The answer that Florida fans have been waiting for over a year is finally on its way. All the relentless lobbying has finally pushed Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin to address the Florida head coaching rumors head-on.
After dismissing them multiple times and calling them "rat poison", Kiffin decided to put an end to the rumors. ESPN's Molly McGrath revealed that Kiffin would be sitting down with his team to address the rumors from her exclusive interview with the Ole Miss coach.
"Lane Kiffin told me he usually doesn’t address those kind of coaching rumors in-season, because there’s so much more football to play, and there’s so many bigger things to focus on. But he’s actually going to do things differently today in their team meeting – he is going to address those (Florida) rumors with his players," McGranth reported.
NEW: Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin plans to address the Florida job with his players, per @MollyAMcGrath:
— On3 (@On3sports) October 24, 2025
"Lane Kiffin told me he usually doesn’t address those kind of coaching rumors in-season, because there’s so much more football to play, and there’s so many bigger things… pic.twitter.com/GD2Q3JT4Tb
According to what McGrath gathered from Kiffin, Kiffin's words would be more like a pep talk.
"He’s going to talk to them about it and say: ‘Hey, this is what happens when you win. This is a compliment to our players, our staff and our entire program.’ He wants to talk to his players about it because there’s so many new guys on their team this year that haven’t dealt with it before."
Kiffin including his team in what seems like shutting down the rumors sends a clear message: he is not willing to leave Ole Miss. We just have to wait for him to say the words out loud.
However, McGrath's following words hinted at a reason he could consider the Florida job.
"But I will say, Kiffin really idolizes legendary former Gators coach Steve Spurrier. And when I covered Ole Miss’ game at Florida last year, Kiffin pulled me aside and said this is a really special place for me and my family. It’s where he had his first date with his children’s mother, so (Gainesville) is a nostalgic place for the Kiffin family," the ESPN reporter said.
"Perhaps that will play a role into it. But right now they’re just focusing on Ole Miss and the Rebels, and their players telling me they wouldn’t be able to tell (if Kiffin was distracted), so it seems as if Kiffin is in Oxford to stay as far as his communication with them."
Kiffin idolizing Spurrier only makes his image as the modern-day Steve Spurrier even stronger, which will subsequently make the rumors stronger.
It seems from the report that Kiffin might finally be brewing an official statement on the rumors after dismissing the rumors or providing ambiguous answers.
Only time will tell if that's the case.