Ole Miss Rebels soccer coach Lane Kiffin is already on his means out of Oxford, Mississippi, and on his option to be Billy Napier’s alternative with the Florida Gators. That’s the place that Bleacher Report’s School Soccer Reactions host Mike Ola Jr. takes anyway.
Ola doesn’t care if it’s an “overreaction.” He predicts Kiffin ditching all of the progress he’s made within the Sip for a reliable likelihood to win a nationwide championship within the Sunshine State.
“Overreaction or not, Lane Kiffin would be the Gator head coach subsequent yr. Not an overreaction,” Ola mentioned.
“I simply suppose the place there’s smoke, there may very well be hearth right here. Florida is likely one of the premier jobs within the SEC. They’re an enormous fan base, an enormous college. They’re in a state that’s at all times been a recruiting hotbed and we noticed with Billy Napier this final yr, they’re keen to pony up.
“The premium I believe for this job goes to be on SEC head teaching expertise. It is a convention that proper, fallacious or detached, I believe places quite a lot of premium on that.”
Josh Pate claimed final September that Kiffin would take the UF job “in a heartbeat” as soon as Napier was fired.
“(Kiffin would go away Florida for Ole Miss) In a heartbeat,” Pate mentioned throughout the September 11, 2024, version of Crain and Firm. “Lane Kiffin would stroll to Florida if they’d give him the job. This isn’t a debate. I’ve received Ole Miss folks in my very shut social circle they usually battle me on this. They’re like ‘What are you able to do at Florida which you could’t do at Ole Miss?’
“Win a nationwide championship, that is what you are able to do there. And you may persistently be a participant there. Opposite to what folks imagine about Ole Miss, that’s nonetheless a construct a number of years to a peak sort of program. A window program as I name them. They don’t seem to be sustained yr in and yr out. They’re simply not that sort of program. Florida will be.”
Since Pate made that assertion, the dialog has remained unchanged. Ole Miss continues to be doubted as a spot one can win a nationwide championship, and Florida continues to be seen as a sleeping large, contemplating the recruiting edge the Gators (No. 7) had over the Rebels (No. 16) in the highschool Class of 2025. Ole Miss made up for that with the No. 4 switch portal haul, however that’s not a sustainable option to construct a program.
Certain, one-year wonders constructed within the portal, just like the 2022 TCU Horned Frogs, are potential. However they’re the exception, not the rule.
UF has greater than thrice as many alumni and is located in a state that’s a lot better ready to compete. The state of Florida’s governor has mentioned the Gators and their 2025 and 2026 schedules on social media. Only a few outdoors of the Magnolia State even know who the governor of Mississippi is.
There’s a ceiling at Ole Miss that doesn’t exist at Florida.
That’s what makes daring predictions on Kiffin touchdown in Gainesville not so daring in any respect.
