By Michael GallagherShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberWith the Nov. 28 Egg Bowl locked in as the target date for Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin to make a decision about his coaching future, Rebels fans at least have a rough timeline of when they can expect to know who will be their head coach.
Most analysts believe Kiffin is torn between staying on Oxford or bolting to Baton Rouge for the LSU job.
Few would blame Kiffin for jumping ship to LSU, which is reportedly prepared to offer him a lucrative $98 million contract, which includes a $25 million investment in NIL and recruiting.
It’s been reported that Ole Miss plans to match whatever offer he gets from LSU, or the Florida Gators, who are reportedly thing in Kiffin’s preferred pecking order, making the next week all the more intriguing.
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If Kiffin does leave Ole Miss after the Egg Bowl, the school reportedly wants to move quickly on bringing in his replacement.
There are plenty of top candidates for Ole Miss to choose from if they lose the Kiffin sweepstakes including Georgia Tech’s Brent Key, Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, USF’s Alex Golesh, and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea.
But according to one team insider, there’s one candidate the Rebels are targeting as their top choice to replace Kiffin.
“Ole Miss is in a good position for their potential top candidate if this gets weird, and he is also a potential playoff coach — and that’s Jon Sumrall out of Tulane,” Steven Willis of “Locked On Ole Miss” stated.
“…He is somebody that would 100% not put his fan base through what has happened over the last week-and-a-half. He would handle it in a completely different way, and I think everybody is on board with that.
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The one big obstacle standing in the way of Ole Miss landing Sumrall is the report from Steve Godfrey of the Washington Post that Auburn is expected to hire him as Hugh Freeze’s replacement in the coming weeks.
However, Willis believes that Sumrall is actually Auburn’s backup plan if it strikes out on Drinkwitz. There’s a small chance if Ole Miss wants Sumrall, it will have to compete with Auburn to land him.
“If [Texas beats Texas A&M next week], you have a day’s window before that Auburn-Alabama game to reach out and have contact with Jon Sumrall,” Willis stated. “… Make no mistake, the time difference of 24 hours — Auburn, they’re trying to hit their home run right now.
“Their home run is Eli Drinkwitz…but the coach they’re keeping warm is Jon Sumrall. And if they can’t get anything out of Eli Drinkwitz, then they move quickly to Jon Sumrall.”
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