The college football coaching carousel is spinning fast, and one of the top jobs in America has suddenly opened.
After LSU fired Brian Kelly this past weekend, speculation immediately turned to who could be next in line to lead the Tigers. On Monday’s episode of “The Herd With Colin Cowherd” — FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt joined the show to talk through the LSU opening — and he didn’t hold back.
Cowherd started the conversation by naming the four college football programs he says he’d never leave if he were head coach: “Ohio State, I would never leave. I don’t think there’s a better job than Texas. If I got LSU rolling, I wouldn’t leave. Same with Georgia.”
Klatt shared a similar sentiment during a recent episode of his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show,” saying that he would put LSU among the top three jobs in all of college football. He believes LSU will make four big calls for its next head coaching hire: Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Dan Lanning and Lane Kiffin.
That set up the following question from Cowherd: What should Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin do?
Now in his sixth season in Oxford, Kiffin has turned the Rebels into one of the SEC’s most consistent winners, going 51-19 and delivering three separate double-digit win seasons. But despite all that success, he’s yet to reach the College Football Playoff — and now another SEC powerhouse could come calling.
“I would stay because I think he’s viewed as the architect of the next 10 years,” Cowherd said of Kiffin. “He has bounced around a lot, and because of his personality and what he’s done, it’s a near-perfect fit.”
Klatt wasn’t so sure. “LSU is intriguing,” he said. “I think LSU is a step above [Ole Miss]. You have to overachieve at Ole Miss. You’ve got to do things the program has never done to reach your ultimate goals and the top end of college football. In a lot of respects, the best years of Ole Miss football are what we’re seeing right now.”
Joel Klatt predicts Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU
He’s not wrong. Ole Miss hasn’t won a national championship since 1962 or a conference title since 1963, while LSU has captured three national championships since 2003 — most recently in 2019 with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Justin Jefferson leading one of the greatest teams the sport has ever seen.
Klatt pointed to LSU’s resources and national recruiting power as what makes it such an elite job.
“We know that LSU can go in and put together a roster year-in and year-out that can compete at the top end of not only the SEC, but of the country, and win a national championship,” he said. “It comes down to resources, and I think LSU is top-two or top-three financially in college football. They have deep, deep pockets — and in this day and age, that’s what you have to have.”
Klatt didn’t hesitate to make his prediction: “If I had to bet,” Klatt said, “Lane Kiffin is your next coach at LSU.”
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