Kiffin headed to Ole Miss
Lane Kiffin is back in the SEC, taking over at Mississippi.
Kiffin and the Rebels made the announcement Saturday after Florida Atlantic defeated UAB in the Conference USA championship game, the Owls’ second league title in his three seasons. It had been college football’s worst-kept secret since Friday, and the schools ended all doubt Saturday afternoon by conceding that the deal has been made.
“I am truly honored and humbled to join the Ole Miss family, and recognize this as a special opportunity to lead Rebel Football into the future,” said Kiffin, who will be introduced in Oxford, Mississippi on Monday.
If there was any doubt when Saturday began, it went away once a short video clip of his son’s reaction to the news went public. ESPN’s SEC Network tweeted out a clip of Kiffin’s son Knox being told that he was getting on a jet Monday — because his father has a new job.
“Your dad is the new head coach of Ole Miss,” a woman on the tape says to the boy.
“Let’s go!” Knox Kiffin responds, before chanting “S-E-C! S-E-C!”
Indeed, the SEC is going to be Kiffin’s playground once again. And Lane Kiffin — who wanted the attention Saturday in his news conference to be on FAU’s win — conceded that he had watched the clip of his son about 25 times.
“That was awesome to see his reaction,” Kiffin said. “That’s just special. For those of you who have children, to see your child react like that, it’s pretty neat.”
Kiffin went 26-13 in his three seasons at Florida Atlantic and is 61-34 in parts of eight seasons as a college head coach at Tennessee, USC and FAU.
Kiffin, 44, takes over a Mississippi program that hasn’t produced a winning season since going 10-3 in 2015 and winning the Sugar Bowl. The Rebels went 4-8 this season.
Kiffin replaces Matt Luke, a Mississippi alum who was fired last Sunday after going 15-21 in three seasons.
Pac-12 title game:
CJ Verdell ran for 208 yards and broke open the game with two long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, and No. 13 Oregon spoiled No. 5 Utah’s playoff hopes with a 37-15 victory in the Pac-12 championship game Friday night in Santa Clara, Calif.
The Utes (11-2) came into the game hoping to make a case for one of the four playoff spots with a conference title but instead got overmatched by Oregon (11-2) and lost their second straight Pac-12 championship game.
They fell into a 20-0 hole in the first half and then gave up a 70-yard TD run to Verdell after cutting the deficit to 23-15.
Mountain West title game:
Jaylon Henderson threw for 220 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score to lead No. 19 Boise State to a 31-10 victory over Hawaii in the Mountain West championship game Saturday in Boise, Idaho.
Boise State (12-1) won its second conference title in three years, beating Hawaii again this season after winning the Oct. 12th meeting 59-37. After rolling up 518 yards of offense in the first game, the Broncos leaned on their defense in the rematch.
The Broncos made two defensive stands inside the 5, once in the second quarter and another early in the third.
Hawaii (9-5) was making its first appearance in the title game. It enjoyed some success through the air with Cole McDonald passing for 241 yards, but couldn’t overcome early problems in the red zone.