With year four at Ole Miss almost in the books, we need to put some respect on Lane Kiffin's name. The former offensive wunderkind on Pete Carroll's USC Trojans staff from yesterday has risen to the top of the coaching profession, fallen on hard times, only to climb up the mountain once more to prominence. This time, his coaching acumen looks to be here to stay at a program like Ole Miss.
While the Rebels are the fifth team Kiffin has led of the years, he has never been anywhere longer. He initially led the then-Oakland Raiders for a year and change in the mid-2000s. Kiffin spent one season leading the Tennessee Volunteers before going back to USC for just under an olympiad. A brief tarmac-ing later, and Kiffin had to be one of the first Nick Saban coaching rehabilitation projects ever.
Kiffin left Alabama to take over at Florida Atlantic, a program in utter disarray in the Group of Five. Three years later, Kiffin had FAU as two-time Conference USA champions. He then hopped aboard the Ole Lane Train on his way to Oxford. The Rebels were in a state of transition when he first arrived, but he has taken them from a borderline bowl team to a team capable of reaching the New Year's Six.
With Saturday's huge neutral-site game vs. Penn State in Atlanta, what is Lane Kiffin's bowl record exactly?
Lane Kiffin Bowl Game Record: Tennessee, USC, Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss
Entering Saturday's Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl vs. Penn State, Kiffin is 2-4 all time in bowl games.
Tennessee Volunteers
- 2009: Chick-fil-A Bowl: L (Virginia Tech Hokies, 37-14)
USC Trojans
- 2012: Sun Bowl: L (Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 21-7)
Florida Atlantic Owls
- 2017: Boca Raton Bowl: W (Akron Zips, 50-3)
Ole Miss Rebels
- 2020 Outback Bowl: W (Indiana Hoosiers, 26-20)
- 2021 Sugar Bowl: L (Baylor Bears, 21-7)
- 2022 Texas Bowl: L (Texas Tech Red Raiders, 42-25)
What makes Kiffin's success at Ole Miss so compelling is two-fold. One, he has taken a middle-of-the-pack-at-best-team in the SEC and has transformed it into a perennial top-25 team in the country. In the expanded College Football Playoff, the Rebels will be playing for national championships next year. The other compelling thing about Kiffin at Ole Miss is it no longer feels like he is job-hopping.
As long as the boosters and athletic department are pulling in the same direction, there is no reason for Kiffin to ever leave Ole Miss. He can regularly win nine-to-10 games a season and compete for at-large berths in the expanded College Football Playoff. If he continues to recruit decently and clean up in the transfer portal, Kiffin could theoretically bring a national championship parade to Ole Miss.
There may only be a handful of jobs better than Ole Miss that could pry Kiffin away from the Rebels.