Lane Kiffin insists his mind is ... not made up on where he'll coach football next season.
And while it will not be in Gainesville, Florida, for the Florida Gators, Kiffin has positioned Ole Miss to play at least one more game -- if not two or more -- that could be the most important in the history of the Ole Miss football program.
Kiffin's sixth Ole Miss squad won its fifth 'Egg Bowl' Friday afternoon when it dismantled rival Mississippi State, 38-19, at Davis Wade Field in Starkville.
He was asked postgame if he had made a coaching decision during his on-field interview.
"No, I haven't. I've got a lot of praying to do to figure that out tomorrow, but right now I'm just going to go enjoy these players. I told them last night, 'You're going to go win your 11th game and all I want to do is experience joy watching you.' That's what I'm about to do."
If Kiffin has coached his last regular-season game as Ole Miss head coach -- sources have repeatedly told FootballScoop that LSU is prepared to formalize a more than $100 million contract offer, which Ole Miss has said it would match -- then his Rebels not only posted a dominant victory but also absorbed overnight break-ins to the team's locker room and an in-game brawl between both teams.
"Well, I think it's an unbelievable job by these players," Kiffin said of his team's program-record 11th regular-season win. "We only returned two starters from last year, I think we were picked something like ninth in the conference ... We played a great second half. ...
"I'm just really happy for our fans, for our players."
Kiffin also shot down the notion that his team would arrive to the 'Egg Bowl' distracted by the external pursuit of Kiffin's coaching services.
"All the stuff that dealt with all week, from outside people saying they were distracted with noise, this is what these guys do," he said. "They've been dealing with it for a long time. I think it actually brings them together and they play like that because of all the stuff outside."
He added, "Well, if you get to 11 wins ... you do something better than it's ever been done before in the entire state, getting to 11 regular-season wins, and then I think this is three 'Egg Bowls' in a row, first time in over 20 years for Ole Miss. It's really remarkable what these players, assistant coaches were able to this season."
Now? Kiffin's seemingly set his own Ole Miss-LSU deadline. He's also positioned the Rebels to potentially play in next Saturday's SEC Championship -- which would also be another program-first -- depending the outcomes of other games around the conference, notably Alabama at Auburn and Texas A&M at Texas.
Otherwise, Kiffin's decision will come about eight days before Ole Miss learns its College Football Playoff path. The Rebels are seen as locks for an at-large bid if they do not end up sliding into the SEC title bout, and they did nothing in this game to lose the inside track of hosting an opening-round game in the 12-team CFP.