Joel Klatt names school Lane Kiffin will coach at in 2026

The Lane Kiffin Sweepstakes are fully underway despite the fact the Ole Miss head coach has yet to give a single indication that he has any intention of leaving Oxford following the 2025 season.

With Florida, LSU and Penn State all holding open head coach's offices before November, plus the success Kiffin has had of late and especially this season with Ole Mis, his name leapt to the top of just about every leaderboard for those two top-shelf SEC positions. The question is just a matter of if he leaves, not if he gets a job offer.

Joining The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Wednesday, Fox Sports commentator Joel Klatt was pressed to answer who LSU targets. After answering that Kiffin is the clear first call, Cowherd asked if Klatt sees him leaving for the intra-conference rivals.

"I don't think Dan Lanning would leave, but I think Lane will," Klatt said of the LSU job. "If I had to bet, Lane Kiffin is your next coach at LSU."

Cowherd mouthed a "wow" over the pick, while Joel Klatt dove deeper into the reasoning for Kiffin to accept an LSU job over the very comfortable gig he's got right now at Ole Miss.

"I just think LSU is a step above," shared Klatt. "I think that you have to overachieve at Ole Miss, you've got to do things that the program has never done to reach your ultimate goals and win at the top end of college football."

He adds that Kiffin is enjoying the greatest success that school has had in modern times, whereas LSU is a much more sustained machine over the course of history and especially the last 25ish years.

"In a lot of respects, the best years of Ole Miss football, at least in recent vintage, are what we're seeing right now," Klatt added.

We wouldn't expect him to be, but Klatt isn't off base. Ole Miss notched two 10-win seasons in the first two decades of the 21st century but Lane Kiffin already produced three in his four non-COVID seasons and is far along the road of making it four out of five. Plus, the Rebels are circling the College Football Playoff like vultures with fresh road kill.

For Ole Miss football, the 2020s have been the program's most successful stretch since the 1960s. Joel Klatt is just pointing out that LSU has a richer history to brag about. But, if Lane Kiffin wants to be the No. 1 legend in Ole Miss football history, he very well can make that happen.