As program after program seems more than willing to ink their head coaches a contract extension, it is looking more and more likely that the Ole Miss Rebels will have to do the same with their own.
With Florida, LSU, and a handful of other teams screaming Lane Kiffin's name at the top of their lungs, trying to lure him in their direction, the Rebels might need to increase the price they are willing to pay for their head coach to stick around.
Lane Kiffin should get ready for a pay raise or a new job
Currently, Kiffin is the ninth-highest paid active head coach in the nation (LSU's former coach Brian Kelly ranks eighth in standings). If Ole Miss wants their head coach to stay in Oxford, it might need to help Kiffin fly up those rankings.
The highest-paid head coaches are Georgia's Kirby Smart ($13,282,580 per year), Ohio State's Ryan Day ($12,575,000), USC's Lincoln Riley ($11,537,560), Clemson's Dabo Swinney ($11,447,025), and Texas's Steve Sarkisian ($10,800,000).
So, Kiffin isn't even a top-two head coach in his own conference, yet he is one of the most highly sought-after coaches in the country. If Ole Miss can't get his paycheck to look more like Smart's, or at the very least like Sarkisian's, he may start more seriously considering those other jobs.
Earlier this week, reports spread that Kiffin's ex-wife was touring Baton Rouge (home to the LSU Tigers), and for the past few weeks, the Ole Miss leader has repeatedly been tied to the Florida Gators' job in Gainesville.
The Arkansas Razorbacks are also trying to find a new head coach, as are the Penn State Nittany Lions. The moral of the story is that there are more desirable head coaching jobs than there are desirable head coaches, and the Rebels need to cement Kiffin as their guy before he cements a job somewhere else.