While some prominent media personalities have expressed sympathy and support for Lane Kiffin, who has complained about not being able to coach Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff (CFP) after leaving for LSU, Travis and Jason Kelce feel the worst for the Rebels' players.
Both Kelce brothers played college football at Cincinnati — Jason from 2006 to 2010, and Travis from 2008 to 2012 — and during that time, they played under multiple head coaches, all of whom eventually left for bigger and higher-paying jobs before the end of the season. And that's a big reason why the Kelces are so sympathetic to what the Rebels are going through, considering 11-1 Ole Miss is likely to host a first-round playoff game in a few weeks under new head coach Pete Golding.
“It sucks,” Jason Kelce said on their ‘New Heights' podcast. “We've been through it, obviously, with Brian Kelly and Butch Jones and Mark Dantonio, where we played bowl games with interim coaches, because those guys took other jobs. Part of me is mad that it takes Ole Miss happening to for all of a sudden everybody to realize how f–ked up it is. Like, nobody gave a f–k — ‘Oh, yeah, of course, Brian Kelly went to Notre Dame. He left Cincinnati. Of course, that happened.' All of a sudden, Lane Kiffin does it to Ole Miss, and they're like, ‘Oh, this is an outrage! How could he do this to his players?' This happened to me twice, and nobody gave a f–k about it! And I couldn't transfer! At least these guys can leave. I was just stuck there twiddling my thumbs, like, ‘I hope they hire a good f–king guy.'
“I'm lying. I do feel bad for Ole Miss because I went through it myself, and it's not fun. You've worked so hard as a team and as a group of men to get to that point. It's a deflating moment for what should be a joyous time for everyone in that building.”
Jason and Travis know exactly what Ole Miss players and fans are going through pic.twitter.com/eTYJby4EBu
— New Heights (@newheightshow) December 3, 2025
After Jason's first year at Cincinnati in 2006, an 8-5 campaign for the Bearcats, Dantonio left UC to become the head coach at Michigan State. Three years later, Kelly left top-five Cincinnati after a 12-0 regular season for Notre Dame, and three years after that, following Jason's graduation and during Travis's final season in college, Jones took the Tennessee head coaching job before the Bearcats' bowl game.
Unlike the Kelces' situation, though, Ole Miss still has a chance at winning a national title, putting the Rebels in a unique situation.
If the season ended today, Ole Miss, which is No. 6 in the CFP rankings, would likely host the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion in Oxford for a chance to play Georgia again in the playoff quarterfinals. The Bulldogs are the only loss for Ole Miss this season, having scored 17 fourth-quarter points to beat the Rebels 43-35 in October.



















