By now, you know the Lane Kiffin story, the tale of the fast ride and faster fall of a Coaching Wonder Boy. He was coaching Heisman winners at age 24, an NFL head coach at 31 and, when that didn't work out, he fell into a job most coaches work their entire careers for -- Tennessee.
After one so-so season, another door opened for the Wonder Boy, and USC selected him as the successor to his mentor, Pete Carroll.
Again, you know the story by now. Kiffin is now at Florida Atlantic, where he says he's truly happy. One reason for his newfound happiness in Boca Raton? Renewing his Christian faith.
Kiffin penned a 4-page testimony for Athletes For God, much of it you'll be familiar with. Here's the crux of Kiffin's new look on life:
The athletes at FAU might not be five-star recruits, but they are five-star people. They listen better than any other players I've had before, probably because their approach to life is completely different. With some kids in the past, they have been told their whole life that they're going to the NFL, and they think it's going to solve every problem...if I make it to the NFL I can buy people these things, and buy this house and this car.
Here's the problem: none of that stuff is really ours. We’re really just renting it. Everything we own really belongs to God, we are just renting it, and when we die those things are going to become somebody else's possessions. And none of that stuff matters. When people ask me what makes me happy now, the answer is totally different than before. I'm happiest when I'm helping people.
According to the testimony Kiffin writes, God had to take the USC job away from Kiffin to make him realize it was never his in the first place.