Kiffin accepts head coaching job at Florida Atlantic, report says
TUSCALOOSA — Alabama offensive head coach Lane Kiffin has accepted the head coaching position at Florida Atlantic, according to a report from ESPN on Monday morning.
Kiffin will replace Charlie Partridge who was fired after three straight 3-9 seasons with the Owls. If Kiffin does indeed become the head coach of FAU, it will be his fourth head coaching position and third at the college level. He previously served as the head coach for the Oakland Raiders (2007-08) before moving back to college to coach Tennessee (2009) and Southern California (2010-13). Kiffin has a 35-21 record as a college head coach and a 40-36 record overall as a head coach.
Following the report, ESPN’s Chris Low tweeted that Kiffin plans to remain as Alabama’s offensive coordinator throughout the College Football Playoff. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was asked about the situation last week during the College Football Playoff news conference and said he believes Kiffin will remain with the team for the rest of the season.
“We’ll make that decision when we have something to make a decision about,” Saban said last week. “We’ll do what in the best interest for Lane, for our program, for our players. I think he’ll want to finish the season with us, but I can’t speak to that right now because we haven’t discussed something that is a hypothetical situation at this point.”
No. 1 Alabama (13-0) will play No. 4 Washington (12-1) in the Peach Bowl in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on Dec. 31 in a College Football Playoff semifinal game.
The FAU job will most likely be a pay cut for Kiffin, 41, who received a raise to a prorated $1.4 million this summer. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg tweeted Monday that FAU was looking to pay its next head coach somewhere around $600,000 per year.
Kiffin is in his third season with Alabama after signing a three-year deal with the Crimson Tide in 2014. He has helped coach Alabama to a 39-3 record during that time, including a national championship last season.
In each of his three seasons with the Tide, he has had to break in a new starting quarterback, experiencing success all three years.
In his first year with the Tide, Kiffin coached quarterback Blake Sims to a single-season school record 3,487 passing yards. During last year’s championship run, first-year quarterback Jake Coker passed for 3,110 yards, the school’s second highest single-season total.
This year, Kiffin has led the Tide’s offense to an SEC-best 40.5 points a game while averaging 471.3 yards a game. He has once again drawn praise for being breaking in a new quarterback, as he helped mold this year’s attack around true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts by switching to more of an option-based offense.
Hurts was named SEC Offensive Player of the year as well as the SEC Freshman of the Year last week. Through 13 games, Hurts has completed an SEC-best 65.3 percent of his passes while throwing for 2,592 and 22 touchdowns with nine interceptions. He has also accounted for 841 yards and a team-high 12 touchdowns on the ground.
This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Kiffin accepts head coaching job at Florida Atlantic, report says."