Do you remember the half-hour cartoon show called “The Jetsons”?

The futuristic 1962 prime-time half-hour cartoon became ABC’s very first color television program shown by the network.  After a one-year run in the evenings, reruns of “The Jetsons” remained on Saturday mornings for decades.

The show’s premise involved a space-aged middle-class office worker named George Jetson and his family (including the family dog, Astro) as they dealt with issues of the day (which were remarkably like today’s).

One particular episode introduced an extremely smart and sophisticated computerized robot “genius” named UniBlab. 

The president of George Jetson’s company president bought UniBlab to improve efficiency and reduce the number of workers (including, of course, George Jetson).

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now doing the same thing to many jobs today.  Let’s return to that subject a bit later.

All Hail to “King” Kiffin and his SEC Court

This week’s college football coaching carousel has one particular man being flown around and treated like a king in both Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Gainesville, Florida.

Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin already makes $9 million per year.  His 10-1 Rebels are a virtual lock to play in their first College Football Playoff game in December.

The Ole Miss Rebels have this week off as they prepare for a regular season finale against intrastate rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl game a week from Friday in Starkville.

Coach Lane Kiffin was already the toast of Oxford, Mississippi.  The school’s athletics director has offered the football coach a very generous contract extension which currently is awaiting Kiffin’s signature – if he wants to remain the football coach at Ole Miss.

November is a big season for hunters.

Two of the SEC’s “Big Name” hunters are trying to bag a very expensive trophy named Lane Kiffin during this week’s open season on football coaches.

LSU (which fired Brian Kelly) and Florida (ditto for Billy Napier) are openly courting Lane Kiffin to leave northern Mississippi and lead their SEC football programs next season.

Both schools are expected to dangle upwards of $12 million per season to lure “King” Kiffin away from multitudes of his loyal subjects in Oxford, Mississippi.

A fool and his money…???

At what point will major college football programs learn their lesson about signing coaches to long-term multi-million dollar contracts which require the payment of tens of millions of dollars if the deal doesn’t work out?

There are plenty of wealthy benefactors at the University of Florida and LSU.  Ole Miss has its share of big money supporters, too.

Most every major college football program today has wealthy alumni and fans who will gladly fork-over the money with one string attached.

The new coaching hire must bring about the required return on investment made by the big rollers.

It’s called, “Our team must make it into the College Football Playoffs and compete for a national championship nearly every year!”

But what if it doesn’t?

A little over a year ago, Penn State won its first game in the first 12-team College Football Playoffs.  The Nittany Lions clobbered SMU 38-10 in Round 1.  They beat Boise State 31-14 in Round 2.  PSU then lost a squeaker to Notre Dame 27-24 in the national semifinals.

By any measure, Penn State had a fantastic season in 2024.

Did the team’s success in 2024 help Coach James Franklin keep his job this fall?

Penn State fired its 12th year head football coach in October after the Nittany Lions lost three straight games following a 3-0 start.  During his tenure with Penn State, Coach James Franklin’s teams won 70% of their games in what has become known recently as “Unhappy” Valley.

James Franklin wasn’t unemployed for very long.

Earlier this week, Coach Franklin found a new coaching home as he will lead Virginia Tech’s football program in 2026.

Yes, it is true that Coach James Franklin still hasn’t won a national championship.

Then again, neither has Virginia Tech.

Neither had coach Brian Kelly (Western Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and LSU).

Ditto for coach Billy Napier (UL-Lafayette and Florida).

This week’s rock star head coach (Lane Kiffin) hasn’t come close to winning a national championship, either

Lane Kiffin is the well-traveled 50-year old son of legendary NFL defensive guru Monte Kiffin.

The younger Kiffin played quarterback at Fresno State.  He quickly became a top college football assistant coach.  Kiffin worked his way up into the offensive coordinator position at the University of Southern California beginning in 2005.

In 2007, the NFL’s Oakland Raiders hired 31-year old Lane Kiffin to become the youngest head football coach in franchise history.  After going 4-12 in his first NFL season, Kiffin was fired by Oakland the following season after a 1-3 start.

Lane Kiffin returned to college football in 2009 as the head coach at the University of Tennessee. 

After posting a 7-6 record during his first season in Knoxville, Lane Kiffin shocked Vol Nation by leaving to take the top job at USC in January, 2010.

Coach Kiffin had three seasons of mild success with the Trojans before he was fired in late September, 2013 after losing two straight conference games early in his fourth season at USC.  Ironically, future LSU head coach Ed Orgeron replaced Kiffin as the interim head coach for the USC Trojans for the remainder of that regular season.

Coach Nick Saban hired Lane Kiffin to become Alabama’s offensive coordinator a few months later in January, 2014.

Kiffin performed well enough to be offered the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton (Fort Lauderdale area) beginning in 2017.

The FAU Owls went 11-3, 5-7, and 10-3 before Lane Kiffin was hired by Ole Miss beginning with the 2020 football season.

Lane Kiffin is now in his sixth year with the Rebels.  His Ole Miss football teams have produced a 74% winning percentage with four ten-win seasons in six years.

Despite that success, Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels have not played in either the SEC Championship game or the College Football Playoffs. At least not yet.

So, why does everyone want Lane Kiffin?

This is purely a supply vs. demand problem.

There are ten FBS college football teams searching for a new head coach.  The now 50-year old Lane Kiffin has acquired a great deal of experience and (perhaps) a bit of humility in his coaching journeys.

Kiffin has also admitted that he is a recovering alcoholic for nearly five years.  He has become closer than ever to his family since taking the job at Ole Miss in 2020.

Lane Kiffin is what I would call an “old soul” to be such a relatively young major college football coach.  His ability to recruit top players and assistant coaches for his staff have helped to make him the nation’s biggest coaching “get” on the market.

However, Lane Kiffin will become the most hated man in the state of Mississippi for at least the next decade if should accept the top job at either Florida or LSU soon.

Which brings us back to The Jetsons

Why pay tens of millions of dollars to the next football coach (and an expensive assistant coaching staff) at Florida, LSU, Penn State, etc. if the new coach has such a small chance of succeeding?

Remember 2022, Gator Nation?  Fans were giddy about their SEC title possibilities after they hired a former Nick Saban assistant coach named Billy Napier to become Florida’s newest head football coach.

Ditto for LSU after they wrangled Coach Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame to coach for the Tigers starting in 2022.

How did those deals work out for you?

Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) could mean that (let’s say) Grok from Twitter might have a high statistical chance of replicating the success of most major college football coaches in game planning and play-calling.

We already know that most major college football teams (especially Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels) lean heavily on advanced analytics and statistical models to make key decisions – especially on certain “down and distance” play calls.

What if a college football team which rarely posts winning seasons (such as the UL-Monroe Warhawks) was to hire a cheaper and smaller group of under-30 coaches and fully utilize AI to find and sign key players, develop weekly game plans, and recommend play calls during the game?

The money saved on the team’s coaching staff could be rolled into paying for better players.

What would a struggling college football team have to lose by trying such an approach?

The continued bidding war for both football coaches and players may put the proverbial nail in the coffin for a number of current FBS programs – even with the increased revenue from television and media deals.

Perhaps hiring Coach AI UniBlab to run your favorite team may be coming sooner than you think!

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