Kiffin gives Florida Atlantic overhaul

No official announcement has been made, but De’Andre Johnson is likely to be the starting quarterback when Florida Atlantic comes to Oklahoma this weekend.

He’s better known, though, for his ties to Florida State.

That’s where Johnson signed after a record-breaking prep career and a senior season that earned him the title of Florida’s Mr. Football. He enrolled early and started school in January 2015, intent on making a run at the quarterback job left vacant by Jameis Winston’s departure. Three months later, he played in Florida State’s spring game.

Played quite well, too. But three months after that, Johnson punched a woman inside a Tallahassee bar. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery.

He was dismissed from the Florida State football team soon after.

Go to the Florida Atlantic website, however, and you’ll find no mention of Johnson’s time at Florida State. Now, I’m not expecting Florida Atlantic to spell out the gory details, but not listing Florida State among his previous schools on its main roster page or his bio page is peculiar.

Like someone’s trying to erase that chapter of his past.

Frankly, there’s lots of players at Florida Atlantic trying to do just that.

Lane Kiffin has flipped the fortunes of Florida Atlantic’s fledgling program. After winning only 59 games in the program’s first 13 seasons, the Owls won 11 games in Kiffin’s first season as head coach.

“The transformation that happened there the last couple of years is pretty remarkable,”

Sooner coach Lincoln Riley said Monday. “Just the change first in the talent base they have there, their talent level is very, very good.”

That upgrade can be traced to transfers. Florida Atlantic lists 31 players who transferred from other colleges, whether four- or twoyear schools.

By contrast, OU has 14. What’s more, many Florida Atlantic transfers came to the school after being suspended or dismissed from another program.

Last Chance U has nothing on FAU.

Kiffin has made it clear he won’t be apologizing for filling his roster with such players. A year ago, the coach told CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd that he explained to school leaders that his reason for bringing in players with questionable backgrounds is good.

“We need to fix our roster,” Kiffin told Dodd. Well, then. “We’ve always believed in second chances,” Kiffin went on to tell Dodd. “... I think most of us have had them in life, especially at a young age.”

Still, there’s more

unsavory than sweet in Florida Atlantic’s second chances.

Jovon Durante left West Virginia for Florida Atlantic two years ago after being ineligible for a bowl game and suspended for a spring semester. The wide receiver battled academic and disciplinary issues throughout his two seasons in Morgantown.

Around the same time Durante transferred, DeAndre McNeal was booted from Texas by then coach Charlie Strong. McNeal was suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team rules and was sent home. After a year at Fullerton College, a junior college in California, the wide receiver signed with Florida Atlantic.

Yet another wide receiver Kyle Davis came to Florida Atlantic after a rocky couple years at Auburn. He missed spring football after his freshman year because of “personal issues.” He was suspended for a time during his sophomore season, then ultimately dismissed for “breaking team rules.”

Folks in our neck of the woods know that Chris Robison had a similar story at OU. Before landing at Florida Atlantic, he was arrested for public intoxication only a few months after

arriving on campus as an early enrollee, then was dismissed from the team during the first week of fall practice for violating team rules.

Then, there are the Florida Atlantic players linked to more serious offenses.

Defensive end Tim Bonner was accused of having a gun in his dorm room while at Louisville. He has said he was falsely accused, but a dean at the university called him “a threat to society.” Bonner decided to transfer, first to East Mississippi Community College — Netflix junkies know it as the original “Last Chance U” — then to Florida Atlantic.

But no player on the Florida Atlantic roster has a more cringe-worth past than Johnson.

The punch he landed in that Tallahassee bar was caught on by a surveillance camera. The black-and-white images show an altercation between the football player and a young woman that escalates quickly and ends violently when his fist smashes into her face.

After being kicked out of Florida State, Johnson, too, landed at East Mississippi and became a central character on “Last Chance U.” People who watch the show — count me among the minority — say Johnson comes across as the player leastlikely

to have punched a woman.

But he did.

Lest you think every player at Florida Atlantic has a checkered past, rest assured that isn’t the case. Standout linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who Riley said Monday is on a level with former Georgia star and Butkus Award winner Roquan Smith, has an amazing story. Saved his family from a fire when he was a high school sophomore. Came from a single-parent family with eight children. Now has his two younger brothers living with him in his off-campus apartment.

Sadly, among Florida Atlantic’s marquee players, Al-Shaair is not the norm.

Lane Kiffin spoke candidly when he was hired last year about needing to upgrade the talent on his roster, and his team won lots of games last season. Probably will do the same this season. Likely will give OU all it can handle Saturday.

But Kiffin has built success largely on the shoulders of players with less-than-ideal backgrounds.

Is that a fix?

Or a flaw?