THE FAST LANE
Del Olaleye: Meet college football's next Steve Spurrier
Del Olaleye
Jan 17, 2018, 3:42 pm
Lane Kiffin is fun for college football. FAUOwlaccess.com
The best thing to happen to college football this season was Lane Kiffin moving to Boca Raton. Fortunately for Kiffin and the rest of the college football world Boca Raton is home to Florida Atlantic University and they just happened to have a job opening. There has been a void in college football created by the departure of Steve Spurrier from the sport. Really this void was created the minute the OBC (Ol’ Ball Coach) left Florida for the Redskins job. Spurrier did a great job rebuilding the South Carolina program when he returned to college football, leading that program to three straight 11-win seasons in his time there but he wasn’t the same swaggering sh-- talker that everyone feared while he was at Florida. He wasn’t a mute at South Carolina but he was at his best when he was leading the Fun and Gun at his alma mater. No coach was safe and even legends of the sport caught it, on Peyton Manning: "I know why Peyton came back for his senior year. He wanted to be a three-time star of the Citrus Bowl."
Spurrier was one of a kind and the sport is worse off without him. That brings me back to Kiffin. He isn’t Spurrier yet. He doesn’t have the cache, the wins or half the respect, but what he does have is no filter, arrogance, a great offensive mind and insight into Alabama, the most dominant program in all of college football. Saban and Kiffin was an odd partnership the moment Kiffin’s hiring by Alabama was announced. How would Saban’s process-oriented approach mesh with Kiffin’s less than stellar past? Pretty, pretty good. Three CFP appearances from 2014-2016 including a National Title in the 2015 season.
The expected rough patches did occur. The most noteworthy being a sideline argument during the National semifinal against the Washington Huskies. Kiffin, already named the FAU head coach, was let go by Saban during title game week for what Saban thought would be in the best interest of the student athletes at both schools. Alabama went on to lose to Clemson and Deshaun Watson in the final seconds of the title game in Steve Sarkisian’s only game as the Bama OC. Kiffin, when asked about his departure in a September 2017 article by the Washington Post said he believed Alabama would be a two-time defending champion if he had been allowed to coach through the title game.
Kiffin kept his eye trained on the Crimson Tide in 2017 while guiding Florida Atlantic to a perfect 8-0 record in conference play and their first Conference USA title. That early success allows for the twitter shots at Saban. Pointing out Saban’s apparent hypocrisy regarding the requirements for making the College Football Playoff are only accepted because Kiffin won eleven games in year one. Without the early validation Kiffin would be subject to jokes about going down to Boca Raton to retire. He’d be quiet. Quiet Kiffin is the worst Kiffin. Out from under the Alabama machine and at a program who would just like to win some damn games he is free to do and say what he wants.
Telling the college football world via the Dan Patrick Show that its newest star Tua Tagovailoa would have transferred from Alabama had he not played in the title game is how he started 2018. According to Kiffin, Tagovailoa thought he should be starting but Saban wouldn’t give him the opportunity. This is why Kiffin’s continued on-field success is so important. I don’t care what he has to say about Butch Davis at FIU or Doc Holliday at Marshall. No one really cared what Steve Spurrier had to say at Duke about the Wake Forest coach either. Once Spurrier was hired by Florida and starting poking at the blue bloods in the SEC his legend grew. The great offenses and all that winning in the '90s certainly didn’t hurt as well.
We should all hope Kiffin does enough winning at FAU to move on to a bigger job. In the Big Ten perhaps? Kiffin vs Harbaugh? Kiffin vs Meyer? Game week would be better than the actual game. He’d be hated by every fanbase in the conference but his own. Hating everybody but your own is what college football is about and the former USC and Tennessee Vols coach would be a perfect foil. The next big school to hire Kiffin will have a target on its back the moment the introductory press conference begins because Coach Lane can’t help himself.
The great Childish Gambino once said, “They don’t listen when you mumble.” Kiffin wants to be heard.
Meet the next Steve Spurrier. Lane Kiffin.
