By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
There were a lot of polite “no comments” by Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin on Monday at his weekly press conference concerning his future – whether he stays at Ole Miss or becomes the next coach at LSU or Florida.
But one of the questions about his future, and not about No. 6 Ole Miss’ regular season finale at Mississippi State on Friday (11 a.m., ABC) or about the Rebels’ season or players, did elicit a long response. And he may have dropped a clue about what he plans to announce either Friday after the game or on Saturday.
Lane Kiffin sounds like he’d really like to coach Ole Miss … in Oxford next month in the playoffs, which would be the biggest sporting event in the history of the state of Mississippi:https://t.co/fOWnyekIHj
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 25, 2025
The question to Kiffin was if he has been thinking of all the past job changes in his life as he prepares to possibly move again.
From 2008 through 2020, Kiffin changed jobs five times – fired as Oakland Raiders head coach early in 2008 season, left Tennessee head coaching job after one season for USC head coaching job, fired as USC head coach early in 2013 season, left Alabama offensive coordinator job after 2016 season to be Florida Atlantic head coach, left FAU after 2019 season to become Ole Miss’ coach.
“Over the years of the changes that I’ve made, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on things that have happened,” he said. “And I really feel like in age, I figured out that they all happened exactly how they were supposed to happen, and when they were supposed to happen. I just didn’t think it at the time. They’re just all part of my story.”
Then he brought up his well-traveled father Monte Kiffin, an NFL defensive genius assistant coaching legend known for the much-copied Tampa 2 version of the Cover 2. He died on July 11, 2024, at the age of 84, and Lane spoke at his funeral.
From 1976 when Lane was a 1-year-old born in Lincoln, Nebraska, when Monte was Nebraska’s defensive coordinator in 1975-76, Lane and his family moved seven times by the time Lane was 16. Monte Kiffin left Lincoln for Arkansas to be defensive coordinator from 1977-78 and associate head coach there in 1979, then was North Carolina State’s head coach from 1980-82. In 1983, he was the Green Bay Packers linebackers coach. In 1984 and ’85, he was Buffalo’s linebacker coach when Lane turned 10.
Monte then moved to the Minneapolis area to be the Minnesota Vikings linebackers coach 1986-89 before one season in 1990 as the New York Jets linebackers coach. He returned to the Vikings as linebackers coach from 1991-94, and Lane played quarterback at Thomas Jefferson High in nearby Bloomington, Minnesota.
Lane moved on to Fresno State for college from 1994-96 as a backup quarterback before becoming a student assistant coach there from 1997-98.
“You know, I spoke at my dad’s funeral, and I always wondered why we moved so much,” he said. “Because it was hard on us as kids and everything. I realized that was just all part of his story. All the people that came to the funeral or wrote notes from all the different places. And I realized that was God’s plan for him – to impact all those people and have all those relationships. So, I can call all the stuff that happened, happened how it was supposed to happen.”
And about to happen again?
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