Lane Kiffin Pulls Scholarship Offer from FAU Commit D.J. Charles

Another newly hired head football coach has pulled a scholarship offer from a player, as Florida Atlantic's Lane Kiffin has rescinded the school's offer to athlete D.J. Charles.  

According to Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel, athletic director Patrick Chun or someone in the AD's office informed Charles' father of the school's decision to remove the scholarship offer during a phone call last week. 

Prior to Charles' phone call, his son was getting the cold shoulder from Florida Atlantic when he tried getting in contact with the school and described an encounter he had with Owls defensive coordinator Chris Kiffin. 

“He actually had reached out to me," Charles told Hays. "He followed me on Twitter, so I followed him back and then he hit me up on DM, saying, “Hey D.J., what’s up?” … and then he asked me, “Why did I decommit from FAU."

“I said, ‘I never posted anything saying I decommitted from FAU,’ and I told him, ‘I was just wondering why I hadn’t heard from anybody since the new coaching staff came in,’” Charles said. “And then he said he’d have to get with Coach Kiffin [the head coach] and have him watch my film and he’d get back to me soon. A couple days later I asked him [on Twitter] if there was any update, and he was like, ‘Let me find out today.’ So I guess he never got with Coach Kiffin and it was left at that.”

After that incident, Charles' father made the phone call and learned of FAU's decision to rescind the scholarship offer. 

Charles' father told Hays he was "stressed out. We’re almost running out of time.” National signing day is on February 1, which gives Charles just one week to figure out where he wants to play college football with a scholarship. 

Scholarship offers being rescinded has become a topic of conversation after Randy Edsall, who was hired at the University of Connecticut earlier this month, pulled back an offer last week that previous head coach Bob Diaco had made to linebacker Ryan Dickens. 

This isn't new in college football. Jim Harbaugh did the same thing last year with a recruit who was verbally committed to Michigan for two years.

It's an unfortunate part of the game, one that student-athletes don't ask for, but it does happen because certain players don't fit in some systems. 

The good news for Charles is he has options to choose from. According to Scout, six other schools have made a scholarship offer to the Florida native. 

Even though Charles may have been set on attending Florida Atlantic, which would have kept him in his home state, he will hopefully be able to choose from one of the other schools on his list to begin his college career without further stress.