Step 1: Because USC had an opening in 2021, then-Penn State AD Sandy Barbour agreed to a fully-guaranteed 10-year, $75 million contract extension for James Franklin.
Step 2: Penn State fires James Franklin.
Step 3: Consensus in college football emerges that Penn State paying a $50-plus million buyout is ridiculous and unnecessary, and at some point an AD needs to call an agent’s bluff and not agree to a one-sided contract extension.
No one’s saying Indiana is going to fire Cignetti any time soon — this is college football, give it time — but we’re seeing in real time how cycles perpetuate themselves, because on Friday Ole Miss AD Keith Carter told Ole Miss Spirit he’s working to give his head coach Lane Kiffin “the Curt Cignetti.”
“Of course I’ve been talking with Jimmy and I’m going to be proactive with working out a deal with Lane and Jimmy,” Carter told the site. “I’d love to get something done like Indiana did with Curt Cignetti before the silly season starts. We’ll see. I believe Lane’s happy here, but you never know what can happen with coaches. That’s why I’m being proactive in this process.”
Kiffin is already making $9 million this year in a deal that runs through 2030 and automatically extends each year the Rebels win seven regular-season games. That trigger could fire as soon as Saturday afternoon, as the 5th-ranked, 6-0 Rebels face No. 9 Georgia (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Kiffin is 27-5 since 2022, with a 14-5 mark in SEC play. A win Saturday would put Ole Miss on the primrose path to their first College Football Playoff, with No. 14 Oklahoma the only remaining ranked team on their schedule and a 1- or 2-game mulligan in the bag.
“People said, ‘Oh you got here and helped Ole Miss football,'” Kiffin said last year, “[but] I needed Oxford a lot more than it needed me. Even since then, Landry at the time came here and went to Oxford High School, moved here with me to come to Ole Miss. It’s been really special, and I’m very appreciative of them bringing us here and embracing us. It’s been awesome.”
“If you just keep going and chasing, and you do that often, you’re missing things right in front of you. You’re always listening and looking, and that’s been a really common theme in my life from a job standpoint, and from a personal standpoint, of just missing what was right there in front of me. So, I think I view that much differently now.”
Kiffin has been linked to an anticipated opening at Florida, but it appears Carter is eager to negotiate against himself before any hypothetical negotiations against the Gators.