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Lane Kiffin on if portal window impacts timing on job decision: 'I'm not that far down the road'

Barkley-Truaxby: Barkley Truax5 hours agoBarkleyTruax
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© Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The coaching carousel figures to be more volatile than ever before this offseason. In turn, it could create a massive domino effort in the transfer portal.

Who ends up where could be predicated on where these coaches end up, and at the forefront of that discussion is Lane Kiffin. The current Ole Miss coach has seen him name appear on several hot boards as college football coaches have been dropping on a near-weekly basis in 2025.

With the Rebels in College Football Playoff contention, being name-dropped in coaching search analysis and a new, one-time transfer portal window (January 2–16, 2026) — Kiffin certainly has his hands full over the next two months.

I don’t know. I’m not that far down the road,” Kiffin said.

Kiffin, often one of the most outspoken coaches in the country, could be telling the truth. The quarterfinals of the CFP will be played on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 — and the portal opens on the next day. If Ole Miss is still alive in the postseason, if Kiffin wants to move on he may miss out on key talent out of the portal.

If the Rebels make it all the way to the national title game (Jan. 19), then the portal will already be closed. Now that the spring window has been eliminated, the portal is one-and-done to begin the offseason.

This creates an interesting situation for Kiffin as the CFP and portal windows rear its head. Still, the Ole Miss coach has remained steadfast on his commitment on keeping his team’s playoff hopes alive down the stretch.

“Everybody wants to talk about other jobs and everything. And I think you’re 2 or 3 weeks away from coaching for your own job, so you better make sure you’re doing really well where you are,” Kiffin said. “Because as we’ve seen out there, I’ve said one win puts you out of the top 10.

“Now, two wins might put you out of the top 25 and three might get you fired. So, I ain’t figured all that out. I’m trying to keep our winning streak, get to 8-0 at home.”

To do that, the Rebels will have to defeat Florida — a team who fired their head coach earlier this season — at home this Saturday. Kickoff is slated for for 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN. After that, Ole Miss will round its season out against in-state rival Mississippi State on the road in the Egg Bowl.