JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Thursday night gets its primetime slot on ESPN, and with it, a major opportunity from both head coaches in the game to express their displeasure with the current college football calendar.
Duke’s Manny Diaz and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin have been united in what they feel is an unsustainable system for college programs. Transfers have wrecked what should have been an elite matchup between a pair of 9-3 teams. Instead, the Rebels are a 17-point favorite in the 7:30 game over a Blue Devils team that has lost its top two quarterbacks and starting running back to the transfer portal.
“Wild, Wild West, it’s just kind of all over the place, and the schedule, and for coaches to deal with players going in the portal,” Kiffin said. “I mentioned it before, like Manny’s situation, here goes your quarterback in the portal. We’re still playing. You would never create a system in professional sports that has things figured out that would have free agency right at the end of the regular season before the postseason.”
Both coaches have used their time during the lead-up to the Gator Bowl to push for change in the sport. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart is playing in the Gator Bowl before entering the NFL draft, and he said there’s no way he would have missed his last opportunity for one more game with his teammates.
That wasn’t the case for Duke, which saw quarterback Maalik Murphy commit to Oregon State. Murphy’s backup Grayson Loftis as well as running back Star Thomas also left via the portal. That means the Blue Devils will start Henry Belin IV, who threw one pass during the season. Belin’s lone start came against NC State in 2023 where he was 4 of 12 passing for 107 yards and a couple of touchdowns.
Both Kiffin and Diaz know the landscape in college sports has changed significantly but both take issue with the calendar.
The portal opened Dec. 9 and closed Dec. 28, right in the middle of bowl prep. While Ole Miss actually saw more players hit the portal, it affected the Blue Devils far more than the Rebels because of the marquee players who left Duke.
“I think we’re pretending we’re still a one-semester sport. Today is Jan. 1,” Diaz said. “This is usually when the last day of the football season took place, and movement at mid-year was because people want to be there for the spring semester.
“It’s ludicrous, like Lane said, to have player movement while the season is going on. And the only reason that is the case is because kids want to be at the spring semester at their next stop. And why do they want to be there for the spring? They want to be there for spring practice. So if we can take away the incentive to move mid-term, we can finish the season.”
The big storyline is on the Ole Miss side where the Rebels are trying to hit double-digit wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1959-60. The Rebels were in the College Football Playoff race until a late-season loss to the Gators. Dart will be the headliner. He’s started three seasons in Oxford and has passed for more than 10,000 yards there and accounted for 80 touchdowns (68 passing).
“Yeah, Jaxson has been an amazing leader to come in over the three years, set a bunch of school records, I think most wins and most yards and those things,” Kiffin said. “But his impact and his legacy that he leaves in the younger players is amazing, and the younger quarterbacks.”
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