The Ole Miss Rebels have suddenly found themselves as the popular darling underdogs in the College Football Playoffs, and it may be because Lane Kiffin left them high and dry for some more money at LSU. This only got amplified even more when the Rebs defeated the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs and made it all the way to the Fiesta Bowl and the final four of the CFP.
This dynamic has fascinated many of the experts, including college football insider Dan Orlovsky, who compared the Lane Kiffin situation at Ole Miss to what has happened to the Dallas Cowboys and their $13,000,000,000-worth owner, Jerry Jones. Like Jones, fans have grown to despise Kiffin and have grown to embrace the Rebels.
“Proving people wrong is a powerful drug, and that’s the Ole Miss players right now, and Lane Kiffin has become a little bit like Jerry Jones. He’s made Ole Miss America’s team,” said Orlovsky. “Everybody wants to see Ole Miss win, and now all these players brought into the program because of Lane Kiffin are like, ‘we are gonna do it without you.'”
“You left and chose them, LSU, instead of us,” he added. “But now they’re like, we are gonna do it without you.”
The team’s recent CFP success has endeared the Rebels to many, especially as the team is trying to prove their doubters wrong that they could not make it to the semifinals, let alone the finals, without the head coach who more or less built the team. After bulldozing Tulane in the first round, the Rebs dug deep and upset No. 3 Georgia and booked a date against another unlikely contender in the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes.
Lane Kiffin Still Earned A Bonus For Ole Miss’ Win Over Georgia
For his part, Kiffin did try to coach the Rebels for the CFP, but the school did not allow him to. In addition, his new contract over at LSU states that his new employer will be paying him his bonuses should Ole Miss do well in the CFP. This means that he will be earning extra for each playoff win and he will also be earning that big fat cheque for winning the national title.
For Ole Miss beating Georgia, Kiffin will reportedly be getting a $500,000 bonus for that win. This was originally an additional 150,000 for making it to the CFP and then rose to $250,000 for beating Tulane. This could rise to $1 million should his old team beat Miami on Thursday.
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