Credit: © Ayrton Breckenridge/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK; ESPN
By Sean Keeley on

Let’s walk through a hypothetical situation.

Imagine if Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss said that he was mulling playing for another school next season, where he could receive a significant NIL boost. Let’s say he announced that he would decide after the Egg Bowl whether to leave his current school, with the possibility that he would skip the Rebels’ games in the upcoming College Football Playoff afterward.

Can you imagine how apoplectic Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit would be on College GameDay? How furious would they both be about a player deciding in the midst of a championship-caliber season that he is already thinking about leaving and might not finish out the year because of it? The scorched earth those two ESPN college football analysts would go in their wake over the quarterback’s selfish, greedy, egocentric, self-serving decision would be the stuff of legend.

Now, a quarterback doing something like that is not a one-to-one with a head coach making a similar decision. We’re not even sure it’s actually possible. But how Saban, Herbstreit, and other ESPN analysts have cleared the path for Lane Kiffin to do what I described above has essentially been met with severe criticism and pushback from many in the college football media ecosystem.

We have to go back to last weekend, to when Saban set the tone for this discussion by absolving Kiffin of any responsibility if he decides to leave Ole Miss before the CFP, saying that the situation was ‘not a Lane Kiffin conundrum” but “a college football conundrum.”

Towards the end of Friday’s Egg Bowl, as Kiffin’s Rebels wrapped up their 11th win of the season, ABC announcer Dave Pasch questioned AD Keith Carter for pushing his head coach to make a decision now. Pasch said that by forcing a decision to be announced, “You wonder if that pushes Lane Kiffin in another direction,” once again absolving Kiffin of responsibility.

Then came Booger McFarland, who said on ABC Friday night that if Kiffin decides to leave Ole Miss for rival LSU, he should still be allowed to coach the Rebels in the CFP, putting the onus on Ole Miss to “do the right thing.”

“I think it will be a travesty, that if Lane does decide to leave, that he’s not allowed to finish the job. I think the kids would want him to,” said McFarland. “I think if you’re Ole Miss, why would you not? The only reason I can think of… is because of personal feeling.”

Finally, on Saturday’s College GameDay, Herbstreit reiterated McFarland’s take that even if he leaves to become the head coach at a rival school, Kiffin deserves to be allowed to continue coaching Ole Miss for the rest of their postseason run.

“I think Ole Miss has to accept that and look at this as a magical thing,” said Herbstreit. “You’ve never done what you’re doing right now. Let Lane Kiffin — if he leaves — and these players finish the run this year.”

We should note that not everyone at ESPN has been clearing the path for Kiffin. Paul Finebaum has been a vocal critic of the potential move. Chris Russo has called out Kiffin’s lack of loyalty. And Pat McAfee has pleaded with Kiffin to stay at Ole Miss, in contrast to his fellow GameDay analysts.

We don’t know if there is any kind of concerted effort to give Lane Kiffin a PR boost as he’s about to potentially abandon his team in the midst of a championship race, but it does seem strange to see so much water-carrying for him over this situation. A situation, mind you, he could have eliminated at any point by just saying “I’m sticking with my guys” and waiting until next time to consider another coaching gig.

This narrative push has not gone unnoticed by others in the college football media world.

Washington Post columnist and Phantom Island podcaster Steven Godfrey has been among the most vocal critics, calling out what he perceives as a coordinated effort “manufactured by CAA and filtered through ESPN.”

Godfrey voiced a similar complaint last week when Saban mounted his Kiffin defense.

He’s far from the only CFB media mainstay to call out the absurdity of these arguments.

Kiffin’s announcement is expected to come any minute now. We’ll have a keen eye on not only what he does but how that decision is discussed and who receives the “blame,” as it were. So far, it seems like certain parties are doing everything they can to make sure it’s not Lane Kiffin.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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