Report: Kiffin would leave Ole Miss for Hurricanes

Manny Diaz is still the Miami Hurricanes head football coach, but that hasn’t stopped rumors from swirling about who his potential replacement would be.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin would accept the UM coaching job if it were available and he was offered the position, local journalist Andy Slater reported on Thursday while citing multiple sources close to Kiffin.

Kiffin has experience coaching in South Florida, leading nearby FAU to a 26-13 record and two Conference USA championships from 2017-19.

No. 12 Ole Miss, where Kiffin has coached for the last two seasons, is 8-2 this year and 13—7 with Kiffin at the helm. Kiffin has gone 74—41 as a college football head coach with Tennessee, USC, FAU and Ole Miss.

Thursday’s report isn’t the first time Kiffin has been linked to Miami.

During an episode of the “College Football Enquirer” podcast, Yahoo reporter Dan Wetzel said he spoke with infamous UM booster Nevin Shapiro, who claimed that Kiffin would be Miami’s top candidate to replace Diaz.

Shapiro was at the center of Miami’s NCAA rules violation from 2002-10, leading to UM self-imposing a football postseason ban for 2011 and ‘12. Shapiro received a 20-year federal prison sentence for a $930 million Ponzi scheme in 2011. Wetzel said Shapiro had been released on house arrest from his federal sentence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I texted my best Miami source, or certainly the most interesting Miami source, in Nevin Shapiro,” Wetzel said. “Nevin is claiming that the top candidate is Lane Kiffin with [former Miami coach and current Florida State defensive analyst] Randy Shannon as the defensive coordinator.”

Diaz’s job status has been in question all season, but its uncertainty has picked up following the university parting ways with athletic director Blake James on Monday. James hired Diaz as UM’s football coach in 2018 as the successor to Mark Richt, who coached the Hurricanes for three seasons before abruptly retiring from coaching on Dec. 30, 2018.

The Hurricanes have gone 19-15 over the last three seasons under Diaz, including a disappointing 5-5 and 3-3 in the ACC entering Saturday’s matchup against Virginia Tech (5-5, 3-3 ACC).