When you develop what Ole Miss has built since hiring Lane Kiffin in the final month of 2019, recognition or ‘rat poison’ is unavoidable.
Usually, Kiffin tells his players to avoid the rat poison that appears so nice on the surface but can be damaging or make a player feel comfortable and pleased with where they’re at. Kiffin’s goal with each headline item is to unlock that unused potential.
That being said, it’s now Kiffin who has been identified for a recent national ranking.
ESPN revealed their current rankings of the ‘Top 10 coaches in college football for 2024′ on Friday morning, and Ole Miss’ fifth-year head coach was right up there with the best.
ESPN’s Top-10 Head Coaches in CFB for 2024
1. Kirby Smart (Georgia)
2. Kalen DeBoer (Alabama)
3. Kyle Whittingham (Utah)
4. Dabo Swinney (Clemson)
5. Mike Norvell (Florida State)
6. Dan Lanning (Oregon)
7. Steve Sarkisian (Texas)
8. Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss)
9. Lance Leipold (Kansas)
10. Ryan Day (Ohio State)
“At 48, Kiffin is already in his fifth head-coaching stop. He was hired as the Oakland Raiders’ coach in 2007, when he was only 31, and although there were some growing pains along the way, he has developed into one of the more creative and interesting coaches in college football. Entering his fifth season at Ole Miss, Kiffin has accomplished things in Oxford that hadn’t been done before. The Rebels have won 10 regular-season games in two of the past three seasons; prior to Kiffin’s arrival, they had never won 10 regular-season games. Kiffin is renowned as one of the top offensive minds in the game, and his offenses are both balanced and unpredictable. Ole Miss and Alabama are the only two teams in the SEC to average 33 or more points each of the past four seasons.
Kiffin is quick to troll anybody and everybody on social media and is polarizing among rival fan bases. He’s still a bit of a lightning rod, but said his time working under Saban helped him become a more efficient manager of an entire program. Kiffin has also worked the evolving nature of college football to his advantage and scored big in the transfer portal,” ESPN wrote about Kiffin being the eighth-best coach in the country.
Make no doubts about it, the Rebels will need their fifth-year coach to pull the strings effectively to have the best season of his career in 2024. Though it will be his best roster and probably now coaching staff with him at the helm, Kiffin isn’t losing sight of the work ahead of the 2024 Rebels.
Like I told our guys, I know we have a really good roster. I understand there’s a lot of preseason hype around it, but that doesn’t mean we’re a good team just because we have a good roster. Our roster certainly looks like the best one since we’ve been here. Probably by far, because you have so many returning pieces from last year and then these additions of other pieces…It’s a really good roster, which I know will be talked about, but that does not mean we’re a good team,” Kiffin previously reiterated. “That’s a lot of work and a lot of culture building for that to happen.”
Ole Miss football will continue weekly spring practices until the program’s annual Grove Bowl, which is slated for Saturday, April 13. The Rebels’ next spring practice will be accessible to the media on Saturday (April 6).
