Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit address Lane Kiffin coaching rumors, if he should leave Ole Miss for LSU, Florida

Nick Saban knows the state of college football is “external” and Lane Kiffin might be better off right where he is at the moment. The Ole Miss head coach is expected to be the top target for Florida and LSU, now that two jobs are open.

But Kiffin has been very successful at Ole Miss and could finally make the College Football Playoff this season and maybe even win the SEC. They’re rolling right now.

“In college now, everything is external,” Saban said on College GameDay. “How much money can you raise in your collective? What kind of marketing program do you have? How can you sort of keep your roster together based on all these resources that you can get? So who has been able to take these external factors and bring them inside the building and make the adaptations you need to make to have a successful program? And I think that’s what we’re seeing now, but that’s changed. 

“So you got a team like Indiana … who really never, traditionally, anybody looked at as a great job. And like Ole Miss, you know, Lane’s been really successful at Ole Miss, but how could you make the argument that LSU or Florida or any of those schools are better than Ole Miss based on the support that he has and how they’ve been able to manage things internally with all these external factors? So I think everybody needs to be very careful about how they evaluate their opportunity.”

Lane Kiffin better off at Ole Miss?

Kirk Herbstreit had a similar take on Kiffin in regards to what his future could be. He likened the Ole Miss job to the way college basketball is. You don’t have to be at a big brand, Power Four job to succeed at the highest level.

“Isn’t that fascinating to think you would think as a young coach, your dream is to coach at Michigan or Alabama, but Arizona State last year is an example of what you’re talking about,” Herbstreit said of Kiffin and coaches in general. “Indiana, you brought up Vanderbilt, (they’re) an example of that, Cincinnati right now … It almost makes you wonder if you’re a coach and you look at these opportunities like Kiffin … does it make sense to stay at Ole Miss, where you still have expectations, but if you go to LSU, you don’t make the playoff, you’re fired. 

“You go to Ohio State, you don’t make the playoff, you’re fired. You go to Alabama … Maybe that it’s kind of like college basketball. Gonzaga, Xavier Butler, University of Dayton, maybe those are the places to be instead of Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, where you better win now or your ass is gone.”