The Ole Miss football team is chasing its first-ever College Football Playoff berth while speculation swirls about Lane Kiffin’s long-term future.

Reports in recent days claimed the Rebels wanted “clarity” on whether he would stay in Oxford, with talk of an internal deadline tied to the Egg Bowl after his family reportedly visited Florida and LSU. The suggestion was that the Ole Miss football team might even need to decide whether to let him coach in the playoff if he had already agreed to leave.

Kiffin answered that storyline head-on on Tuesday. Speaking with Pat McAfee, as relayed by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Ole Miss coach said the report of an ultimatum on his future is “absolutely not true.”

And in a clip McAfee himself posted on X, Kiffin went even further, saying, “There has been no ultimatum, and that’s absolutely not true. We’re having a blast and I love it here.” For a fan base living on coaching carousel alerts, that is about as direct as it gets.

The backdrop, of course, is still volatile. Kiffin’s name continues to be tied to openings at Florida and LSU, with multiple outlets describing him as a top target in this cycle.

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Ole Miss leadership understandably wants some idea of where things stand as the program hovers on the edge of a historic CFP run, but Kiffin clearly is not willing to let outside reports frame the situation as a ticking clock.

Complicating the LSU angle is the political noise back in Baton Rouge. Longtime SEC voice Paul Finebaum recently suggested on The Matt Barrie Show that Louisiana governor Jeff Landry may have effectively taken Kiffin ‘out of the LSU situation’ with his public criticism of the Tigers’ athletic department.

Athletic director Scott Woodward resigned the day after those comments, adding another layer of instability around LSU’s search and raising fair questions about how attractive that job really looks from the outside.

For now, the Rebels are 10-1 and sitting one win away from locking up a playoff spot while also staying alive in the SEC title race. Kiffin’s public rejection of any ultimatum talk should help steady the locker room and reassure recruits, even if it does not completely silence the rumor mill.

Until a new deal is done or every big job is filled, his future will remain a national talking point, but his message on McAfee’s show was simple enough: he’s happy where he is, and Ole Miss still has everything to play for.