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Urban Meyer warns Lane Kiffin that leaving Ole Miss for Florida or LSU could haunt him

by: Alex Byington7 hours ago_AlexByington

There is perhaps no one in college football that understands the unenviable predicament Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin finds himself currently embroiled in than Urban Meyer. Two decades ago, the former national champion-winning coach at Florida and Ohio State had an undefeated Utah on the verge of breaking the BCS glass ceiling when he accepted the Gators’ open head coaching job in December 2004.

Now, 21 years later, Kiffin faces a similar scenario with the sixth-ranked Rebels (10-1, 6-1 SEC) just an Egg Bowl win away from securing the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff appearance while at the same time entertaining open head coaching opportunities at both Florida and LSU, where he’s considered the No. 1 option for both SEC powers.

Given his own experience, Meyer cautioned Kiffin against making a potential career-defining move that could ultimately “haunt” him for years to come, especially if such a move requires him to leave Ole Miss before the Playoffs. Kiffin is expected to reveal his decision Saturday following Friday’s Egg Bowl.

“I had a similar situation (when) I was at the University of Utah and we went undefeated (and were) the first small school to break into the BCS, and I left and went to Florida. And that (experience) just ripped your heart out. I went back and coached the last game in the Fiesta Bowl and won,” Meyer said Tuesday during his weekly appearance on FS1’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “This is unchartered waters, though. To leave a team that could potentially – other than Ohio State, and maybe (Texas) A&M and Indiana – I’m telling you, Ole Miss is right there (as a national championship contender).

“And (leaving Ole Miss in the middle of a championship run) might haunt Lane the rest of his (life),” Meyer continued. “I mean, just personally, how do you walking into that (team) meeting and say, ‘Hey guys, not only am I leaving, but I’m going to be playing you next year’? I don’t know.”

The Rebels are currently slated to face both Florida and LSU in 2026, meaning whichever program he chooses — outside of remaining in Oxford — will create an enduring storyline for years to come.

Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway detail what position Ole Miss will be put in if Lane Kiffin leaves

On Saturday, Ole Miss will reveal whether head coach Lane Kiffin is returning next season or leaving the program for another job. It’s unclear if Ole Miss will allow Kiffin to coach in the College Football Playoff if he won’t be returning in 2026. On the Nonstop podcast, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway discussed how Ole Miss may react to Kiffin accepting an outside job offer.

“You and I, and I think alumni, they look at a situation like this, and it’s a little personal. It’s like, ‘Hey, if he’s taking that whatever job, good riddance. Get out of here. We want a guy that’s all in.’ But, I think you bring up a good point about the players. The players in 2025 are very, very different,” Herbstreit said.

“It’s a year-to-year relationship. A lot of these guys look at it not the way you and I did, ‘I’m here for four years, five years,’ whatever it is. This is more of a, ‘I’m here for this year. This is my team this year.’ … They look at this year as, ‘Hey, Lane, we want you to stay with us for this year, and let’s finish this thing. Let’s go win a championship this year.’”

The players may not have the final say in whether or not Kiffin coaches them in the CFP. The school’s administration is expected to make the ultimate decision on Kiffin’s CFP status if he announces he’ll be coaching elsewhere in the 2026 campaign.

“I would love to see the coaches, the [administration], whoever it is, get the players together and let them vote whether they want him to stay and coach them through the playoff — knowing that he’s leaving — or would they rather have an assistant coach, somebody else that’s on staff right now,” Galloway said. “It should be a player-decision on whether he stays or not. … The players are the ones that are with him every day. They came there to play for him. I think they should decide on whether he stays (for the CFP) if he makes a decision to go somewhere else.”

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this report.