'Clarity' needed from Lane Kiffin this week but Florida has a rival to worry about

I always preferred "The Dating Game" to "The Bachelor", but they all ended the same way — the main character on the show had to make a decision and choose their next partner. Lane Kiffin, you're now officially on the clock.

Rivals/On3's Pete Nakos is reporting that Ole Miss wants an answer from Kiffin either way while members of the coach's family are taking official visits to Gainesville and Baton Rouge.

Wait a sec...did he say Baton Rouge?

The talk around Kiffin has been centered around Ole Miss and Florida for so long, I almost forgot that LSU was an open job. Is this another situation where Kiffin is trying to use as much leverage as possible or are the Tigers really in the picture?

And who are his family members meeting with in Gainesville and Baton Rouge? Are they dealing with real estate agents? Are they just checking out the right neighborhoods? Rubbing shoulders with the president at the country club? There are a lot of questions here.

The fact that LSU has re-entered the chat room is pretty concerning. Because if Kiffin wants crowd sizes...LSU got crowd sizes.

There's no turning back for Florida

It's Kiffin or bust now. There's no other candidate on the horizon. No one's talking about Jedd Fisch and James Franklin decided to just take the Virginia Tech job and keep moving. Florida HAS to bring Lane Kiffin to Gainesville. 

It's the great irony that for years Kiffin has viewed Florida as the dream job that he could never touch. And now that job is being handed to him on a platter, and he's not sure if he wants to take it. What looks like leverage to us might truly be indecisiveness for him. He does have it good in Ole Miss, and it's the easy route to take. The Florida job is hard, it's demanding. The fans will expect championships...plural. 

And there's still two games left on the schedule that are very important to this fanbase!

Kiffin might be enjoying the attention too much

Josh Pate made a great point. Kiffin has been working his entire career to have this sort of acceptance. Before he arrived at Ole Miss, Kiffin's name as well have been mud. And everyone turned him down or wrote him off as a potential candidate. 

Florida wrote him off in 2022 to hire Billy Napier. FSU wrote him off in 2020 to hire Mike Norvell. Miami wrote him off in 2019 to hire Manny Diaz and again in 2022 to hire Mario Cristobal. Arkansas wrote him off in 2018 to hire Chad Morris.... Hell, USF wrote him off in 2020 to hire Jeff Scott (how bad was that?!?!).

So excuse Kiffin for a second if he sits back and chuckles as these top programs fight for him. I'm surprised he doesn't play the chorus from "Back Then" by Mike Jones before his press conferences.

""Back then they didn't want me. Now I'm hot and they're all on me.""