Lane Kiffin's Rough Monday: Impact on Notre Dame Football and Deuce Knight

Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss lost a few key commitments. Could this affect Notre Dame, and more specifically, landing Deuce Knight?

Dec 30, 2023; Atlanta, GA, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin after a victory against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The health of a college football program is built on recruiting. Regardless of how much the transfer portal and NIL play a role, ultimately, if you're not recruiting at a high level and developing that talent, then you're not going to be long for the job.

Lane Kiffin, head coach at Ole Miss, has been on quite the run. Ole Miss has rocked the transfer portal over the years and did even better this off-season. Now the Rebels will enter 2024 as a top-10 team and a real threat to make the College Football Playoff.

Kiffin has a lot of things going for him but Monday was anything but the sort. Ole Miss started the day with 12 commitments in the 2025 recruiting cycle and ended with just nine.

Four-star wide receiver Jerome Myles, three-star linebacker Corey Amos, and four-star wide receiver Dillon Alfred each announced on Monday that they were no longer committed to Ole Miss. While these talented prospects will quickly be replaced - Kiffin is great at this recruiting thing - it means more work on the trail for the Ole Miss staff.

That might mean it allows less time, even if just a little bit, that Kiffin and company can spend on their continued attempt to flip quarterback Deuce Knight from his Notre Dame commitment. Those other spots have to be filled now.

Or it means they're about to go heavier to try getting him.

Knight continues to see his stock rise and in doing so, hasn't given any sign he's at all interested in flipping his commitment from Notre Dame. Despite that, plenty of those in the Southeast seem to want to speak it into existence.

Good luck guys !! Get off to a great start. ⚾️🔥 @Vol_Baseball https://t.co/OqqsVItJMz

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) June 23, 2024

To top it all off for Kiffin, his former employer, the University of Tennessee completed its comeback to win the College World Series over Texas A&M, which left him unable to troll those -or, at least make SEC types think he's poking the bear - in Knoxville like he did following the game one loss.

Ole Miss and Kiffin's 2025 recruiting class currently ranks 53rd overall on 247Sports while Deuce Knight and the rest of Notre Dame's checks in third.

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