Hybrid

BOCA RATON – Lane Kiffin believes mixing a little bit of his offense into some of Kendal Briles offense will produce a cocktail too potent for Conference USA opponents to swallow.

So while he’s giving Briles full reign over offensive play calling, there will be elements of Kiffin’s offense integrated into what the Owls are trying to accomplish this spring and into the fall.

“I wouldn’t say similar but I think you give defenses a lot of problems if you do take things from different offenses because they try to figure out how to stop one, now all of the sudden you are running plays from both,” Kiffin said.

History declares both offensive systems to be potent.

With Briles as its offensive coordinator last season Baylor averaged 522.7 yards per game – sixth best in the nation. Under Kiffin, Alabama averaged 455.3 yards in 2016, but the Crimson Tide often didn’t need its offense in the fourth quarters of games because they had substantial leads.

“We’ll kind of make a hybrid – hopefully give defenses problems by doing that,” Kiffin said.

Through the first four spring practices the Owls spent most of their time installing Briles’ offense. The further FAU gets into spring, the more the Owls intend to integrate some of Kiffin’s scheme.

Letting someone else run the offense is something new for Kiffin, who called the plays even as head coach at Tennessee and USC. He’s finding that turning over those duties leaves plenty of free time on his hands.

“It’s kind of boring, but it does allow you to do a lot more off the field,” Kiffin said. “You don’t have to be in as many meetings and stuff. There’s a lot of stuff to do around here besides just football. It frees me up to go do other things for the program.”

That’s a trait Kiffin picked up watching Nick Saban manage the head coaching duties at Alabama.

FAU has two football-related events scheduled for Thursday, their fifth practice of the spring and Pro Day. The outdoor portion of Pro Day will be held on the turf field inside the track and is open to the public. Players are expected at the track sometime after 9 a.m.