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College Football: Lane Kiffin offers scholarship to 11-year-old QB with famous dad

Cole Leinart hasn't even turned 12 yet ... but he's already on the radar of Kiffin, who coached Matt Leinart at USC during the mid-2000s.
Credit: Joel Auerbach

Chalk this one up to, It's just Lane Kiffin doing Lane Kiffin things.

On Tuesday night, word broke of the enigmatic, camera-friendly Kiffin (the head coach at Florida Atlantic) offering a college scholarship to an 11-year-old quarterback.

But here's the kicker: The youngster in question, Cole Leinart, has a rather famous dad in college football circles–Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner (USC) and current TV analyst (with FOX).

How did America first learn of this development? Social media, of course.

As the kids like to say, here's a Twitter act in two parts:

PART 1

PART 2

Is Kiffin the first major college coach to offer a scholarship to a pre-teen?

Uh, no.

Is it still weird (or creepy) to extend the offer, since Little Leinart barely has playing experience beyond the grade-school level?

You betcha.

Does Kiffin have a shot at landing the right-handed Leinart in 5-7 years?

Absolutely.

Why is that? When Matt Leinart (a southpaw thrower) was dominating at USC from 2003-05, accounting for 10,000-plus passing yards and 99 passing touchdowns, Kiffin was an offensive assistant/passing-game coordinator with the mighty Trojans.

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