Kiffin’s link with Leinart leads to offer for his son
BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin’s tweet on Tuesday night saying he offered Cole Leinart, the 11-year-old son of former Southern Cal quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, garnered national attention.
On Wednesday, he didn’t offer much on the subject when asked by reporters, taking the precautionary route in discussing prospective recruits and avoiding NCAA violations.
“I don’t know if I can talk on that,” Kiffin said. “I think because he’s under ninth grade, I can, but just in case, I’m not going to.”
He did, however, get into his relationship with the elder Leinart, whom he coached as an assistant at USC.
“Matt, we’ve always had a good relationship,” said Kiffin of Leinart, who after an NFL career is now a college football analyst for Fox Sports and covered FAU’s opener at Oklahoma. “We’ve been communicating a lot over the last couple of months. They had the opener, their broadcast and stuff. He lives right down the street from my kids in Manhattan Beach out there.”
Kiffin also joked on Wednesday that he doesn’t know how much he can discuss Matt Leinart as the father of a recruit — despite knowing him for nearly two decades now.
Kiffin tweeted Fox Sports college football reporter Bruce Feldman on Tuesday night. Feldman tweeted about Cole Leinart with a video of the 5-foot-7, 11-year-old completing a pass about 30 yards downfield in a flag football game. He wrote in the tweet, “Shocked that Lane Kiffin and FAU haven’t already offered him.”
In Kiffin’s response, he wrote, “I did @BruceFeldmanCFB keep up with the news!!! #ColeComingto#thefaU.”
Kiffin is no stranger to offering young football players scholarships. He made headlines when he did so with 13-year-old David Sills while he was coaching Southern Cal. Sills committed to Kiffin, but Kiffin was later fired from USC and Sills ended up becoming a productive receiver for West Virginia.
Kiffin has a long-standing relationship with Matt Leinart. During the quarterback’s time at USC from 2001-2005, Kiffin started off as the Trojans’ tight ends coach before becoming the team’s wide receivers coach, and eventually co-offensive coordinator/passing game coordinator.
Al-Shaair’s status uncertain: Senior middle linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair’s status appears to be uncertain for FAU’s Conference USA game at Marshall this Saturday. The Owls’ alltime leading tackler missed Wednesday’s practice.
“Azeez was not out there today. Hopefully will be tomorrow,” Kiffin said.
He was asked to classify if Al-Shaair’s absence was due to injury or something off-the-field and did not specify.
Al-Shaair is second on the team, behind junior linebacker Rashad Smith, with 43 tackles this season.
When Al-Shaair missed the second half and end of the first half of the Old Dominion game on Oct. 6, ejected for targeting, Hosea Barnwell stepped into his middle linebacker role.