JAKE’S TAKE: This week makes Ole Miss the answer to a trivia question I never saw coming

Once the scoreboard reads triple zeros late Saturday night and, hopefully, No. 16 Ole Miss has its second conference victory of the season in its back pocket the Rebels become the answer to a unique trivia question.

It is one, at least for me, that I can humbly admit I never saw coming. When Ole Miss and Arkansas conclude its game then, and only then, will Lane Kiffin have his longest-tenured job of his coaching career.

The man who has been known to not stay very long in one spot, whether by his choice or others, will have made Oxford his longest home in his professional career.

Besides Ole Miss, Kiffin has coached into the fourth season of his tenure at only other place — Southern California. We all know the story of how that ended. In fact it was the 10-year anniversary of the infamous ‘Tarmac Firing’ last Thursday.

So how does Ole Miss usurp USC as Kiffin’s longest job? Well glad you asked.

Once the Arkansas game is in the books it marks the sixth game of Kiffin’s fourth season, which is one-better than the five games Kiffin lasted during the Trojan’s 2013 season before he was fired after the loss at Arizona State on September 28 of that year.

My how things have changed over the last 10 years, too.

In Los Angeles the Trojan faithful could not help pack Kiffin’s bags fast enough then the loss to Sun Devils was the final nail in kiffin’s Hollywood nightmare.

Fast forward to 2023 and Kiffin has found himself getting wrapped tighter and tighter by the ‘Velvet Ditch’ that is Oxford. Though, this did not seem the case 11 months ago when the Auburn head-coaching job opened up.

Just last week the seat was starting to get warmed up again after yet another loss at Alabama.

But then the shootout win over LSU happened and Kiffin got Ole Miss’ season back between the ditches.

A lot has taken place over the first three-plus seasons of Kiffin’s time in Oxford. It started with the pandemic and a 2020 season that finished with a 5-5 record and a win over a Top-10 Indiana team in Tampa Bay.

Follow it up with the historic 10-2 regular season in 2021 and a trip to the Sugar Bowl, which did not have the storybook ending Ole Miss wanted. Then there was the 2022 season.

If there was going to be any grumblings similar to the ones Kiffin started hearing in Los Angeles 10 years ago they would have been started as a grassroot swell that was the back half of last season and the slide that resulted in finishing 8-5 and an embarrassing loss to Texas Tech in Houston last December.

But time heals all wounds and an offseason with more success in the transfer portal and an encouraging spring got everyone back on the same page.

A 3-0 start with a road win over a ranked Tulane team also got spirits high, but then Tuscaloosa was calling. Ole Miss laid an egg and all hope seemed lost and a season was in the balance before October.

Then, as Kiffin has show time and time again at Ole Miss, he manages to find a way to pull things out of the fire and recover. The Rebels 55-49 win over a Top-15 LSU last weekend is more proof of that.

It is also proof that maybe Kiffin is learning from setbacks quicker than he was 10 years ago as a young head coach in his mid-30s trying to navigate bringing a major program out of a dark time under the scrutiny of the Tinseltown media.

Kiffin was tasked with doing the same thing here in Oxford, though under not as intense of circumstances.

Ole Miss was floundering after the departure of Hugh Freeze and the lengthy NCAA investigation.

This job is going to take more work and possibly the toughest challenge of Kiffin’s career. For a moment it did not seem like he was going to stick around to see it through, but something changed in him over the last year, or so he claims, that has given him new perspective on his work-life balance.

Ole Miss feels like a program that is just on the cusp of crossing over the line that divides those teams that have those special seasons every few years or long then takes a step back and the other teams that have wins like the one last weekend for breakfast.

Kiffin is closer to his fifth year at a program than he ever has been before and who would have thought Ole Miss would be the answer to that question?

I can definitely say I did not, but here we are with yet another potentially special season on the horizon.

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