Florida Atlantic seeks splash with Kiffin hire

During his Liberty Bowl news conference in Memphis, Tennessee on Monday, Smart said he’s confident Kiffin will be able to handle splitting two duties well after Florida Atlantic hired him to become its next coach.

He returned to college ball and was 7-6 in 2009, his lone season at Tennessee. Kiffin might have gotten a bigger head job if not for his reputation of jumping one school for another.

Lane Kiffin’s three-year rehab and crimson baptism in Nick Saban’s system will be complete after Alabama’s run in the college football playoff.

Kiffin will likely take a pay cut moving to Boca Raton, after he was paid $1.4 million by Alabama this season.

Chris Low and Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com reported Monday that Kiffin is set to take over as Florida Atlantic’s head coach. A couple weeks ago FAU athletic director Pat Chun said he would allow whichever coach he hires to decide how to handle those commitments.

This news follows FIU’s hiring of former Cleveland Browns and University of Miami head coach Butch Davis in November.

Alabama hired lane Kiffin as its offensive coordinator on January 10, 2014.

Kiffin was a leading candidate to become Houston’s head coach but the Cougars made a decision to promote offensive coordinator Major Applewhite last week.

In the meantime, Kiffin inherits a team that was built to succeed in 2017 – Partridge, who was sacked after three years in Boca Raton, had been gearing up for a breakout in his fourth year and was blindsided when he was sacked. It’s the fourth opportunity for Kiffin to be a head coach, after an National Football League stint with the Oakland Raiders and college ones at Tennessee and USC. Kiffin was also being pursued by new LSU head coach Ed Orgeron to be the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.

UAB football coach Bill Clark tells me that while he admires the play-calling ability of the soon-to-be-departed Alabama offensive coordinator and would love to face him, a UAB-FAU game may not take place until 2019.

Fertitta also said support for Applewhite not only came from players on the Houston team, but from Texas high school coaches as well. Lane’s done a phenomenal job for us for the last three years. He was making $1.4 million per season with the Crimson Tide.

Kiffin lasted 20 games as coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2007 and 2008, going 5-15. If we were him, we’d consider Kiffin’s pitch; Manny Wilkins is probably the favorite to retain ASU’s starting QB gig, regardless of whether or not Barnett is on campus next summer.

“You don’t get what you want”, Kiffin said.

Throwing shade at arguably the best head coach in college football is a pretty bold move.

“It was very obvious that Florida Atlantic is committed to winning and committed to doing it together, ” Kiffin said.