Kiffin in essay: ‘I wanted to die’ after firing at USC
FAU coach discusses newfound religion, Nick Saban on website.
BOCA RATON — Though he’s taken to making light of the incident, Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin is opening up on how seriously he was affected by his firing from Southern Cal in 2013.
“I wanted to die, because at the time I was defined by my job,” Kiffin wrote in an essay penned on the website “Athletes For God” with author Tom Hager.
Kiffin went 28-15 in three-plus seasons before being fired after a 62-41 road loss to Arizona State on Sept 28, 2013. After returning to Los Angeles International Airport, Kiffin was pulled off the Trojans’ bus on the tarmac and was told he’d been fired.
Before taking the USC job in January of 2010, Kiffin was 7-6 in his lone season with the Tennessee Volunteers. Prior to that, he had a 5-15 stint as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Kiffin had previously been a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator with the Trojans from 2001-06
and would have the opportunity to replace his mentor, Pete Carroll, who was hired by the Seattle Seahawks.
While Kiffin inherited a roster with numerous future NFL players, the Trojans were soon hit with sanctions stemming from NCAA violations under Carroll’s watch.
“We had 30 less scholarships than other teams and couldn’t go to a bowl game for two years, and all of our juniors and seniors could leave,” Kiffin wrote. “So it made it hard to recruit players, and yet we still signed the #1 class in the country. You are trying to bring in players who will have to pay their own tuition, while other colleges are still offering a full ride scholarship.”
The same USC fans who welcomed Kiffin home with open arms in 2010 had turned on him by the end of the 2012 season, when the Trojans went 7-6 and ended the year unranked after being No. 1 in the preseason polls.
The essay was released a day after Kiffin joked to reporters that his time at USC was, “a lot of drama ago, a lot of trauma.”
Now 43, Kiffin describes himself as a born-again Christian, like his father, longtime NFL defensive coordinator and current Owls pro liaison Monte Kiffin.
“I wish I could say that my relationship with God grew during that rough time, and that my isolation with all those fans brought me closer to Him, but that’s just not the truth,” Kiffin wrote. “I was no closer to him in L.A. than when I arrived in Knoxville. Why did I need Him, I had everything people dream of; beautiful wife, houses, power and millions of dollars.”
Kiffin also expressed gratitude for Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who hired him as his offensive coordinator after the 2013 season. Although Kiffin has been critical of Saban for several things, including his handling of the Crimson Tide’s current quarterback battle, the Owls coach does call his old boss “the greatest college coach of my generation” in the essay.
“He could have chosen anybody in the country, but he took a chance on the guy who had been fired from two of his three previous positions,” Kiffin wrote.