OXFORD, Miss – Lane Kiffin is a system failure.
The NCAA announced last week that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would grant one more year of eligibility for all fall athletes, whether they decide to participate this season or not. It’s a massive victory for almost every single football player at the school, however, in Kiffin’s eyes, this resolution penalizes the players who transferred this off-season.
Ole Miss’s freshman coach made headlines last week when he tweeted about Tennessee offensive lineman Cade Mays seeking eligibility after moving from Georgia. But Mays is not the only former Georgian playr to be eligible for the SEC this season. Ole Miss Security Otis Reese, a former four-star rookie who has played 25 games in the more than two seasons in Georgia, is also struggling to play in 2020.
Reese has not yet gotten an NCAA reaction in his call despite the fact that the season opener for the Rebels is September 26. Kiffin said Reese would be a starter for his team if he won his eligibility, but there’s no way of knowing how the NCAA will rule on his appeal.
This creates what Kiffin calls the “system failure.”
“These guys who are sitting, sitting and losing that year,” Kiffin said. “Let’s take someone who’s sitting and has a year to play next year. Well, I would have had a lazy year this year, so they’d have two seasons to play. Now someone like that has only one season to play.”
“Or Otis, I’d have three seasons to play now. Now he’ll sit down and only have two. It’s pretty good for everyone, but he’s fucking those guys.”
Players like Reese and Mays are caught in the crossfire of NCAA inconsistency in movement decisions. Ole Miss enthusiasts will be the large number of former rebels such as Field Marshal Shea Patterson and recipient Van Jefferson who were promptly eligible for new schools after Ole Miss was kicked out of the bowl. But, as Kiffin pointed out last week, the NCAA did not grant the same privilege to players whose seasons were canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s not just Reese, either. Kiffin said Ole Miss is still waiting for NCAA news about the eligibility of defensive back Deane Leonard, who transferred to Ole Miss from a school in Canada where the NCAA has no jurisdiction.
Kiffin said the NCAA did not provide updates on player eligibility cases. Compliance departments conduct inquiries and appeals, and the NCAA issues its verdict every time it does so.
This makes it difficult for trainers like Kiffin to assemble an intensity table, especially in a year like this where there were no spring practices and the lists are evolving due to COVID-19 testing and quarantine.
“Obviously, there’s an emergency, ” said Kiffin. “When they don’t answer you, you don’t know how to make up the players. Here’s a guy (Reese) who would make a headline for us and we don’t even know where to make it up because we don’t know. Whether he’ll play or not. That makes it difficult.”
The conditions for Reese and Leonard are pitiful. Especially for Ole Miss, who Kiffin said was limited to high school through injuries and complications from COVID-19.
But the way the NCAA handles movement exemptions will be the only lasting effect of COVID-19 on school football. Kiffin anticipates a much larger appearance effect that will replace the way groups manage the list for part of a decade.
“What I thought the other day was that for the next 4 years you’re going to have a lot of graduate transfers,” Kiffin said. “And you’re going to have transfers of two-year-old graduates that you rarely see. People are going to finish school. The year does not count, however, other people are going to finish their academic studies. I think I see a lot of graduate transfers from next year, but over the next 4 years, actually.”
Follow Nick Suss on Twitter: @nicksuss.