Report: FAU's Lane Kiffin Interested in FSU HC Job After Willie Taggart's Firing

The Florida State Seminoles fired head coach Willie Taggart on Saturday after a 4-5 start to the season and a 9-12 record overall in his two-year tenure, opening up one of the premier coaching gigs in college football.

And one of the names to watch for in the school's coaching search is Florida Atlantic's Lane Kiffin, according to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports:

Kiffin, 44, has had a fascinating coaching career. He made his name as an assistant coach at USC between 2001-06, which included two seasons as the team's offensive coordinator. That earned him the Oakland Raiders head-coaching gig, though he lasted only 20 games, going 5-15. 

From there, he spent one season as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers in 2009, finishing a disappointing 7-6. He then spent parts of four seasons at USC, going 10-2 in 2011 but just 28-15 overall, as his Trojans teams generally underachieved. 

When he was unceremoniously fired by USC on an airport tarmac in Sept. 2013 after a 62-41 loss to Arizona State, it appeared as though Kiffin's chances at landing a high-profile gig had come to a close. He simply hadn't impressed in Oakland, Knoxville or Los Angeles. 

"When you're in L.A. and you get fired at the airport at 4 a.m., you don't want to go anywhere," he told B/R's Adam Kramer in September. "It was painful and embarrassing. And I felt miserable and angry at everybody for a little while. I realized then that I was defined as the head coach at USC, and that's all I was defined as."

But he was given new life in Alabama after the team signed him to serve as the offensive coordinator under head coach Nick Saban. Alabama went 40-4 in that span, including winning a national championship and playing in two College Football Playoff championship games.

"You go back to being an assistant learning from the best that has ever coached," Kiffin told Kramer. "That kind of move will humble you. Knock down your ego. It certainly did for me."

It also resurrected his coaching career, and Kiffin was hired in 2016 to be the head coach at Florida Atlantic, where he's since gone 22-13, including an 11-3 campaign in 2017. The Owls have had an up-and-down 2019 season, though they appear to be heading in the right direction:

While Kiffin may have interest in the Florida State position, he isn't currently among the betting favorites to land the job:

But given his experience at high-profile gigs, his familiarity with recruiting in Florida and in the South and his more successful tenures at Alabama and Florida Atlantic, Kiffin makes sense as a potential candidate for the Seminoles, a program that is just 16-18 in the past three years.

In Tallahassee, that level of mediocrity is unacceptable. Kiffin would certainly be a fascinating, high-profile hire in an effort to turn the Seminoles around.