Rising college football coach surpasses Lane Kiffin as favorite for Florida head coaching job

As the Lane Kiffin job hunt seems to be narrowing to Ole Miss or LSU, Florida might be leaning in a new direction, if prediction market Kalshi holds any clues. On several occasions Friday morning, another coach passed Kiffin as an favorite for the Florida job based on Kalshi odds. That coach is Washington (and formerly Arizona) coach Jedd Fisch.

Kalshi switch-up

As Kiffin's odds as next Gator coach have taken a dive, Fisch has consistently been in the 30-35% range Friday morning, bumping Kiffin aside as the favorite on a couple occasions. Kiffin had been a solid favorite in both the LSU and Florida prediction markets, but as his Tiger stock is rising, Fisch is gaining momentum in the Florida job hunt.

Fisch's resume

Fisch is a Florida alum and coached briefly for the Gators under his football mentor, Steve Spurrier. Fisch has coached extensively as an offensive assistant in the NFL and college ranks. He took the Arizona head coaching job ahead of the 2021 season and saw the Wildcats climb from 1-11 to 5-7 to 10-3 in his three seasons there. Fisch is now in his second season at Washiington, where the Huskies have gone 6-7 and 7-3 in his two seasons.

Fisch holds just a 30-32 career record (he was 1-1 as an interim coach at UCLA in 2017). But he led Arizona to its first 10-win season since 2014 and a final No. 11 ranking that was the program's best year-end mark since 1998.

He took over Washington after coach Kalen DeBoer reached the national title game and then left for the Alabama job. The NFL Draft and the opportunity to play for DeBoer via the transfer portal decimated Washington's roster, but Fisch his built the Huskies back into a bowl-bound program that has averaged 34.3 points per game. Fisch's coaching tenures include a lengthy list of top coaches who he worked under. Those include Spurrier, Mike Shanahan, Pete Carroll, Sean McVay, and Bill Belichick.

Florida's struggles

Florida has hired a trio of offensive coaches since the firing of Will Muschamp, who had the misfortune of struggling after Urban Meyer left the program. Billy Napier was just 22-23 in three and a half seasons in Gainesville.

The Gators are in a six-year run of not winning more than eight games in any season. While Dan Mullen and Jim McElwain each had big seasons, neither could continue an upward trajectory. Florida hasn't won an SEC title or made a top-five finish since Urban Meyer's days late in the decade of the 2000s. Fisch might be the next man to try and bring Florida back to its championship glory days.

A UF alum and a Steve Spurrier fan, Fisch fits the recent mode of offensive-minded coaches at Florida. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

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