Colin Cowherd: ‘I think Lane Kiffin should go to the pros’

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is one of the top stories in college football, both for the excellent performance of the Rebels (No. 6 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings) and for the drama surrounding his coaching future.

Kiffin continues to be connected to the Florida and LSU jobs, and things went up a notch with the drama when Stewart Mandel of The Athletic reported on Monday that “Ole Miss has given Lane Kiffin an ultimatum to decide his future before the Nov. 28 Egg Bowl against Mississippi State.” On Tuesday, Kiffin appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and called the ultimatum report “absolutely not true.”

Whatever the case, Kiffin will continue to be linked to the Florida and LSU jobs until there’s a definitive answer on his Ole Miss future.

Well, Colin Cowherd thinks Kiffin should leave college football altogether.

In response to the report about an Ole Miss ultimatum, Cowherd said on Tuesday’s edition of FS1’s The Herd that he thinks Kiffin “should go to the pros.”

“I think Lane Kiffin should go to the pros. I think he’s tapped out at Ole Miss.”@colincowherd weighs in on the reported ultimatum Ole Miss gave Kiffin pic.twitter.com/kYWlSg2Gfz

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) November 18, 2025

“Very rarely does a college football coach crush at a school, and the school says, ‘Make up your mind what you’re doing,'” Cowherd began. “That’s what Ole Miss is doing with Lane Kiffin. I think Lane Kiffin should go to the pros. I think he’s tapped out at Ole Miss. I don’t think he’s going to win a Natty there, but I think he’s going to win a bunch of games if he stays there.”

“And so LSU flies a plane in, flies his family down to Baton Rouge to check it out,” Cowherd said. “So, Lane Kiffin, they’ve given him a deadline at Ole Miss, the Mississippi State game. ‘The minute it ends, tell us what you’re doing.”

“So, I’ve always had a theory in life, don’t try to get happier than happy,” Cowherd continued. “And I think Lane’s happy. When did Lane Kiffin implode in life? Al Davis, NFL dysfunction; the Raiders were dysfunctional. And massive pressure at USC. When did he crush? Florida Atlantic, no pressure. Ole Miss, not that much pressure. And the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban, where, you know, Nick’s taking the arrows. So, Lane, it’s a little like Icarus. Be careful how close you fly to the sun. Don’t try to get happier than happy. I think the LSU job is crazy town. The governor’s talking about it. They’re legally going to try to keep money from Brian Kelly, Bad look, LSU. By the way, Brian Kelly won 10 games year one, 10 games year two, and entered year three hottest seat in college football. That’s all you need to know. And now the governor of the state’s involved in the Brian Kelly mess.”

Cowherd then clarified that he thinks Kiffin should “stay at Ole Miss or go to the NFL.”

“To me, stay at Ole Miss or go to the NFL,” Cowherd said. “I think Lane’s personality feels like if he gets into one of these massively pressurized, high-expectation situations, he can be a little snarky, he can be on social media a little too much. And I had a source I called yesterday on Ole Miss football; apparently, they’ve got a lot of NIL money. They’ve got NIL money. It’s not a money issue at Ole Miss.”

He explained more about why he doesn’t like the LSU fit.

“And the other thing is at Ole Miss, the entire fanbase, the boosters, and the university, they trust the process, and they trust Lane,” Cowherd said. “LSU doesn’t trust any coach since Saban. They don’t trust any of ’em. They didn’t trust Les Miles; they didn’t like Les Miles. Ed Orgeron. Brian Kelly. It’s a very cynical football operation, and it’s kind of delusional. I mean, Georgia’s a better job. Bama’s a better job. I would say Texas is a better job. And LSU’s, you know, got a lot of players, but it’s up there with like Oklahoma. It’s a really, really good job, but sometimes the donors, and the boosters, and the administration, and now the governor. Eh, it gets a little uncomfortable.”

Kiffin’s one NFL stop was as head coach of the then-Oakland Raiders from 2007-08, and he put together a 5-15 record before he was fired by then-owner Al Davis after just four games into year two.

It’s been a rollercoaster, well-traveled coaching career for Kiffin, but the perception of his coaching ability has never been higher than it is right now. He was only 31 years old when he took the Raiders job, and he’s now 50. It’s possible he feels that he’s much more prepared for the NFL now than he was then, and the Raiders’ job was a doomed situation from the start (from 2003-09, the Raiders went through five coaches and never topped five wins).

But would the NFL even want to take a chance on him? Even if organizations tossed aside his initial NFL stint, his personality would certainly make for a unique NFL fit, and he might be able to reach college athletes more in that regard than he would professionals.

Odds are quite likely that Kiffin will just stay at the level where he’s now having great success. And likely in the same conference, the SEC. It remains to be seen if it will be at the same school.