Entering Year 3, how much longer will Lane Kiffin stay at FAU? And what jobs would make sense if he left after 2019?
Let me make something clear.
The FAU version of Lane Kiffin is fantastic. The Lane Kiffin who tweets what he wants — trolling Nick Saban is what we all want — without worrying about having to tiptoe around what an athletic director or boosters might think is the Lane Kiffin we need. However long we get the FAU version of Kiffin, I’m here for it.
But how long will we get it? And what might the next version of Kiffin be? Or rather, where?
Kiffin already hit the “over” on whatever over/under was set for him when he took over at FAU. Entering Year 3, he certainly outlasted the majority of predictions for how long he’d be in Boca Raton. Given his history, it was easy to think Kiffin would be one-and-done or perhaps “two and through.”
Maybe now it’s “three and we’ll see.” Like, Kiffin will weigh his options if he’s able to turn around last year’s 5-win disaster. For all we know, Kiffin planned on leaving FAU after 2 years, but the disappointing season changed his options.
I believe Kiffin was steadfast on rebuilding his reputation as a fast mover. With perhaps the exception of the Tennessee job after Butch Jones was fired, which was formulated more from Vols fans than anything else, it doesn’t seem like Kiffin has even been linked to any potential openings. To me, that suggests Kiffin has a loose timeline for how he wants this thing to go.
(I realize that Kiffin has never said he has any intentions of leaving FAU, which puts him in the group of every coach in college football history who didn’t publicly express their desires to seek a new job.)
The beauty of Kiffin’s situation is twofold. He’s not an up-and-coming Group of 5 coach who needs to cash in if he has a good season. Kiffin’s financial situation is a bit different from most. The guy isn’t hurting for money, and in all likelihood, he won’t pick his next destination because of it. At 44, he still has plenty of time to get back to a contender.
Because of that and the stability Kiffin has at FAU — he got a 10-year deal after just 1 season — he can be a bit picky. There’s probably not a ton of motivation for him to leave Boca after Year 3 if someone like Iowa State or Syracuse called on him to replace head coaches who moved on to bigger and better opportunities.
If someone like Auburn or Florida State came along? That’s a different story. Those types of jobs don’t come around every day, and if both programs do make head coaching moves, you get the sense that they’ll be desperate to regain some immediate relevance.
The Auburn version of Kiffin might not be as free-spirited, but goodness, we’d all salivate at the potential storylines there.

Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Speaking of potential storylines, I’m down for some USC reunion talk. I don’t think the Trojans would go down that road again just 6 years after he was left at the airport tarmac, but if he were somehow offered the unprecedented opportunity to succeed the coach who succeeded him (that’ll put your brain in a pretzel), that’d be an awfully tough job to turn down. The full-circle redemption story would captivate college football to no end.
As far was we know, Kiffin hasn’t been officially offered any Power 5 head coaching jobs since he started at FAU in 2017. I’d be interested to see how Kiffin would react if an opportunity like Ole Miss opened up.
Shoot, maybe the thought of returning to the SEC after 2 awkward exits from traditional powers isn’t part of this rebirth. Or maybe that’s exactly the way Kiffin plans on taking his next step.
If this is all part of a master plan to restore his tainted image, nobody is going to bash Kiffin for leaving FAU after 3 years if he goes out on a high note. Considering his team ranks No. 96 in FBS in percentage of returning production, getting back to the 10-win mark from Year 1 is obviously not a given (Kiffin did add former Florida State QB Deondre Francois on Monday).
And again, even if Kiffin leads FAU to a Top 25 season and continues to restore his image in the process, it still might not be enough to make him a top option as a big-time Power 5 coach again.
Don’t forget that last August, Yahoo’s Pete Thamel polled 15 athletic directors to get their anonymous take on whether they’d hire Kiffin. Of the 15 athletic directors, 11 said “no,” 2 said “maybe” and 2 said “yes.” That was before FAU went 5-7. I’d be curious to know what those poll results would look like now.
But we should just accept the belief that Kiffin’s approval rate is never going to be 100%. It doesn’t have to be for him to continue his climb back up the college football coaching ladder.
Whatever Kiffin does, I won’t be surprised. If he elects for fishing in the Atlantic Ocean and continuing the first job he’s probably ever had that didn’t demand constant perfection, good for him and good for us. We’ll continue to get the most fun version of Kiffin yet.
If he is “three and we’ll see” or “four and let’s explore,” college football will get a little more interesting. We’ll get to talk about Kiffin potentially rebuilding a contender and getting back on the sport’s biggest stage.
Which path will Kiffin choose and when? I don’t know, but any possible next stop on the Lane Train seems like a win-win for the rest of us.
I don’t think he’ll ever be a HC in the SEC again. I see him holding out for a lifestyle position. Miami after Diaz flames out. UCLA after Chip calls it quits/gets fired. FSU might be a possibility, but it still seems a little redneck for him.
