Lane Kiffin Interview

Lane Kiffin recently had a one-on-one interview with ESPN's Shelley Smith. Chris Low gave a quick summary on his blog of Kiffin's comments.

Kiffin states that he received death threats at his home, had to station three officers outside of his house and his wife's cell phone along with their address was posted on the internet. Kiffin made this comment about Tennessee:

"Yeah, it's different, They'd ask me all the time down there about it, coming from here. It is more passionate. It's followed 365 days a year. So I think that had a lot to do with the reaction down there, where I think people here understand there's a lot more going on. They weren't burning couches when coach Carroll left, and he won two national championships. I joke sometimes that imagine if we'd actually won some championships down there what they would have done."

I would have to agree with Kiffin, in the SEC it is different, it is almost a religion. Unlike with Southern California SEC fans are die hard and do not only show up when they are winning championships, but also when they are 6-6. There are constantly five SEC teams in the top 10 in attendance every year with USC not even breaking the top 10:

You also make the comment Mr Kiffin that USC fans did not react the same way when Pete Carroll left as when you left Tennessee. Carroll won 2 national championships and seven PAC 10 titles in 9 years.You can't keep the same head coaching job for more than a year and a half. Carroll also left with grace and helped the University in the transition. Nobody including the media had any idea you were leaving until you announced it that night. I look forward to seeing you play anyone from the SEC, hopefully very soon.

Recruiting, a few points

As the Lane Kiffin saga continues, with his press conference at Southern California less than an hour away, lets look at the recruiting aspect of these past 24 hours.

First, the Tennessee recruiting class has lost four commitments already, with some more probably to come. They were ranked at number seven last night before Kiffin gave he resignation. Scout.com now has Tennessee ranked at number 24. This is quite a drop in less than 24 hours. Their is also a very good chance that Tennessee will lose more recruits before this is all over. Micheal Hamilton, AD for Tennessee, needs to make a choice, do you sacrifice the class you have now and take your time to make the right hire that could bring in good classes for years to come or do you make a quick hire to save the class you have now.

Second, it has not been totally confirmed yet, but supposedly some of Kiffin's staff were contacting recruits that had enrolled early at Tennessee and told them not to go to class yet, so they could transfer to Southern California. The way that the rules work in the NCAA are if a student-athlete enrolls in a school early they are not fully enrolled until they attend their first class. The first day of class for all of Kiffin's early enrolled students was today. Where is the line ethics crossed in coaching and recruiting? I firmly believe that Kiffin and his staff crossed that line by calling these recruits and telling them to not attend their first class. A coach should never tell one of their athletes to not attend a class. Education comes first.

Third, once a recruit is enrolled at an University they can not transfer to another school without losing a year of eligibility. If coaches can jump ship whenever they want why do the recruits who were promised things from these very coaches have to stay at school that they most likely came to because of the coach. The NCAA needs to lift this rule and institute a new rule stating that a student athlete can transfer schools without having to sit out a year as long as they were not coerced by another coach and as long as they do not transfer to a school where the coach they were playing for has gone to. If the player wants to go with the coach to the new school then yes, they should have to sit out a year. This rule would most help the student athletes who wanted to play for a certain coach but once they are at school the coach left or retired and now the student athlete can transfer to different school is they would like.

Lane Kiffin Fallout

Lane Kiffin bolted in the middle of the night for University of Southern California last night. This bring back memories of 1984 when the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis in the middle night in moving vans. Yes, Lane Kiffin did address the media last night, but this was only for about 2 minutes and did not take any questions. Their had been no rumors about Kiffin even being in the search in regards to the USC position. This announcement came as a total shock to the college football world and especially to Volunteer students and alumni. Once the rumors started about Kiffin's departure students started to congregate outside the football complex. Eventually this turned into a mini riot with things being set on fire and people yelling "F--- You Kiffin!!!" to any car leaving the complex.

The meeting with his formal players did not go over well with them interrupting him before he could finish and some even walking out. You have to feel bad for some of his recruits from last year and any recruits that has already enrolled in UT for spring classes. They bought into the Lane Kiffin hype and believed him when he sat on their couches at their home, when he was pitching his case as to why they should come to UT. Now all these recruits are at UT and are waiting to see who will be coaching them next year. This departure has caused a shakeup in the recruiting ranking as well as UT has fallen 2 spots already.

