"He's in demand, but he's still here": Insider gives high regard to Lane Kiffin for bringing Ole Miss to national spotlight

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has led the Rebels for the past five seasons. After a weak 5-5 2020 season, he has had four-straight winning seasons. In three of those seasons, his teams had 10 or more wins, making it one of the strongest stretches for the program in recent memory.

On Thursday, Josh Pate posted a video on his YouTube channel talking about many of the top SEC coaches. One of the coaches he discussed was Lane Kiffin. He spoke about how Kiffin has built an incredible program at Ole Miss despite some difficult circumstances (Timestamp 3:35).

"So much is said about Lane Kiffin in an extra curricular manner that people forget he's a pretty good football coach," Pate said. "He's built a really good program there. He's done it in an atypical fashion. He hasn't stacked top seven recruiting classes there because he knows that's not the kind of restaurant they're running there. He's done it via the portal."

Pate then continued, speaking about how Kiffin has been loyal to the Rebels despite receiving offers from other programs.

"His names been out there for other jobs and he hasn't gone," Pate said. "Forget about the details, if I'm an Ole Miss fan, I just know our coach is winning, he's in demand, but he's still here. He's done a phenomenal job endearing himself to the community and I think there's a lot of authenticity in this."

Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels are in the mix to land four-star recruit Tylan Wilson

Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels had a strong 2025 recruiting class. According to ESPN, they signed 13 four-star recruits and 10 three-star recruits. Despite not signing a five-star recruit, it was still a strong class.

While Kiffin and his staff are likely happy with what they were able to achieve on the recruiting front in 2025, it is already time to look ahead to 2026. On Wednesday, it was reported that the Rebels are in the mix to land four-star safety Tylan Wilson. According to a report from On3, he will announce his commitment on July 18.

There are four teams reportedly in the mix to get Wilson's commitment: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Clemson and Arkansas. Wilson is expected to visit all four teams before he makes his commitment in July. He would be a big addition for the Rebels, considering two of their star safeties from last season, John Saunders Jr. and Trey Washington, are now in the NFL.