David Pollack explains why he does not see Lane Kiffin leaving for Florida job

After weeks of speculation, Florida parted ways with head coach Billy Napier on Sunday. Napier, who had been with the program since 2022, led the Gators to a disappointing 22-23 (12-16) record over four seasons. He’s the first full-time Florida head coach to end his tenure with a losing record since Raymond Wolf, who was 13-24 from 1946-1949.

Athletic Director Scott Stricklin will now head the program’s first head coaching search since the 2021 offseason, when head coach Dan Mullen was fired midseason after leading the Gators to a 5-6 start to the year. Stricklin will be looking to finally make the correct move at head coach, as no Florida head coach has lasted four full seasons at the helm since Urban Meyer resigned following the 2010 season.

As soon as the job became available, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was floated as one of the prime candidates for the job. David Pollack however shot this possibility down on the latest edition of ‘See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack‘.

“I think Lane’s at a spot in his life where he’s so happy and he’s so excited,” Pollack said. “You saw the documentary. He’s prospering. He’s doing good. His son, Knox, had a game-winning touchdown last week. He’s engrained into high school football. I just don’t think he’s gonna leave. I think he’s really found happiness.”

Pete Thamel breaks down case for Lane Kiffin to Florida

While Pollack believes that Kiffin isn’t a fit for the opening, ESPN‘s Pete Thamel revealed on the ‘College GameDay Podcast‘ that the job might be Kiffin’s if he wants it. Thamel made the case for the Ole Miss head coach, while also acknowledging the polarizing nature that has followed Kiffin throughout his career.

“I would say this about Lane Kiffin’s candidacy at Florida — I think it’s a very strong candidacy,” Thamel stated. “I think whether it be administratively in the president’s office, or whether it be in the athletics office, Kiffin is a divisive guy. The performance is the performance, but Kiffin constantly instigates brushfires, right? He’s done it for 20 years.

“In fact, he really became an instigator by just hammering Urban Meyer when he was at Tennessee. You remember this? There was a famous signing day where he said Meyer broke the rules. Now, Lane has calmed down. He does yoga. But you are never going to be uniformly aligned with Lane Kiffin if you’re an administration, because there is difficulty that comes with him.

“I think Lane’s a great coach and he’s grown and matured from what we’ve seen. I do think it would be fun to see him at Florida because he would bring back that maverick kind of style that [Steve] Spurrier brought with his famous quips.”

Over the course of Kiffin’s six-year stint at Ole Miss, he has led the Rebels to a 50-19 (28-17) record. This season, they started 6-0 and climbed as high as No. 5 in the AP Top 25 Rankings before losing to No. 9 Georgia on Saturday.

On3’s Steve Samra contributed to this article.