Lane Kiffin enters his fifth season at Ole Miss with the best roster he's ever had.

A College Football Playoff qualification? A trip to the SEC Championship? National championship contention? None of that seems unreasonable – nor is it unexpected that Kiffin has thoughts on topics beyond football.

During a wide-ranging interview with the USA TODAY Network, Kiffin discussed pickleball, Taylor Swift's latest album (and his favorite song on it), and his 2024 Rebels. Plus, did he want to replace Nick Saban?

Here is a portion of that interview, with questions and answers edited for brevity and clarity.

I understand you won a big pickleball match recently.

Kiffin: I did. It’s been a wonderful day because of it. For a whole week, Caden Prieskorn and Jaxson Dart continued to say they would beat me and this other coach, Sawyer Jordan.

Both of them are very annoying (trash)-talkers. ... They took Sawyer’s laptop 30 minutes before the match. Then he was worried it was stolen. They tried everything.

People showed up for it. Lights were on, center court, the whole thing. It was a best-of-five series, and we swept them 3-0. At stake was, for the entire year, they cannot speak with any ego, and they cannot talk about being champs or how great they are or anything for one entire year. Whoever lost had to do that.

I’m sure you’re not loving this at all.

Kiffin: It was so awesome.

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I know you’re a bit of a Swiftie. Have you listened to ‘The Tortured Poets Department?’ What do you think of it, and do you have a favorite song off that album?

Kiffin: I could impact a lot of Swifties with how I answer this question, their view of me. Hmm.

TOPPMEYER: To understand Lane Kiffin's rise with Ole Miss football, consider how he evolved

I would say this: It’s a much different album, in my opinion, than her previous music. I say that as, I still like it, but maybe not as much. I understand why other people do. I think it’s a little more sophisticated – a lot of depth in the songs. I understand why people like, but a lot of times when I listen to it, it’s either on a playlist for the yoga classes in the morning, or it’s on the loudspeakers during pickleball. So, it kind of doesn’t fit as much into that, because it’s not as upbeat, where her older stuff is more upbeat. Everybody knew the words and stuff. It’s just very different that way.

My favorite song would be, 'My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.'

Why does that song appeal to you?

It might be similar to my life's path.

You previously told me you thought this was the best roster you’ve ever had. You said: Best roster. Not sure yet if it will be the best team. What makes you think this is the best roster you’ve had?

Kiffin: There's a ton of experience, whether that’s here or transfers from other places, including SEC schools. So, you’ve got a lot of starting experience, and a good amount of that is starting experience in the SEC.

Normally we have a lot of players coming in through the portal. … I don’t think we’ve ever had that much experience from the conference, where you see them making plays against the same people you’re going to play. And then, obviously, our returning players. We had a number of players that I feel like normally go out to the draft come back, ... because they wanted to do something special. And, you have to say how it is, having a good (NIL) collective makes that easier.

What makes you and Ole Miss so appealing to high-level transfers? Is it as simple as having a strong NIL collective, or is it that plus something else?

Kiffin: We’ve done a good job of players coming in here out of the portal. They’ve made major impacts and helped us win. … Since we got here, it’s Georgia, Alabama and us for the third-best winning percentage among SEC teams. A big part of that has been the portal.

But, what pleases me is, the portal is not just what comes in, but it’s all your guys that can go in the portal, and then they don’t. It’s free agency. Who did you get back? Who did you re-sign in free agency?

What I feel like says a lot about our locker room, our culture and our program is that very few players – significant players – ever leave. They don’t go in the portal and leave. They stay here.

I’ve noticed your retention being key, but you did lose a talented player in Quinshon Judkins transferring to Ohio State. What happened there, and how do you combat his exit this season?

Kiffin: He was a great player for us and had two great years and was a big part of our success. We wish him well. A lot went into that. That is an outlier situation of what we just talked about, that our significant players don’t leave for the most part, and we had to look at a lot of things in that.

It's the state of college football that, in my opinion, you have to look at things like the NFL, like a salary cap, and you have to make decisions. And, in general, in the NFL you've got to make some decisions about how much to pay a player versus the other amount of players that you can get for that same price at other positions.

I'm making that as a general statement about what they do in the NFL and would just say that in college football, you have to make those type of decisions now.

Do you see signs of the defense going from middle of the pack in the SEC and taking the next step and being more like a top four or five defense in the conference? If so, where do you see the development?

Kiffin: I do hope so. I know everybody hopes that, but I do hope so, and we portal recruited that way.

We invested more defensively in the portal, resources, and have a more balanced salary cap distribution between our offense and defense than we previously had. So, yes. Yes. The hope was, especially after the Georgia game, we need to build our offensive line better – get longer. And we need to get bigger in the front seven. So we went out aggressively in free agency, if I can just say what it is. We went out in free agency to attack that.

You might not want to be reminded of this, but you’re turning 50 next spring, and I’m wondering how Lane Kiffin in his 50s will be different …

Kiffin (interjects and jokes): 'Lane Kiffin in his 50s …’ I just started 49, and you want me to focus on my 50s when I’m process-based and in the moment of the day?

