Alabama OC Lane Kiffin to be next head coach of Florida Atlantic
— -- Alabama?offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin has agreed to become Florida Atlantic's coach, sources told ESPN.
Kiffin had been engaging in back-and-forth talks with the Conference USA school since last Friday, sources said. At one point, negotiations between the two sides had stalled, but a deal was struck early Monday morning, sources said.
Sources told ESPN.com that Kiffin plans to remain as Alabama's offensive coordinator throughout the College Football Playoff, similar to what former Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart did last season after taking the Georgia head-coaching job.
Kiffin, 41, returns to the head-coaching fraternity after three seasons as offensive coordinator under Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide are trying to win their second straight national championship and have won three straight SEC titles with Kiffin getting three different first-year starters ready at quarterback, including true freshman Jalen Hurts this season.
One of the finalists for the Houston head-coaching job, which went to Major Applewhite last week, Kiffin takes over an FAU program that was 3-9 this season. He replaces Charlie Partridge, who was fired in November after going 9-27 in three seasons at the Boca Raton, Florida, school. Kiffin was also being pursued by new LSU head coach Ed Orgeron to be the Tigers' offensive coordinator.
Kiffin, considered by many to be one of the top offensive minds in the game, has also generated his share of controversy earlier in his career, giving some athletic directors and presidents around the country cause for concern about his ability to manage a program. But Saban said last week that he was confident that Kiffin was ready to be a head coach again.
This will be Kiffin's fourth different head-coaching stint. He was the Oakland Raiders' head coach for the 2007 season and part of the 2008 season before being fired by Al Davis, the late Raiders owner. He went to Tennessee as head coach in 2009, but then bolted for USC after just one season in Knoxville.
A former assistant at USC under Pete Carroll, Kiffin was the Trojans' head coach from 2010 to '12 and then fired five games into the 2013 season by then-USC athletic director Pat Haden. At USC, Kiffin inherited a program under severe NCAA sanctions. He was 35-21 at Tennessee and USC and 5-15 with the Raiders. He landed all three head-coaching jobs before the age of 35.
Kiffin does have some ties to the Florida area. His father, Monte Kiffin, was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' defensive coordinator for 13 years from 1996 to 2008, and Kiffin was on the Jacksonville Jaguars' staff for a season in 2000.
