Decision day is coming for Lane Kiffin, and insiders who cover Florida have continued to express that Florida's leaders still believe the Gators are very much in the running to land the Ole Miss coach.
But that level of confidence doesn't seem to extend beyond Gainesville, and a new poll of national media members indicates a narrative Florida is going to have to beat if it wants to land Kiffin.
National media members think Lane Kiffin will wind up at LSU
Brett McMurphy of On3 ran a poll of various national media members to ask where they thought Kiffin would land. Of the 85 members he asked, 59 of them predicted Kiffin would go to LSU. 17 thought he would stay at Ole Miss, while just five people in the poll thought he would land at Florida:
- Matt Barrie, ESPN
- Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel
- Chris Doering, SEC Network
- Keith Niebuhr, Gators Online On3
- Matt Youmans, VSIN
If one has followed how this saga has been reported, it makes sense why people would believe LSU is going to be the winner. There has been way more public information/smoke that has been leaked out in LSU's favor, whereas Florida has had almost zero information leaked out in its favor.
But another prevailing thought is that LSU would have the advantage over Florida because the Gators are also vetting and talking to other candidates in case Kiffin falls through.
This logic feels flimsy because Kiffin has been on Florida's radar for a year now, and at this point, what else is there for Florida to vet on Kiffin? Other than a daily call to Jimmy Sexton, what else is Scott Stricklin supposed to do? Sit in the office and doom scroll TikTok?
You know what? Don't answer that one.
The narrative Florida has tried to sell is a "move in silence" one, and to keep a tight ship until the last moment. It's part of what has also allowed the narrative to be so LSU-focused at this point.
The fact that almost zero national personalities think Kiffin is going to wind up at Florida this late in the process points to one of two possible outcomes:
- Scott Stricklin is pulling off a masterclass behind the scenes.
- Scott Stricklin is only going to have himself to blame for keeping Napier one more year when he had a free runway at Kiffin last year.