Lane Kiffin said he deliberately ran up the score on Akron as revenge for trash talk

Lane Kiffin is apparently feeling more bold than ever at his new school.

Armed with a brand new agreement on a 10-year contract after just one season as head coach at Florida Atlantic, Kiffin and his Owls steamrolled Akron 50-3 in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night to cap off a program-best 11-3 season.

Just winning wasn’t enough for Kiffin though, as he called for a two-point attempt following a touchdown midway through the third quarter with his team leading 34-3. The try was successful to unnecessarily extend the lead.

After the game, Kiffin was asked about the it and initially said, “We’re not going to talk about that.”

After a brief pause, he couldn’t help himself, explaining he wanted to run up the score in response to some trash talking the previous day from Akron Associate Athletics Director George Van Horne.

“He talked yesterday at lunch and talked trash, so his bad,” Kiffin said with a mischievous smile.

It’s unclear at this point what exactly was said, but it is clear that Kiffin isn’t going to tone down his brazen style, which has especially come through on his Twitter account this past year. He’s used his personal handle to troll his former boss Nick Saban as well as ex-employers at USC and Tennessee.

Amazing what a big contract extension will do, as well as the direct endorsement from FAU President John Kelly, who was quoted by ESPN earlier in the day as saying of Kiffin: “He just gets it, both as a football coach and being able to attract attention to our university. I laugh just about every day at something he puts on Twitter and understand that he’s about the good of the institution and is thinking about what appeals to a 17-year-old kid and not a 60-year-old guy.”