13 January 2010, 10:10 am
Los Angeles, California the land of beautiful people, sunny days and fast times was to much for the pretty boy Lane Kiffin to resist. Kiffin packing his bags in the middle of the night to escape Knoxville, Tennessee where he and his father had called home for all of fourteen months. His father being Monte Kiffin his defensive coordinator and once famous NFL coach. Lane Kiffin left the Tennessee Volunteers to become the head coach of the USC Trojans.
Lane Kiffin came to Tennessee after being fired by Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders where he lead them to an unimpressive 5-11 record. He was said to have a childish attitude by Al Davis and being a weasel before being fired. At 31 Lane Kiffin was given a chance to be the head coach of the Raiders after being the offensive coordinator for the Trojans under now Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.
At Tennessee he came in with his mouth wide open running it off at will. He boasted to beat Florida and called Urban Meyer a cheat. Kiffin did not endear himself to the SEC faithful in his attitude towards the tradition of values set forth by the conference. Kiffin had numerous NCAA infractions in his fourteen months at Tennessee. He also was only 7-6 and was beat down by Virginia Tech in the Peach Bowl. He was embarrassed at home in a nationally televised night game on ESPN by Auburn.
His greatest moments were losses to Florida and Alabama in the fact that his team covered the point spread. However the Tennessee faithful do not look at covering point spreads as proud moments in their program. If Kiffin's mouth were not enough to annoy the Tennessee Alumni then the resent arrests of Volunteer football players on gun and robbery charges had to set off some red flags as to the fact Kiffin may be in over his head.
Kiffin will be taking with him Ed Orgeron his top recruiter and former failed head coach of Mississippi where he also came in boasting about how he would dominate the SEC. Ed Orgeron was fired by Ole Miss after having a losing record over a three year period. Ed Orgeron has contacted Tennessee recruits and told them not to enroll in classes today at Tennessee so that they may come to USC. Some may call that a classless move on his part but nothing should surprise anyone when it comes to these two.
Kiffin is inheriting a USC program which Pete Carroll is leaving under the cloud of the NCAA who is investigating the program. There are allegations that former player Reggie Bush received money from boosters while at USC. With Pete Carroll leaving one can only assume that it is true and that probation is in their near future. With all the hype over the Trojans the last decade some may consider Pete Carroll a failure after all USC only has one BCS National Championship. With the record of the SEC in the title game it would be a good bet had they faced an undefeated Auburn team that year Tommy Tuberville would have a ring and may very well still be the head football coach at Auburn.
Even with the impending probation one can not blame Kiffin for leaving Tennessee. With Nick Saban at the University of Alabama the Crimson Tide have again become the elite program it once was under Paul "Bear" Bryant and Lane Kiffin understood he had little chance against that tradition. One would not be going out on limb to say he was scared of Alabama.
Tennessee will now look to fill it's head coaching vacancy at maybe the worst time of the year during the recruiting period. Jon Gruden would be a good choice for Tennessee he being a Super Bowl winner while head coach of Tampa Bay in the NFL. He also was an assistant coach at Tennessee in the 80's. Tennessee will need to get a big name coach to compete recruting in the SEC or it may become an irrelevant program much like it's neighbor Vanderbilt.
Share on del.icio.us
Share on digg
Share on Technorati
Share on reddit
Share on Yahoo!
Share on Facebook