Lane Kiffin said a lot of words in the week leading up to the Egg Bowl and in the hours following his team’s 24-22 loss to archrival Mississippi State. Three are most important.
Asked late Thursday night if he anticipated being Ole Miss’s head coach next season, Kiffin said, “Yes, I do.”
The 47-year-old has been the center of attention as speculation whirled about whether he’d trade navy-and-red for navy-and-orange, and Kiffin’s personality has, um, egged on the speculation.
“I feel like that was a court trial where you’re like, ‘Yes, I do,'” he joked, via Inside the Rebels.
Kiffin seemed to revel in knocking down a report by WCBI reporter Jon Sokolof that his departure for Auburn was imminent. Taking a page out of Mike Leach’s public-relations playbook, Kiffin circled back on Thursday.
“It was falsely reported by Jon, who is now famous. Congratulations. That you can just write whatever you want…I would do it, too, I think. You’re never held accountable and you get to become famous.. .maybe you’ll be right. Jon did it, so then I had to have a team meeting to say his article was wrong, which I’d love to know these unnamed sources from Jon. I had to have a team meeting because of that. They don’t…when there’s other stuff in chats rooms…but when a reporter writes it, it changes the game of that,” Kiffin said.
With his third regular season now complete, Kiffin has the opportunity to sign an extension to remain at Ole Miss. Mississippi state law prevents any state institution from offering a contract longer than four years, so annual 1-year extensions are par for the course in Oxford.
“I don’t know. I’ve signed three. Does a fourth one mean you’re never leaving? I don’t know. I’m much more focusing and worrying about the game than whether you sign another contract. I’ m not acting ungrateful for that. Everybody thinks you sign a contract…Well a year ago you signed the same thing,” Kiffin said.
So, is Lane trolling there? Is he downplaying the importance a new, new extension would have on his longevity in Oxford? Or is he going meta, making fun of base for placing all this importance on an extension when, in Lane’s mind, he was never leaving for Auburn in the first place?
With Lane, who can ever be truly certain? But the three words above are the strongest indicator yet he intends to remain at Ole Miss.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
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