After beating Vanderbilt on Saturday, Ole Miss shifts its attention to its next opponent -- Auburn. NealMcCready looks ahead to the week, which will be dominated by coaching speculation:
It’s coming. Hell, to some degree, it’s already started. But make no mistake whatsoever. It is coming.
The problem, of course, was the athletic director at the time, Allen Greene, wasn’t on board with the second half of the coup. So after Malzahn was let go and awarded his golden parachute, Greene pushed back on the “just hire Steele” portion of the plan. Greene conducted a coaching search, one that eventually ended with the hiring of Harsin, who was Boise State’s coach at the time.
Kiffin won’t mind. He subscribes to the “all publicity is good publicity” theory, and it’s served him well over the years. He’s a click magnet as well. If you want your story to get attention and aggregation, put Kiffin’s name in the headline and run his photo with the story. Kiffin moves the needle.
Kiffin is one hell of a football coach. He’s a brilliant offensive mind. He’s innovative and resourceful, as evidenced by how he used the transfer portal to turn what should have been a rebuilding year into a fall where Ole Miss just might be in the College Football Playoff discussion early next month.
Ole Miss is paying Kiffin $7.5 million a year and it will almost certainly pay him more — likely much more — in 2023. The school is refurbishing the Manning Center. It has relaunched The Grove Collective, the NIL effort necessary to remain competitive.