Nebraska Football: Lane Kiffin to Lincoln rumor proved hilariously false

With the Nebraska football coach search still, weeks away from seeing an end, it appears that when it comes to rumors and whispers surrounding the program, things are officially getting silly. That’s to be expected to some degree. After all, there are going to be people who hear things or read things they see as a clue to one name or another.

It’s also true that “flight tracking season” is a real thing when it comes to more than just the Nebraska football team’s coaching openings. Fans all over the country tend to have a grand old time trying to figure out if a representative from a school is flying to see a prospective hire. Or, even more interesting, if a prospective hire is coming to town to see what could be his new campus.

Earlier this month, Lane Kiffin was the target of flight tracking season. Or at least a plane that people thought Lane Kiffin was on was the target.

At issue was a tweet by the Huskers Talk Twitter account. The account posted a picture of Kiffin apparently photoshopped into wearing Nebraska football apparel. Alongside the photo the account posted a picture of a private plane that apparently traveled from Oxford, Mississippi to Lincoln, Nebraska.

https://twitter.com/TalkHuskers/status/1583120846104580096

The assertion was that it was possible the Ole Miss head football coach had been flown into Lincoln in order to either interview or maybe even discuss a contract with Huskers’ AD Trev Alberts.

There’s just one catch to this particular rumor. That plane was, in fact, not Lane Kiffin taking a mid-season sojourn to the place where his dad used to coach the Cornhuskers’ defense.

It turns out the plane in question was being used by Husker fans who are apparently pretty big Ole Miss fans. While Kiffin apparently appreciated their fandom and their willingness to come all the way to Oxford to catch a game, he wasn’t on the plane.

While this was certainly a humorous ending to one of the wildest rumors of the Nebraska football coaching search it was also a very good example that things like “flight tracking” is only going to lead to the people who claim they’ve found a secret formula to this whole thing, with egg on their face.