Lane Kiffin’s move from Ole Miss to LSU sent ripples through the college football world this week - and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, preparing for the SEC Championship Game, didn’t shy away from addressing the situation.
“It’s a really hard position to be in and to navigate,” Smart said Monday when asked about Kiffin’s decision. “I don’t envy the position he was in.”
It’s a candid response from someone who understands the pressures of coaching at the highest level. Smart echoed a sentiment that’s becoming more common among coaches: the current hiring timeline in college football is out of sync with the competitive calendar.
“I think [Nick] Saban addressed it best,” Smart added. “We are in a time frame where ADs and people are making decisions in a timeline that is not congruent with the season and the playoffs.
So it makes for really difficult decisions.”
Kiffin’s departure came just weeks after the LSU job opened up, and it capped off a whirlwind stretch where he was also linked to the Florida opening. Ultimately, it came down to staying at Ole Miss or heading to Baton Rouge. Kiffin reportedly wanted to finish the season with the Rebels before starting fresh with LSU, but that option wasn’t on the table - Ole Miss moved on, naming defensive coordinator Pete Golding as interim head coach for the playoffs and the program’s permanent head moving forward.
That transition has immediate implications. Ole Miss had a shot at facing Georgia in the SEC Championship Game - a rematch of their regular season showdown - if Alabama had fallen to Auburn last weekend. That didn’t happen, but had it gone the other way, Georgia would’ve been prepping to face a Kiffin-less Rebels squad in Atlanta.
Instead, Smart and the Bulldogs are gearing up for a showdown with Alabama this Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium - a revenge game, no doubt, after the Crimson Tide handed Georgia a loss earlier this season in Athens. The stakes couldn’t be higher, with a second straight SEC title on the line for Georgia.
Looking further down the road, the next scheduled meeting between Smart and Kiffin will come in 2027, when LSU travels to Athens to face Georgia at Sanford Stadium. The last time these two programs met in the regular season was back in 2018, when Georgia made the trip to Baton Rouge and came up short against the Tigers.
But for now, all eyes are on Saturday. Georgia’s path to another conference crown runs straight through Alabama - and while the coaching carousel continues to spin elsewhere, Smart and his team are locked in on the task at hand.