Maybe you're right, it could a hole too deep to dig out of, but AU is so low now (and surely fans know it) that it's a opportunity to build. Do you think a potential Texas job will still be there for him if Ole Miss underperforms next year? He lost Corral, Lebby and Durkin. And Ealy and Conner and Campbell, etc. I know it's not the perfect destination for him (Miami was) but his options dried up.
I don’t think he’ll regress much this season, Lane had a great offseason in the Portal with plug & play guys.
He replaced Corral with Jaxson Dart who was a high ranked 4-star who had almost an identical rating coming out of HS as Corral & has really good arm talent, Kiffin will develop him into a good QB.
Losing Lebby won’t be that bad for him because he runs his own offense, he replaced him with his guy Charlie Weis Jr who was with him when he won 11 games at FAU. Plus, he’s got John David Baker on staff, JDB is a young innovative X’s & O’s guru that comes from the Air raid system & comes from the coaching factory of Abilene Christian (a lot of good coaches have come from Abilene) & was in North Texas with Seth Littrell & Graham Harrell.
Ole Miss cleaned up in the portal adding 5-star RB Zach Evans, WR Malik Heath, TE Michael Trigg, TE JJ Pegues, WR Jordan Watkins & they’re still on the verge of getting former 4-star WR from LSU Deion Smith who was a productive deep threat for LSU. Plus they signed 2 WR’s & RB in their 22 class & still have 4-star WR Bralon Brown, WR Jonathan Mingo & high ranked 4-star TE Hudson Wolfe still on their squad as Sophomores & Wolfe especially is set to have a breakout year.
Everyone is hoping for this precipitous fall by Lane because they don’t like him, but truth is, that offense will still be lethal, which means they will always have a shot... You could argue they may even be slightly better at RB.
So I say all that to say, another 10 win season in the SEC West & Sark keeps fckin up at Texas, then yes Lane would be top choice for them lol.