Kiffin is reinforcing what is becoming a common trend in college football with coaches lately, which is that loyalty and giving your word does not mean to much. anymore. The days of Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno type's are over. Coaches no longer will be at schools for 30 years. Most coaches it seems like now are always looking for a bigger paycheck or maybe a shot at the NFL.

Southern California has hired Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin as their next head coach. Kiffin will be bringing his father defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron.

Two Volunteer's Kicked off Team

Lane Kiffin has decided to dismiss Nu'Keese Richardson and Mike Edwards from the Tennessee Volunteer football team after they were charged with attempted armed robbery. The third member Janzen Jackson has been suspended from all team activities until Kiffin gets all the facts regarding his involvement in the incident.

Three Volunteer's Arrested

Three Tennessee Volunteer freshmen football players were arrested and charged with attempted armed robbery early Thursday morning. The three players were WR Nu'Keese Richardson, DB Janzen Jackson and DB Mike Edwards. The three players tried to rob two people sitting in their car in a gas station near the Tennessee Campus. When the officers arrested the players they found a pellet gun, drug paraphernalia and a plastic bag with what appeared to be marijuana.

On a up side this should really help on the recruiting trail. These were three of Lane Kiffin's recruits. Glad to see that Kiffin cares about character in his players also.

SEC officiating? Will it ever be correct?

I really do not know what to say anymore. I never thought that the SEC officiating crews could be in bed with Florida and Alabama but it seems more and more like that. Lane Kiffin and Dan Mullen were both reprimanded by the SEC today for speaking out against the SEC officials. Both of them had very good arguments.

In the Mississippi State vs Florida game, Florida intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. This TD sealed the game for Florida, however when you look at the replay Dustin Doe, of Florida, was stripped of the ball right before he scored. If this had been overturned the touchdown would have been negated and Mississippi State would have had the ball at the 20. Mullen spoke out about this after the game and stated that the replay official should be suspended. The SEC did not see it the same way and reprimanded Mullen instead.

Next, in the Tennessee vs Alabama game, after Alabama blocked a field goal by Tennessee Terrence Cody of Alabama took off his helmet and threw it in the air. The game had not yet ended. This should have been a personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct. Lane Kiffin spoke out about this and was reprimanded by the SEC also. When Kiffin was asked Sunday about him maybe being fined by the SEC Kiffin replied with "I'm sure we'll get one of those letters that means nothing, that Bobby Petrino got last week, but Florida and Alabama live on".

This is now two weeks in a row that Florida has had to been bailed out by the SEC officials. Lets not forget that LSU had help from the officials when they were a top 5 team. I am really starting to wonder now, do the SEC officials just really want a SEC team in the BCS National Championship? Do they want Alabama and Florida to meet in the SEC Championship game? Are they placing bets on the game and making sure that their teams win? Are they just that bad at there job?

I am not sure which one it is if any. I do know one thing though SEC commissioner Mike Slive has his hands full. It is not just the fans anymore that are in an up roar about the SEC officiating now he has SEC coaches becoming very outspoken about how bad the officiating has been. I hope that Slive knows that even the media is all over this now. He better do something or the NCAA is going to start an investigation if they have not already.

Urban making excuses

Chris Low from ESPN wrote a great article about Urban Meyer, after his win against Tennessee, and why he did not have to open up the Florida offense. I provided the link below:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4492076

Urban made comments that he did not feel he had to open the Gator offense due to the fact that Lane Kiffin was not trying to win the game. Meyer stated "When I saw them starting to hand the ball off, I didn't feel they were going for the win". Meyer made this statement because after Tennessee recovered a fumble on on their own two with 11:37 left in the game. Kiffin opted  not to go straight to his passing game to move the ball because they had not been very effective in moving the ball through the air. Tennessee still scored on that position to cut the lead to 23-13. I have to support Kiffin on this, if you were not having success in the passing game then why would you start throwing the ball and risk an interception. 

You have to love Meyer after all the hoopla all week about how his team was going to score 60 points and embarrass Kiffin and Tennessee on Saturday he only could only score 23 and win by 10 points. Urban you still got the win, why do you have to make excuses, maybe Tennessee is a lot better than you thought. I have never liked Urban Meyer and this kind of stuff just reinforcing why he is an arrogant coach and not a good example of how a SEC coach should act. Try to show some class next time Mr. Meyer.