Throughout almost the whole 2022 season, Auburn football speculation has run rampant. After losing at home to Penn State in game three, head coach Bryan Harsin lost the majority of the support he had left from fans, who have been left wondering if he will lose his job before the season ends.
Despite the fact that Harsin has made it through the bye week and it’s looking more and more likely that he will finish off the season, speculation about who could potentially replace him has been going on for a while. Popular names that have been floating around include Jeff Grimes, Deion Sanders, and of course, Lane Kiffin.
Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels were undefeated up until this weekend with a tough loss to LSU, and a lot of people question whether or not he would actually make the move from Oxford to Auburn when he’s having so much success where he is.
However, Paul Finebaum said this week on the Saturday Down South podcast that he believes Kiffin would absolutely make the jump to the Plains, per SDS:
"“Yes. Yes, I do, again, without knowing how the season plays out, I think (Kiffin) is still restless,” Finebaum told Connor O’Gara. “I don’t base that on Lane Kiffin and I having late-night conversations because I don’t know any more about his future than you do. I’m just offering an opinion and an observation. The thing about Auburn that I think Lane Kiffin is thinking is it would be so much easier to recruit there than where I’m at, even though he’s doing well. That’s self-evident. But he’s having to scramble to stay alive at Ole Miss whereas at Auburn, there’s a much stronger recruiting base from a booster standpoint and a financial standpoint.”"
Though the Rebs are certainly having a far more successful season than Auburn football, many believe that there is a ceiling at Ole Miss that doesn’t exist on the Plains, and if Kiffin wants to reach a higher level of success and get to the playoffs he will have to move on to a different program.
With Bryan Harsin still employed as the Tigers’ head coach, it’s impossible to say whether or not Kiffin would make the move or even be offered, but there are certainly those that believe the Rebs’ head coach would happily make the move to the Plains.