Pump the brakes on the 'Lane Kiffin must take the Florida job' narrative, and here's why

• The Florida head coach job is open.
• Lane Kiffin is a top-tier coach.
• Florida and Kiffin flirted with each other before.
• Florida will undoubtedly reach out to Lane Kiffin again.

These are the facts, and that's pretty much where the factual part of the whole "Lane Kiffin to Florida" narrative ends.

There are analysts and fans insisting that leaving Ole Miss and going to Florida would be the best move for Kiffin, but it's entirely possible those people are living in 1995, not 2025.

The assertion heard all-too-often is that Ole Miss is a mid-tier, middling, pedestrian SEC program, and that Kiffin could go to the more prestigious program and make them into a national champion.

The problem with that is, Florida is now the middling program, while Ole Miss has become one of the teams to beat in the SEC, and that's all because of Lane Kiffin and what he's brought to Oxford. As we've seen many times before (ask anyone in Bloomington) it's not always the program, but rather the program getting the right coach.

Of course Kiffin should consider the Florida job, and even use it as a bargaining tool to get more out of Ole Miss - he'd be silly not to. But that doesn't mean he should seriously consider taking the job.

Since the glory days of the Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer regimes, Florida has had the opportunity to hire five different head coaches. Keep in mind that up until Meyer left in 2010, Florida was still considered one of the premier jobs in the country. The hires that followed didn't match up with that picture.

From those coaching searches, Florida game up with Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen, and Billy Napier. In other words, it doesn't seem like some of the best coaches in the country were exactly clearing a path and running down to Gainesville.

There's no reason (maybe even less reason) any of that changes now as the search to replace Billy Napier gets underway. Florida is no longer regarded as a destination job, and many top coaches are more interested in doing a low-pressure reclamation job such as Kiffin has done at Ole Miss, or Curt Cignetti at Indiana.

Kiffin has turned Oxford, Mississippi into the destination Gainesville, Florida once was -- for recruits, transfers and assistant coaches. He has the Rebels on the verge of their first College Football Playoff berth, and has found a fan base that absolutely adores him at Ole Miss.

Why in the world would Kiffin want to leave that?

Lane Kiffin once said, "I wanted to be Steve Spurrier"

Well, don't look now, but you are, Lane. You are.

In short, Lane Kiffin has done for Ole Miss what Steve Spurrier once did for Florida, and there should be no turning back on that now. Kiffin should continue racking up the wins in Oxford and leaving his legacy as a championship-winning coach there.

Or start over from scratch with the Gators? No thanks.

Anyone who is viewing this as "Florida is the more alluring school and football program" is looking at it through orange-colored glasses (and probably wearing jorts). That's not who Florida is anymore, and they haven't been for some time.

Lane Kiffin has flipped that script, and things are much more charming and glamorous in Oxford than they are in Gainesville. He's in the right place at the right time. No need to chase what's already within his grasp.