Ahead of a huge rivalry tilt in the Egg Bowl with Mississippi State and a de facto College Football Playoff play-in game, much of the talk surrounding Ole Miss football this week has been centered around what’s happening off the football field.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is set to make a monumental decision on Saturday to either remain at Ole Miss or take the vacant head-coaching job at LSU in a move that will have major ramifications throughout the country, regardless of which way the pendulum tilts.
But with the national spotlight firmly shining on himself and his football team, Kiffin’s Rebels took care of business against Mississippi State to clinch the first 11-win regular season in school history and sew up a playoff berth.
Lane Kiffin has a different definition of distraction
That could be at least partially because Kiffin does not see the outside noise regarding his future as a distraction.
“What you may think is distracting, as I understand our fan base or media (does), I don’t think it is,” Kiffin said after Ole Miss’ 38-19 win over Mississippi State on Friday. “We train our guys to focus on what they can control and block out noise.”
That strategy certainly worked for Kiffin, and if he stays, the reward for blocking out the noise will be the first CFP appearance in Ole Miss history.
But the nature of that playoff appearance will likely be determined by whether or not Kiffin is on the Ole Miss sideline during the Rebels’ playoff run. If he decides to stay in Oxford, Ole Miss will be fueled by an extra kick of momentum that comes from keeping a man well on his way to becoming the greatest coach in UM history.
There are two scenarios if Kiffin does decide to take the LSU job: he either gets to work in Baton Rouge immediately, or he takes the path of North Texas’ Eric Morris and finishes out the 2025 season by coaching in the College Football Playoff.
The path Kiffin takes will finally be divulged on Saturday, and on a jam-packed rivalry weekend, the biggest story in college football may take place in a media room instead.
