Lane Kiffin jokes about USC opening, tarmac firing

Barely seconds after USC fired head coach Clay Helton a few weeks ago, a certain familiar head coach’s name was tossed into the public discussion.

Ole Miss head coach and former USC head coach Lane Kiffin joined the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday and offered up his thoughts on the coaching vacancy and some insight into his past life in Los Angeles. 

“I’m fully committed to where I’m at,” Kiffin said when Patrick asked if he would consider taking the Trojans job. “This is a wonderful place, I love the people here. Any time that we get attention like that, it’s just a credit to our players and what they’re doing.”

Kiffin is in his second year in Oxford, and was the Trojans head coach from 2010-2013.

“No, I don’t even think that way,” Kiffin responded when asked if he has unfinished business at USC. “I’m just totally focused on our program [at Ole Miss].”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a comprehensive conversation about Kiffin and the Trojans head coaching job without some mention of the infamous “tarmac firing” Kiffin went through in September 2013 upon returning from a 62-42 loss to Arizona State in Tempe.

“I was on the same tarmac and walked through the same FBO this weekend when I went recruiting in LA, and it was very eerie,” Kiffin joked. “The same exact one, and there was a little office there on the right when you walk through the private airport which is where [former USC AD] Pat Haden walked me in at 3:17 a.m., and so that was a little bit strange.”

Characteristically, Kiffin ended the segment with an ode to Alabama head coach Nick Saban, saying he never would have had the opportunity to work under the legend had he not been fired from USC.

SEC offensive overhaul has Cali QBs coming to the Southeast

Kiffin traveled to Southern California to try to convince recruits to #ComeToTheSip, the now-famous hashtag he uses for recruiting on Twitter. Luckily for Kiffin, West Coast prospects are coming to the SEC more often.

Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral attended Long Beach Poly and Oaks Christian in the Los Angeles area before moving to Oxford, and his competition this weekend, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, attended LA powerhouse Mater Dei.

“California quarterbacks have always played well and now they’ve started to move,” Kiffin said Wednesday. “They’ve started to move into the SEC more and I think that’s just a product of the SEC being better than everywhere else and the offenses have changed out here. Used to be the West Coast was ahead offensively and the SEC was a little bit archaic and that’s obviously changed a lot now.” 

Kiffin added that the emphasis on training and offensive systems in Southern California are the reason the region is a quarterback hotbed. 

“There’s a lot of quarterback training from an early age,” he said. “Lot of good pass offenses out there. Lot of high school coaches really know what they’re doing throwing the ball.” 

On3’s Tim Verghese contributed to this report.