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Lane Kiffin offers Tee Martin’s 13-year-old son a scholarship to play QB at FAU
By Will Ogburn
Published:
Lane Kiffin just can’t stop burning Tennessee.
The former Vols’ head coach is now leading the FAU Owls, but he hasn’t totally left his Knoxville ties behind – even after a stop in Tuscaloosa for the previous three seasons.
On Monday, Kiffin offered a 13-year-old quarterback a scholarship. That would be a story in itself, another example of the quirky offensive guru using some out of the box thinking, if not for who that quarterback is.
His name is Kaden Martin, and his dad is none other than former Tennessee legend Tee Martin.
Tee Martin's 13 yr-old son Kaden, a 7th grade QB received his 1st scholarship offer. It's from #FAU & Lane Kiffin: https://t.co/Myk7dONPEx
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) May 15, 2017
The elder Martin gained notoriety for doing something that Peyton Manning couldn’t: leading the Volunteers to an NCAA title in 1998. Though Tee has a special place in Tennessee lore, he’s far from a lifer – he got his coaching start at Morehouse back in 2006 and has never returned to Knoxville as a coach.
Martin is now the offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans, about as far from SEC country as one can be. More importantly, he was hired by Lane Kiffin back in 2012 when he was still the head coach of the Trojans. Martin also declined an opportunity to join Butch Jones’ first Tennessee staff back in 2013 in order to stay with USC.
Kiffin is doing the familiar trick of capturing headlines here, but this whole saga is just too crazy to say that there isn’t something to this offer. For what it’s worth, the two coaches’ previous relationship means that this could be more than just a little shade thrown towards Knoxville.
A former resident of both Baton Rouge and the heart of Crimson Tide country, Will Ogburn handles multimedia content and news coverage for Saturday Down South.
