{"id":14355,"date":"2025-10-21T18:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14355\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:59:08","slug":"steve-spurrier-reacts-to-lane-kiffin-rumors-in-florida-coach-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14355\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Spurrier Reacts to Lane Kiffin Rumors in Florida Coach Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Florida Gators searching for their next college football<\/a> coach, one of their all-time greats has shared his thoughts on the situation. Steve Spurrier recently addressed the ongoing Florida coaching rumors, including speculation surrounding Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin as a top candidate.<\/p>\n

Despite a loss this weekend to Kirby Smart’s Georgia, Kiffin, 50, has his Rebels in the thick of the College Football Playoffs chase. Ole Miss is ranked eighth in the AP Top 25 with a 6-1 record overall.<\/p>\n

Kiffin\u2019s ties to Florida include time on the Jacksonville Jaguars coaching staff in 2000. More recently, he was the head coach at Florida Atlantic from 2017 to 2019.<\/p>\n

Now the Ole Miss coach is being mentioned whenever a top coaching job opens up, including the position for the SEC’s Gators.<\/p>\n

Read more: Lane Kiffin Sends 3-Word Message to Terry Saban After Penn State Remarks<\/a><\/p>\n

“They\u2019re throwing Lane\u2019s name out there a lot, and he\u2019d be good here. Look at what he\u2019s done at Ole Miss,” Spurrier said in what seems like a strong endorsement.<\/p>\n

\"former<\/p>\n

However, Spurrier had several other candidates he brought up for the Gators’ head coaching position, including another SEC coach and a Super Bowl winner.<\/p>\n

“(Eli) Drinkwitz is another one, even (Jon) Gruden. There are several others, but Lane is being mentioned more than other guys it seems like,” Spurrier said in reacting to the rumors.<\/p>\n

Drinkiwitz, the head coach of the SEC’s Missouri since 2020, has his team at an impressive 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference, with their sole loss to Alabama. Meanwhile, Gruden, who guided the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win in 2003, has not coached since 2023, when he was a consultant to the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Florida fired Billy Napier from the head coaching role after the Gators\u2019 3-4 start to this season. Napier began coaching there in 2020, compiling an overall record of 22-23. Wide receiver coach Billy Gonzales took over as the Gators’ interim head coach, while a search to replace Napier is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Spurrier achieved a national championship as coach of Florida in 1996. According to On3’s report<\/a>, he also set things straight about returning to coach the Gators, indicating, “No, no, my records are intact. I\u2019ll let somebody else chase \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiffin appears to be a solid candidate for Florida head coach, with Spurrier’s backing. He has coached Ole Miss since 2020 and seems to have his team on pace to compete in the CFP. After falling three spots in the AP Top 25 due to their loss to Georgia, the Rebels get a chance to bounce back with a game against Oklahoma on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Read more: Notre Dame\u2019s Marcus Freeman Gets Big Prediction for Next Coaching Job<\/a><\/p>\n

For more about the Florida Gators and college football, head to Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Florida Gators searching for their next college football coach, one of their all-time greats has shared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[143,28,2530,30,29,10713,1538],"class_list":{"0":"post-14355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-gators","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-lane-kiffin","14":"tag-ncaa-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}