Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin is expected to meet with athletic director Keith Carter on Friday as the deadline for his reported stay-or-go decision nears, according to an On3 report.
Kiffin, 50, has emerged as the reported top target for the coaching vacancies at Southeastern Conference rivals LSU and Florida.
In the meantime, his Ole Miss team is 10-1 (6-1 SEC), ranks sixth in the country and is positioned to host a first-round College Football Playoff game in December if the Rebels can win at rival Mississippi State Nov. 28.
According to multiple media reports, members of Kiffin’s family recently visited Gainesville, Fla., and Baton Rouge, La., to scout out the areas should Kiffin elect to take one of those jobs. Ole Miss has no game this week and is set to return to practice on Sunday.
It also has been reported that Carter issued an ultimatum to Kiffin that he inform Ole Miss administrators of whether he’ll be staying in Oxford or taking another job before the Mississippi State game, although it’s unclear what action the school would take if he didn’t. Kiffin disputed this report in an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” earlier this week.
Kiffin is in his sixth season at Ole Miss and his 14th as a college head coach after he was hired as the Oakland Raiders’ head coach in 2007 at 31. He was fired in his second season, then spent one season at Tennessee (2009) before leaving for Southern California (2010-13). After he was fired at USC, he rebuilt his image as Alabama offensive coordinator under Nick Saban before having success as Florida Atlantic head coach (2017-19) and parlaying that into the Ole Miss job.
Kiffin has led the Rebels to at least 10 wins in four of the past five seasons, including a program-record 11 wins in 2023. Ole Miss had four 10-win seasons since 1961 before Kiffin took the job.
