Just to clarify, it was probably always a long shot that Lane Kiffin would join his old friend Ed Orgeron to become LSU’s offensive coordinator.

It was obvious that Kiffin, having done his time at the Nick Saban Coaching Rehab Clinic, even earning extra points for good behavior, was ready to move on and be a head coach again.

It’s likely he’s also matured from his Little Lord Lane Kiffin days at Tennessee and Southern Cal.

So wish him luck at … where was it … Florida Somethingoranother … Florida Atlantic, I guess it was. The Sunshine State evidently ran out of directional modifiers for higher education and is working its way through the world’s largest bodies of salt water.

But the fact that you have to resort to Google maps to locate Kiffin’s next employment stop tells you that he was always serious about finding another head coaching job.

Certainly, it’s no knock against Orgeron.

Kiffin took a fairly good pay cut from his Alabama salary of $1.4 million to get just shy of a million in his new job. Any forthcoming offer from LSU likely would have almost doubled that FAU salary, maybe even bumped $2 million.

He had to know that.

So it wasn’t about money.

Sure, Kiffin raised a few LSU eyebrows Tuesday at his grand introduction in Boca Raton. That would be when he said, had he not taken the FAU head coaching job, he would have been back in Alabama under Saban’s care again next season.

Don’t take it personally, Tigers.

Exactly what did you expect him to say?

With the lure of another head coaching job, he has Saban’s blessings. Leave it at that.

It’s never a good idea to burn coaching bridges, surely not when Saban is the bridge keeper.

Orgeron surely knew that Kiffin was hell-bent on finding a head coaching job.

Odd of a couple as it seems, they really are tight friends.

Kiffin to FAU doesn’t make a lot of sense, perhaps, but Kiffin to LSU didn’t either, really.

That said, it’s probably just as well for Orgeron that Kiffin found other work.

Never mind that there are plenty other offensive whiz kids out there and that LSU right now is dangling maybe the best coordinator opening in the country in front of them.

The only better opening at LSU these days is mascot, for which live tigers throughout the world are pining over the luxurious home digs available right across from the stadium.

As for the coordinator, money isn’t an issue and the new guy will have a mandate to drag the LSU offense into the current century. He will have relatively free reign to work his magic with little interference from the defensive-minded Orgeron.

Orgeron has his dream job today because of LSU’s offensive sins committed on Les Miles’ watch.

So Orgeron will find a good offensive coordinator, probably sooner than later.

Pitt’s Matt Canada is the flavor of the week, and right down to the shaved bald head seems like the perfect offensive book end for defensive coordinator Dave Aranda.

You have to like his versatility. He can do the new-wave spread stuff — the cure-all that LSU fans are convinced is the only way out of this quagmire — but he’s also fluent in pro-style attacks for when the situation arises.

He’s not a coaching rock star like Kiffin, but that’s OK. In fact, that’s why Canada, or someone similar, might actually be a better hire in the long run for Orgeron.

This hire is already going to be the most scrutinized — with an option for rampant overanalyzing — in LSU history.

Though not necessarily his own fault, Kiffin would have had the potential to be a distraction to the Orgeron era.

On personality as much as performance, Orgeron was a popular hire statewide, even if most everybody admits there’s a certain risk involved.

He needs time to settle in on people, make his own mark, establish his presence. He probably doesn’t need a three-ring circus around the program going into his first full season.

With Kiffin, there was that potential.

Nobody escapes Saban’s shadow (or thumb), so that was not an issue at Alabama. Orgeron doesn’t have that stature yet.

If Kiffin had gone to LSU — who knows? — reality TV might have followed him to Baton Rouge and set up cameras all around the football complex.

TMZ and “Entertainment Tonight” might be campus more than ESPN.

Aranda might be the best defensive coordinator in the country — and yet nobody really knows who he is.

For the time being, at least, LSU might benefit from an offensive coordinator just like him.