BOCA RATON, Fla. _ If Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin was indeed close to accepting the offensive coordinator position at LSU under Ed Orgeron, he's not saying so. On Tuesday, Kiffin instead labeled LSU as a "very intriguing" option before he took the FAU job in December.
"It was very intriguing because of the relationship with coach O," Kiffin said. "I think he's going to do a great job there and I think they have arguably one of the best, one of the top defensive coordinators (Dave Aranda) in all of football. He's done a great job wherever he was."
Orgeron previously worked for Kiffin when he was the head coach at both Tennessee and USC. After Kiffin was fired at USC in 2013, Orgeron took over as the interim coach.
In a recent SB Nation story, Orgeron said Kiffin told him "Coach, I'm coming to LSU unless I get a head job, and I want a head job." At the time, Kiffin was finishing his third season as Alabama's offensive coordinator.
"We thought he had the Houston job," Orgeron said. "He woulda been dynamite there. Dynamite. Then we hear about Florida Atlantic, and we didn't think he'd take that. But he calls and says, 'Hey man, I'm coming. I've got one more meeting, and I'm just going to listen to them.' Ended up, he took the job."
FAU hired Kiffin on Dec. 13, but he said Tuesday that Tigers running back Derrius Guice could be a Heisman Trophy winner.
"There was some intrigue there, because if you get the offense fixed, you'd have a great team this year," Kiffin said. "I think they got potentially, what I look at, he if he gets the ball in the right situations and stays healthy, in Derrius Guice, a Heisman Trophy winner. So it was very intriguing."
