Florida football better not stand on the tracks when the Lane Train rolls through

Florida football must prepare for the Lane Kiffin era of Ole Miss football.

Dan Mullen’s Florida football team has to be ready for Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss football team.

The Florida Gators will enter Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday afternoon with a No. 5 overall ranking and a championship-contending season right in front of them. Mullen has a great chance to win his first division title ever as a head coach, as the SEC East is up for grabs with the Georgia Bulldogs’ quarterbacking issues. However, he has a Week 4 date with the Lane Train.

Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss could have Dan Mullen’s Florida Gator on upset alert.

Though Ole Miss is a year or two away from hitting its stride under Kiffin, keep in mind he won Conference USA in his first year leading the Florida Atlantic Owls. Even if turning Ole Miss around would be a more impressive coaching job, it wasn’t like anybody knew who Florida Atlantic was before Kiffin arrived in Boca Raton back in 2017. He actually left them better than he found them.

Coming back to the SEC and to a place like Ole Miss in need of a facelift had Kiffin written all over it. He remembers losing twice to the Rebels when he was on Nick Saban’s coaching staff with the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Rebels were humming under then-head coach Hugh Freeze. After that turned out to be a lie, Kiffin saw the truth that Ole Miss could be a sleeping giant in the SEC West.

Before heading back to Florida, Mullen saw first-hand what happens when a great coach like himself inherits a sleeping giant. In nine years leading the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Mullen became arguably the greatest coach in program history, doing seemingly everything there in Starkville short of winning a division title. Well, I guess he’s no Jackie Sherrill, but who is?

Back in 2009, Mullen took over a program that only cared about winning the one SEC game it could each year: The Egg Bowl vs. arch rival Ole Miss. He did so much more than that with Mississippi State superstars like Fletcher Cox, Benardrick McKinney and Dak Prescott. Eventually, he had to leave Starkville for Gainesville to really win big, but he still hates losing to Ole Miss.

Because Florida and Ole Miss play in opposite divisions, they rarely meet on the gridiron. So one would think the better run program historically in Florida has a sizable advantage in this SEC “rivalry”? Turns out, it’s a very evenly-matched one. Ole Miss actually leads the all-time series at 12-11-1. Florida won most recently in 2015, but we all remember Ole Miss winning back in 2008.

Mullen sure does, as he was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator for the 2008 Gators. Florida lost by one point, Tim Tebow gave a speech and the rest was history. As a BCS National Champion, Mullen left Central Florida for the Magnolia State, only to return nine years later ready to make Florida nationally relevant once again. The Gators are close, but they must win in Oxford Saturday.

While Florida is an unquestioned top-10 team in the country, how sure are we Ole Miss is even the 10th-best team in the SEC? Eight SEC teams are ranked entering their season openers and the Rebels aren’t one of them. They may not be as bad as SEC West rival Arkansas or cross-divisional rival Vanderbilt, but no doubt they’ll be a massive home dog to the Gators in this one.

Even in the strangest year of our lives, Ole Miss has a puncher’s chance in this one because Kiffin is unpredictable. The Rebels face no pressure at home in this one. All the pressure is on Mullen and his team to come out of Vaught-Hemingway with a W. If Mullen thinks he can go all Cousin Eddie and chuckle his way to a victory, he’ll be in for a rude awaking from the Lane Pain Train.

Could Florida put a 50 burger on the Rebels in this one? Oh, absolutely. They have arguably the best quarterback in the SEC in Kyle Trask and a favorite to take home the John Mackey Award in tight end Kyle Pitts. This offense could be more fun than Steve Spurrier‘s Fun n’ Gun. However, Kiffin has John Rhys Plumlee, Jerrion Ealy and a one in a million chance to do the impossible.

If Florida snoozes on Ole Miss in its season opener, the Gators may lose to the Rebels shamefully.

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