GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In the days leading up to the 1969 Gator Bowl between the Gators and Tennessee, rumors of a coaching change at each school hovered over the matchup like the Goodyear Blimp.

Tennessee coach Doug Dickey, overwhelmed by calls at his Holiday Inn suite in Jacksonville, directed the hotel’s switchboard to intercept all buzzes to his room. Meanwhile, Gators coach Ray Graves, wrapping up his 10th season and the program’s most successful decade, remained mum on his plans.

“I’m still coach and athletic director,” Graves said. “If I decide to make a change next week or next year, the boys will hear about it first.”

What transpired in the Silver Anniversary Gator Bowl was a script writer’s reverie, as Florida upset the Volunteers, 14-13, and a couple of days afterward, Dickey was Florida’s head coach and Graves his boss as UF’s athletic director.

Not since that matchup 56 years ago has a Florida game featured such intersecting coaching intrigue. The rumors of Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin taking over the Gators next season have swirled since the moment UF athletic director Scott Stricklin announced on the afternoon of Oct. 19 that Florida had parted ways with Billy Napier.

If you prefer a bit more spice to this tale, consider that in that 1969 Florida victory over the Southeastern Conference champion Vols, Gators quarterback John Reaves threw the game-winning touchdown pass in the third quarter. Reaves, as his life unfolded, would become Kiffin’s father-in-law when his daughter, Layla, married Kiffin after they took their first date to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Layla was a UF student.

What does all of this mean as the Gators (3-6, 2-4) face the sixth-ranked Rebels (9-1, 5-1) on Saturday night at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium? Maybe nothing more than juicy pregame chatter for ESPN. Or, perhaps a bit of unfamiliar background on Kiffin’s longtime connection to Florida beyond his affection for former UF coach Steve Spurrier and his visor antics.

Still, the storyline was one the Gators and Rebels could not escape this week as they prepped for their first meeting since Florida upset Ole Miss a season ago at The Swamp and knocked them out of the College Football Playoff hunt.

Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales is familiar with the drill, having served as a college coach for over 30 years. He said he has heard all the rumors like everyone else and has kept it business as usual around the Heavener Football Training Center.

He understands the buzz around Kiffin, who in 2020 lost to Florida in his Ole Miss debut.

“He does a great job. Does a fantastic job, obviously,” Gonzales said. “He’s been an NFL head coach. He’s been a college head coach at multiple stops.”

Asked if Kiffin would be a good fit at Florida, Gonzales offered his take, like seemingly millions of others on TV, the internet and sports-talk radio the past three weeks.

“I probably shouldn’t even answer those questions, to be honest with you,” Gonzales said. “I think he’s a really good football coach. There’s a lot of really good football coaches. He is definitely one of them.”

Of course, the Kiffin-to-Florida storyline is nothing more than speculation at the moment. His future has become a cottage industry for websites and Las Vegas, where he is the betting favorite to take over the Gators. Kiffin has also been linked to LSU and, starting this week, the New York Giants. The Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll, and with former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart now a rookie in New York, Kiffin’s name surfaced as a potential replacement.

Oh, and don’t forget the Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins and the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders (OK, some of these might not be true). Maybe Kiffin could coach the Gators on Saturdays and the Giants on Sundays.

Yes, the rumor mill is churning, and there’s no stopping it until Kiffin or another entity makes an official announcement. There is even talk that he could stay at Ole Miss, where he has an opportunity to become the first Rebels coach in program history to have three consecutive 10-win seasons, should Ole Miss beat the Gators on Saturday.

As for the game, the Gators are a 15-point underdog and must win to remain bowl eligible. The Gators, coming off a 38-7 loss at Kentucky, have won three in a row in the series and have never lost to a Kiffin-coached team (2009 Tennessee, 2020 and ’24 Ole Miss).

But that is not what has the public’s attention in what is being called the Kiffin Bowl. They want to know where the Lane Train is headed. Is he staying or leaving?

“Nothing is final yet, so we don’t know who is going to be our coach,” Gators receiver TJ Abrams said. “Regardless, we’ve got to go out there and try to win.”

The 50-year-old Kiffin has become an All-Pro at deflecting questions about his future. He is 53-19 in six years at Ole Miss and has consistently referred to how Oxford has become a special place to him and his family.

The Rebels close the regular season at Mississippi State on Nov. 28, which adds another twist: should Kiffin decide to depart, Saturday could be his final home game, unless he remains to coach a College Football Playoff game.

Who knows where all this is heading? For now, it primarily serves as a tasty appetizer before Saturday night’s kickoff.

The Lane Train remains on schedule.

“Hopefully, our crowd shows up and we can stay undefeated at home,” Kiffin said this week. “Landry [Kiffin’s daughter] and I were talking that, I guess, if my stats are right, if you’re a junior here and you’ve gone to every home game, you’ve only seen one loss. If you were actually getting another degree, and you’re in your fifth year, or maybe you just failed a few classes and you’re a fifth-year senior, you’ve only seen three losses in your five years here.

“Pretty cool.”

Another reason everyone is talking about Lane Kiffin and what he will do next.