It seems like there's a lot of "Kiffin always has his teams playing well", "Kiffin would dominate here", and "A&M should hire Kiffen" talk. I'm not sure he's fielded teams that are up to the standard that A&M demands. Let's take a look at Kiffin's five seasons at Ole Miss.

2020: Covid year, but they went 4-5 against an all SEC schedule. Considering how our fanbase reacted after this year's 8-4 season, we'd be very disappointed.

2021: 10-2 season, losses to Alabama and Auburn, missing Atlanta. Final CFP ranking was 8, and they lost to Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. They would have been the 8 seed, hosting Oklahoma State in round one.

2022: 8-4 season, losses to LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi State. Unranked in the final CFP ranking, and they lost to Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl.

2023: 10-2 season, losses to Alabama and Georgia. Final CFP ranking was 11, and they beat Penn State in the Peach Bowl. They would have been the 11 seed, playing Georgia on the road.

2024: 9-3 season, losses to Kentucky, LSU, and Florida. Final CFP ranking was 14, and they beat Duke in the Gator Bowl.

Has Kiffin done better than A&M? Yes, but it hasn't been great. He has fielded teams that lose most big games, occasionally win a big one, and occasionally lose head-scratching games to teams they shouldn't lose to.
2024 Ole Miss wasn't really any better than A&M. Instead of ND, they played Wake Forest, accounting for the extra win.
2021 and 2023 were good seasons for Lane, but he's failed to play in Atlanta or make the playoffs thus far, just as A&M has.

He's done next to nothing as a hfc. Neither has Elko for that matter but Kiffin has had a lot more at bats as a hfc

I think the idea is that Lane would've been a surefire upgrade over Jimbo. No more entire years of inept offense.

If that's why people around here like him, I can understand that. If anybody likes him because they think he's a NC-calliber coach, that's where they're smokin' crack

Kiffin has never won when it counted. Almost never beat the top dogs in conference, hardly even competed with the Saban Alabama teams. Sure, he finally beat Georgia this year, but like the OP pointed out, that came at the cost of losses to Kentucky, LSU, and FL. It's always something with him.

Right now he's looking like a better deal than Elko, but Elko is still kind of an unknown, which means he's still got the potential to be better. Kiffen is kind of a known quantity at this point, hiring him would be close to just giving up on getting a NC

Because modern football is centered around offense. Teams are only as good as their offenses.

OP, why the obsession over Elko? He is supposed to be a defensive mastermind and yet our defense was garbage this year and it is not like there was not any talent there. He failed at what he is supposed to do well. At least Lane does well on offense which is his specialty.

I am not a fan of any coach that avoided playing games due to COVID. It was a cop out and an excuse. Any head coach lost me when they did that.

Kiffin was 5-5 in his first season at Ole Miss. 2 seasons later he was 8-5. Wanting coaches gone after one season is crazy! Sark and Saban both would have had texags folks calling for their heads after their first year. Can you image the meltdown on this forum after Saban lost in year one to La-Monroe.

They just want it to work and they want it right now!

There's no real perspective on what it takes and the time it takes to make significant changes in an organization.

zb008 said:

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Because modern football is centered around offense. Teams are only as good as their offenses.

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The teams that win the big trophy always have great defenses. It's part of why coaches like Leach could score 50 per game but never win it big.

He's athletic jackass on Twitter and press conferences


Otherwise nobody gives a damn. He's mostly unremarkable otherwise

Same reason Leach is worshipped, innovative but flawed coach that whipped our ass with inferior teams.

zb008 said:

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Because modern football is centered around offense. Teams are only as good as their offenses.

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Yet his offense, with studs like Harris and dart, won 1 more regular season game than ours, which has people clamoring to fire Klein.

superunknown said:

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Same reason Leach is worshipped, innovative but flawed coach that whipped our ass with inferior teams.

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Pretty much.

