Houston has officially named its next head football coach, and many of us were shocked to learn that the job did not go to Lane Kiffin. You have to wonder if Kiffin is just as stunned.
Dan Wolken of USA Today reported on Thursday that Houston was finalizing plans to hire Kiffin, pending the approval of school president Renu Khator. The report left open the possibility that Khator and/or contract negotiations could compromise the deal. On Friday, the Cougars announced that they have promoted offensive coordinator Major Applewhite to head coach.
Now that Houston has made its decision, the part of Wolken’s report that sticks out is when his source claimed “Kiffin has been operating as if he will become the next Houston coach as of Wednesday night.” If that is true, the Alabama offensive coordinator must have been misled. Wolken told Larry Brown Sports on Friday that Kiffin did, in fact, believe the job was his.
@SteveDelSports Fair question. Yes he believed he had the job
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) December 9, 2016
A number of things could have happened to make the deal fall through. Perhaps some boosters and people within the program wanted Kiffin but were overruled. Or, the decision to hire Applewhite could have had something to do with the rumblings we heard about Houston wanting its next head coach to have a massive buyout in his contract. Maybe Kiffin wasn’t willing to agree to that, as it would potentially limit his ability to jump from Houston to a bigger program down the road.
Whatever the case, it became clear that something was amiss when Houston’s athletic director sent this cryptic tweet on Thursday. There is likely a lot more to the story that we will never hear.
