Sarkisian, Kiffin Address Rumors As Coaching Carousel Spins Again

College football’s coaching carousel continued with LSU firing Brian Kelly, and the wheels of chaos were spinning around several high-profile programs, too.

As Ole Miss bolstered its College Football Playoff résumé Saturday and Texas narrowly kept its postseason hopes alive, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian both chose to publicly address reports connecting each of them to other head coaching jobs.

Ahead of the Rebels beating Oklahoma 34–26 in Norman and moving to No. 7 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, Kiffin said during an interview on the SEC Network that he spoke to his team about rumors of Florida eyeing him for their vacant head coaching position.

“That’s a product of having a program with a lot of players and coaches doing a really good job,” Kiffin said. “And I wouldn’t even mention it because they’ve been through this every year—probably four years in a row—but we just have so many new players that I just told them, ‘Hey guys, this is what happens around here because we win games and people like the style that we play in.’ So, that is all about a compliment to the players.”

On Friday, Florida football-focused reporter Buddy Martin said the school will offer Kiffin a six-year, $81 million contract that would make him the highest-paid coach in the sport, with an annual salary of $13.5 million. 

Saturday’s victory over Oklahoma took Ole Miss to 7–1 on the season, and automatically earned Kiffin a one-year extension on his contract, which is now set to run through 2031, making $9 million per year.

Ticked Off in Texas

After Texas overcame a 17-point deficit to defeat Mississippi State 45–38 in overtime, Sarkisian lashed out against what he called a “ridiculous” and “unprofessional” report from The Athletic’s Dianna Russini that his agents have “let NFL decision makers know that he would be interested in potential head coaching openings, including the Titans.”

“It really pisses me off that one person can make a report that, in turn, the entire media and sports world runs with as factual, to the point that my agency and my agents had to put a statement out, which they’ve never done historically,” Sarkisian said. “CAA, Jimmy Sexton, Ed Marynowitz have never done that. But I had to do it to protect my locker room and my team, and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.”

On Saturday, CAA’s Sexton and Marynowitz released the following statement: “Any reports regarding communications on coaching opportunities with NFL teams are patently false and wildly inaccurate. Sark is solely focused on coaching the University of Texas football team.” Sarkisian does have NFL coaching experience—he replaced Kyle Shanahan in Atlanta and was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator from 2017–18. 

Sarkisian continued, “I thought it was completely unprofessional of that person to put that report out, and the fact that everybody ran with it is borderline embarrassing for the media. And I respect what you guys do—I really do—and everybody else. But the fact that everyone ran with that as truth is really embarrassing. I’ve got a small circle when I make decisions on what I do and what I don’t do, and nobody would ever speak on my behalf without me knowing. So, where that report came from—I’d love to talk to that person, because it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Sarkisian is making $10.8 million this season. The Longhorns (6–2) rose to No. 20 in the rankings after beating Mississippi State.