Whether it is taking one of the two openings at LSU or Florida or remaining at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin will be one of the most sought-after and talked-about people in college football over the next couple of months.
In an appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, Oct. 27, the Rebels’ 50-year-old coach said he’ll not will not be influenced by the Benjamins.
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“I have never made a decision based on money, nor will I,” Kiffin said. “… I’ve seen too many examples in life that money does not buy happiness, so I’m never going to make a decision based on money. Nor do I care about it. (Kiffin’s agent) Jimmy Sexton gets really mad when I say that.”
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At 7-1 this season, Kiffin has the Rebels positioned to make their first College Football Playoff appearance in program history.
Following Ole Miss’ top-15 ranked win over then-No. 11 Oklahoma on Saturday, Oct. 25, the Rebels have a 51-19 overall record under Kiffin. For his successes in Oxford and elevating the program into one of the country’s best — on top of his overall track record as college football coach, which features stops at Tennessee, USC and Florida Atlantic — he is looked at as a top candidate at Florida and LSU after the firings of Billy Napier and Brian Kelly respectively.
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He also spoke at length about why he addressed the coaching carousel rumors with his team ahead of the Oklahoma game. Kiffin told McAfee he doesn’t see coaching rumors distracting a team from accomplishing their goals like they may have before because of the activity and “recruiting” being done in the transfer portal.
“I usually don’t talk about it with the team because we’ve dealt with this for a number of years because our players have performed really well and won a lot of games here. And so this attention has come with that,” Kiffin said. “I just thought last week it was important late in the week to address it on Friday just because we have so many new players. So they hadn’t been here the year or the year before that these job rumors and stuff would come up, and so I just told them, ‘Hey, this is a product of how you guys play. They see the way you play, so then people, fans are like, ‘We want that system.’ And they say, ‘Coach.’
“Really it’s the system of the players and the assistant coaches what a good job they do, and I just told them it’s a compliment to them and I think it’s easier for them nowadays. And remember, basically the same thing happens to them. They have a good game, what happens? You know our freshman receiver has a good game, Saturday night he’s got three calls from places saying, ‘Hey come here, we’ll give you more money.’ Pre-portaling, you know, before the portal opens. That’s what happens. They deal with this all the time. Places saying, ‘Come here, you’ll get more money,’ because they’re playing well. So I don’t think it’s that big a deal to them.”
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Ole Miss remained at No. 8 in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll, which was released on Sunday, Oct. 26. The Rebels take on South Carolina in Week 10 of the 2025 season on Saturday, Nov. 1 at home in Oxford.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lane Kiffin tells Pat McAfee he won’t take coaching job for money
