Sources say Lane Kiffin staying at Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze leading candidate to replace Harsin at Auburn
OXFORD, Miss. — Sources are saying head coach Lane Kiffin indicates he will be staying at Ole Miss and not leaving Oxford to head to the Plains, as many had reported.
On ESPN GameDay today, Pete Thamel reported Kiffin will stay in Oxford and former Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze is now the top candidate to replace Auburn’s Bryan Harsin.
Pete Thamel is reporting on GameDay that Lane Kiffin is staying with the Ole Miss Rebels and Liberty coach Hugh Freeze is next in line at Auburn. pic.twitter.com/clmRKwcVqy
— The Rebel Walk (@TheRebelWalk) November 26, 2022
Lane Kiffin told ESPN this morning he’s staying at @OleMissFB and signing an extension. “I had a meeting with the team and the staff and told them I was staying and it would be announced after the game. I didn’t want it to be about me staying before the game, but about the team.”
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) November 26, 2022
But initially after Harsin was fired on October 31 as the Tigers’ head coach, rumors begin circulating that Lane Kiffin was the Tigers’ top target.
As time went on, the smoke grew. Several outlets reported Kiffin held Zoom interviews with Auburn last week, with one reporter tweeting Kiffin planned to step down as the Rebels’ coach on Friday and head to Auburn. Kiffin, more than once, denied that tweet was accurate.
After the Rebels’ loss to Mississippi State on Thanksgiving, Kiffin was again asked in his postgame presser if he anticipated being the head coach of Ole Miss in 2023.
“Yes, I do,” Kiffin said, of his intentions to stay with the Rebels.
On Tuesday, the Grove Collective, the central NIL entity for Ole Miss, reported surpassing its revenue goals for 2023 of over $10 million in NIL funds raised for football — far exceeding what had been reported by national media in their various narratives that Auburn had far more NIL money than Ole Miss.
Kiffin was asked after the loss to State about the fund raising of the Grove Collective.
“Yeah, that’s awesome,” Kiffin said. “Very encouraging. Obviously, that has a lot to do with the world of college football that we’re in. The ability for places to sign players and to keep your own players. That’s very encouraging.”
We will let you know as soon as anything becomes official. Keep your seatbelts on, Rebel fans! The SEC West is turning into quite the ride.
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn's love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
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