Beggars cant be choosers at P5 jobs
If he has a couple of good years at FAU and keeps his nose clean, people will give him another shot.
I recommend a stop at Florida when Mullet is gone or a return engagement at Tennessee when Pruitt fizzles.
That’s why you are a buffoon and no one takes you seriously
Kiffin’s biggest problem is Kiffin.
^this
I won’t ever forget how much he drove USC into the ground.
He really hasn’t proven he’s a very good coach has he? He seems to be a good OC but even that is not a certainty. Most anyone could have been the OC and won at bama. Other than that has he been really good anywhere. I think his stock is still sliding except for jobs similar to where he is now.
the UT fans loved Kiffin when he was there
I bet you drank the koolaid like the rest of the volnecks
Ask a Trojan fan, not one of them would take him back.
Wrong again 70
But keep trying. You are bound to say something intelligent at some point. Even the blindest of squirrels finds a nut.
Never has anyone gotten so many opportunities with such a lame resume. All talk and little results
I don’t think Kiffin has done anything to improve his stock since he got to FAU. He doesn’t appear to have had any other options at this point. I trust he likes Boca, because he may be there for a while.
Boca is not a bad place to be stuck in purgatory, I lived there,it could be worse.
The only school I could see hiring him in the SEC is Vandy. That’s pretty much it. I don’t think any other school would take his interest seriously.
I think the best landing spot for him would be either of the Arizona schools in the Pac-12, or a smaller ACC School like Wake Forest, Duke, or maybe even somewhere like NC State, which is willing to try Kiffin to break out of their 7-8 wins per year reality.
He has to keep moving. That way he has no accountability.
I can see Auburn offering Kiffin. But they like to keep it in the family, maybe Kevin Steele will get the offer.
How about Kiffin as Saban’s replacement?
He would never get hired at Bama as a HC…
I don’t get how he still has a head coaching job after driving USC into the ground.
I totally agree
With the amount of talent that you have at USC, you are nothing short of an embarrassment if you don’t win at least 10 games and the South. Going 7-6 at USC and losing a 4th tier bowl game to Georgia Tech’s stupid triple option (especially when you were preseason #1) is enough to make tough guys cry.
Tim, can I have whatever you are smoking? Do you actually think going 7-6 at USC is going to get him a HC job at Bama? USC has an enormous amount of talent, or at least did in the Kiffin era. And yeah, they were 10-2 the previous year, but that was supposed to be the absolute floor. Kiffin hired his daddy as defensive coordinator, and USC proceeded to allow 400 yards per game or more. In general, he drove USC into the ground. Ya really think Bama will hire him as a HC?
Bama hired him as an OC and after everyone hollered how much of an idiot Saban was, the Crimson Tide went on to break all sorts of their own offensive records.
Provided the AD hires an elite defensive mind so the school maintains their defense first stance, why wouldn’t Alabama take a chance on Kiffin? If Saban retires, then the one person Kiffin supposedly was at odds with in T-town wouldn’t be there anymore.
But I would imagine with the equity Nick has in Tuscaloosa, no one short of himself would be allowed to appoint his successor.
I never denied that Lane Kiffin was an offensive genius. I just said he was a bad HC. Trojans fans are still throwing shade at him.
He never denied, sorry.
I didn’t say Saban was an idiot for hiring Kiffin. I said Bama would not take a chance on Kiffin given how poorly he failed at USC.
Bama has a run in with shady coaches with the Mike twins… I don’t see Bama taking a chance on Kiffin with his background…
Biased, I’m not talking about today. What will Kiffin’s record be 2-5 years from now? I can’t stand Kiffin, but he is a great OC, and he can recruit. He’s at the right age to against with Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney.
Alabama has already hired him once, and that was when his reputation was at it’s worst. If he’s winning when Saban retires, I think he makes the short list.
I think Saban will retire within 5 years. He has enjoyed having 3 times as many 5-star players as any team for the last 7 years, but those days are quickly coming to an end.
How long will Saban put up with it if the going gets tougher? It already has gotten tougher, and I believe the NC’s are going to be much harder to come by. Most Bama fans “know” that Swinney will answer the call, when Saban calls it quits.
But what happens if Swinney and Smart decide they are better off staying at Georgia and Clemson rather than replacing the legend at Alabama?
I never said that Kiffin was bad at offense. I know that his USC teams were very good on offense. But that doesn’t change the fact he failed miserably at USC. Excluding the Trojans’ 10-2 sanctions year, Kiffin was 18-13 at USC. When he was fired, USC was 3-2 and on the brink of disaster. Just saying that I don’t think Bama would take a chance on him.
Being hired as OC is entirely different then being hired as a HC… Bama will not hire Kiffin as a HC. I also don’t see Bama going after Richt 2.0 either upon Saban retiring. They will make a hard push for Dabo and if he doesn’t come it will probably be someone none of us ever expected or considered…
No head coaching job for young men older than pee wee league makes sense for Lane Kiffin.