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Arkansas’ search to replace Chad Morris is underway, with athletics director Hunter Yurachek’s search firm likely already putting out feelers to agents and coaches.

A full list of possible candidates can be found on the HawgBeat Hot Board, but recently began our “case for/case against” series in which we take a closer look at a single coach. So far we’ve examined Sam Pittman, Bobby Petrino and Matt Campbell.

Next up is Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin, whose name has come up in previous coaching searches and is once again being floated around as a candidate.

“Order… Order in the court. We’ll now hear the case of Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin…”

- SEC experience as head coach, coordinator

Despite being only 44 years old, Kiffin has experience in the SEC both as an offensive coordinator and head coach. Interestingly, the latter came first - as he landed the Tennessee job in 2009. Five years later, he became the offensive coordinator at Alabama and held the position for three seasons.

- Bright offensive mind

Kiffin already had a reputation as being a bright offensive mind before taking the aforementioned Alabama job, but his time with Nick Saban took it to another level. He helped bring the Crimson Tide into the modern era of offense by installing an up-tempo offense, which made him a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach in 2014. The next year, Kiffin unleashed a freshman Jalen Hurts on the SEC, fully bringing Alabama into the modern age.

- Success as a head coach

His stint in the NFL was a failure, but Kiffin has won at all of his college stops. He went 7-6 as the youngest head coach in the FBS at Tennessee in 2009 and then went 8-5, 10-2 and 7-6 in his first three seasons at USC. Despite being ineligible for postseason play, the Trojans finished the 2011 season as the No. 6 team in the AP poll. Even the year he was fired, Kiffin was 3-2. In his first season at Florida Atlantic, he went 11-3 and won a Conference USA title. After regressing to 5-7 last year, the Owls are 7-3 this season.

In eight seasons as a college football head coach, Kiffin has an overall record of 58-34, which is good for a .630 winning percentage.

- Arkansas ties

Kiffin actually lived in Fayetteville for a few years as a toddler because his father, Monte Kiffin, was the Razorbacks’ defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz from 1977-79.

On top of that, Kiffin has wanted the job before. According to the story at the 1:15 mark below, as told on the Rich Eisen show, he thought he would get the job when Bobby Petrino was hired in 2007.

- History as a recruiter

As a young assistant during the USC dynasty, Kiffin developed a reputation as an excellent recruiter. He brought in three straight No. 1 classes as the Trojans’ recruiting coordinator from 2004-06. In five seasons as a head coach, none of his recruiting classes have been ranked lower than 13th.

In his lone season at Tennessee, Kiffin brought in a 10th-ranked class that featured two five-star prospects and nine four-star prospects, only two of which were from Tennessee. His four classes as the head coach at USC were ranked No. 1, No. 4, No. 8 and No. 13.

NCAA sanctions that limited the number of players he could sign are the only reason his final class was ranked as low as it was, as all 12 of the signees were four-star or better, with five being five-stars and four being 6.0 four-stars. Of course the Trojans have a natural advantage in recruiting, but Kiffin did sign 13 four-star or better players from outside of USC’s natural recruiting foot print.

- Left Tennessee high and dry

Replacing legendary head coach Phillip Fulmer, Kiffin became the youngest head coach in the FBS when hired by Tennessee after the 2008 season. Considering he was 33 years old, the Volunteers thought they had a long-term coach because they signed him to a six-year deal. Kiffin showed some positive signs, including significantly increasing their offensive output.

Things were trending in a positive direction, even after a 23-point blowout loss to Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, but Kiffin left in mid-January - a critical recruiting period - to take the USC job after Pete Carroll made the jump to the NFL. Many students rioted on campus and Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton described his tenure in just one word: “Brief.”

- Off the field shenanigans

In addition to that, Kiffin has certainly had his fair share of off-the-field issues through the years. His tenure in the NFL ended when he was fired by Oakland with cause for “conduct detrimental to the Raiders.” With the Volunteers, Kiffin received a public reprimand from the SEC when he accused Urban Meyer of violating NCAA recruiting rules and ended up doing so himself by mentioning a recruit by name during a booster breakfast.

Although not necessarily his fault, he was infamously fired from USC in a small room at Los Angeles International Airport following a loss. Even his tenure with Alabama ended in controversy, as he was relieved of his duties before the 2017 national championship game because he was spending too much time prepping for his new job at FAU. At Florida Atlantic, he hired Kendal Briles as his offensive coordinator and brought in several troubled transfers. Just this year, Kiffin tweeted a “blind referees” meme that resulted in a $5,000 fine.

- Current recruiting class

Whoever becomes Arkansas’ next coach will likely have only a couple of weeks to throw together a recruiting class before the early signing period. That’s not a lot of time and it would be beneficial if the new coach can bring over some of his commitments. When Chad Morris was hired, he flipped Mike Woods and Silas Robinson from SMU to Arkansas.

Kiffin’s current class at Florida Atlantic features just six commitments, isn’t among the top 100 classes nationally and is 11th out of 14 Conference USA teams. Only two of the commits are three-star prospects and both of them have 5.6 ratings: Anthony Romphf, a dual-threat quarterback from Michigan, and Frank Gore Jr., a running back from Miami and the son of the NFL’s acting rushing leader of the same name. They are also the only two with SEC offers, as both have an offer from Kentucky.