Lane Kiffin: Kirby Smart taking control of coaches’ room at SEC Spring Meetings

By Mike Griffith, DawgNation

May 29, 2024 at 10:47 am EDT

Jalon Walker (UGA Sports Comm) Jalon Walker (11) during Georgia's game against Ole Miss on Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. (Tony Walsh/UGAAA) (Tony Walsh/Tony Walsh/UGAAA)

By Mike Griffith, DawgNation

May 29, 2024 at 10:47 am EDT

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — When Kirby talks, coaches listen.

That’s essentially what Lane Kiffin was saying at the SEC Spring Meetings at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort.

“It was very strange not having Coach Saban,” Kiffin said after the coaches gathered to meet and discuss issues on Tuesday. “I think Kirby took the lead there.”

Kiffin enters his fourth season at Ole Miss as the third-longest tenured coach in the SEC, hired on Dec. 7, 2019.

Kentucky’s Mark Stoops (Nov. 27, 2012) has the longest current reign at his school, followed by Smart (Dec. 1, 2015) after Nick Saban retired from Alabama.