Dolphins should hire Lane Kiffin

The Miami Dolphins should hire FAU head coach Lane Kiffin as their offensive coordinator for the 2018 season. Adam Gase should give up play-calling and focus on the responsibilities of a head coach.

Gase and Kiffin are both brilliant offensive minds, and together they would be a formidable force in the NFL. The two coaches have some similarities. If they were able to work together, they could create a great offense that could dominant the NFL for years.

Both coaches have been some of the youngest head coaches in the NFL. Kiffin was hired as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders at the age of 31. Gase was hired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins at the age of 37. They both know the difficulties and pressures of being a head coach in the NFL.

Each has coached under Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2014 to 2016, while Gase started his coaching career with Saban at Michigan State. In 2000, he went with Saban to LSU and stayed for 3 years.

Both have had success with numerous quarterbacks and have gotten the most out of their offensive weapons. Gase, while with the Broncos, helped Tebow win a playoff game in 2011, and in 2013 he enabled Peyton Manning to throw for 5,477 yards and 55 touchdowns.

Then Gase in 2015 coached Jay Cutler as his offensive coordinator to his best season as a pro with a career best quarterback rating of 92.3. As the Dolphins head coach and play caller last season, Tannehill had his career best quarterback rating of 93.5.

Kiffin, in 3 years as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, had 3 different quarterbacks: Blake Sims in 2014, Jake Coker in 2015, and Jalen Hurts in 2016. All 3 seasons Alabama made the College Football Playoff, winning the championship in 2015. Every year the offense averaged over 30 points a game.

In 2016, Kiffin became the head coach of the Florida Atlantic University Owls football team. He has combined his offense from Alabama with the offense of Kendal Briles from Baylor. The results have been electric with FAU averaging 39 points a game. FAU went from 3-9 in 2016 to 10-3 this season with a top ten offense and a Conference USA championship.

These coaches working together could develop a creative fun offense to watch. This has been missing in Miami since the days of Dan Marino.  Would Gase want to give up play calling next season? If he would, Kiffin would be a great candidate to lead the offense.

Does Kiffin have an interest to go back to the NFL? If his goal is to be a head coach in the NFL, then becoming an offensive coordinator for the Dolphins would lead to that goal.

Kiffin’s season is ending Tuesday night at the Boca Raton Bowl, and he may looking for his next opportunity. Kiffin works in Boca Raton, which is only 30 minutes away from the Dolphins facility in Davie. The Dolphins should at least give Kiffin a call and gauge his interest to return to the NFL.

Should the Dolphins hire Kiffin as their offensive coordinator?