Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin led the No. 7 Rebels to a comeback 34-24 win over the Florida Gators in Oxford in Week 12 of college football action. The win improved the Rebels to 10-1 for the season and moved them closer to a College Football Playoff berth.
The game against the Gators was pivotal for the Rebels’ season and also put Kiffin in an awkward position as the leading name linked to the vacant Florida job after Billy Napier was fired last month. But Ole Miss fans do not want to let their golden goose coach go.
Ole Miss Fans Call for Lane Kiffin To Stay in Oxford
As the game against the Gators wound down, Ole Miss fans inside the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium started chanting Kiffin’s name, asking for the charismatic coach to stay in Oxford after being extensively linked to several top jobs in college football. “We want Lane,” the chant has received widespread attention.
During his postgame news conference, Kiffin answered questions about his continued stay at Ole Miss. “I love what we’re doing here,” he said. “Today was awesome. To even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and how well they played today. We’ve got a lot of things going here. Doing really well, and I love it here.”
Kiffin has led the Rebels to three consecutive 10-win seasons, while establishing them as one of the top teams in both the SEC and college football. He has urged the fans to enjoy the program’s success.
“I told our guys this week, as you get older, everybody always says the good old days,” Kiffin said. “I said, ‘Hey guys, I think we’re in the good old days right now.’ I think for our fans, for our players, it’s this utopia of what’s going on, so enjoy it. Because these runs don’t happen very often anywhere.”
In six seasons in charge, Kiffin has led Ole Miss to four 10-win seasons, including three consecutive seasons, surpassing the program’s 10-win seasons over the last 50 years combined by any coach before he took over in 2019.
Kiffin Reveals How His Players Deal With Rumors About His Future
During his postgame news conference after the win against Florida, Kiffin revealed how he keeps his players focused despite being linked to other jobs.
“They’re getting pre-portaled every Saturday night they play well,” Kiffin said. “I just talk to them and say, ‘That’s part of the process. When you guys play really well, these things happen, your coach gets talked about,’ and it ain’t the first time or first year that it’s happened around here. I don’t think it’s a problem.”
According to the PFSN College Football Playoff Meter, the Rebels have a massive 99.73% chance to make the playoff, while they have a 5.7% chance of clinching the national championship.