Ole Miss announced that it has agreed to a contract extension with football head coach Lane Kiffin. Terms of the deal were not announced.
Ole Miss and Kiffin previously agreed to a new contract in November 2022. Per Michael Katz of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Kiffin was scheduled to earn base salaries of $8.75 million in 2023, $8.85 million in 2024 and $9 million in both 2025 and 2026.
The 48-year-old is finishing up his fourth season in Oxford, where he’s gone 33-15 (20-13 SEC) since 2020. This year’s Ole Miss team has gone 10-2 (6-2 SEC) with a No. 11 spot in the final College Football Playoff rankings, marking its second 10-win campaign in three seasons after going 10-3 with a Sugar Bowl appearance in 2021.
The Rebels will face No. 10 Penn State in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30.
From 1972-2019, Ole Miss won just 10 games twice (2003, 2015). The Rebels also hadn’t posted a winning season in the four seasons prior to Kiffin’s arrival.
His positive impact on the program can’t be understated, and now Kiffin has planted more roots at Ole Miss, which is hoping for its first 11-win season ever and first New Year’s Six bowl victory since 2015 (Sugar Bowl).
Kiffin’s coaching career began at Fresno State, his alma mater, in 1997. Following two seasons, he spent a year apiece with Colorado State and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Kiffin then coached under Pete Carroll at USC from 2001-2006, working his way up to offensive coordinator in 2005.
Three head coaching stops (Oakland Raiders, Tennessee, USC) eventually made way to the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach job at Alabama in 2014 under Nick Saban. He left Alabama for Florida Atlantic’s head coaching gig in 2017 before heading to Ole Miss three seasons later.
Kiffin had the chance to leave Ole Miss for Auburn one year ago but turned down the opportunity. Now it appears far more likely he’ll be around long-term given the team’s 2023 success and news of the contract extension.
Leave a Reply