Kiffin’s desire to win explains hiring of Briles
Florida Atlantic coach hands offense to ex-Baylor OC.
— Lane Kiffin flies commercial.
He’s like everyone else, waiting for his group number to be called while fidgeting with a boarding pass. He estimates he was some- where around row 32, seat C for his flight to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for last week’s Conference USA media days.
The coach with layovers at prestigious schools is now at Florida Atlantic, a program without a private plane. On Thursday at the DFW Marriott North, he acknowledged the need to win at FAU.
This is partly why he hired former Baylor offen- sive coordinator Kendal Briles. Briles was on staff when his father, Art, was fired last year in the midst of a sexual assault scandal involving Baylor players.
Kiffin isn’t concerned with any backlash about the hiring.
“We want to win games,” Kiffin said. “If we feel com- fortable about the other stuff, that this (is) going to help us win games and we can develop our players, that’s more important than what’s written out there.”
Kendal Briles has kept a low profile since a report released in May 2016 by Baylor’s lawyers said that “football coaches and staff ” mishandled sexual assault cases. Briles and defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, now at Arizona State, were the only former Baylor assistant coaches to land at a Division I program.
Kiffin took the job at FAU after three seasons as Ala- bama’s offensive coordinator, a tenure that ended before the Crimson Tide lost the national champi- onship game to Clemson.
When he arrived in Boca Raton, Fla., he looked at hiring Briles, who is argu- ably one of the top offensive minds in the country. Kiffin no longer wanted to call plays and wanted to find someone he could trust with the staff, he said Thursday.
He turned to Briles, who steered the nation’s top offense in 2015. When it came to “the other stuff,” Kiffin said the university felt secure with the hire and vetted Briles, but he didn’t go into specifics since the inquiries were made by FAU’s administration.
“Our athletic director (Pat Chun) and our people went through an extensive process with that,” Kiffin said.
Briles’ hire wasn’t the first decision by Kiffin that raised eyebrows.
According to the Talla- hassee Democrat, the first recruit he landed at FAU was former top-rated quar- terback De’Andre Johnson. Johnson was kicked out of Florida State in 2015 after a video showed him punching a woman in a bar, according to the Florida newspaper.
Kiffin acknowledged how important his success at FAU will be to his career.
He has a college coaching record of 35-21 in addition to his 5-15 record as coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raid- ers in 2007-08. His last head coaching stint came at USC, where he was famously fired a few feet away from the airport tarmac just hours after the fifth game of the 2013 season.
“I would assume this is going to be the job where they say, ‘If this doesn’t work, OK, he’s just really a play-caller or offensive coordinator, but he can’t be a head coach,’” Kiffin said. “If this works, maybe it goes the other way.”
FAU wants this to work out as much as anybody.
Kiffin noted the “Dabo effect,” in which Clemson’s success under coach Dabo Swinney has boosted the profile of the university and increased applications — and revenue. Kiffin said FAU President John Kelly is committed to doing what it takes to build a championship program.
In this case, that means hiring Briles, no matter the perception.
Kiffin wants more than to win. If he’s going to get FAU and his career off the ground, he wants to do it in style.
“That’s part of t he offense, too,” Kiffin said. “Hopefully we’re going to put (an) exciting product out there that people want to come see.”
Zach Britton set an American League record by converting his 55th consecutive save opportunity, blanking the Houston Astros in the ninth inning to seal the Baltimore Orioles’ 9-7 victory Sunday.
Britton struck out the first two batters and issued a walk before pinch-hitter George Springer bounced into a force play to end it.
Britton broke the AL mark held by Tom Gordon, who had 54 straight saves with Boston from 1998-99. Britton started his run on Oct. 1, 2015, added 47 in a row last season and is 6 for 6 this year.
The major league record scored three of 84 is held by Eric Gagne of the Dodgers from 2002-04.
Britton earned his fifth save April 14 and endured two months on the disabled list with a strained left fore- arm before returning July 5.
Baltimore broke a tie with two runs in the eighth against Luke Gregerson (2-3), using a sacrifice fly by Manny Machado and an RBI single by Jonathan Schoop.
Britton made the lead stand up, using 16 pitches to retire the AL West leaders.
Mark Trumbo homered and Adam Jones had four hits for the Orioles, who avoided a three-game sweep. Baltimore had lost eight straight to Houston dating to last year.
Mychal Givens(7-0) worked the eighth for the Orioles.
The Astros twice fell behind by three runs before coming back. Jose Altuve’s 15th home run — the first of his four hits — made it 3-all in the fourth, and Noro Aoki connected with two on in the sixth to tie it at 6.
Houston added a run in the sixth, but Trumbo tied it with a shot to left leading off the seventh.
Astros starter Lance McCullers gave up six runs and nine hits in 4⅔ innings. In three starts this month, the right-hander is 0-1 with a 9.88 ERA.
Baltimore’s Dylan Bundy allowed seven runs in 5⅓ innings, including both Houston homers.