Oklahoma coach heaps praise on Kiffin, FAU
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is familiar with the Florida Atlantic Owls but not the current version.
Before joining the Sooners as Bob Stoops’ offensive coordinator in 2015, Riley worked in Conference USA as East Carolina’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 2010-14. Though the Pirates moved from C-USA to the American after the 2013 season, Riley — then ECU’s offensive coordinator — coached against FAU in a 31-13 win on Sept. 2, 2013, the Owls’ first C-USA game following their arrival from the Sun Belt.
What once was a dismal FAU program (that 2013 team went 6-6) is now a dangerous team led by veteran offensive guru Lane Kiffin, whose Owls face Riley’s No. 7 Sooners on Saturday in Norman.
“This is a different deal,” Riley said Monday during the Big 12’s weekly teleconference. “You used to turn on the film four or five years ago and you saw a talent level that was honestly probably just average for that league. Now, you turn on the film and the talent jumps off the screen.
He’s brought in a lot of really, really good players.”
Florida Atlantic went 11-3 under Kiffin last season, winning its final 10 games and going 9-0 in C-USA play. Led by AP All-American running back Devin Singletary (American Heritage) and an offense that averaged over 40 points per game, the Owls won nine of their final 10 games by double digits. Oklahoma went 12-2 (8-1 in the Big 12) and lost to Georgia as the second seed in last year’s College Football Playoff.
Some of the more notable wins by FAU last year included ending a nine-game losing streak to Middle Tennessee, dating to 2007, taking down Western Kentucky on the road after a humiliating 52-3 loss in 2016, and beating Marshall for the first time in program history.
“It’s been great to see kind of the transformation of that program over the last few years and how well they’ve done,” Riley said. “(Kiffin has) done a great job of bringing in talented players.”
Riley previously spoke highly of FAU in June, saying on the College Sports Now podcast that “they’re more talented than many Power Five teams.” Florida Atlantic has only beaten one Power Five program, notching a win over Minnesota in 2007.
n offered his own praise for one of Riley’s players on Sunday, saying in a conference call that Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray was among “the guys you want to play the least.”
Riley called Kiffin “a tremendous coach” who is the right fit for FAU. Kiffin signed a six-year contract extension this summer that will tentatively keep him in Boca Raton through 2027.
“He’s got a great mind for it,” Riley said. “It looks like he’s really established a great staff around him there. You don’t rattle off 10 wins in a row or whatever it was there at the end of the season that they finished up with. They beat up on some really good teams and you don’t do that without really good players. ... They’re very, very impressive, no question.”