Lane Kiffin's future is one of the biggest stories in college football right now. The Ole Miss coach is being not-so-secretly courted for the Florida job. All the while, he's got to get the Rebels prepared for a noon showdown against No. 13 Oklahoma on Saturday.
A top-15 matchup in the SEC is enough for most coaches to deal with during the course of a week, but add in the rumors surrounding Kiffin, and it was enough to force the coach to disclose that he was going to address the rumors with his players.
NEW: Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin plans to address the Florida job with his players, per @MollyAMcGrath:
— On3 (@On3sports) October 24, 2025
"Lane Kiffin told me he usually doesn’t address those kind of coaching rumors in-season, because there’s so much more football to play, and there’s so many bigger things… pic.twitter.com/GD2Q3JT4Tb
Kiffin plays it close to the vest
In his comments to Molly McGrath, Kiffin is speaking a lot of words without saying anything that would give you a definitive idea of which way he's leaning. He's acknowledging that, yes, the rumors of him leaving Ole Miss for Florida are out there, and they are getting loud enough to ignore. He hears them, and he knows the players hear them.
But Kiffin also knows that he's got a potential playoff team at Ole Miss, and he doesn't want that to evaporate because his name is being batted around for the job opening. He wants to use this opportunity to make sure the Rebels are focused on the now. I'm sure he'll be telling them to not worry about the future, focus on today and the exciting challenge that lies in front of them.
Will Kiffin choose the Gators or the playoffs?
So, the Gators have a chance to put a major wrench in Ole Miss' playoff plans on November 15, but let's say the Rebels make the 12-team playoff bracket. What does Kiffin do? It's clear in his comments to McGrath that Gainesville is a special place to him, and she relayed some interesting thoughts through their conversation.
""You can tell he’s really trying to prioritize his family and his kids in this one. But I will say, Kiffin really idolizes legendary former Gators coach Steve Spurrier. And when I covered Ole Miss’ game at Florida last year, Kiffin pulled me aside and said this is a really special place for me and my family. It’s where he had his first date with his children’s mother, so (Gainesville) is a nostalgic place for the Kiffin family."ESPN's Molly McGrath
Those comments give me the impression that Kiffin will be introduced as the Gators coach a day after the Egg Bowl, regardless of Ole Miss' postseason situation. It would seem unfathomable that a coach would choose a new job over coaching in the playoffs, but Kiffin has shown in the past that he moves to his own beat.