The strain is constructing in Oxford and Lane Kiffin is making an attempt to dissipate it with a pleasant interview.

A day after a wild scene of airplane monitoring and Kiffin relations caught on digicam taking a go to to Baton Rouge, the Ole Miss head coach appeared on the Pat McAfee Present to placed on a compelled smile and attempt to calm the waters. 

Should you wished any actual readability, this wasn’t the present for you. Probably the most notable level was Kiffin denying that Ole Miss directors had ever issued an ultimatum that he should decide earlier than the Egg Bowl. 

“There was no ultimatum, something like that in any respect,” Kiffin stated. “And so I do not know the place that got here from, like lots of stuff that comes on the market. Like I stated, man, we’re having a blast. I adore it right here.”

That’s ostensibly true — no supply CBS Sports activities has talked to has used the phrase “ultimatum” — however there’s extra to the story than merely what Kiffin stated Tuesday. What has been effervescent behind the scenes for weeks lastly got here spilling out on Monday after the unprecedented scenario of a sitting head coach’s relations, together with ex-wife Layla Kiffin, taking a non-public airplane for a campus go to to a rival college at which he was contemplating taking a job.

There had already been the same go to to Gainesville, Florida, the day prior to this, sources instructed CBS Sports activities, however the public nature of LSU’s efforts despatched the school soccer business right into a tizzy and had Ole Miss boosters livid over how brazen all of it appeared. 

Why have been Kiffin relations taking visits to Florida and LSU in latest days? All of it comes again to Ole Miss wanting readability on Kiffin’s scenario, in response to sources, and a recognition from Kiffin that laying aside a call till after the Rebels’ season was not doable. Because the timeline began to hurry up, Kiffin wished as a lot info as doable from trusted sources as he weighed his stay-or-go resolution.

For weeks now, sources have instructed CBS Sports activities that if Ole Miss was satisfied Kiffin was not staying long-term in Oxford, it will not let him coach within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. After all, considering that and even expressing that sentiment is totally different than really doing it and accepting all of the issues that include it. But it surely has been an actual dialog occurring inside the Ole Miss athletics administration. 

It’d sound loopy to assume Ole Miss would not let Kiffin coach within the playoff — as the college’s desire is for readability earlier than the Egg Bowl — however in some ways it has been years within the making, courting again to Kiffin’s very public dalliance with the Auburn job again in 2022.

Kiffin has since admitted he made errors in how he dealt with Auburn’s curiosity in him. The need-he-or-won’t-he drama derailed Ole Miss’ season and left a bitter style within the mouths of Ole Miss directors, boosters and followers. 

In some methods, Kiffin’s close to resolution to take the Auburn job helped spur Ole Miss into this second. It prompted a NIL fundraising drive to compete with Auburn’s perceived greater battle chest. Ole Miss followers rallied to do and provides every thing they needed to hold Kiffin in Oxford, to point out him that he might have the assets essential to win large. It was nonetheless fraught at occasions, particularly when an 8-1 season imploded into an 8-5 end, which included an embarrassing Egg Bowl loss to Mississippi State.

In a scene first reported in my ebook “The Worth: What It Takes to Win in Faculty Soccer’s Period of Chaos,” a distinguished booster promised to make a $500,000 contribution to the NIL fund if Kiffin stayed at Ole Miss. And after the loss to Mississippi State got here an up to date provide from the booster: “I am going to give that f—er $500,000 to depart.” That is how irritating the entire course of was by the top, and that booster wasn’t alone in that considering. 

All the successful within the three years since has made Kiffin the superstar du jour of Oxford, however that scar tissue did not go away. Ole Miss directors have been deeply annoyed by how the Auburn distractions derailed that probably particular season, in response to sources, and it seems to be having an affect on not wanting that to play out another time, even when it labored out for Ole Miss the primary time. The consternation is not remoted to athletics, both, as university-side people have expressed frustration in latest weeks with Kiffin’s maintain over the college. 

There’s additionally the actual timeline points that will happen if Kiffin left for an additional program in January. With the early signing interval beginning Dec. 3 and the switch portal window opening Jan. 2, Ole Miss can be at a major drawback if it misplaced Kiffin after, say, a quarterfinal or semifinal sport in early January. If there is no manner of fixing Lane’s thoughts — and thus far, Lane has continued to inform individuals he hasn’t decided, in response to a number of sources — Ole Miss is ready to show to both quarterbacks coach Joe Choose (the previous New York Giants head coach) or defensive coordinator Pete Golding as an interim coach and to begin a training search, in response to sources. 

