Lane Kiffin Sends Strong Message to Wake Forest After Cancelation of 2025 Game

Ole Miss Rebels head football coach Lane Kiffin wasn't pleased with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons buying out the scheduled 2025 game between the two teams.

In Week 3, the fifth-ranked Rebels traveled on the road to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to face the Demon Deacons. It was all Ole Miss from the start, as it went on to win, 40-6. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart threw for 377 yards and two touchdowns.

This matchup was part of a home-and-home series scheduled back in 2014.

The 2025 game was set to be hosted in Oxford, Mississippi, but that is no longer on the books. According to Brett McMurphy , Wake Forest must now pay Ole Miss a $1 million cancellation fee.

Following Saturday's game, Kiffin revealed the news at his press conference and discussed it two days later.

“These guys during the week called over, and (Wake Forest's athletic director) John Currie said, ‘we’re not playing next year’ and bought out of the game,” Kiffin stated. “I really find it amazing that you wait until the week of the game to tell the team.”

It's not common for schools to cancel a game just a year out. Most Power Four programs already have their schedules in place by now, so finding another opponent may be difficult. Per SEC rules, Ole Miss must have a non-conference Power Four school on its schedule.

“That’s rarely ever done,” he added. "I’ve never really heard of doing it, and it really puts us at a big disadvantage. It is what it is. It obviously wasn’t appreciated very much, them putting us in that situation. Now we’ve got to go find somebody, and most people are all scheduled up. And even when you find somebody, you’ve got to go pay them. It’s kind of an unwritten rule not to do that, actually.”

Since he knew about the cancellation a few days before the game, he let his players know for motivational purposes.

“So I thought that was a good message for our players, that somebody would want to pay money not to play them," he said. "Says a lot about where our program is right now.”

Ole Miss will play three more ranked teams the rest of the season: at No. 16 LSU, vs. No. 15 Oklahoma, vs. No. 2 Georgia.

The Rebels will be at home in Week 4 against Georgia Southern. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

Related: SEC Makes Major Jaxson Dart Announcement After Ole Miss-Wake Forest Game