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Kiffin Leaves Tennessee
1.13.10
Kiffin Takes His Wild Boyz to USC
That loud sound you heard in Eastern Tennessee last night wasn't another rock slide on I-40. No, it was the sound of Tennessee students chasing Lane Kiffin out of Knoxville tongiht. The biggest goof in the SEC since Ray Goff has left Knoxville for the head coaching position at Southern California.
For 14 months Kiffin has entertained fans and kept sports talk shows alive with his actions and comments. Not since Steve Spurrier's days at Florida have we seen a bigger mouth on a coach. The only difference of course is that Spurrier backed up his actions with 6 SEC Championships and a National Championship. Kiffin on the other hand produced a mediocre 7-6 season for the Vols, only the fourth 6 loss season for UT in thirty years.
Kiffin's mouth first got him in trouble during his opening press conference when he stated that he couldn't wait to sing Rocky Top after beating Florida in 2009(didn't happen). For the next year he would fight Steve Spurrier over a recruiting test, call South Carolina players "gas pumpers", accuse Urban Meyer of cheating, brag about stealing coaches away from other programs, and now has the NCAA sniffing around the Tennessee program. Not since Jack Crowe has one man made such a negative impact in such a short time on a SEC school.
Kiffin argued that the reason he was acting this wasy was because he wanted to bring attention to Tennessee. Did Tennessee really need it? This is a program that has won 15 SEC Championships, has 48 bowl appearances, won the 1998 National Championship, and in 2007 won the SEC Eastern Division. Tennessee doesn't need a gimmick to sell itself to recruits. The program sells itself and if you don't believe it then you need to take in a Saturday at scenic Neyland Stadium and witness 105,000 sing Rocky Top. Tennessee is without a doubt one of the top 10 football programs in the country and Lane Kiffin has absolutely nothing to do with this fact.
The amazing thing about Kiffin to Southern Cal is the reaction from ESPN tonight. ESPN's Shelly Smith called this a "homerun hire". Seriously, when did hiring a 7-6 coach become a homerun? Smith stated that Kiffin had done a great job recruiting, but when has Tennessee ever struggled in recruiting? According to Rivals100.com the Vols have had three top 5 recruiting classes since 2002, none of these classes were signed by Kiffin. This will be Kiffin's 3rd job since last fall. Funny how Kiffin is treated as a homerun, but Bobby Petrino is treated as Satan for job hopping.
Kiffin fans will also argue that having Monte as a father will lead to great things on defense. There is no doubt Monte is a great defensive mind, but did he really improve the Vols last year? In 2008 Tennesse ranked 3rd in the nation in total defense, but in 2009 the defense dropped to 22nd nationally. While Monte was great in the NFL, he has been away from the college game for many years and failed to improve Tennessee's defense in 2009.
Tennessee's football program hasn't had any issues with the NCAA for years, but that all has changed under Kiffin. Lane's Vols committed several secondary violations within his first few months on campus and now are getting more attention for some hostesses that attended a Byrnes High School football game in Duncan, SC. Speaking of Byrnes, it looks as if Lane is up to his old tricks as UT commit Brandon Willis stated last night that the new Southern Cal staff has already contacted him to try and get him to Southern California. Willis was ready to enroll this spring at Tennessee. It's strange that a program being investigated by the NCAA would hire a man who has the NCAA sniffing around his old job.
Baby Boy Kiffin has proven he is willing to do whatever it takes to get media attention. This latest move might get him in the most trouble, but in the end Tennessee fans will get the last laugh. Kiffin is not mature enough to produce a big time winner, something he will be expected to do after following a legend like Pete Carroll in LA. The only decent thing Kiffin will bring to Southern California will be Layla.
Matt Barber
Dixiefriedsports@gmail.com