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The Houston Texans addressed some needs in the NFL draft despite not having a first-round pick this year.
A year after selecting quarterback C.J. Stroud second overall and trading up to get defensive end Will Anderson Jr. with the following pick, the Texans didn’t have a pick in this draft until No. 42 in the second round.
After beefing up their offense significantly by trading for star receiver Stefon Diggs and running back Joe Mixon this offseason, the Texans used their early draft picks to improve their secondary.
They did that by taking Georgia cornerback Kamari Lassiter with the 42nd pick and adding USC safety Calen Bullock in the third round at No. 78. Both could move into the starting lineup immediately with Houston looking to upgrade the cornerback spot opposite Derek Stingley Jr., the third overall pick in 2022, and the free safety position to play with strong safety Jalen Pitre, a second-round pick in 2022.
The additions should bolster a defense which ranked 23rd in the NFL last season by allowing 234.1 yards passing a game.
General manager Nick Caserio raved about Lassiter, who won two national championships with the Bulldogs.
“Lassiter has position flexed — he’s played in the perimeter, played inside the formation,” Caserio said. “I’d say he plays with a linebacker-type mentality. He’s a corner, but he tackles. He’s tough, he’s physical.”
Lassiter started 29 games combined in his last two seasons at Georgia where he broke up eight passes and had 3½ tackles for losses last season. His draft stock might have fallen because of concerns about his speed after he ran an unofficial 4.60 40-yard dash at Georgia’s pro day.
“I’m sure there will be a question about his speed, and how fast he ran,” Caserio said. “But he’s not slow. The speed really wasn’t a concern of ours. The time is the time. We’re drafting football players; we’re not drafting track teams… when you watch him play in the SEC, you don’t walk away and have that concern.”
Coach DeMeco Ryans constantly preaches the importance of a relentless mindset to his team — and particularly his defense. He said Lassiter is the perfect example of that.
“Kamari provides toughness,” Ryans said Saturday. “You talk about energy and the way he plays the game — he loves football … he’s everything that our team is about.”
Bullock was a three-year starter for the Trojans where he had nine interceptions — two that were returned for touchdowns — and 151 tackles.
“He’s rangy,” Caserio said. “He covers ground, he plays the ball well. He has good movement skills for a safety. He started his career as a corner. Not saying he’s a corner, but he moves well for his size.”
PROTECTING C.J.The Texans chose Notre Dame offensive tackle Blake Fisher with their other pick in the second round at No. 59. Fisher is a versatile lineman after playing both left and right tackle in his college career.
“I think we’ve always been a big believer (that) you can’t have enough tackles on your football team,” Caserio said.
REUNIONHouston reunited Stroud with his former college teammate when it drafted Ohio State tight end Cade Stover in the fourth round. The 6-foot-4, 251-pound Stover, who spent his first year as a linebacker, had 982 yards receiving with 10 touchdowns combined in his last two seasons with the Buckeyes.
Stroud posted a picture on social media of the two of them celebrating in the end zone while at Ohio State soon after he was drafted Saturday.
“This guy is everything you want in a football player,” Caserio said. “This is probably one of our favorite football players in the entire draft.”
STAYING IN SCHOOLThe Texans added to their defense in the sixth round with Oregon safety turned linebacker Jamal Hill. He had 147 tackles, two interceptions and four forced fumbles in five seasons with the Ducks.
Later in the sixth round, the Texans nabbed another player who spent five seasons in college in running back Jawhar Jordan. He spent two seasons at Syracuse before spending his last three seasons at Louisville where he ran for a career-best 1,128 yards and 13 touchdowns last year.
Houston wrapped up the draft by taking USC defensive end Solomon Byrd and Auburn defensive tackle Marcus Harris and Michigan offensive tackle LaDarius Henderson in the seventh round.
Byrd was in college for a whopping six seasons after spending four seasons at Wyoming and two seasons with the Trojans. Harris played at Kansas for two seasons before spending the last three years at Auburn. Henderson spent four seasons at Arizona State before finishing with one season at Michigan.