Why Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach are a measuring stick for SEC football success | Adams

The SEC Media Days are not the best forum for Lane Kiffin. The third-year Ole Miss football coach is more apt to excel in a smaller room or on Twitter.

Nonetheless, a media event of this nature doesn’t rule out the possibility of Kiffin bolstering a reporter’s notebook. He didn't disappoint on the first day of the media gathering in Atlanta.

He joked about not wearing a tie and suggested commissioner Greg Sankey should feel free to do the same.

"Why are we supposed to wear a tie?" he asked. "Just because it was done before?"

He also repeated his consistently strong stance on the NCAA's decision to allow players to make money off their name, image and likeness.

"If you legalize cheating, get ready for the people with the most money to have the best players," he said.

And of course, there was the obligatory reference to golf balls — the one thrown at him at Neyland Stadium last season and the one he threw as a ceremonial first pitch before the Tennessee-Ole Miss baseball game in Oxford, Mississippi.

"I had a plan," he said with his usual deadpan expression. "I wanted our guys to stay humble and not play very well (UT swept the series). Then go win a national championship (which it did). That was the plan."

But neither Kiffin's humor nor penchant for making headlines should obscure his coaching.

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As a college head coach, he has won wherever he has been — Tennessee, Southern California, Florida Atlantic, and now Ole Miss, where his Rebels are coming off a historic 10-win season.

Such success isn’t foreign to mid-level SEC schools. “What comes next?” is of greater significance.

Could one 10-win season lead to another?

In Ole Miss’ case, the best answer is “maybe,” mainly because of Kiffin’s track record for offense and recent success in plucking productive players from the transfer portal.

The Rebels again have reloaded through the portal, adding accomplished running backs Zach Evans from TCU and Ulysses Bentley from SMU, as well as Southern California quarterback Jaxson Dart and Louisville wide receiver Jordan Watkins to what could be another potent offense. And, just as Kiffin did last year, he has bolstered his defense with more transfers.

A schedule that is lighter on the front end could serve a team well that’s looking to build confidence while assimilating newcomers. It’s conceivable Ole Miss could be 7-0 when it travels to LSU in late October. That will begin a brutal stretch, which includes Texas A&M, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi State.

The SEC is at its competitive best when its mid-section is strong. The state of Mississippi is a reliable measuring stick.

Rarely has that state had two SEC coaches the caliber of Kiffin and Mississippi State third-year coach Mike Leach, a two-time national coach of the year who had 11-win seasons at underdog programs like Texas Tech and Washington State before succeeding Dan Mullen at Mississippi State.

Leach, who is on Tuesday’s media itinerary, can match Kiffin’s deadpan humor and far surpass his quirkiness with obscure references to Indians and pirates. But such peripheral matters shouldn’t distract you from his coaching. And he will be coaching one of college football’s most experienced teams.

Record-setting quarterback Will Rogers returns, as do four of Mississippi State’s top five receivers. The Bulldogs also return nine defensive starters.

Mississippi State’s schedule looks more troublesome than Ole Miss’, particularly since it draws defending national champion Georgia from the East.

Georgia is well versed in the pitfalls of an SEC schedule, so it should be savvy enough not to overlook a November trip to Starkville, Mississippi, even though the game is sandwiched between East matchups Tennessee and Kentucky.

The allure of SEC football is obvious, whether you are looking for increased revenue or raised status. Oklahoma and Texas already have found the attraction irresistible and will move from the less heralded Big 12 to the SEC no later than 2025. But I wonder whether programs eager to join the SEC can see beyond the conference’s enormous benefits to the challenges it can pose in football.

Those challenges aren’t limited to competing with Alabama and Georgia for a berth in the College Football Playoff. Ole Miss and Mississippi State also can derail a higher ranked team's promising season — especially when coaches like Kiffin and Leach are calling the shots.

"Going to the SEC is a whole other animal," Kiffin said. It’s a different world.

"It’s ahead of the game."

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: SEC Media Days: Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach show MS football strength