College football recruiting is a clown show. Since schools and coaches aren’t allowed to show how much they value players by using money—as they could in literally any other industry—they have to value by trying to out-crazy each other.
That’s why Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin just offered a sixth-grader a scholarship.
#FAU & Lane Kiffin offered a scholarship to QB guru Steve Clarkson's son, Pierce a Class of 2023 QB, who just finished 6th grade, per source
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) June 5, 2017
This isn’t new for Kiffin. Last month, he offered a seventh-grader, and while at USC, he offered seventh-grader David Sills, who ended up at West Virginia instead.
Sillis’ story shows us how this is likely to turn out. Even if Pierce Clarkson does commit to FAU, this offer isn’t truly committable—Clarkson can’t sign with the Owls until he’s a senior in 2023-24. Who knows if he’ll be any good by then, and if FAU will even want him, as was the case with Sills and USC (though it’s much easier to be an FAU-caliber quarterback than a USC-caliber quarterback).
Furthermore, it’s very unlikely Kiffin is still at FAU by the time Clarkson’s freshman year rolls around in 2024-25. Ignoring Kiffin’s tendency to move around a lot due to his eclectic personality, teams don’t usually keep coaches around that long. Either Kiffin will do well and take a better job, or he’ll do poorly and get fired.
Gotta love recruiting.
