ESPN Insider Gives Insight into Lane Kiffin Connection to Florida Gators

An ESPN insider spoke of the buzz he heard while attending a Florida Gators donor dinner last season in Gainesville

Those behind the scenes of the Florida Gators really like Lane Kiffin as the successor | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

As Billy Napier's seat as the Florida Gators head coach gets hotter, recent reports have given validity to the interest the football program has in Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.

ESPN's Ryan McGee said in an interview with Saturday Down South that he attended a private donor meeting last season at the University of Florida. It was a mandatory dinner at athletic director Scott Stricklin's house the weekend that he and SEC Nation were in Gainesville for the Gators' Week 3 matchup vs Texas A&M.

The boosters were reportedly set on hiring Kiffin, and they were determined to have it done by the end of October 2024. McGee spoke of how sure they were that they were going to make the move.

"All the boosters were saying they'd have him here by October," McGee said.

Last September, @ESPNMcGee went to a dinner at Scott Stricklin’s house, wherein Florida boosters said that they’d “have (Lane Kiffin) there by October.”

Well… pic.twitter.com/IcaISMBdKz

— Connor O'Gara (@cjogara) September 25, 2025

However, shortly after they had planned to hire Kiffin, the Gators took Georgia down to the wire, and Stricklin affirmed Napier's position as head coach. Napier went on to win the final four games of the season, including a win over Ole Miss in the Swamp.

What is left to find out is if Napier is fired, will they get another stab at getting Kiffin to come to Gainesville? If there is a list of jobs he would leave Oxford, Miss, for, it's not big.

"I don't know if there's a list, and I say this based on the experience that I've had with him," McGee said. "He's so happy.

Kiffin has his family with him at Ole Miss, and it's allowed him to have the family life that he lacked for years. Once you have that, it makes it difficult to pack your bags and move to another state again.

He was rumored to be a top candidate for the head coaching job at Auburn before Hugh Freeze got the position, and his daughter talked him into staying. Fast-forward and Kiffin is in year six as the head coach at Ole Miss.

He's had three seasons with 10 or more wins, three top-15 finishes and has won a New Year's Six bowl game. He might have had two if Matt Corral didn't get hurt in the first quarter of the 2022 Sugar Bowl.

Ole Miss is seeing unprecedented success under him, and Kiffin could be determined to get them to that next level.

"I think he wants to do things there that no one's ever done before," McGee said. "...with the exception of a national championship, this is the greatest run of Ole Miss football, and it's not even that close, and so I think he wants to bring rings to that building."

So, perhaps instead of saying that the Gators missed the boat on Kiffin, there was potentially never a ship that was set to sail to begin with.

Now, once his daughter, Landry, has graduated, depending on the situation with his other two children, maybe he's on the move. Time will tell what all this means for the Gators.