Kiffin: Time at Alabama ‘a great experience’
IRVING, TEXAS Lane Kiffin was succinct and candid right off the bat.
“Well, obviously it’s different,” he said when asked Thursday to compare his experience at the Conference USA media days to other functions he’s attended throughout his career.
Kiffin, getting set to begin his first season as head coach at Florida Atlantic, has become one of the more polarizing and intriguing figures in college football. He’s been a head coach at Southern California and Tennessee. Before that, he was the Oakland Raiders head coach for 20 games in 200708. Most recently, the 45-year-old son of longtime NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Alabama.
On Thursday, Kiffin — outfitted in a white dress shirt with a salmon tie and beige sports coat — fielded questions for just more than 30 minutes from a group of reporters that topped out about a dozen in number. He wasn’t the only high-profile coach making his first appearance at the C-USA media days, as former Miami (Fla.) coach Butch Davis — now at Florida International — was also in attendance.
Topics of discussion with Kiffin ranged from his reportedly tumultuous relationship with Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban to having to get used to flying commercial.
“I sat in the back of a plane to- day for the first time in a long time,” Kiffin said. “It was like row 32C. That was new.”
Kiffin was also asked about the recruiting promo video FAU put together that took on a life of its own because of its relatively low quality. He said that was the intent. “I thought it was perfect,” he said. “If you do a good one, nobody really cares. But our marketing people came up with a great plan.
“We were on Colin Cowherd, we were on SportsCenter for it. There were a lot of people that had never heard of FAU looking up, ‘Where is FAU?’ ”
While there was levity sprinkled in Kiffin’s availability, he was also pressed on hiring Kendal Briles as his offensive coordinator. Briles, who enjoyed plenty of success as Baylor’s offensive coordinator in recent years, has found himself in the midst of the ongoing rape scandal that has enveloped the Bears football program.
“Our athletic director and our people went through an extensive (vetting) process,” Kiffin said. “They really handled that. I was more of the football standpoint. I wanted to hire him, and they handled everything else. They felt comfortable with it, and I feel good about him helping us win games. And that’s more important than what’s written out there.
“It’s always been more important to me to do what’s best for our team and for our players wherever I’ve been, over what perception might be and what people write about it.”
Kiffin called his time at Alabama and working with Saban “a great experience.”
“People ask, ‘Did the marriage work?’ If three years ago, when that hire was made, if you’d have said, ‘Together, we’re going to go 40-3 and win three straight SEC titles and have three straight SEC offensive players of the year, a Heisman winner, a Biletnikoff winner and win a national championship,’ I think every Alabama fan would’ve said, ‘That’s a pretty good deal.’ So it was awesome.”