re: I don’t understand why LSU would want Lane to coach Ole Miss playoff run…

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Transfer portal opens in early January where Ole Miss could presumably still be playing. So he would need to be spend a lot of time game planning for the rebels instead of assembling his staff and portal players for LSU.

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He won’t need a new staff until spring, and he will most likely keep a few pieces from this staff intact. The portal window is more about filling needs and say Frank Wilson or Austin Thomas (who has handled player acquisition the last couple of years anyway) will handle the portal window until he is done.

LSU AD would have to be mentally deficient to allow Kiffin to coach Ole Miss through the playoffs, rather than focusing his time and attention on building the LSU program through the recruiting and portal windows.

The people saying otherwise are absolutely desperate sycophants.

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He won’t need a new staff until spring, and he will most likely keep a few pieces from this staff intact. The portal window is more about filling needs and say Frank Wilson or Austin Thomas (who has handled player acquisition the last couple of years anyway) will handle the portal window until he is done.

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Honestly, let him coach. If that’s all that’s making him contemplate staying. They’ll lose in the 1st round anyway.

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I’d honestly be fine with it. He is clearly trying to do right by the team and school he’s coached for six years. I find that commendable.

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I find it commendable too. I actually have a lot more respect for Lane the human being than I did a week ago. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m “fine with it.” But whoever is to blame for this situation, I don’t think it’s really Lane, Ole Miss, or LSU. They all 3 want what’s best for them and their families (literal, in Lane’s case, more figuratively in the case of the 2 universities and their athletic and football programs, but also the players, alumni, etc…As they should. It’s not ideal for any of the 3. I don’t love it for LSU, don’t love the situation we find ourselves in, but I can live with it.

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Assuming Frank is staying on as recruiting coordinator, we likely can manage while he FaceTimes where needed.

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People saying Lane can’t do both are forgetting a few things that you allude to here.

1) College football coaches work a lot—but they don’t work 24 hour days game-planning and watching film. He can squeeze in a few Zoom or FaceTime calls without sacrificing any game planning. And he wouldn’t even be able to implement a game plan until next Sunday when the CFP is announced, because he won’t know their opponent until after all the CCGs are completed and the bracket is revealed.

So he could get a lot of the LSU stuff done in this coming week while still doing whatever he would be doing for Ole Miss on a week without an opponent. These would be the hardest few weeks he’ll have to work in his career, likely. But let’s say he normally works 14 hour days in season. He may have to bump that up to 16 for a while. But he’s only 50, he’ll be alright.

2) You mentioned Frank staying on as recruiting coordinator. I think most of agree that he’ll be on the next coach’s staff in some capacity. He’s coached under Lane before at Tennessee. Lane has to decide on Frank 100% asap to make that official. But maybe the more important decision is does he want to retain Austin Thomas. They worked well together at Ole Miss and Austin was instrumental in setting up their NIL infrastructure. But there are rumors that they had a falling out, that Lane didn’t appreciate the way he left. And that he likes the current person in that role at Ole Miss. He’s got to figure that position out ASAP as well. If he wants his current guy at Ole Miss, he can send him to Baton Rouge tomorrow as he would no longer serve any purpose at Ole Miss. Unlike the coaches on his current staff that he’d be bringing with him who are still obligated to coach this current team—professionally and morally—the GM doesn’t have the same obligation, because he would no longer have any duties in Oxford.

So that’s the 1st 2 things Lane would need to do regarding LSU. Decide on Frank and a GM, and make sure all 3 are on the same page as to the current LSU roster and who they want to retain, what positions need filling in the portal, and what type of players they want to look for in the portal to do it. And he can give the final sign off.

But he would need to trust them to handle the heavy lifting and trust their evaluations. Ideally, he could find some way to have both Austin Thomas and his current Ole Miss GM to both be on staff at LSU working together. I’m not sure co-GMs works. Not sure if either one would be willing to be subordinate to the other, either. Certainly don’t think either would take a decrease in pay. Maybe increase both of their pays and give them creative titles that wouldn’t suggest one is higher on the hierarchy than the other. Would take some pride swallowing perhaps, but that’s where the pay raise could soften that.

But the bottom line is that for this to actually work for both Ole Miss and LSU, they would both have to focus on the bigger picture. Both of their ‘26 seasons would have to be sacrificed somewhat in the short term, but both programs would be benefitted in the long-term.
Assuming this actually happens, which I still seriously doubt. I think pride will eventually prevent it. Hell, in the time it took me to type this post, by the time I hit submit and refresh the page, this whole thing could have already been officially nixed.