How does Arkansas head coach Lane Kiffin sound?

Lane Kiffin has been one of the names mentioned most in connection to the Arkansas job, and the FAU booster brass is getting sick of it. So, according to Football Scoop, they’re prepared to back up the truck because they know what we know: Kiffin has done what only Ed Oregon has done: Publicly fail at being a head coach and then totally reinvent himself into not only a winner but a winner with his swag volume cranked to 11.

Hell, *I* want to play for Kiffin. That’s a far cry the dude that made us all feel as awkward as the only adult male at a little girl’s cheer camp when he made his SID perform a solo press conference from his office. That’s a far cry from the guy Pat Haden fired at 3 in the morning at LAX after a loss to Arizona State. That’s a far cry from the guy who uses his Twitter account for hilarity, attention and most importantly—traction. Lane Kiffin got that grip like a set of Nitto Tires. Now he’s about to get that bank roll grip. Since leaving the Nick Saban Rehabilitation Center for Failed Head Coaches and Coordinators, he’s 25-13 as the head coach at a commuter school and about to lead the Owls to their second conference title game in three years. He put together an 11-win season just after arriving while watching FAU product Devin Singletary motor through the AFC. And let’s not forget the Owls’ 50-3 ritual destruction of the Akron Zips in the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Bowl. Which is a thing that actually exists.

Now bear in mind Kiffin signed a five-year contract for $4.75 million at his hiring. He signed a 10-year extension in May 2018, which marries Kiffin to FAU through 2027. But he’s still making less than a million annually. Means he made less than Seth Littrell at North Texas and recently fired UTSA coach Frank Wilson. Seems like shade for a man with a national title ring, right? Well, Kiffin also took a $2 million loan from FAU to buy his house. And the house in question is probably more like a manner? Taking a look at what you can get for $2.1 mil in the Boca market you’ll find a 5,000 square-foot, five bedroom, seven-bath, two-story home with the in-ground pool in the back off the shore of Lake Wyman. Or a 3,000 square-foot, two-bedroom, super-modern condo off the Atlantic Ocean.

The most interesting part of this? He doesn’t have to repay the loan if he coaches in Boca through 2021. Now, shouts to Owl Access who discovered the clause, which forgives 20 percent of his loan each year. His buyout also drops $500,000 with each passing year on a specific date: That date is a week from today—Dec. 12.

Means somebody would owe FAU $800,000 for the remainder of the loan and $750,000 for his buyout: So we’re looking at a total buyout package of $1 million plus a year’s salary as a public school teacher in Texas because you sure as hell ain’t gonna make $50K teaching public school in Oklahoma.

Kiffin told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel it ain’t about the paper chase, though.

“I’m not driven by money anymore," he said. "I’m not driven by ego, of the attention being a head coach at one of those places. I’m very happy here on all fronts. The only drive is when you do see Kirby [Smart], you see Coach [Nick] Saban walk out on that field before the game, the national championship, holding that trophy. It’s the drive of, OK, I get to play against the best, let’s see if I can beat the best. It’s different. That would not be what I would have answered even five years ago. Because your ego — once you get rid of that, you have different motivations.”

You can’t win a national championship at FAU. But you can win one in Fayetteville. Pig sooie, Razorbacks?

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