If you can’t play this season, Lane Kiffin wants you to come to Ole Miss
By John Buhler
![Lane Kiffin, Florida Atlantic Owls. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images) Lane Kiffin, Florida Atlantic Owls. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/c0284611ed9c0ac8f087356475ac8dd2fbdba99da96b7ff34cd7fb2cc689d479.jpg)
Will Big Ten, Pac-12 stars want to hop aboard the Lane Kiffin Train in 2020?
Lane Kiffin thinks Big Ten, Pac-12 players should be allowed to transfer and play right away.
The new head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels spoke with Dari Nowkah of the SEC Network on Tuesday, telling the world how he feels about the best players in the Big Ten and Pac-12 being unable to play this year. “I think it’s a shame. It’s really unfortunate NCAA not allowing them to transfer and be eligible immediately. It’s not their fault. Why can’t they come play somewhere?”
.@Lane_Kiffin tells @ESPNDari players on teams not playing in fall should be able to transfer & play this fall. "I think it’s a shame. It’s really unfortunate NCAA not allowing them to transfer & be eligible immediately. It’s not their fault. Why can’t they come play somewhere?”
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/ESPNDari/status/1295911966687596545
Is this all coach speak for, “Hey, come to Ole Miss and play for me.”?
Though we do expect Kiffin to get the Rebels back to good at some point, or that the very least be an especially entertaining SEC West experiment, this is not the year Ole Miss wins its first division title in school history. The only time the Rebels have ever been to Atlanta has been for a bowl game, a kickoff game or vs. noted SEC defector Georgia Tech. This could be a rough year in Oxford.
While Kiffin did speak highly of his starting quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, there is a reason he’s not often brought up as a top-tier passer in the SEC landscape. He probably should be because Plumlee has some wheels on him, but the Rebels haven’t been good since Hugh Freeze was cheating his brains out with the Mississippi Landsharks. Maybe Kiffin will change that?
A quick way to jumpstart an Ole Miss rebuild would be to poach top talent for the Big Ten and Pac-12. That’s not to say Kiffin and the University of Mississippi should give up the farm to see if Justin Fields wants to play for a third Power 5 team in three years, but take a look at what the better Big Ten and Pac-12 teams have available and see if you can steal a hen or two out of the chicken coop.
Had it been a typical 12-game regular season, Ole Miss would have been a borderline bowl team. If they were to beat Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears in Houston, that may have taken some pressure off the Rebels to beat hated Mississippi State Bulldogs in the most anticipate Egg Bowl of our lives. Now, Ole Miss might be lucky to do better than 4-6 with its 10-game, conference-only slate.
Kiffin isn’t asking Big Ten, Pac-12 players to come to Ole Miss, but he wouldn’t say no if they did.
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