Well, maybe you’ll put aside the process and humor me. How do you think Lane Kiffin in his 50s will be different from Kiffin in his 40s? How was the Kiffin of his 40s different from the Kiffin of his 30s?

Kiffin: I don’t break as many favorite toys – just kidding. Just kidding.

When I was a younger head coach, I felt my job was to win games, but my job was, for the player, make them the best player they can be, teach them the most, so they get drafted the highest in the NFL Draft. That’s what I thought my job was.

I now don’t look at it that way. That’s just a part of my job. My job now is to be there for them, help them with things that come up in their life, a lot of times that I’ve gone through or experienced. I have had a very rocky life and been through a lot – a lot of it my fault or self-destruction.

So, I’m able to help them now, where I didn’t see it that way before, but I also wouldn’t have been able to help them as much, because I hadn’t gone through what I’ve gone through.

I’m able to do that in our building now – with all of the people in our building – to be able to help them in life, when things come up in their personal life and things they go through, which at times are things I’ve already done and gone through, that I’ve usually messed up.

And now, I’m able to use those experiences and those failures and that really crooked road and path, I’m able to use that to help them as they’re going through it – or, if I see them going in that direction, help them before they go through it.

That’s where I see a big difference of how I am on a day-to-day basis, versus back then.

I now believe that until you have really had your life, whether it’s personal life or job, whether you’ve had one or both of those torn apart, to where you have to go rebuild it, until you do that, you really don’t know yourself.

Most of my rock bottoms were my own fault, my own self-destruction, but I now see that having to rebuild that in my personal life and in my career – the USC firing, I go through three years of Alabama, I go to FAU, I go through all that rebuilding – in that process, I really got to actually figure myself out and learn myself, because I had to built it. That, I wouldn’t have understood before at all, and now I do feel very different in my life, because of having to build, really kind of almost from scratch, personal and professional, really right around the USC firing, in both aspects.

Have you surprised yourself by staying at Ole Miss for five years?

Kiffin: Yes. I deal in analytics, so I like to always say: ‘OK, analytically, this probably wouldn’t happen.’

Four years ago, ... if we would’ve said, OK, what are the analytics that, going into the fifth season, so over four years later, that I’m still at Ole Miss? And we’ve been really successful. Like I said, the third-winningest program in the SEC during that time, behind Georgia and Alabama.

And that I’m still there, and that my oldest child moved here with me during that time and now goes to Ole Miss, and we’re still having the success. I think the analytics would've not been very high of all that happening, It's really been amazing.

You had success there, these other opportunities presented themselves, like Auburn or whatever, and you stay. That would’ve been where, if we would've had this conversation 4½ years ago, I think most people wouldn't have bet on me still being at Ole Miss.

Have you thought about why you proved wrong that analytical idea, that you wouldn't been gone from Ole Miss?

Kiffin: This is going to sound really deep. It’s because I stopped following my plan and forcing what I wanted to happen and let go of that and let God’s plan take over. And I do believe that. That’s the part about staying here. That’s the part about my daughter Landry moving here. Now, my son Knox is moving here. All that stuff happening in Oxford, Mississippi.

People are like, ‘Oh my gosh, Ole Miss. You changed Ole Miss and everything.’ I say, ‘Yeah, we’ve won a lot of games, and it’s been really cool, and there’s been great stadium wins and experiences, but, I needed Oxford, Mississippi, and Ole Miss more than they needed me.'

And, I believe that. I believe that when I said it a year ago, and now I believe that more than ever.

What was your interest in replacing Nick Saban at Alabama?

Kiffin: I think that’s really, really a hard thing to do.

I remember growing up in the profession, and my dad always said, when I was an assistant coach, he’s like, ‘Always look at who you follow as a head coach. It’s a major, major part to your success, because you’ll always be compared to the coach before.’ So, I’m always like, well, my dad said that, and I certainly didn’t listen to him, because I followed Phillip Fulmer, and I followed Pete Carroll, so I obviously didn’t listen very well, and you see the expectations at USC following Coach Carroll. That’s a very hard thing to do. Maybe the hardest takeover ever, to be compared to Saban, in a time of scholarship limitations.

Where, in the old days of Bear Bryant and stuff, you could just have incoming classes of 60 or 70 guys, and you could build these huge teams and be a dominant program. I think replacing Saban and taking over for Coach K would be the two ones that pop to my mind of hardest things to do, because you’re always going to be compared to that.

Following Bryan Harsin might have been a little easier. Have you thought about where your life would be if you were entering Year 2 at Auburn?

Kiffin: I really don't, because of radical acceptance. I know this: I wouldn't see my daughter every day, which I do now.

I wouldn't see her every day, so that would answer that question. What's going to matter later on in life? Which one are you going to value more?

Does Saban’s retirement create an opportunity within the SEC? Does it create an opportunity for Ole Miss?

No, it doesn’t. I think more people would think that when the divisions were alive. Now, you’ve got two more teams, and there’s no divisions, so I don’t think that.

I’ve joked – and he’s never said it to me – I think that Kirby Smart had a really big party that day that he retired. That’s just my opinion.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, and newsletter, SEC Football Unfiltered. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: What Lane Kiffin thinks of Taylor Swift album, Nick Saban retirement