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Lane Kiffin reacts to coaching rumors after win over Florida: 'To even talk about it right now would be disrespectful to the players'

Danby: Daniel Hager6 hours agoDanielHagerOn3
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© Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

No. 7 Ole Miss avenged last season’s loss to Florida with a 34-24 win over the Gators in Oxford Saturday night. It marked head coach Lane Kiffin‘s first career win against Florida, as he was previously 0-3 (0-1 at Tennessee, 0-2 at Ole Miss) in the matchup.

The moment that former Florida head coach Billy Napier was dismissed from the program last month, Kiffin was penciled in as the Gators’ No. 1 target for their head coach vacancy. He has had to deal with those rumors for the past few weeks.

Following the win on Saturday, Kiffin deflected rumors about his future with the Ole Miss program, citing that it would be disrespectful to his players to talk about it.

“I love what we’re doing here,” Kiffin said. “Today was awesome. To even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and what they did today. We’ve got a lot of things going on right now and we’re doing really well.”

Ole Miss opened Saturday night’s game strong with a three-yard rushing touchdown from superstar running back Kewan Lacy, giving the Rebels a quick 7-0 lead. A 27-yard field goal pushed the Ole Miss lead to 10, but Florida punched back. Quarterback DJ Lagway put the Gators on the board with a five-yard rushing touchdown late in the first quarter, and running back Jadan Baugh found paydirt from two yards out just three plays later after a costly Trinidad Chambliss interception.

The teams then traded touchdowns and field goals heading into the fourth quarter. Florida led 24-20, but was dominated in the final quarter by Ole Miss. Rebel running back Kewan Lacy scored his second and third touchdowns of the game, and the Florida offense was held to just 52 yards across three drives.

Kiffin said rumors linking him to Florida job didn’t affect Saturday’s game

Now sitting at 10-1 (6-1) on the season, Lane Kiffin is on the verge of leading a team to the College Football Playoff for the first time in his career. All of this success comes as he continues to hear the rumors linking him to the job in Gainesville. However, none of those rumors affected Saturday night’s game, he revealed earlier in the week.

“I haven’t even talked about it to them, and I think I’m pretty close to the players, where they walk by or they say something, you know, like, if it was on their mind, they’d make a joke or something,” Kiffin said this week. “I don’t think it is because I think that they’re very focused on what to do.”

“Again, I said it’s a different age nowadays, like when I addressed it a couple weeks ago. I certainly don’t think it was a distraction since. We won at Oklahoma, South Carolina, and played really well last week. This is kind of the world that we’re in.”

Following a much-earned bye-week, No. 7 Ole Miss will conclude its regular season against Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl on Nov. 28 in Starkville.