There are many reasons Lane Kiffin's move to Florida Atlantic doesn't make sense to outsiders.



FAU, after all, hasn't had a winning season since 2008 and is a member of a mostly downtrodden Conference USA. It's not a prestigious program -- certainly not at the level of Tennessee and USC -- and isn't a hot new upstart like Houston.



Even more perplexing, Lane Kiffin is expected to take a pretty hefty pay cut from the $1.4 million he made this year as Alabama's offensive coordinator. ESPN reported that he would make on average $1 million a year over a five-year contract. He reportedly stood to make much more if he joined old friend Ed Orgeron as LSU's next offensive coordinator.



To recap: Kiffin will make less money next year as a head coach than as an offensive coordinator, and he'll do it at one of the worst schools in one of the worst conferences.



And yet, this move makes perfect sense for Kiffin.



He badly wanted another chance to be a head coach, and this was his best shot to do so. For as often as Kiffin got mentioned for head coaching vacancies, he didn't have much traction.



Kiffin was a finalist for the Houston job but lost out to former Alabama offensive coordinator Major Applewhite. He's done terrific work during three years in Tuscaloosa, but Houston board of regents chairman Tilman Fertitta reiterated a point made to me by numerous people within the industry: Lane is not a safe hire. College administrators were leery of making a significant commitment to him, and it's a big reason why there wasn't as strong a market for Lane as he might have hoped.



As former Big 12 commissioner and long-time coaching search consultant Chuck Neinas put it to me two weeks ago, "It's not a question of his coaching ability. It's a question of...other things."

It put Kiffin is a tough spot: He knew it was time to leave Tuscaloosa, but there wasn't a line of interested suitors begging him to come. There were too many black marks on Kiffin's resume -- from both on-field and off-the-field situations -- to get a top job.

It's why he never truly got in the mix for a South Florida job he would have loved. It's why at 41-years old, he is willingly taking a job at the least prestigious program of his coaching career. It's a safe bet that 31-year old Lane, then the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, never saw his career landing a decade later at Florida Atlantic.





There are plenty of positives about this for Kiffin, though.



Expectations won't be very high, and the competition isn't overwhelming. The Owls return most of their top players from a 3-9 team that wasn't that far off from being bowl eligible. During one stretch of the season, FAU lost four consecutive games by a combined total of 17 points. A few tweaks here and there and Kiffin could have one of the biggest turnarounds in college football next year.



And ultimately that's what he will need to get his coaching career back to his desired level.



Kiffin's three years at Alabama under Nick Saban firmly solidified his reputation as a terrific offensive mind. No matter what happens in Boca Raton, he'll be able to get another offensive coordinator job.



But his career rehabilitation process in Tuscaloosa wasn't successful enough to get him a Power 5 head coaching job. He'll need to prove he's learned from his previous head coaching mistakes to get the keys to another big-name program. He may have been great as the Tide's offensive coordinator, but doubters will want to see he can be great as a head coach.



Kiffin will need to overcome multiple hurdles to get where he wants to be. At FAU, he'll face the new reality that he doesn't have the fanciest facilities or a legion of analysts helping him review game film. Kiffin will have to accept a total football budget ($7.6 million in 2015) only slightly bigger than what one man makes in Tuscaloosa. To sign even mid-tier Florida talent, he'll have to battle the likes of Charlie Strong, Scott Frost and Butch Davis within state borders.



It's a bold move for one of college football's most interesting characters. Kiffin is making a big bet on himself that being a head coach again will be worth more in the long-term than a big payday as a coordinator in Baton Rouge.



Time will tell whether he's right, but Kiffin's jump to Florida Atlantic looks like a smart move for a man keen on one day leading a big program again.