Travis Kelce did not bother softening his words when the topic of Lane Kiffin‘s departure came up on the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast.
Ole Miss had reached rare territory with an 11-1 record and a place in the College Football Playoff, only to watch its head coach accept the LSU job before the postseason even started.
For Kelce, the timing was more than inconvenient. It was another example, he said, of how the sport keeps putting players in difficult positions while allowing coaches to walk away with little restriction.
Kelce, who has never been shy about criticizing what he sees as structural problems in college athletics, said the situation unfolding in Oxford was exactly the kind of mess the NCAA should have anticipated years ago.
He insisted that postseason preparation becomes almost unrecognizable once a coaching staff is gutted and schools are forced to find bodies wherever they can.
“I mean, there needs to be some sort of rule by the NCAA that you can’t start looking for new job opportunities until after the season because Ole Miss is going to go into [the] College Football [Playoff] with someone’s dad as a f*cking like, helper,” Kelce said.
“You know what? I mean, like, you don’t just have extra coaches on the practice squad. You’re just gonna have to gather up people from around the university or however you need to do it.”
Kelce recalls chaos from past postseason games
Kelce‘s comments did not come out of nowhere. He has seen versions of this before, and his memory of one bowl game in particular underscored why he believes the issue deserves more urgency.
When his own team faced a situation where staff members left for new jobs before the postseason, the scramble to fill roles created a sideline unlike anything players had worked with during the year.
“We were at the fcking Sugar Bowl with, like, guys, dads, helping with personnel on the sidelines,” Kelce added. “It’s a clusterfck, and it’s definitely putting the team and the players at a disadvantage when you don’t have your head coach, or your offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, things like that.”
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