Lane Kiffin shares his frustration on Wake Forest's decision to cancel 2025 matchup: "Unwritten rule not to do that"

Coach Lane Kiffin led the No. 5 Ole Miss Rebels to a dominant 40-6 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem during week three of college football action on Saturday. With a perfect 3-0 record, the Rebels are generating high expectations for both the SEC (Southeastern Conference) and the college football playoff this season.

Following the blowout win, Wake Forest immediately pulled out of next year's fixture against Ole Miss next year, which was a part of a home-and-home series. The Demon Deacons will pay the Rebels $1 million as part of the cancellation.

During Monday's news conference, the charismatic Kiffin expressed his frustration with the Demon Deacons' decision.

"That's rarely ever done," Lane Kiffin said. "I've never really heard of doing it, and it really puts us at a big disadvantage. It is what it is. It obviously wasn't appreciated very much, them putting us in that situation. Now we've got to go find somebody and most people are all scheduled up. And even when you find somebody, you've got to go pay them. It's kind of an unwritten rule not to do that, actually."

The withdrawal of Wake Forest from the game that was slated to be played on September 13, 2025, means that the Ole Miss Rebels have to find a Power 4 team to play against or get a waiver from the SEC to face nonconference teams.

"That's not what we want to do, but they may have put us in an unavoidable situation not to," Kiffin said. "I really find it amazing that you wait until the week of the game to tell the team."

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Lane Kiffin linked to Florida Gators job

Ever since he turned around the fortunes of the Ole Miss Rebels, Lane Kiffin has been linked to several lucrative jobs, most prominently the Auburn Tigers job but he has stayed in Oxford for five years.

With the Florida Gators' slide under coach Billy Napier going unchecked, Kiffin was linked to the job by CBS Sports analyst Josh Pate during a recent episode of "Crain & Company."

"(Kiffin would leave Florida for Ole Miss) In a heartbeat," Pate said. "Lane Kiffin would walk to Florida if they would give him the job. This is not a debate. I've got Ole Miss people in my very close social circle and they fight me on this. They're like 'What can you do at Florida that you can't do at Ole Miss?'"

Lane Kiffin has extensive ties to Ole Miss with his daughter Landry attending school there while his son Knox is set to join according to ESPN. Whether or not he would break ties to take the lucrative job in Gainesville would be an interesting development to observe.