Lane Kiffin Hired by Ole Miss as Next Coach

His tenure with F.A.U. will likely be remembered as exactly what Kiffin needed. F.A.U. won a bunch of games — more in his three seasons than they did in the previous seven combined — and did so without any hint of major scandal.

There was some controversy; Kiffin brought in Kendal Briles as his first offensive coordinator, after Briles was on his father Art Briles’ staff at Baylor when that program was rocked by a sexual assault scandal. There was some newsmaking; Kiffin brought in players from the Netflix documentary “Last Chance U.” He offered scholarships to kids who are still several years from college. And there, of course, was Twitter, where Kiffin’s dry sense of humor could make news as soon as he touched the send button.

He acknowledged he was too young to handle the job when the Oakland Raiders made him a head coach in the N.F.L. at 31, or when he got hired at Tennessee at 32, or when he got hired at U.S.C. at 34.

He’s 44 now. He’s apparently learned to live in the public eye, or at least how to deal with constant scrutiny. And now he’s back in the SEC — three years after his stint as Alabama’s offensive coordinator ended and he wound up starting anew at F.A.U.

Kiffin said the F.A.U. players changed him.

“They’ve kind of taught me. I was used to all players thinking they were going to the N.F.L. and your job is to get the players drafted the highest that you can,” Kiffin said. “This place changed me to realize, I’ve got a bigger calling than that. My calling is to really help these kids develop.”

The next chapter is at Ole Miss, where Kiffin has some history.

In 2009, his lone season at Tennessee, the Volunteers went to Oxford and lost, 42-17. Alabama was 1-2 against the Rebels in Kiffin’s three seasons as offensive coordinator with the Crimson Tide, losing in 2014 and 2015 before winning in 2016.

The N.C.A.A. forced Ole Miss to vacate 33 wins over a six-year period — including those two wins over Alabama. Kiffin tweeted that Alabama coach Nick Saban’s record should then be changed as well, noting that if those two outcomes no longer count, “we only lost once together.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/sports/ncaafootball/lane-kiffin-hired-ole-miss.html?emc=rss&partner=rss