Glenn Boyce: Talks will continue with Lane Kiffin this week but focus is on Egg Bowl for Ole Miss

Egg Bowl week is here for No. 6 Ole Miss and Mississippi State but all the focus continues to be on Lane Kiffin and the impending announcement regarding his future.

That is “expected” to come on Saturday according to a statement from athletics director Keith Carter released this past Friday after a meeting between himself, Kiffin and Ole Miss chancellor Glenn Boyce.

Boyce appeared on the ‘Mornings with Richard Cross’ radio show on Monday and was asked about last week’s meeting between the three.

“We put the statement out and the statement pretty much speaks for itself,” Boyce said. “Talks will continue. They will continue through the week between coach Kiffin and Keith. But our focus and our emphasis right now, and we’re determined to be focused on this, is winning this last football game. Being an 11-1 team and being the first team in history of the University of Mississippi to make the College Football Playoffs and if we’re not seeded higher than we currently are then to have one of the greatest sporting events to ever come to Mississippi and that would be a home playoff game.”

That was the end of a long answer from Boyce which started by putting the focus on the players and the assistant coaches before discussing the meeting with Kiffin.

A win on Friday in Starkville will make this roster the owners of the first 11-win regular season in program history and help get closer to that first CFP bid.

“I want to talk about something more important and that is these players,” Boyce started. “I want to talk about the season these players have given us and what a special team this is. This is a team that knows how to finish. This is the team that knows that they make plays when plays need to be made. They understand that and this is a team that is incredibly mature and well led. They stay focused and I stay in contact with them because I’m a big athletic fan, obviously, and as chancellor of this University it matters to me how these guys are thinking and what they’re thinking about.

“These are my student-athletes and these are the young people who are providing all this joy, happiness we find around here. So, in turn the players, it’s up to us to make sure that they have a consistent routine. It’s up to us that they have consistency in everything they touch and feel so that they stay focused and that they’re ready. Because, obviously this is an enormous game that’ll be played here Friday over in Starkville and we know the Egg Bowl is always an important game.”

Distractions have been the theme of the last couple weeks with the Kiffin saga hanging over the Manning center during the bye week.

The sixth-year head coach said a couple weeks ago the team is not distracted and that he discusses the idea of distractions with the media “100 times more” than with the team. If the team is not distracted as Kiffin says, well Boyce credits the assistant coaches.

“The second thing I’d like to stay that people don’t hear, I don’t think enough, about is we have an elite assistant coaching staff,” Boyce added. “They’re absolutely amazing and they do a tremendous job all up and down the line and coach Kiffin has done a great job putting together that coaching staff. That coaching staff is really where the players stay focused. That coaching staff is the one that keeps them grounded. It keeps them led and make sure that they’re ready and prepared to play the game.”

Ole Miss is anticipating announcing Kiffin’s future with it, or elsewhere, on Saturday.

After the focus was on Florida potentially luring Kiffin away for his services after firing Billy Napier last month there was another team that came into focus last week.

LSU has become the biggest threat to end the Kiffin era in Oxford after six seasons. It was reported the Tigers have offered Kiffin a $90 million contract and $25 million NIL warchest. Both numbers Ole Miss have stated to Kiffin they will match after placing an new offer on his desk weeks ago.

Still, this week is now about the most-important Egg Bowl in the Rebels modern history and also preparing for a future without Kiffin in the CFP if Saturday reveals he is Baton Rouge bound.