“His Arm Was Weak As Sauce”: David Carr Believes He Pushed Lane Kiffin Into Coaching

Say what you will about Lane Kiffin, he’s brought a lot of entertaining drama wherever he goes. But what if Kiffin never even became a coach?

He left Ole Miss midseason to take the big gig with LSU this week. He’s getting paid about $13 million a year over seven years, which is second-most among college coaches. He has made a lot of stops at big programs during his career. But Baton Rouge feels like the pinnacle.

And that has many reminiscing about how Kiffin got to the position where he would be head-hunted by a program like LSU. Former 2002 NFL No. 1 overall pick David Carr has a unique insight on that. He starred at Fresno State before being drafted into the NFL. And there, he played with a backup QB named Lane Kiffin. Carr joked he should be “owed” some of Kiffin’s new blockbuster deal because he was the one that pushed Kiffin from player to coach.

“Because I pushed him out of that third QB spot, and then he became the fifth QB. … Lane’s taking three steps trying to throw 15-yard comebacks, and half-rolling because his arm was weak as sauce. Weak. Weak sauce. But he knew the game now, Lane knew the game. … After a couple days, now I’m getting the third-team reps. I came in as the fifth.”

Carr and his fellow NFL QB brother, Derek Carr, revealed that Kiffin realized pretty quickly that he wouldn’t beat David for that QB3 job. Shortly after Carr joined the team, Kiffin came out to the practice field one day without his pads on. Instead, he was dressed in “civvies”, or civilian clothes.

“Jeff caught him at the numbers and said, ‘Lane, what are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘Hey, I figured I don’t need my pads today, you’re gonna give Dave all my reps.’ … He goes back to the locker room. … And then Lane comes back on, he’s got a polo on! Same day! Wide receivers coach. That’s how the coaching started. And so I feel like if I would not have pushed him out of that third spot. He’d still be playing quarterback in the CFL.”

Carr was no joke at Fresno State. In 2001, just a couple of years after that fateful switch for Kiffin, Carr won the Sammy Baugh and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Awards as he led the nation in passing yards (4,839) and passing TDs (46).

He didn’t have a great time in the NFL. He was the first quarterback the Houston Texans ever had after the franchise was founded in 2002, and it took the club a few years to figure things out. And by that time, Carr was long gone. He was sacked an NFL-record 76 times as a rookie.

But now Carr’s got his podcast with his brother, and Kiffin’s got his multi-million dollar job with LSU. All’s well that ends well.