South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Kiffin heading to Ole Miss after 3 years as Owls head coach
BOCA RATON — Lane Kiffin has stepped down as Florida Atlantic’s coach and will return to the SEC after three seasons with the Owls.
FAU director of athletics Brian White announced after the Owls defeated UAB in the Conference USA championship game Saturday that Kiffin stepped down from his position as head football coach, with Ole Miss officially announcing Kiffin’s hire as its new head coach shortly after his resignation.
Defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer will serve as the interim head coach for the Owls’ bowl game, and the search to find FAU’s next head coach will begin immediately.
“Coach Kiffin deserves our thanks and a great deal of credit for continuing to build our football program to high levels of success,” White said in a statement.
“I know there will be a great deal of interest in the position. We have an extremely talented roster returning with an established culture of success. There are outstanding facilities here with the new Schmidt Family Complex about to open and recent renovations to FAU Stadium.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the future of our football program.”
“It’s been awesome,” Kiffin said about his time at FAU.
“[It’s a] phenomenal place to live. Great staff, great players and great leadership. You don’t win two conference championships because you hire a head coach. You got to have a lot things in place, a lot of people helping you, and that’s what happened here.”
Tight end Harrison Bryant thanked Kiffin, saying that he “changed my life and my football career.”
“Obviously Coach Kiffin, he’s changed the program in the three years he was here,” Bryant said. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff on Twitter about people upset, but it’s a business and you got to do what you got to do.
“I can’t thank him enough for
what he’s done for me.”
Kiffin said his time at FAU helped him realize his calling as a coach is bigger than helping players get drafted.
“I was used to all players thinking they’re going into the NFL and your job is to get the players drafted as high as they can,” Kiffin said. “This place changed me to realize ‘OK, I got a bigger calling than that.’
“My calling is to help these kids develop. They really helped me a lot to realize there’s more [to] coaching than winning games and getting guys drafted.
“It’s one thing to go to a place that’s won a bunch and you continue that; it’s another thing to really build something. I’ve kind of always compared it to a house — you can go buy a really nice house, [but] there’s a difference when you build that house how you feel about that house. And that’s how I feel about this team.”
Ole Miss fired coach Matt Luke last weekend. Kiffin was also linked to the coaching vacancy at Arkansas.
Kiffin has previous coaching experience in the SEC. He went 7-6 in one season at Tennessee in 2009 and was Alabama’s offensive coordinator from 2014-16 before taking over the Owls’ head coaching reins.
Kiffin had a 26-13 record at FAU. The Owls won two C-USA titles under Kiffin, who signed a six-year extension with the Owls in June 2018 that was set to run through 2027.
Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin looks over his team before a game against UCF on Sept. 7. He leaves the Owls after leading them to a 26-13 record and two C-USA titles.