at it not the way you and I did, ‘I’m here for four years, five years,’ whatever it is. This is more of a, ‘I’m here for this year. This is my team this year.’ … They look at this year as, ‘Hey, Lane, we want you to stay with us for this year, and let’s finish this thing. Let’s go win a championship this year.'”

The players may not have the final say in whether or not Kiffin coaches them in the CFP. The school’s administration is expected to make the ultimate decision on Kiffin’s CFP status if he announces he’ll be coaching elsewhere in the 2026 campaign.

It’d be devastating for the Rebels, who are 10-1 and having their best season yet under Lane Kiffin. The 50-year-old head coach is heavily involved in Ole Miss’ play-calling. The team would have to make significant adaptations without Kiffin on the sideline.

Herbstreit seemingly believes most Ole Miss players would want Kiffin to coach them in the CFP, even if he announces he’s leaving after the season. Whether Herbstreit is correct or not, Joey Galloway thinks the players should make the decision.

“I would love to see the coaches, the [administration], whoever it is, get the players together and let them vote whether they want him to stay and coach them through the playoff—knowing that he’s leaving—or would they rather have an assistant coach, somebody else that’s on staff right now,” Galloway said. “It should be a player decision on whether he stays or not.

“Listen, adults are going to have their feelings. And, if he was leaving, and I was in the administration, I would have feelings about it too. I would be bothered. I’d be like, ‘Get out of here.’ But the players are the ones that are with him every day. They came there to play for him. I think they should decide on whether he stays [for the CFP] if he makes a decision to go somewhere else.”