Surprise college football program made ‘stealth move’ to hire Lane Kiffin: report

While LSU, Ole Miss, and Florida got all the headlines in the race to hire Lane Kiffin during college football’s most consequential coaching contest, a surprise fourth major program reportedly made a play behind the scenes in a run at the former Rebels coach.

LSU ultimately won the Lane Kiffin sweepstakes over Ole Miss and Florida, but a major player in the ACC in the midst of its own coaching drama was also trying to get involved.

A surprise contender for Lane Kiffin

In addition to those three schools, Florida State was quietly making overtures towards Kiffin to lead its football program, according to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.

Seminole brass were “making a stealth move to poach Kiffin,” according to the report, which detailed a previous working relationship between the head coach and Florida State athletic director Michael Alford, when both worked for USC in the early 2000s.

All that was happening at the same time when the fate of Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell was itself a subject of intense interest.

Mike Norvell’s fate was unsure at the time

Speculation had been mounting that the school was considering a separation from Norvell after Florida State’s season took a sharp negative turn following its 3-0 start.

And while fans and Norvell awaited a decision, it appears the school was working in the background to make a play for Kiffin, an effort that lasted through the middle of November.

It was only after Florida State came to the conclusion that Kiffin would not be joining the school that it announced on Nov. 23 that Norvell would remain as head coach, according to the ESPN report.

What Lane Kiffin could have cost Florida State

Kiffin not taking the Seminoles position saved the school some money, as it would have had to pay roughly $54 million if they fired him without cause, in addition to more than $18 million to his various assistants.

All told, it would have been one of the 10 most expensive buyouts in college football if it came to that.

Hiring a landmark name like Kiffin would have theoretically been the only possible justification for Florida State to explain spending that much to get rid of Norvell.

In the end, they didn’t have to spend any of that money as Kiffin announced he was taking the LSU job, potentially rewriting the pecking order in the SEC for years to come, and enraging Ole Miss fans, in the process.

Alford was the associate athletic director at USC from 2000-03, at the same time Kiffin served as tight ends and receivers coach for the Trojans from 2001-03, and he apparently looked to build on that relationship to lure the coach to his current school.

But in the end, the effort by Florida State to land Kiffin failed, and the Mike Norvell era will continue, for better or worse, in 2026.

(ESPN)

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