Paul Finebaum issues update amid growing Lane Kiffin rumors

All eyes are on Lane Kiffin, not only as his Ole Miss team seems bound for the College Football Playoff, but also around the persistent rumors that he could take another job in the SEC.

Paul Finebaum weighs in on Lane Kiffin amid the rumors he could bolt Ole Miss for Florida next season. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Lane Kiffin has Ole Miss on the verge of making the College Football Playoff and playing some of the best football in program history, but that hasn’t stopped the near-constant speculation that he could leave the school and take another, more lucrative job.

“We Want Lane” was the chant heard around the Rebels’ stadium after their big win over Florida on Saturday night, but the same words could have been echoed by fans of the other team on the field.

Paul Finebaum weighs in

On the heels of his success with Ole Miss, Kiffin remains the favorite to take the head coaching position at Florida next season, a point that Paul Finebaum made coming out of this weekend.

“Everybody seems to know something, and he is going to have a difficult time these next couple of weeks dealing with it. Because everything seems to be pointing toward Florida,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show.

Finebaum illustrated how intense the rumors have been, adding: “Lane Kiffin is the story right now, and as the week unfolded last week, the Kiffin rumors started going crazy. We’re not here to discuss rumors, but you could not avoid it.”

What Lane Kiffin said this weekend

Asked once again to address his future plans, Kiffin instead directed attention at his Ole Miss players after their big win, and felt even broaching the subject wouldn’t be fair to them.

“I love what we’re doing here. Today was awesome. To even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and how well they played today,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got a lot of things going here. Doing really well, and I love it here.”

Kiffin said the speculation around his coaching future has not been a distraction.

“We’ve been dealing with what people would say are distractions for weeks now. It’s different nowadays. I think kids think differently,” he said.

“They’re getting pre-portaled every Saturday night they play well. 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.”

Florida remains the favorite for Kiffin

Florida fired head coach Billy Napier last month after a 3-4 start to the season and almost immediately, Kiffin emerged as the biggest name connected to the vacancy, whether by insider reporting or movement in the betting markets.

He remains the favorite to take over at Florida with 61 percent likelihood, odds that have only increased since the open, according to the prediction market Kalshi.

But he’s also the top candidate for the LSU job, sitting at 30 percent on that platform.

Kiffin has Ole Miss playing historically-good football amid its best five-year stretch ever, winning at least 10 games in four of those five years.

Losing a coach with those achievements would be a massive loss for the Rebels, who await Kiffin’s decision amid its push for the playoff.

(Finebaum)