Lane Kiffin was hired as the new head football coach at FAU, and in reality, it was the only viable option
The college football world watched with collective enthusiasm the past few weeks as we all wondered which college football program would give much-maligned Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin his next head coaching opportunity. Would it be Oregon? Would it be Houston? Would it be South Florida? Overall, we were sure that it would be at least one of those three programs.
Yet, in the end, we learned on Monday that Kiffin will indeed throw a new head coaching visor on, but it’ll be at — Florida Atlantic?
For sheer entertainment purposes, many of us were lulled into this false sense of reality that Kiffin would be afforded the opportunity to run a top-tier program again, but in hindsight that was a little ridiculous to ponder. The Lane Kiffin-FAU marriage is really the only one that works at this time.
A move to LSU never really made any sense
Now, in addition to the rumors of certain programs that may hire Kiffin as their head man, another whisper making the rounds was that Kiffin could make a lateral move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he would become the offensive coordinator under the recently-promoted Ed Orgeron. You know, the same Orgeron who took over the mess that was USC back in 2013 after Kiffin was unceremoniously booted from Los Angeles.
This was a rumor that definitely had people talking, but when you sit back and think about it, it never really made much sense. Why would Kiffin, who may win his second national championship in a row with Alabama as the offensive coordinator, go work for a man who used to work for him, and go up against his mentor in Saban every single season?
No, while fun to think about in theory –especially the thought of Kiffin testing a Saban defense every season– there was no move Kiffin was going to make other than heading up the third college football program of his career.
FAU needed to make this hire
The state of Florida is loaded with college football programs that carry some weight. You have the Florida State Seminoles, the Florida Gators, the Miami Hurricanes, the once-again-surging South Florida Bulls and the UCF Knights. All of these programs, for what it’s worth, are heading to respective bowl games within the coming weeks.
Florida Atlantic, however, just suffered through it’s third-consecutive 3-9 season, which caused Charlie Patrridge to lose his job and create this opening to begin with.
Now one thing that the other top Florida schools have in common is they have head coaches who hold some solid name recognition in addition to their coaching talent. Florida State has Jimbo Fisher; Florida has another former Alabama offensive coordinator in Jim McElwain; Miami has Mark Richt; UCF has a young hotshot on the rise in Scott Frost; South Florida just hired Charlie Strong; heck, even FIU just made a splash hire by appointing Butch Davis to help resurrect their program, something he has proven he can do before at both Miami and North Carolina.
Maybe with the exception of Frost, even the most casual of college football fans know those names.
As they look to ascend to bowl status like the schools mentioned above, FAU needed to take a gamble like this on a coach who clearly no one really wanted. He does have the experience under Nick Saban and Alabama the last three years, and there’s little doubt that he can put a dent for the Owls in the recruiting hotbed that is the state of Florida off his name alone.
In due time, Kiffin, really under the radar in the state of Florida, can help Florida Atlantic get to near the top of Conference USA, putting them into a bowl game sooner rather than later.
He simply has more to prove about himself on his own
When Kiffin was hired by Saban at Alabama, we all looked at it as almost rehabilitation for the embattled former head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Some of us figured that a few years under Saban, behaving himself in the process, would be enough for a top-tier program to hand their reins over to him once the opportunity arose.
But, you see, things don’t actually work that way.
While it certainly is tremendous for the resume to have some seasons with Saban and Alabama as references, what schools want to see from Lane Kiffin is that he can run a program by himself with no issues whatsoever. As we know, his track record in this department isn’t necessarily the best. Of course, this is highlighted by him bolting Tennessee after just one season in 2009 to take over for Pete Carroll at USC. And when you are fired at an airport like Lane Kiffin was by USC after five games in 2013, that’s doesn’t particularly help the ol’ reputation when it comes down to it either.
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Simply put, just being with Nick Saban alone was not going to open up Kiffin to the good graces of some of the top programs in college football, and this even includes a program like Houston. The problems that Kiffin created for himself were created when he was the man in charge.
Now, though, he’s getting the chance thanks to the fine people at Florida Atlantic to show that he can lead a college football program once again — this time a little more successful than the last two stints. Should he do that, then you can bet that, within a few years, Lane Kiffin will be leading the charge for a top FBS program once again.