The coach with layovers at prestigious schools is now at Florida Atlantic, a program without a private plane. On Thursday at the DFW Marriott North, he acknowledged the need to win at FAU.
This is partly why he hired former Baylor offensive coordinator Kendal Briles. Briles was on staff when his father, Art, was fired last year in the midst of a sexual assault scandal.
Kiffin isn't concerned with the backlash of hiring Briles.
"We want to win games," Kiffin said. "If we feel comfortable about the other stuff, that this going to help us win games and we can develop our players, that's more important than what's written out there."
Kendal Briles has kept a low profile since a report released in May 2016 by Baylor's lawyers said "football coaches and staff" mishandled sexual assault cases. Briles and former Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, now at Arizona State, were the only ex-staffers to land at a Division I program.
Kiffin took the job at FAU after three seasons as Alabama's offensive coordinator, a tenure that ended before the Crimson Tide lost the national championship game to Clemson.
When he arrived in Boca Raton, Fla., he looked at hiring Briles, who is arguably one of the top offensive minds in the country. Kiffin no longer wanted to call plays and wanted to find someone he could trust with the staff, he said on Thursday.
He turned to Briles, who steered the nation's top offense in 2015. When it came to "the other stuff," Kiffin said the university felt secure with the hire and vetted Briles, but he didn't go into specifics since the inquiries were made by FAU's administration.
"Our athletic director (Pat Chun) and our people went through an extensive process with that," Kiffin said.
Briles' hire wasn't the first decision Kiffin made that raised eyebrows.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the first recruit Kiffin landed at FAU was former top-rated quarterback De'Andre Johnson. Johnson was kicked out of Florida State in 2015 after a video showed him punching a woman in a bar, according to the Florida newspaper.
Kiffin acknowledged how important his success at FAU will be to his career.
He has a college coaching record of 35-21 in addition to his 5-15 record as coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders in 2007-08. His last coaching stint came at USC, where he was famously fired a few feet away from airport tarmac hours after the fifth game of the 2013 season.
"I would assume this is going to be the job where they say, 'If this doesn't work, OK, he's just a really play-caller or offensive coordinator, but he can't be a head coach,' " Kiffin said. "If this works, maybe it goes the other way."
FAU wants this to work out as much as anybody.
Kiffin noted the "Dabo effect," where Clemson's success under coach Dabo Swinney has boosted the profile of the university and increased applications (and revenue). The FAU coach said the university president John Kelly is committed to doing what it takes to build a championship program.
In this case, that means hiring Briles, no matter the perception.
He wants more than winning. If he's going to get FAU and his career off the ground, he wants to do it in style.
"That's part of the offense, too," Kiffin said. "Hopefully we're going to put (an) exciting product out there that people want to come see."
About the Author