Done deal: FAU announces Lane Kiffin as new football coach

Published Dec. 13, 2016 10:43 a.m. ET

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BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) Florida Atlantic has announced the hiring of Lane Kiffin as its new football coach.

The school made it official on Tuesday announcing the move on Twitter, one day after Alabama coach Nick Saban said his offensive coordinator was leaving to take over the Owls. It's the fourth opportunity for Kiffin to be a head coach, after an NFL stint with the Oakland Raiders and college ones at Tennessee and USC.

Kiffin arrived in Boca Raton on Monday night. He will return to Alabama to continue running the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide's offense in the College Football Playoff, which starts Dec. 31 with a semifinal game against No. 4 Washington.

At Alabama, Kiffin was part of a program that has been ranked every week and no lower than No. 3 in any of the last 21 installments of the AP Top 25. At FAU, he inherits a program that has won 15 games in the last four years and has never received a single vote in the AP poll.

The Owls went 3-9 in each of the last three seasons, and haven't been to a bowl since 2008.

Kiffin will be the fifth coach in FAU history, after Howard Schnellenberger, Carl Pelini, Brian Wright and Charlie Partridge. Kiffin's first home game as the coordinator at Alabama was against FAU in 2014.

Kiffin went 5-15 with the Raiders in 2007 and 2008. He was the head coach at Tennessee in 2009, going 7-6 before bolting for USC - where he went 28-15 in parts of four seasons.

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