Bill Clark and Lane Kiffin would improve the SEC

[aubiefifty 18,230]

al.com

Bill Clark and Lane Kiffin would improve the SEC

Today 6:00 AM

5-7 minutes

Alabama Football

Mark Almond | AL.com

 

One is in coaching purgatory. One raised a program from the dead.

It’s FAU’s Lane Kiffin vs. UAB’s Bill Clark in the Conference USA championship, and on a college football weekend devoid of much intrigue, the matchup will have plenty of eyes on it beyond Birmingham and Boca.

Would it surprise anyone at this point in the silly season if these coaches were squaring off against each other in the SEC next fall?

The silly season is that part of the year when coaching rumors are flying around like Santa’s reindeer. Reporters and fans have fun tracking the tail numbers of private planes. Internet jokesters enjoy creating hoaxes to gain attention, and trick people into sharing fake news.

The spin cycle has changed directions every day this week with Ole Miss, Arkansas and Missouri all looking for their next football coaches.

Mizzou fired Barry Odom on Saturday after a disappointing season that included losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt in back-to-back games. Ole Miss ousted Matt Luke after that embarrassing Egg Bowl. Arkansas fired Chad Morris back in early November. He went 0-14 in the SEC in two seasons.

The openings have all been ranked, and the usual suspects have all been crossed off the list. Urban Meyer, I’m sorry to say, is probably not going to Missouri.

With three coaching vacancies open in the SEC, the CUSA title game feels like a job interview. Why just one, though?

Both Kiffin and Clark are good enough to coach in the SEC, and the league is hurting for talent right now beyond the traditional powers. Just look at Alabama’s plight this season. No one is crying for the Crimson Tide, I know, but Alabama’s strength of schedule was ranked in the 60s by Jeff Sagarin at the end of the season.

The SEC West isn’t what it used to be. Kentucky stands as Mississippi State’s only victory against a Power 5 team that didn’t fire its coach. Texas A&M is paying Jimbo Fisher $7 million per season, and the Aggies only won seven games.

There are no easy answers for teams having to compete against LSU, Alabama and Auburn, but the two coaches in the CUSA title game have qualities that should appeal to both SEC West schools looking for coaches.

If anyone can bring some integrity back to Ole Miss, then it’s Bill Clark. He would be an excellent fit in Oxford, Miss. If Arkansas feels like it needs to make a splashy hire to restore relevance, then Kiffin fits that bill. This will be the first time they’ve faced each other with their current teams. There appears to be a healthy respect.

Kiffin said this week on Twitter that Clark should be the CUSA coach of the year. Clark said that a team coached by Kiffin is difficult to plan against because he’s a “mad-scientist guy.”

“There are offensive coaches, there are defensive coaches, there are mixtures of both,” Clark said this week. “Guys that I always call those mad-scientist guys, that you can’t really put their finger on them, who they are. Those are the guys who are hard to deal with — some of those abstract guys really are some of the better offensive play callers, and you really can’t put your hands on who they are.”

Kiffin has been an enigma his entire career, of course. He was the coach of the Oakland Raiders at 31 years old. A California kid at heart, he later left Tennessee to coach Southern Cal despite severe scholarship reductions at Troy.

Kiffin, now 44 years old, was excellent at Alabama as an offensive coordinator, but also a distraction. Famously, he was relieved of his duties before Alabama’s national championship loss against Clemson following the 2016 season.

He has needled Saban on Twitter ever since.

It’s no secret that sportswriters and fans want Kiffin back in the SEC for his antics, and his addition to the SEC West would add plenty of juice to the league. They need it in Fayetteville, Ark., these days.

Kiffin and Clark have different personalities, sure, but they are both sons of coaches and they both have a history of unconventional choices. Who in the world ever thought Clark would stay at UAB after they killed the program? But he did, and then he turned it into a huge success. Clark is the defending national coach of the year, and he built a champion out of nothing, literally, in a few years at UAB.

It would be difficult for Clark to leave UAB after everything he has built on the Southside, but chances to coach in the SEC don’t come around often. He didn’t rule out leaving UAB earlier this week, but also said the Blazers are just getting started and can be a national power.

“If we’re doing our job, then that’s going to happen,” Clark said of his name being mentioned for openings in the SEC. “I’ve said the whole time, I love here.

“This is my home, so we’ll just see what happens with those, and we’ll look at them as the come, but if I’m doing my, and we’re doing our job, then that’s what’s going to happen. They’re going to mention our names.”

They’ll mention it a little more with an upset victory against his friend Kiffin, but Clark shouldn’t have anything else to prove.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

[gr82be 14,906]

I'll be pulling for Clark and his Blazers this weekend but it's not because I don't care for Kiffen. I like his jabs at the nickster and as the say, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. 

[keesler 5,957]

Good article 50.

I think at least one of those guys will land in the SEC very soon.  Honestly, I'd like to see what Clark can do at a lower level SEC program like OM/Arky, because he's been mentioned on this board numerous times as candidate for HC here.  I'd like to see how he handles an OleMiss level school before AU gives him any real consideration.

[AURealist 2,194]

Lots of buzz about Jimmy Chestnut being considered for both Ole Miss and Arkansas. 

I'm for it. 

Kiffin would make the SECW even more interesting, no matter which direction the sulphurous maelstrom of destruction burns.   

[sevenlee36 1,705]

Does it need more improving if it gets any better we’ll be the best 6 loss team every year

[EagleEye67 1,948]

Clark:  definite SEC improvement

Kiffy:  definite SEC drama

 

I'm in favor of both

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

Welp. Bill Clark just got blown out so he's off the list again.

[weagl1 1,809]

Kiffin doesn’t improve anything.  Just a matter of time before he’s caught with some pretty Ole Miss co-ed like Petrino and they run him out of town.  I guess it will be fun to watch him annoy Saban for a while and turn Oxford into a soap opera but other than that we all know how it’s gonna end.