Lane Kiffin reveals the most important factors in a college football job

As Lane Kiffin continues to be rumored a candidate for job openings across the country, the coach offered an honest take on his top deciding factors. Kiffin is in his sixth season as the coach at Ole Miss and and 14th overall as a college head coach, his first opportunity coming in 2009 at Tennessee.

He has seen a lot of changes in that time, but nothing to the degree that NIL has shaken college sports since 2021. That has caused Kiffin to shift what factors he believes will lead to long-term success compared to when he started 16 years ago.

“I think that’s evolved and changed and there’s different things in it,” he said. “I said to you guys a couple of years ago, I said I think that it’s gonna move to — people used to say, when people wanted to hire you or in an interview (they ask) ‘do you have any questions, what are your concerns?’ People used to say facilities, how many practice fields and those things. I said I think that’s changed, that’s going to change and it’s going to be how much NIL do you have? How is your collective, how is it run, how much do you have?

“Before (revenue sharing), that was the salary cap, meaning that’s how much money you were going to have. Some people sometimes think, ‘OK, well, that’s not a big deal.’ But just look at professional sports when it’s not the same like baseball and the payrolls. Over time, who wins and who doesn’t win? Somebody may have outlier years once in a while. So now that’s a little equaled out, but there’s still, ‘How much are you giving to rev, to your football program and then how much do you have collectivewise?'”

Lane Kiffin has enjoyed plenty of success in his time at Ole Miss and has a chance to make this season his best yet. The Rebels are 53-19 overall under his direction as well as 9-1 this season and currently ranked No. 6 according to the College Football Playoff committee.

Some of the jobs he has been rumored for, such as LSU and Florida, might have richer tradition, but Kiffin seems to believe that holds less weight than it used to. The coach isn’t trying to say those factors are completely irrelevant, adding that they still matter to some degree. But in the new age of NIL, he’ll be looking at the players budget as the top priority for his job decision.

“People will talk about it’s narrowed like I heard coach (Nick) Saban say, and some stuff has narrowed because you can’t stockpile at those blue bloods or whatever you want to call it,” Kiffin said. “But there’s still things there that you’re still gonna struggle to beat those guys because kids are still recruited and they see size of stadiums and tradition and Heismans and national championships, and then your location to talent. So I think all those are in there, but it’s slid a little over time. I think the question probably earlier was, ‘What is your assistant coaches’ pool?’ Now it’s, ‘What is your player pool?'”