Lane Kiffin says getting over Ole Miss’ 2024 season is like navigating stages of grief.
Jaxson Dart came over to Lane Kiffin’s house to watch SEC prime-time games after Ole Miss lost to Florida last November. What else was there to do at that point but watch?
Ole Miss narrowly missed College Football Playoff. Lane Kiffin says playoff system ‘doesn’t have it right.’ He favors a 16-team bracket with no automatic bids.
Jaxson Dart had one question for coach Lane Kiffin after Mississippi’s gutting loss at Florida last November.
Can I come over?
Sure, Kiffin told his quarterback.
Kiffin and Dart sat on the couch and watched football.
What else could they do?
Hours previously, Mississippi lost in The Swamp, a result that impaired the Rebels’ College Football Playoff hopes. That night, Kiffin and Dart watched more SEC playoff contenders lose. Texas A&M lost in overtime at Auburn, and, stunningly, Alabama got trounced at Oklahoma.
“Him and I are just sitting on the couch, watching the night games, watching other people get upset on the road in the SEC on senior days,” Kiffin told me, “but he just was like, ‘Man, I just feel like I just let down everybody in Oxford, like every person.’”
Kiffin felt similarly. The Ole Miss coach told me a few weeks ago that he’s not fully over last season. He compared the process to navigating the stages of grief – something he experienced after his dad, Monte, died in July.
Ole Miss entered last season oozing hype centered on the possibility of the program’s first College Football Playoff bid. Kiffin had assembled a talented roster, complete with a star quarterback in Dart, and Ole Miss finally had a defense to match its offense.
The Rebels’ playoff aspirations clung by a thread after the Nov. 23 chaos that started with their loss at Florida. Ultimately, the selection committee chose Indiana and SMU instead of a three-loss SEC team like Kiffin’s Rebels or Alabama.
“You may think you’re over it, and you’re over it in certain areas or parts of it,” Kiffin said about last season, “but then there’s a bargaining stage. … I think sometimes I still do that.
“It was a really good team, it’s just, we played three one-score games and lost them all.”
The Rebels failed to protect fourth-quarter leads in losses Kentucky and LSU. The Wildcats and Tigers each converted key fourth downs during their rallies, and Kentucky scored the winning touchdown after recovering its own fumble.
The margin of being a playoff team versus enduring anguish became that close.
Although Florida delivered the final blow to the Rebels’ résumé, the Kentucky and LSU losses remain bitter pills for Kiffin.
“The first two (losses), I struggle with more, because you’re ahead,” Kiffin said, adding that his team played “flat” against Florida and failed to overcome a first-half injury to star receiver Tre Harris.
Dart is projected to be a first-round selection on Thursday in the 2025 NFL Draft after three seasons starting for Ole Miss. His former backup, Austin Simmons, is in line to become the starter for a Rebels team that figures to be ranked in the preseason Top 25, but must reconfigure after the departure of several prominent players.
Lane Kiffin: Playoff system ‘doesn’t have it right’
Two weeks before losing to Florida, the Rebels smashed Georgia. If the playoff committee had opted for a three-loss team with marquee victories, Ole Miss would have been a prime choice.
Kiffin aired repeated grievances after the committee’s selections of Indiana and SMU, teams with inferior strength of schedule metrics compared to Ole Miss.
The Rebels’ routs of Georgia and South Carolina dwarfed any triumph by Indiana or SMU. However, 11-win Indiana and ACC runner-up SMU avoided unsightly losses akin to Ole Miss’ home loss to Kentucky. Ole Miss was the only Power Four opponent Kentucky beat.
The committee faced a decision of what it valued most: strength of schedule and marquee victories or overall record and avoidance of a bad loss? Kiffin believes the committee showed its hand: Record is “by far the No. 1 part,” he said.
“The system doesn’t have it right,” Kiffin said. “I don’t think anybody, after watching the games, would say those are the best 12 teams in America. In my opinion, that’s what it should be: You should be getting the best teams.”
Penn State crushed SMU, the committee’s last team in, in the first round. Ole Miss routed short-handed Duke in a bowl game to finish 10-3.
Of the SEC’s three CFP qualifiers, only Texas won a playoff game. SEC teams combined for a 2-3 playoff record. The 2024 season won’t be remembered as a banner year for the conference.
I maintain that either Ole Miss or two-loss BYU – the Cougars beat SMU on the road during the regular season – would have been a better playoff choice than the Mustangs, but that the committee chose SMU because it did not want to penalize a team for losing its conference championship game.
Never mind that CFP rules list no specific protections for conference runners-up.
Lane Kiffin reveals preferred College Football Playoff format
The playoff will remain at 12 teams this season. The field could expand as soon as the 2026 season.
Kiffin favors a 16-team bracket with no byes and no automatic bids. Such a field would have included Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss and South Carolina as the extra four qualifiers last season.
“Sixteen teams, you’d get more people excited about it, more people in play,” Kiffin said, “and less (chance) for error by the committee.
“Forget giving (automatic bids). Figure out the best teams. Let an educated committee figure that out with analytics.”
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.