Football: Defensive Coordinator Chris Kiffin admits to three recruiting violations at Ole Miss, denies another
The new FAU assistant coach will not face any further discipline for his violations.
Defensive coordinator Chris Kiffin yells out orders to the defense late in the third quarter. Ryan Lynch | Business Manager
June 10, 2017
Florida Atlantic new defensive coordinator Chris Kiffin has admitted to three recruiting violations during his four-year tenure as a defensive linemen coach with the University of Mississippi, according to his response the NCAA publicly released this past friday. There are four total allegations, but Kiffin denied the fourth one.
The three violations which Kiffin admitted to were:
Arranging for free hotel lodging and food for family members of a recruit that weren’t his parents during a January 2013 official visit. The accommodations totaled $1,027, and were deemed a Level II offense.
During the summer of 2013, Kiffin allowed an Ole Miss player to stay at his residence for two nights. The violation was valued at $33 and was deemed a Level III offense.
In May 2014, Kiffin held two impermissible, off-campus contacts with recruits. Kiffin admitted to the offense, which is deemed Level III, but argued that the conversations were “unplanned and isolated.”
The lone violation Kiffin denied was during a 2013 official visit, in which he allegedly arranged for a recruit to receive about $400 worth of free merchandise from a local store. Kiffin denied the Level I offense, claiming “issues of credibility, factual contradictions, and overwhelming evidence of bias and motive to lie are too great for the enforcement staff to overcome.”
The response failed to show any communication between Kiffin and the owner of the store before the official visit. Kiffin was disciplined by Ole Miss when he was still an assistant coach with the Rebels, such as prohibiting him from recruiting for 30 days and attending a mandatory NCAA Regional Rules seminar in May 2015.
The response ended with Kiffin accepting his responsibilities for the violations. He will not face any further discipline.
Kiffin is the brother of FAU’s new head coach Lane Kiffin, and he was hired as the new defensive coordinator in December of last year.
Hans Belot Jr. is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him at @Don_Phenom_.
Mister Freeze • Jun 27, 2017 at 2:35 pm
Wait, wait, wait… nepotism and scandal surrounding the Kiffin brothers and FAU? Why AD Pat Chun decided to acquire this volatile ticking time bomb and then immediately allow him to recruit domestic assaulting quarterbacks and hire his bozo brother is beyond me! Hopefully this works for the Owls but I’d be nervous about these desperate moves and rather maintain some integrity.