“This dude's not 50 years old yet”: CFB analyst heaps praise on $14M worth Lane Kiffin’s inspiring journey

Modified Mar 19, 2025 15:34 GMT

Syndication: Florida Times-Union - Source: Imagn — CFB analyst heaps praise on $14M worth Lane Kiffin’s inspiring journey - Source: Imagn

College football analyst Josh Pate praised Ole Miss Rebels coach Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin is entering his sixth season as Ole Miss' head coach. He was previously the head coach of Tennessee, USC and Florida Atlantic. Kiffin has had a ton of success as a coach, and Pate has nothing but praise for what he has done in his career.

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"This dude's not 50 years old yet. You go all the way back to the Pete Carroll-Matt Leinart USC days," Pate said on Wednesday on his show, 'Josh Pate's College Football Show.' "He's then the Raiders head coach in his early 30s, he goes to Tennessee for one year as the head coach then bolts and it was a wild scene in Knoxville as he tried to get out of there.

He went to USC and then he gets fired. He's a whipping boy for Nick Saban for two years, but it yields fantastic results. And then, he's fired the week of the national title game. It was so bad... Kiffin goes to FAU and all he does is win, and then he gets the Ole Miss job. He's not 50 years old yet. It sounds like he's 114, he's not 50 years old yet. He's one of the best football coaches in America."

The college football analyst believes Kiffin is one of the best coaches in football. However, Kiffin has yet to lead his team to the playoffs or a national championship as a head coach.

Since taking over at Ole Miss, Kiffin has gone 44-18 but has yet to make it to an SEC championship game.

Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin admits main concern heading into season

Ahead of the 2025 college football season, Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss will look much different.

Kiffin has been one of the best coaches in the transfer portal, but the Rebels have lost several key players to the portal. Kiffin says losing that leadership and experience is a concern.

"Very concerned," Kiffin said, via Rebel Walk. "I mean, that’s a lot of experience, especially at quarterback. And so, I mean, that’s been a concern since the last game. And so just working with these guys and continuing to try to sign guys to bring in to help that that have started and played other places."

However, Kiffin believes his group will be able to overcome that and have success in 2025.

Ole Miss will open their season on Aug. 30 against Georgia State.

About the author

Cole is an NHL, NFL and College Sports reporter at Sportskeeda with over 7 years of experience writing for publications like CBC, USA Today, SMG, BJPENN, Sherdog and SB Nation.

An NHL fan his whole life, Cole played rep hockey in Canada from age 5 until 17 and grew up rooting for Martin St. Louis and the Tampa Bay Lightning. His all-time favorite players are Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, while Jon Cooper is his favorite coach of all time.

Cole attended Sheridan College and received his journalism degree in 2019. After decades of watching and reporting, he considers his knowledge of sports as his primary strength. He ensures that the same story has been reported by at least two reputed reporters before creating it.

Cole enjoys playing golf and spending time with friends and family when not reporting breaking stories. His favorite sports moment is from the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in overtime to beat Team USA for the gold medal.

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Edited by Abhimanyu Gupta