Another week, another coaching firing in college football.

On Sunday, LSU became the latest program to move on from their head coach, firing Brian Kelly after three and a half seasons with the team. Once again, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is already being called a potential candidate for that head coaching vacancy, like he was last week after Florida fired Billy Napier.

Kiffin's name quickly became linked to the Florida vacancy due to his ties to Gainesville and the program. LSU is now arguably the top head coach opening in the country, with some believing it's an opportunity he couldn't turn down if offered.

Though Kiffin has not outright said he wouldn't leave Ole Miss for one of those programs, he does have greater ties to Oxford these days. His daughter, Landry, attends Ole Miss, and even helped convince her dad to stay at the program in 2023 as he mulled the chance to coach at Auburn. Whatever decision Kiffin does end up making this time around, he says it will not be because of money.

“I've never based a decision off of money and I never will," Kiffin said Monday on the Pat McAfee Show. "I’ve seen too many examples in life where money does not buy happiness. I am never going to make a decision over money, nor do I care about it. [My agent] Jimmy Sexton gets really mad when I say that. ‘We gotta get this, we gotta get this.’ I’m like, ‘Jimmy, I don’t care.’ He goes, ‘I do!’”

Kiffin did share that he addressed his players about the Florida rumors before their last week, but noted that it's not necessarily surprising to them because they are going through a similar experience. "Basically the same thing happens to them," Kiffin told McAfee. "They have a good game, what happens? Our freshman receiver has a good game, Saturday night he's got three calls from places telling him, 'Hey, come here. We'll give you more money.' That's what happens. They deal with this all the time. ... I don't think it's that big a deal to them."

As for the firing of Kelly, Kiffin called the news "very surprising," but views all this as part of the ever-shifting college football landscape.

"It's the college world we're living in," Kiffin told reporters on Monday. "... The players now are like NFL players, how they're paid. I feel like the college coaches now are like NFL coaches, the firings happen quicker. NFL coaches you see all the time, they get one or two years. In college that doesn't happen because it's harder to build a roster and they give you more time. It's obviously not the case now.

Kiffin continued, "I think it's a product of things that happened. [Mike] Elko doing such a great job at A&M puts in peoples' heads that these buyouts are ridiculous to pay, but I'm sure A&M is sitting there going, 'Okay, yeah, that was ridiculous to pay, but feel pretty good about that right now.' Anytime something works, other people go, 'Well let's go do that.'

While a number of coaches and programs have struggled to adapt or find success in the modern era of college football which resembles the NFL more and more, Kiffin is one of the coaches that has. Since Kiffin has been able to turn Ole Miss into a contender, he will naturally remain a top option for schools looking for their next coach, but the choice will be up to him.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lane Kiffin Makes Honest Admission About Money Amid LSU Opening, Coaching Buzz.

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