The Lane Kiffin Saga Shows Why You Should Never Cry For Coaches

What's a college football season if you don't end it covered in shame? This year was even more shame-drenched than usual, especially if you held the most heralded position on the field: head coach. This season saw more mid-season coach firings than ever before, a knock-on effect of the arms race to get programs in top condition before the recruit- and transfer-signing bonanza begins. This new reality has been hard on poor old coaches, who find it totally unfair that fans and ADs demand they win just because they are paid an exorbitant amount of money to win. They're just widdle guys, they can't help going 4-8 some years.

But this past weekend exposes the truth of what coaching has become for those at the peak. For the past two weeks, everyone has been on #LaneWatch, wondering if Lane Kiffin was going to do the most obvious thing in the world and take a better, more prestigious job over staying at an Ole Miss program that has been born again under his stewardship. The ultimate fate of the school he's jilting isn't of much actual concern—nobody really gives a fuck about Ole Miss. The angle people do care about is whether the jiltees would let the jilter coach the team in the playoff on his way out the door.