It wasn’t strength of schedule that doomed Lane Kiffin in 2024; it was the Gators

The Florida Gators pulled off their signature win last season when they knocked off the Fighting Lane Kiffin's and in turn knocked Ole Miss out of the College Football Playoff.

Kiffin made sure everyone knew back in December that he wasn't happy about being left out, and while at SEC Media Days, he claimed he has gotten over it, he is also still clinging to a narrative that didn't work back in December.

Florida knocked Ole Miss out of the playoffs

When Ole Miss was left out of the playoffs and the first round featured blowouts, Kiffin kept returning to the internet to make sure the committee knew he wasn't happy about the Rebels not making the dance.

He was asked about how long it took him to get over the loss, he responded with the following:

"That wasn't that difficult. I mean, I tend to do better with things when they're done. You can't do anything to change them.

So it was what it was. I just think you're not going to go back over that too much, but just in general, and there has been a lot of talk about that since, I just think the system -- and it's not because of us, you know. I just think the system doesn't take into the scheduling properly.

Then you look at these other sports, basketball, baseball, you see teams that go on to win that weren't in the top because they played a really hard schedule and you lose some games. Like the basket goes in or out; in the end doesn't mean you're a dramatically different in that team. Just like you lose a game in overtime on the road.

Or the NFL. Got the Super Bowl and here is the five seed in the Super Bowl. So I just think that it doesn't account to that. Being a coach and understanding what teams take to go into certain places to play and have to get up every week versus other people's schedule, it's very different."

Florida, not the schedule, kept Ole Miss out

If you're reading this, Lane, because we know you like to read things about yourself, hi.

Welcome.

Make yourself at home.

Now let's make something perfectly clear:

Ole Miss was 37th in strength of schedule, 13th in strength of record, and would have been in the playoffs if it beat Florida.

The wild thing about Florida's win over Ole Miss is that DJ Lagway didn't even light it up that afternoon. Lagway was 10/17 for 180 yards while essentially playing on one leg.

It was Caleb Banks, Cam Jackson, and Tyreak Sapp going crazy along the defensive line that wrecked Jaxson Dart to a 24/41.

But Kiffin seemed very deliberate throughout his media rounds not to highlight the specific loss to Florida, in addition to Kentucky, the team the Gators beat by 28.

Now, yes, we would agree that the strength of schedule should matter, and Florida might find itself in a position trying to argue that 9-3 is good enough to make it into the playoffs in 2025.

But maybe, just maybe, the team that had the easiest strength of schedule in the SEC in 2024 should sit out this debate.