Despite being 11-1 and heading to the College Football Playoff (CFP), the Ole Miss football team certainly isn't pleased with how things are going right now.
Specifically, according to Ole Miss beat reporter Neal McCready, current head coach Lane Kiffin has potentially alienated at least a portion of his Rebels roster as he has all but officially left them for LSU.
“Per a source, the Ole Miss leadership council is on its way to Lane Kiffin's office in the Manning Center,” McCready posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Players are unhappy with Kiffin, and that's putting it mildly. Ole Miss is deciding the machinations of an interim staff, with either Pete Golding or Joe Judge leading.
“In a hypothetical situation, Golding would stay in the coaching box upstairs while Judge would run things from field level.”
Kiffin has been the talk of the college football world for over a month now, with much of the attention centering on whether he would stay at Ole Miss, where he has built a contender out of a previously mediocre program, or leave for either Florida or LSU. The Gators reportedly shifted their focus away from Kiffin sometime this week after erratic communication with the coach, but the Tigers appear to be all but confirmed to have plucked Kiffin out of Oxford.
The catch, though, is that Kiffin reportedly wants to coach the Rebels in the CFP even after officially leaving to become the LSU coach. While the unprecedented move has gained support from some media personalities, many of whom have been accused of bias due to their connections to the same agency by which Kiffin is represented, there is not much support from fans and, apparently, the Ole Miss players.
Amid the reported backlash from the roster, the team meeting that had been scheduled for 11 a.m. ET, in which it was expected Kiffin's departure was going to be announced, has reportedly been postponed to 1 p.m. so the university can try “to retain staff for the CFP run.”
No matter when Kiffin officially leaves, Ole Miss will need to act fast regarding its coaching search, considering the coaching carousel has long been underway.
