Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin Makes Guest Appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show
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Ole Miss Rebels coach Lane Kiffin made a guest appearance during The Dan Le Batard Show on Wednesday and talked about recruitment in college football, NIL, Arch Manning's decision, and his current situation at Ole Miss.
The entire landscape of recruiting in college football has been flipped since the approval of the NIL policy in June of 2021 by the NCAA. Kiffin has not been shy about his stance on the NIL and the need for there to be a "salary cap" when using NIL deals in recruitment. He has mentioned previously that there is "free agency" in college football recruiting thanks to the NIL.
Kiffin gave his thoughts on players only worrying about NIL money when it comes to recruitment.
"When I make the statements about NIL [deals], I don't say it's the only thing that matters, but it is the No. 1 thing," Kiffin told Le Batard. "Especially if you're young, if you're 17 or 18 [years old] and you don't have a lot of money, salary is going to be the first thing you look for when you take a job."
The coach of the Rebels also talked about star quarterbacks in college football possibly making as much legal money as some coaches in the near future.
"I mean if the reports out there are true about what's getting paid to a couple of these high school quarterbacks in the next class, that's already happening," Kiffin said. "Until that gets completely changed, capped or controlled, that's how [recruitment] is going to go."
Kiffin went on to express his concerns about giving large NIL deals to recruits.
"You're going to give all this money to a player that's coming in, and you really don't know how good they are," Kiffin said. "I mean, you screw up the NFL Draft all the time, and that's with players three or four years older who you have a ton of information on. There's going to be a lot of what you call in professional sports 'dead money' just sitting there."
Le Batard and his crew also poked fun at Kiffin for not landing highly sought-after 2023 quarterback, Arch Manning, who committed to the Texas Longhorns back in June.
Kiffin gave Le Batard a veteran response to why he could not secure the newest generation of the Manning family.
"Well this is one of those weird rules, I can't even answer that, because he is still a prospective student-athlete that has not signed [with Texas]," Kiffin said. "That's kind of that maturity thing, I would've answered that years ago.
"I can't, and yeah this 'new Lane' doesn't really help your ratings very much," Kiffin said. "You don't get those ESPN kicker lines anymore."
Kiffin wrapped up his appearance by discussing the current state of the Ole Miss football program.
"We're happy to be here," Kiffin said. "Went to a Sugar Bowl last year and won 10 regular season games, the most ever in school history, so we're headed in the right direction."
You can follow Ben King on Twitter at @BKing_2023
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