‘Lane Kiffin will be the Gator head coach next year,’ says college football insider on Florida job

Ole Miss Rebels football coach Lane Kiffin is already on his way out of Oxford, Mississippi, and on his way to be Billy Napier’s replacement with the Florida Gators. That’s the position that Bleacher Report’s College Football Reactions host Mike Ola Jr. takes anyway.

Ola doesn’t care if it’s an “overreaction.” He predicts Kiffin ditching all the progress he’s made in the Sip for a legitimate chance to win a national championship in the Sunshine State.

“Overreaction or not, Lane Kiffin will be the Gator head coach next year. Not an overreaction,” Ola said.

“I just think where there’s smoke, there could be fire here. Florida is one of the premier jobs in the SEC. They are a big fan base, a big university. They’re in a state that’s always been a recruiting hotbed and we saw with Billy Napier this last year, they’re willing to pony up.

“The premium I think for this job is going to be on SEC head coaching experience. This is a conference that right, wrong or indifferent, I think puts a lot of premium on that.”

Josh Pate claimed last September that Kiffin would take the UF job “in a heartbeat” once Napier was fired.

“(Kiffin would leave Florida for Ole Miss) In a heartbeat,” Pate said during the September 11, 2024, edition of Crain and Company. “Lane Kiffin would walk to Florida if they would give him the job. This is not a debate. I've got Ole Miss people in my very close social circle and they fight me on this. They're like ‘What can you do at Florida that you can't do at Ole Miss?’

“Win a national championship, that's what you can do there. And you can consistently be a player there. Contrary to what people believe about Ole Miss, that is still a build multiple years to a peak kind of program. A window program as I call them. They're not sustained year in and year out. They're just not that kind of program. Florida can be.”

Since Pate made that statement, the conversation has remained unchanged. Ole Miss is still doubted as a place one can win a national championship, and Florida is still seen as a sleeping giant, considering the recruiting edge the Gators (No. 7) had over the Rebels (No. 16) in the high school Class of 2025. Ole Miss made up for that with the No. 4 transfer portal haul, but that’s not a sustainable way to build a program.

Sure, one-year wonders built in the portal, like the 2022 TCU Horned Frogs, are possible. But they’re the exception, not the rule.

UF has more than three times as many alumni and is situated in a state that’s much better prepared to compete. The state of Florida’s governor has discussed the Gators and their 2025 and 2026 schedules on social media. Very few outside of the Magnolia State even know who the governor of Mississippi is.

There is a ceiling at Ole Miss that doesn’t exist at Florida.

That’s what makes bold predictions on Kiffin landing in Gainesville not so bold at all.