Ole Miss soccer coach Lane Kiffin has made teaching stops at 11 universities. Duke coach Manny Diaz at 9.
It’s tough to educate that lengthy and criss-cross the nation as a lot as the 2 opposing coaches within the eightieth TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (Thursday, 8:05 p.m., EverBank Stadium, ESPN) have and by some means not work on the identical workers sooner or later.
Stadium of the Previous: Previous Gator Bowl was house for Jacksonville sports activities for six a long time
However there’s a connection. And it began in Jacksonville.
Kiffin was a 25-year-old defensive high quality management coach on Tom Coughlin’s workers in 2000, answering to coordinator Dom Capers. It was Kiffin’s third teaching job, after transient stops at Fresno State and Colorado State.
“It was a extremely neat yr right here,” Kiffin mentioned of his time with the Jaguars on Jan. 1 at a Gator Bowl coaches “Hearth Chat” on the WJCT Studios.
On the similar time, Diaz was a graduate assistant coach at N.C. State. The offensive coordinator for the Wolfpack, Norm Chow, was shifting throughout the nation to hitch Pete Carroll’s workers at USC, and he was pushing Carroll to rent Diaz to be his tight ends coach.
”I’m a defensive GA and also you’re simply making an attempt to get a break,” Diaz mentioned about shifting on the opposite facet of the ball. “Norm tells me he’s talked to Pete and he thinks he’s acquired Pete satisfied to rent me, however there’s one final man he needs to examine with — a high quality management coach at Jacksonville, however he thinks he needs to remain within the NFL.”
Sure. That will be Kiffin.
”If [Kiffin] stays within the NFL, then I might be an offensive coach at Southern Cal,” Diaz mentioned.
Kiffin determined to take the job at USC, the place he ultimately grew to become the offensive coordinator 4 years later, then returned in 2010 to turn out to be the pinnacle coach for 3 years.
”We’ve been linked from afar,” Diaz mentioned.
Kiffin mentioned he had by no means heard that story. However he admitted he had “a trump card.”
“Loopy how issues work. I had just a little benefit,” he mentioned. “My dad [veteran NFL and college coach Monte Kiffin] and Pete went a protracted methods again.”
This text initially appeared on Florida Instances-Union: Gator Bowl: Lane Kiffin’s yr in Jacksonville and the way he acquired a job at USC