And just the general fact that people forgive losses to other coaches that they would never forgive to ours.

Didn't we just do this thread?

https://texags.com/forums/5/topics/3520770/replies/69409189

Can't speak for all Aggies but it would be nice to consistently win 10 games. Kiffen does that and we have not had a coach to be able to accomplish that in many years.

TxAg76 said:

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zb008 said:

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Because modern football is centered around offense. Teams are only as good as their offenses.

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The teams that win the big trophy always have great defenses. It's part of why coaches like Leach could score 50 per game but never win it big.

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Leach also only had two and three star players to work with his entire coaching career. He overachieved considering the minimal talent he had at his disposal. Kiffin would have much more talent to work with than Leach ever did if he were to coach here.

TexasAggie_97 said:

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OP, why the obsession over Elko? He is supposed to be a defensive mastermind and yet our defense was garbage this year and it is not like there was not any talent there. He failed at what he is supposed to do well. At least Lane does well on offense which is his specialty.

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No Elko obsession from me. Year 1 was okay; the team had great moments but was very flawed.

halfastros81 said:

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They just want it to work and they want it right now!

There's no real perspective on what it takes and the time it takes to make significant changes in an organization.

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Water Boy said:

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Can't speak for all Aggies but it would be nice to consistently win 10 games. Kiffen does that and we have not had a coach to be able to accomplish that in many years.

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Been since the early 90s under rc since we've had back to back 10 win seasons

Rc had 10-2 in 1991
12-1 in 1992
10-2 in 1993
10-0-1 in 1994

That's the best stretch record wise in a&m football history

Kiffin keeps himself in the press more for his mouth than his coaching abilities. Yeah, he's a good coach. Well, above average but while we might be Texas 8&4 Kiffin is only marginally better. He's gone 5-5, 10-3, 8-5, 11-2, and 10-3 during his time at Ole Miss and more than a handful of those losses have been to teams he should have easily defeated. He strikes me as the type of coach that will ultimately be one of those coaches forever tagged with the label "almost". He'll almost get there every few years but will come up short again and again.

Would he be an upgrade over Elko? My gut says yes but he would never get us to the ultimate goal of winning it all.

I think for the most now it's bc they are doing the same thing Lane does. Just trolling.

Pet Sounds said:

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Probably because he'd actually field a competent offense here the likes of which we haven't seen in years.

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This is definitely the only reason.

Ags want the second coming of Jackie and some people think Kiffen is the guy

Because much of the zoo has the same jackass petulant mentality as him.

Exactly

Because chad morris turned out to be an embarrassing flop amd the same goofballs that pumped him for 5 years now want the lying cheater.

If you can't beat 'em, hate 'em!

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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superunknown said:

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Same reason Leach is worshipped, innovative but flawed coach that whipped our ass with inferior teams.

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Pretty much.

And just the general fact that people forgive losses to other coaches that they would never forgive to ours.

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100% this

Nm

So what

Just like Leach, he loses games he should not lose all the time.

Both RC and Jimbo's crap offensive teams were set up perfect to lose to them. But both Leach and Kiffin lose to other teams they should not bc of their coaching flaws.

LB12Diamond said:

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So what

Just like Leach, he loses games he should not lose all the time.

Both RC and Jimbo's crap offensive teams were set up perfect to lose to them. But both Leach and Kiffin lose to other teams they should not bc of their coaching flaws.

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Saban lost to Texas at home and to Michigan in the playoffs last year. Alabama was favored by several points in both of those games, so I guess that means he sucked according to your logic.

CoachLB said:

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Kiffin was 5-5 in his first season at Ole Miss. 2 seasons later he was 8-5. Wanting coaches gone after one season is crazy! Sark and Saban both would have had texags folks calling for their heads after their first year. Can you image the meltdown on this forum after Saban lost in year one to La-Monroe.

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This is what gets me. Elko may or may not be the answer. But wanting him gone after one year is ridiculous.