Wetzel: Was Al Davis right about Lane Kiffin?

Lane Kiffin will always regret it if he quits on his Ole Miss team.

He'll always have remorse if he decides to go take another job -- Florida or LSU -- right on the verge of leading a likely 11-1 Rebel team into the College Football Playoff. He'll never live down the fact he turned his back on a locker room ready to fight with him for a national title -- all for the perceived greener grass of Gainesville or Baton Rouge.

What kind of coach would do that?

This has nothing to do with what job offers more advantages or money or proximity to talent. It has nothing to do with the long term.

Timing is everything in life. Sometimes for the positive, sometimes not. That's how it works. Adults deal with it.

Kiffin may be free to walk from the Rebels, but everyone else is free to judge him if he does.

If he does, that judgment won't be positive.

Kiffin, 50, knows drama and setbacks. USC fired him at an airport. Nick Saban bounced him as an Alabama assistant just days before a national title game, convinced he was too focused on his next job as the coach at Florida Atlantic. Al Davis dumped him from the Oakland Raiders and declared he had been "conned" into hiring him in the first place.

Kiffin also knows he has rebuilt his reputation, especially of late in Oxford. A better coach. A better father. A better person. When not discussing football, he talks about how balanced, sober and happy his life has become.

"The whole good old days ... I'm in them right now," Kiffin said Saturday after defeating, coincidentally, Florida. "I just think people don't realize when they're in them. And then they get older and they say, 'Remember that it was great back then?' You know, I'm just fortunate to be in them."

Ole Miss is 10-1 heading into next week's season-finale against Mississippi State. The Rebels are primed to host a first-round playoff game, which would arguably be the biggest sporting event in the history of the state. That alone is a seminal moment for a school that has granted its coach every wish it could.

His success has made him a coveted coaching candidate, with two big-time programs seemingly willing to do anything to get him -- including ignoring the fact that they are hiring a guy who would walk out on the eve of the postseason.

In a perfect world, this decision would take place after the Ole Miss season. That isn't how the calendar works, though. UF and LSU need a coach. Returning talent needs to be convinced to stay. Recruits need to be identified.

The high school signing period begins on Dec. 3. The transfer portal opens on Jan. 2.

Ole Miss' first-round playoff game would occur on Dec. 19 or 20. Win, as Ole Miss would be favored to do, and the quarterfinals are on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

For Kiffin, it's either stay or go. There is no time to do both. Pledge your allegiance to Ole Miss or walk out and start anew. The former might cost him an opportunity that he always wanted. The latter, however, would define him.

The coach who quit on a playoff team? It's unthinkable.

Kiffin isn't saying much, other than general comments about how happy he is at Ole Miss.

"We're having a blast," Kiffin said Tuesday on the "Pat McAfee Show." Adding, "I love it here."

That said, members of Kiffin's family -- including ex-wife Layla and son Knox, a high school sophomore -- visited Gainesville and Baton Rouge in recent days, ESPN and others reported. Kiffin says Ole Miss hasn't given him an ultimatum timeline, but there is no time like the present to make a decision.

Kiffin should stay and see the season out; attempt to win, try to reach the Final Four or beyond, make the memories, and forge the deep bonds that coaching is supposed to be about.

This has nothing to do with the quality of the opportunity at LSU or Florida. Both schools offer immense resources, commitment and potential. Both sit in talent-rich states. Both have advantages that Ole Miss can't match, although here in the NIL/portal/revenue share era, the gap has closed.

In different circumstances, he could go; maybe he even should go.

Not in these circumstances, though. Not at this time. Not with a team this good, at a school this supportive, in a season this magical.

Certainly not without causing everyone to wonder if Al Davis was right all along.