Life’s pretty sweet for Lane Kiffin these days. Ole Miss is sitting at No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings, his offense looks lethal again, and perhaps most importantly, he’s getting to be just “Dad” for a few hours every Friday night. No headset. No play sheet. Just him, football fan, watching his son Knox Kiffin sling passes for Oxford High School. And yet, even that comes with its own rollercoaster.

When Lane Kiffin watches Knox, a 6-foot-2 sophomore QB for the Oxford Chargers, he gets a rare taste of what his own fans go through on Saturdays. “I don’t much. I stay out of it,” the Rebels HC admitted during his Monday presser. “I think Coach [Christopher] Cutcliffe does a great job with the team, with the offense, with the quarterbacks specifically. I just was never going to be that parent because I’ve dealt with a lot of parents like that and especially at that position. I try to be the refreshing quarterback parent.” That’s classic Kiffin, the calm in the chaos, even when his kid’s team trails by double digits.

Oxford’s latest thriller is a 33-23 comeback win over Clinton, where Knox Kiffin threw for 186 yards and two touchdowns on 9-of-16 passing. Down 16-7 at half, the Chargers outscored Clinton 26-7 in the second. If you thought Lane Kiffin was only fiery on the sidelines, try watching him as a dad during a one-score high school game. “It’s really cool to see that they just keep coming back,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll start a little faster. Now as a fan, I get it. Our fans hate that all our games were close and we’ve got to come back in some of them. I understand it now.”

There’s a bit of poetry here. Lane Kiffin once grew up as the coach’s kid, following Monte Kiffin around the NFL and college sidelines. Now, he’s watching his own son start carving out his story. Knox, already holding nine offers from SMU to East Carolina even visited Alabama over the weekend. Not bad for a Class of 2028 kid who just moved to Oxford. “I’m just excited that he gets the opportunity to play,” he said. “They’ve got such a cool team and they have all these comebacks. It was just awesome to watch. The whole thing is really cool watching him and then Landry my daughter is next to me watching him.”

Of course, being an SEC head coach comes with tradeoffs. When Ole Miss played at Oklahoma on Oct. 25, Lane Kiffin couldn’t be there in person for Knox’s heroics. “That’s an unfortunate part of it when you are not at your kid’s games when we have road games,” he said. “I don’t like that, but it is what it is. My dad had it, went through it.” And that’s the essence of Kiffin. Self-aware, grounded, but always in control of his own narrative.

Lane Kiffin’s coaching boundaries

It’s fitting that as Lane Kiffin reflects on family, the college football world keeps buzzing about his future.  Once the young rebel of the coaching ranks, he is now the hottest name in the rumor mill again. Florida, LSU, maybe. But Ole Miss sits one loss away from Playoff contention, and the HC seems content in Oxford for now.

“I’m not that far down the road,” Lane Kiffin said. “Everybody wants to talk about other jobs and everything and I think you are two or three weeks away from coaching for your own job.” He’s not lying. In this business, three losses can send you packing. Just ask James Franklin. But unlike his past exits from the Raiders, Tennessee, and USC, he’s finally found balance. His daughter Landry’s a student at Ole Miss. His wife Layla reconciled with him and even moved back to Oxford with Knox. Life, for once, is stable.

So no, Lane Kiffin may not be leaving anytime soon. His $9 million salary and a possible extension, his family’s proximity, and his son’s budding football career make Oxford feel like home. And if you catch him on a Friday night at an Oxford High game living and dying with every Knox throw, you’ll see a man who finally understands what it means to be both the coach and the fan.