Lane Kiffin won’t coach Ole Miss during playoff, per report

It appears that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin will not be coaching his Rebels team during the College Football Playoff.

According to a report by CBS Sports college football reporter Matt Zenitz, Kiffin will not coach Ole Miss through the postseason. Instead, Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding will be named as interim head coach as Kiffin and much of the Rebels staff jets off to Baton Rouge to coach LSU.

The expectation is that Lane Kiffin won’t coach Ole Miss during its playoff run, sources tell @CBSSports.

Defensive coordinator Pete Golding is expected to be named as the Rebels’ interim head coach, per sources. https://t.co/08StCa7AQO

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) November 30, 2025

Kiffin has made a complete spectacle out of his decision on whether to remain at Ole Miss next season, or take one of the numerous high-profile head coaching jobs on the market. In recent days, it became clear that Kiffin wished to have his cake and eat it too, taking the LSU job but still coaching Ole Miss through its playoff run.

That, understandably, was untenable for Ole Miss, which didn’t want its own head coach simultaneously working for a conference rival.

However, the situation has laid bare some of the clear conflicts of interest in sports media. Several ESPN personalities came under fire over the weekend as they defended Kiffin’s desire to coach his team through the playoff, spinning the fiasco as Kiffin being pro-player, rather than the coach having brought the situation upon himself by exploring other jobs in the first place. Some have been quick to point out that Kiffin and certain ESPN talent share the same representation, which can potentially sway opinions.

While Kiffin is likely genuine in his desire to coach his current team, that desire clearly doesn’t outweigh the pull of coaching LSU in his mind. If he wanted to coach his team through the postseason, he’d simply stay at Ole Miss.

But watching ESPN on Saturday, one didn’t hear that perspective very often. They heard that what Kiffin was trying to do was admirable, and that Ole Miss is to blame for forcing him to choose one or the other, as if employing a lame duck head coach that is about to lead a rival program is completely normal.

It seems like logic will prevail here, and Kiffin will leave Oxford behind sooner rather than later. But these last few days will be remembered by college football fans for how some in the media chose to handle this story. And those reputations are becoming increasingly harder to overcome.