That is not ultimate and is driving lots of the angst and frustration Ole Miss followers are actually directing at Kiffin. 

The whole lot Kiffin and Ole Miss directors and boosters dreamed of doing collectively in Oxford is occurring this season. The Rebels (10-1) are all however assured to make the playoff, and so they might earn a bye or at the very least a first-round dwelling sport … if they will beat Mississippi State within the Egg Bowl.

That is purported to be the fruits of all of the blood, sweat and {dollars} spent to show Ole Miss right into a official nationwide contender. This needs to be the height; as an alternative, Kiffin’s public flirtation with two rival SEC colleges has sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. That is not all Kiffin’s fault — the brutal faculty soccer calendar has put him in a personally enviable but unattainable scenario of getting to handle outdoors curiosity whereas making an attempt to complete the season out. 

Kiffin is a mercurial menace in some methods, faculty soccer’s model of Loki. All of the trolling is lots enjoyable whenever you assume you are on the within of the joke. While you assume chances are you’ll as an alternative be the butt of it, these emotions can change in a second. That is what’s occurring proper now with Ole Miss boosters and followers. They really feel the person who had gone to painstaking lengths to show he has modified is again to his outdated antics. They worry they’re being performed, that their hopes and goals are nothing greater than social media fodder for Kiffin. 

Will they settle for him again if he decides to remain? After all. 

However there’s a rising worry inside Ole Miss that Kiffin would not love the college fairly as a lot as he is publicly professed. He has complained, publicly and privately, in regards to the fan base — together with a shot Saturday night time in regards to the crowd for The Citadel sport. He is lengthy been enamored with the concept of teaching a real blueblood once more, a chance LSU and Florida are each keen to provide him. 

Maybe, as one booster who is aware of Kiffin nicely put it, he feels he is already executed all of it in Oxford. 

“He is run it like his city,” the supply stated, “and there is no chase for him anymore. And he is a chaser. The chase is gone trigger he conquered it.”

Kiffin hasn’t gained the final word conquest — a nationwide championship — however making a playoff at Ole Miss can be an amazing accomplishment. And if he left Ole Miss for LSU or Florida, it would be as a result of he felt he hit his ceiling in Oxford and had a greater shot at successful a nationwide championship in Baton Rouge or Gainesville, in response to sources. There are essential individuals in Kiffin’s life advocating for all of the doable outcomes — some have stated LSU affords the very best title possibilities, others imagine he might win large and be pleased at Florida. In the end, it should come right down to the place he thinks he can win all of it and his household may be pleased.

Deep down, Ole Miss simply desires to listen to Kiffin say he loves it and is not leaving. However Kiffin, nonetheless not sure of what he desires to do, per sources, cannot say these phrases. He cannot say out loud to McAfee that he is positively not leaving Ole Miss as a result of that’d be a lie. He would possibly.

Actually, a number of sources have instructed CBS Sports activities over the past week they imagine it’s extra probably than not that Kiffin leaves, although there are at all times caveats of “you by no means know what he will do” in the case of him. Nothing is really executed till he indicators the deal, irrespective of how many individuals let you know it is occurring, as Auburn discovered the arduous manner three years in the past. 

And whereas Kiffin will proceed to fall again on his stance that he would not take care of these items in-season — in fact, that hasn’t precluded him from contemplating different jobs in-season — it has put him on an island. In what’s already a wild teaching cycle, a number of of the highest names have taken themselves out of the combination in favor of an extension and lift at their present college.

Curt Cignetti and Indiana. Mike Elko and Texas A&M. Matt Rhule and Nebraska. Rhett Lashlee and SMU. 

If Kiffin wished to do the identical, he might. Ole Miss desperately needs he would. 

However every single day that passes indicators to Ole Miss people that Kiffin could quickly be out the door. 

It is not over but. And there are some nonetheless clinging to the dream that Lane will quickly announce that whereas Florida and LSU badly wished him to return save their packages, he was staying at Ole Miss to complete what he began. It is doable that he might. 

Greater than something, Ole Miss simply desires readability.