Although he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, Lane Kiffin's impending decision about where he will coach next season is one of the biggest stories in college football. And predictions on where that will be have been diverse.
The prevailing opinion is that Kiffin will be heading to Baton Rouge to become the next LSU head coach. But a non-insignificant portion of the 85 reporters, analysts, and personalities polled by On3 believe he will remain in Oxford at Ole Miss, and a few think Kiffin's reported longtime dream job of Florida will become a reality. ESPN's Scott Van Pelt, humorously, was the only one not to make a prediction; he said he had “no clue.”
Three of the 85 — CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli, Outkick's Trey Wallace, and Phantom Island's Steven Godfrey — really went for it, though.
Both Fornelli and Wallace predict that Kiffin, who was famously fired by the Oakland Raiders in 2008, will return to the NFL to coach the Tennessee Titans. Coincidentally, that would mean Kiffin would return to the state he controversially left in early 2010, when he bolted from the University of Tennessee after one season for USC.
Godfrey admittedly “chose violence,” and predicts that Kiffin will leave Ole Miss for Alabama, where Kiffin was the offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016.
“Looks like @On3sports was too scared to include my pick on the social graphic. #SCARED,” Godfrey jokingly posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Looks like @On3sports was too scared to include my pick on the social graphic. #SCARED
— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) November 26, 2025
How Godfrey believes Kiffin will end up at Alabama is unclear, although if the Crimson Tide lose this weekend to rival Auburn in the Iron Bowl, it's not inconceivable that Alabama would fire head coach Kalen DeBoer and replace him with Kiffin. DeBoer, who has been the subject of rumors that he could be Penn State's next coach, lost four games and missed the College Football Playoff (CFP) last year in his first season as Alabama's head coach. And this year, at 9-2, Alabama is at risk of again missing the playoff if it loses to 5-6 Auburn.
A day before the Iron Bowl, Kiffin and Ole Miss will finish their regular season vs. rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
