Kirk Herbstreit Believes Lane Kiffin Should Stay at Ole Miss, Decline LSU and Florida

Kiffin's future with the Rebels remains in limbo, pair of SEC schools looking to lure him out of Oxford.

Kirk Herbstreit speaks on the set of ESPN College GameDay prior to the NCAA football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The "Lane Kiffin Sweepstakes" are heating up with the Ole Miss Rebels, LSU Tigers, and Florida Gators entering a three-team race for the most popular head coach in this year's cycle.

No. 6 Ole Miss (10-1, 6-1 SEC) has solidified its status as a College Football Playoff contender this fall with an opportunity to move to 11-1 on the season in Week 14, but it's Kiffin's future that has overshadowed the success of the team this month.

LSU and Florida have emerged as serious threats to lure Kiffin out of Oxford with the program in Baton Rouge picking up steam, but all parties invovled will have to wait until Saturday for an official decision.

Ole Miss Athletics Director Keith Carter met with Kiffin last Friday where both parties decided he will coach the Egg Bowl vs. Mississippi State on Nov. 28 - then make an announcement on his plans for the future the next day [Nov. 29].

Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

ESPN analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway weighed in on the "Kiffin Sweepstakes" and what the Ole Miss shot-caller should do.

Kirk Herbstreit Weighs In: Kiffin's Future

“He loves this team, and he wants to win this championship right now. But, with the system and the timing of everything, the way it currently is, he’s got to make a decision,” Herbstreit said. “Ole Miss told him, ‘Saturday, that’s it. We need to know what’s up the day after the Egg Bowl.’

“[If he’s leaving], does the school let him stay and coach into their magical season the way Scott Frost did at UCF when they won all their games?

"They allowed him to stay before he left to go to Nebraska. Or, do you think, ‘Get out of here. If you don’t want to be here, we don’t want you here. Get out of here.’ … Just such a messy thing for Lane or any coach to be put in. The timing of this is awful.”

Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

Joey Galloway's Perspective: Should He Be Able to Coach CFP?

“I would love to see the coaches, the [administration], whoever it is, get the players together and let them vote whether they want him to stay and coach them through the playoff—knowing that he’s leaving—or would they rather have an assistant coach, somebody else that’s on staff right now,” Galloway said. “It should be a player decision on whether he stays or not.

“Listen, adults are going to have their feelings. And, if he was leaving, and I was in the administration, I would have feelings about it too. I would be bothered. I’d be like, ‘Get out of here.’ But the players are the ones that are with him every day.

"They came there to play for him. I think they should decide on whether he stays [for the CFP] if he makes a decision to go somewhere else.”

More Ole Miss News:

National Analyst Believes Miami Dolphins Should Hire Ole Miss Football's Lane Kiffin

Ole Miss Football Great Doubles Down on Lane Kiffin to Florida Gators 'Not Happening'

Tony Vitello Pokes Fun at Ole Miss Football's Lane Kiffin in Goodbye to Tennessee

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