OXFORD — Let’s be clear.

Ole Miss football wasn’t fun anymore. Fans were disinterested. Bored, even.

The team was improving but the wins weren’t coming, at least not fast enough. The stadium, often half-empty, was quiet. The atmosphere, frankly, was stale.

Ole Miss needed an infusion. It needed _ dare I say it? _ some fresh water.

"More than anything, we want energy, passion, and a track record of success,” Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter said. “We want a program builder who can galvanize and help unite Rebel Nation."

Enter Lane Kiffin.

It won't be official until late Saturday or early Sunday, but Ole Miss is hiring Kiffin as its head football coach, ending the one-week search for Matt Luke’s replacement. The Florida Atlantic coach is expected to be formally introduced as the Ole Miss head football coach on Monday, but the impact of his hiring will be felt long before he steps behind a lectern inside the Pavilion at Ole Miss or the Manning Center or wherever the school decides to hold his coronation..

Ole Miss football just became fun. It just became relevant. The Rebels just became a national story again, only this time it’s not going to be a witch hunt. Instead, media are going to converge on Oxford ready to cover one of the more fun stories in college football.

Lane Kiffin, the former Tennessee coach who bolted for USC and who later revolutionized Nick Saban’s offense in Tuscaloosa before leaving to reboot his head coaching career in Boca Raton, is back in the Southeastern Conference.

Ole Miss just became must-watch television. Media won’t leave the room to grab a coffee or soda when the Rebels’ coach takes the dais at SEC Media Days in Atlanta in July. Instead, every reporter will be there, just waiting to tweet any barb thrown or joke cracked by one of the sport’s most entertaining figures.

Two years ago, on the day Ole Miss surprised the college football world by taking the interim tag off Matt Luke, I wrote the Rebels should hire Kiffin. I listed the reasons why. Here it is, in case you want to take a trip down memory lane, pardon the pun.

What I wrote then rings even more true today. Kiffin, now 44, just kept winning at FAU. His team faces UAB Saturday morning for the C-USA championship. He hasn’t gotten in trouble off the field. Quite the contrary, in fact.

“I think he’s grown up a lot over the last couple of years,” a source close to Kiffin said earlier this week.

What Kiffin has to know is he can’t screw this up. If he wants to make it big at a Power 5 program, whether it be Ole Miss or a higher-profile juggernaut in the future, he has to win in Oxford. He has to assemble an SEC-quality staff, recruit at a high level and win games. If he does that, in a few seasons (or less), Ole Miss fans are going to once again be refreshing their browsers every 10 seconds, waiting for Kiffin updates, this time hoping he stays put.

Today, however, there’s no angst. After four miserable seasons, the embarrassing scandal-forced firing of Hugh Freeze, two notices of allegations, a drawn-out NCAA case and a two-year bowl ban, Ole Miss fans get to enjoy football again.

I was asked by a media friend earlier this week, “If Ole Miss gets Kiffin, how many tickets will they sell?”

“All the tickets,” I responded.

Perhaps that’s hyperbolic, but I doubt it. Since the Sugar Bowl win over Oklahoma State on Jan. 1, 2016, it’s been quite a slog for Ole Miss fans. As has been evidenced this week by the groundswell of support for Kiffin’s hiring, Rebel fans appear to be eager to have something to be excited about.

“High risk, high reward,” a national ESPN reporter texted me Thursday night. He asked to not be quoted, but he wanted to know if the Rebels’ pursuit of Kiffin was real. Told it was, he said, “If he gets the job, I’ll fly in and the three of us will get a beer or 20.”

It likely wouldn’t be wise for Kiffin to hang out on The Square and drink 20 beers, at least not until the winning begins, but the point stands — the fun is back.

Kiffin is expected to assemble a staff full of assistants known for their recruiting prowess. Kids like Kiffin. He’ll get Ole Miss in doors it’s struggled to get in recently. He’ll have to close the deal, but he was considered an elite recruiter at Tennessee and USC. There’s no reason to believe he can’t repeat that success, at least to a large degree, at Ole Miss.

After four years of agony, Ole Miss is relevant again. There are no guarantees. There is plenty of risk. The league has never been more difficult. The path to contention is a long, winding road full of obstacles.

Ole Miss, to its credit, decided to give that road a spin with Kiffin at the wheel. It promises to be one hell of a ride.