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ESPN analyst questions why Lane Kiffin would leave Ole Miss for LSU, other jobs

by: Alex Byington3 hours ago_AlexByington
Florida-Gators-Ole-Miss-Lane-Kiffin
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin celebrates after a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Ole Miss Rebels at Gaylord Family Ð Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Ole Miss won 34-26. (Photo by BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Lane Kiffin has quickly become the belle of a red-hot in-season NCAA coaching carousel after SEC blue bloods Florida and LSU fired their respective head coaches in back-to-back weeks, all for a chance at potentially dancing with the sixth-year Ole Miss head coach. But with the seventh-ranked Rebels (7-1, 4-1 SEC) on the precipice of securing the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff appearance, it’s hardly a guarantee Kiffin ultimately even entertains his new suitors.

At least that’s the impression SEC Network host Peter Burns is getting from “reading the tea leaves” of Kiffin’s social media feed, as well as everything else the 50-year-old has said and done this season. That includes appearing to tell the assembled Ole Miss fans he’s staying following last Saturday’s stirring 34-26 road win over then-No. 13 Oklahoma in Norman.

“If I look at Lane Kiffin right now, and you know it, this is a mercenary-type sport. And in a world where everybody lives in the transfer portal, if I’m … Lane Kiffin, why go anywhere else? Why not stay there (at Ole Miss)?” Burns said during a Tuesday afternoon hit on ESPN‘s SportsCenter. “You have an opportunity to build something (at Ole Miss) that’s never been done before. I mean, best case scenario, let’s say you win a national championship at LSU, you’d still be behind Nick Saban and still behind, probably, Ed Orgeron, who was Mr. Louisiana during that historical (national title) run back in 2019.

Peter Burns: Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss ‘might be worse than when he left Tennessee’

“So, for me, if I’m sitting there with Lane Kiffin, if you’re reading the tea leaves of every single tweet he puts out there, it’s kind of wild right now,” Burns continued. “I don’t think you can put that much out there and say, ‘Hey, the grass is not greener, I love this (place),’ ‘Oxford made me, I didn’t make Oxford,’ and had this whole documentary about everything, and then leave. I mean, that might be worse than when he left Tennessee.”

Burns is obviously referring to Kiffin’s infamous breakup with Tennessee following the 2009 season, when the first-year Vols head coach left Knoxville in the dead of night to take over at USC. More than 15 years later, many Tennessee fans still haven’t forgiven Kiffin for that betrayal.

Of course, Kiffin and Ole Miss still have a month’s worth of games remaining in the regular season. And with a potential Playoff berth pending, all that’s left is a waiting game as Kiffin ultimately weighs a wealth of quality options, including returning for his seventh season in Oxford.