Lane Kiffin agrees to new 10-year deal with Florida Atlantic

Sam Cooper
·College football writer
Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin prepares to hand the Conference USA trophy to his players after defeating North Texas. (Jim Rassol/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin prepares to hand the Conference USA trophy to his players after defeating North Texas. (Jim Rassol/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

It looks like Lane Kiffin’s stay at Florida Atlantic will last a lot longer than his previous head-coaching stints.

In his first year at FAU, Kiffin, 42, led the Owls to their first Conference USA title. And on Tuesday, hours before FAU plays Akron in the Boca Raton Bowl, Kiffin confirmed to ESPN that he has agreed to a new 10-year contract with the school.

“We are grateful that the president and university are this excited about what we are doing here at FAU and into the future, although our focus remains completely on the team and this historic season finale tonight on ESPN,” Kiffin said.

The Owls, at 10-3, have already set a program record for single-season wins entering Tuesday night’s game against Akron (7-6), the MAC East division champion. FAU began the season 1-3 before rattling off nine consecutive wins. The Owls were a perfect 8-0 in Conference USA play and trounced North Texas 41-17 in the conference title game on Dec. 2.

Per ESPN, Kiffin’s new deal extends through December 2027. When he agreed to be FAU’s coach last year after three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, Kiffin signed a five-year contract worth $950,000 per year.

FAU president Dr. John Kelly told ESPN that out-of-state applications to the university went up 35 percent for the fall 2018 semester.

“And we haven’t done anything else differently, so it has to be Lane,” Kelly said.

In Kiffin’s previous head coach positions, he hasn’t lasted longer than four seasons. He was fired in his second season with the Oakland Raiders, left after one year at Tennessee for the USC job and then was fired during his fourth season with the Trojans in 2013.

Perhaps Kiffin’s new deal with FAU shows he is ready to settle down in Boca Raton.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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