FAU becoming summer hot spot

BOCA RATON — Coach Lane Kiffin has urged high-profile athletes, celebrities, and more to stop what they’re doing and #cometothefaU — and once again, major faces will spend some time at Florida Atlantic University this summer.

Kiffin confirmed through, as always, his personal Twitter account that Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, and Oregon are among the Power 5 teams that will send their coaches to work at high school prospect camps on June 2 and June 7. The two camps will feature a combined 11 Power 5 programs, including Rut- gers, Indiana, and Nebraska all joining Michigan and Ohio State from the Big Ten. Kansas and Texas will represent the Big 12, while Syracuse, North Carolina State, and Georgia Tech represent the ACC. Western Michigan (MAC) is the only Group of 5 school that will participate in the camp.

FAU has done similar camps in recent years, with Michigan and Oregon each attending a similar camp last June. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer attended in 2016 under then-FAU coach Charlie Partridge.

“I didn’t say no to any (program)” Kiffin said last year. “Whoever reached out to us and wanted to come, we allowed them to come because really, it’s about the kids. This is about affording kids opportunities.”

Kiffin has ties to some of the head coaches and programs participating in the camps, havin g coached against Meyer when both were in the SEC nearly a decade ago. Meyer’s Gators took down Kiffin’s Tennessee Volunteers in September 2009, months after the future FAU coach promised he would “sing Rocky Top all night long in the swamp.”

“That didn’t go over very well,” Kiffin said when he was hired by FAU in December 2016. “It’s taken eight to 10 years to get back to buddies with coach Meyer.”