1 - catfishboy
- Administrator
Offline 
- Registered: 8/01/2017
- Posts: 6,868
Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
The Auburn Tigers are in the market for a new head coach after the school fired Gus Malzahn on Sunday afternoon, which stirred up some drama in the college football world. Malzahn is reportedly owed a large buyout from Auburn, which makes finding his replacement a little bit more difficult. But that isn’t stopping the school from looking at big names, such as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.
According to a report from Matt Zenitz of AL.com, Kiffin is a name that is of interest to some, “power players,” behind the scenes at Auburn. If Auburn were to make the move and hire Kiffin away from Ole Miss after just one season, it would be shocking to see it happen so quickly, especially considering how quickly Kiffin has things rolling for the Rebels.
After four straight seasons of losing records, Kiffin was brought in to revive the Rebels. Ole Miss is currently 4-4 on the season with one game left to play, a road test against LSU this coming Saturday. The Rebels are currently riding a three-game winning streak after their 31-24 win over Mississippi State in their last outing.
“Awesome win. Quality opponent,” Kiffin said, according to the Clarion Ledger. “Those are the games that are the most fun to win when they go back and forth like that. At one point you're losing. They stopped us the one time we had to punt. They scored and we went behind and we weren't stopping them so it wasn't a real good feeling. The sidelines kind of feel dead.
“So it was really cool to see our guys come back and make some plays on defense at the end to win the game. I don't know if there's ever been two games back-to-back with a quarterback and a receiver that have done that before when you add these yards and touchdowns up. It's pretty amazing.”
If Kiffin were to be hired by Auburn, it is clear where the expectations stand for him to be a successful coach for the Tigers, based on what Malzahn failed to achieve. Auburn hired Malzahn after he led Arkansas State to a 9-3 season in 2012, and that was after he served as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator from 2009 to 2011. In his first season as a head coach on The Plains, Malzahn coached Auburn to a 12-2 record and an appearance in the BCS National Championship Game. He also defeated Nick Saban and Alabama in the Iron Bowl on three separate occasions.
Get the fastest scores, stats, news, LIVE videos, and more. CLICK HERE to download the CBS Sports Mobile App and get the latest on your team today.
But the Tigers went 6-4 in 2020, and they were never really on the same level as the other elite programs in the SEC. On top of that, Auburn suffered a brutal loss to a South Carolina team that fired its head coach in the middle of the season. Now, Auburn has decided to fire Malzahn after eight seasons on the job.
SOURCE: Gates, Riley. "Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin." 247Sports.com, 13 Decemer 2020,
(c) All rights reserved. Content may not be copied, transposed, or used in any manner or form without expressed written permission of user.
- catfishboy
- Administrator
Offline
- Registered: 8/01/2017
- Posts: 6,868
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
The SEC should not allow another SEC school to poach a coach from any school in their conference, especially in their interdivision. This is absurd for any SEC school to start hiring coaches away from their conference foes. There is not much ethical about what Auburn does.
(c) All rights reserved. Content may not be copied, transposed, or used in any manner or form without expressed written permission of user.
- •
Thread Starter- Sooper_Rebel
- Administrator
Offline
- From: Olive Branch
- Registered: 8/01/2017
- Posts: 2,486
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
It would be up to us to put up the $ to keep him around. Boone wouldn't do that before with Tuberville. I have a feeling that Keith would fight a bit harder to keep Lane.
"We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state." - Ron DeSantis
- olemissjcj
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 8/12/2017
- Posts: 686
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
I have a feeling that Lane wouldn’t want to jump ship after only one year again like he did from Tenn to USC.
- Themob
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 8/02/2017
- Posts: 1,025
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Auburn has a big payout from what I understand and it have to pay out Lane‘s contract right? It would be like $40 million just to then pay Lane for $6 million a year correct? I don’t think anybody stupid enough to do that yet. But the SEC office would definitely allow it because Auburn is one of their protected programs.
- OneStopReb
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 8/05/2017
- Posts: 985
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Sooper_Rebel wrote:
It would be up to us to put up the $ to keep him around. Boone wouldn't do that before with Tuberville. I have a feeling that Keith would fight a bit harder to keep Lane.
That and Ole Miss was a lot farther behind with facilities, stadium size and overall budget in general. That was way before the TV contracts and the financial windfalls schools have benefited from.
Not saying it couldn’t happen again but the OleMiss job is more attractive than it was back in 1998.
- OneStopReb
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 8/05/2017
- Posts: 985
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Auburn has a big payout from what I understand and it have to pay out Lane‘s contract right? It would be like $40 million just to then pay Lane for $6 million a year correct? I don’t think anybody stupid enough to do that yet. But the SEC office would definitely allow it because Auburn is one of their protected programs.
I don’t really think the SEC could disallow it - like with Florida hiring Mullen - there’s no rules or anything against schools hiring coaches from other SEC programs
- catfishboy
- Administrator
Offline
- Registered: 8/01/2017
- Posts: 6,868
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Below are Lane Kiffin's contract terms:
Getting a new coach could get expensive for Auburn. Malzahn just finished the third season of a seven-year, $49-million contract signed following the 2017 campaign, 75% of which was guaranteed. His buyout following the conclusion of this season was $21.45 million. Half of that total, or $10.275 million, is due within 30 days of termination, per the terms of his contract. The other half of the balance will paid in equal, annual installments of approximately $2.68 million over the next four years.
Malzahn is under no requirement to mitigate those payments, and the university has no right to offset those payments regardless of whether Malzahn accepts a new job elsewhere or not, meaning he is owed every penny of that money. Auburn said hat Malzahn will be paid the remainder of his contract.
(c) All rights reserved. Content may not be copied, transposed, or used in any manner or form without expressed written permission of user.
- •
Thread Starter- GoodOReb
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 1/12/2019
- Posts: 71
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Wouldn’t put it past AU to put this out in an attempt to sabotage our recruiting. Kevin Steele (DC) has been named interim HC, and there is some sentiment for him to become permanent. Don’t know what motivates Kiffin, but it may be time for Ole Miss to “fish or cut bait” if we are serious about competing for championships.
- Ellisvillereb
- Member
Offline
- From: Ellisville Ms.
- Registered: 8/01/2017
- Posts: 1,368
Re: Report: Auburn ‘power players’ interested in Lane Kiffin
Jimmy Sexton is just doing his job.
