Is Lane Kiffin a flake?

[Glory's Sun]

So by now everyone knows that Lane Kiffin and his dad are exiting stage left to head to USC. I'm sure USC put out a nice benefits package to get this done, but is Lane a flake? He had a great contract at UT and even though I hate the SEC, Tennessee was going to be massive with the recruiting coach they had (who is going to USC now) and the Kiffin duo. This just reeks of the same type of strategy Bobby Petrino used at Louisville.. although, Kiffin at least saw out the season.

I'm starting to think that maybe Kiffin was just scared of Florida and 'Bama. With Urban Meyer losing recruits and coaches, that opened the door for UT to a top dog in the SEC. I'm not real worried about it as I hate USC just as much as the SEC teams, but something just stinks here. Is there any loyalty left in the game?

[The_Jazz]

Hate...boiling...strangle....burn....

Not the news I wanted to wake up to this morning. He fucked us in the ass without so much as a reacharound. There was a riot (small one) on campus last night. So long as the students/rioters kept it confined to Kiffin and didn't actually do any real property damage beyond what they brought themselves, the cops let it go. A bunch of burnt Kiffin gear and some mattresses.

I'll get a call from my guy in the athletic department sometime today, I'm sure. If he'll give me the go-ahead, I'll post what he has to say.

Early rumors for the replacement are Petrino (small shock) or possibly Don Chavis who was the UT defensive coordinator for years under Fulmer. They might even try to grab some other former coaching talent. We'll see.

[paddyjoe]

Originally Posted by guccilvr

Is there any loyalty left in the game?

I think this is where you're kidding yourself, guccilvr.....

We want it to be a game, but the reality is that it's been a business for some time now, and a HUGE one at that.

[Glory's Sun]

Petrino is bad news.

I've heard Will Muschamp from Texas being the main target. I don't see him leaving Texas though.

Paddy: yeah I know it's a business and I know that USC is where Lane used to coach, but for a coach that talked so big and bad and preached buying in to a system.. well.. he needs to take his own lessons and walk it. I hate the SEC, but UT would have been on top for a while in just a matter of 2 or more seasons. He's scurrred of Florida (fuck the gators.. fuck them good)

[stringerbell]

Yeah Muschamp has said that the won't be making the move to UT. I've also heard - saw this on ESPN actually - that the AD has contacted Phil Fulmer. How ironic is that? That guy bleeds orange and white but I don't think he'd ever come back after the way he was ousted. Lane Kiffin gave Al Davis credibility with the way he acted this week...hilarious that UT fans were rioting. I went to UGA so UT is one of our biggest rivals but I feel bad for their fans.

[The_Jazz]

Unless his wife is lying, Fulmer hasn't been contacted - at least to coach. Someone I trust (and trust more than anyone on TFP, which is saying a lot) talked to her a while ago (they've known each other for years and get together at least once a week), and she specifically said that Phil's not being asked to come back - at least as coach. I think that it's a consultative thing if there's an ongoing conversation. The AD thing is still in play, but that puts Hamilton in the wind, and I doubt that's going to happen since Pearl and Summit both apparently love him (at least last I heard).

My AD guy is clammed up tight at the moment. I talked to him, but he won't say a word, at least while he's at work. I'll try to talk to him tonight if I can.

[Glory's Sun]

so basically,

the answer is YES Lane Kiffin is a flake.

[Jetée]

No, he is not a flake (to the general population at large). To his AD, team nucleus, and school supporters at Tenn., yeah, pretty much.

It was no big secret that Lane's dream job was USC, and seeing as he thought at the time it was out of the question, he took the next best gig. With Carroll gone, he took just one step up to the better gig, and with it, a seemingly better coaching opportunity.

[Glory's Sun]

Perhaps Lane isn't the only flake.. USC has a flake in their AD. When Del Rio et al wouldn't take the job they hired Lane. Can someone explain to me what is in Lane's resume that says "winner?"

Maybe the NCAA needs a Rooney rule as well.

Although, the most interesting part of this is that we could have two schools with Kiffen as a coach under probation. Reggie Bush anyone?

Lane is a flake no matter how he tries to lay it. He said Tenn. was a dream job, so was oakland,but it wasn't his fault he lost in Oakland, it was all Al Davis' fault.. Right? What happens when an nfl team wants him to be a coach? He'll use the dream job line again and bolt just like that flake Petrino.

I hope Lane tries to play all those head games he played at Tenn. at USC. That would be comical.

He might be a good x and o coach, but that's about it. Flake.

[Jetée]

Originally Posted by guccilvr

Perhaps Lane isn't the only flake.. USC has a flake in their AD. When Del Rio et al wouldn't take the job they hired Lane. Can someone explain to me what is in Lane's resume that says "winner?"

Nothing in his resume says he is a proven head coach; however, there is something in his portfolio that does bolster his appeal: Monte Kiffin.

Maybe the NCAA needs a Rooney rule as well.

You cannot be serious. The Rooney Rule is one of the most laughable clauses in the NFL right now, and it is a travesty of a dog-and-pony show to parade around the league to show that "we're not rascists at all". It is affirmative action that accomplishes nothing at all. If a team has a head coaching vacancy, first thing on the priority docket is to find a proven head coach or an inspiring young name to take over the reins, not interview endlessly hoping to hit on someone you like, regardless of whether the person is a minority candidate or not. A joke.

[bazkitcase5]

My first reaction was, ha ha ha, that's what they get for how they treated Phil Fulmer

My 2nd reaction, yes, Lane Kiffin is a flake

but, Jetee said it best

[paddyjoe]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...yhoo&type=lgns



Kiffin keeps falling forward to USC


By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports Jan 12, 11:38 pm EST


So let’s sort out this Lane Kiffin from Tennessee to Southern California deal as best as we can.

USC, one of the top-five jobs in college football, just hired a guy who went 7-6 in his only season as a college head coach. He previously went 5-15 for the Oakland Raiders. Sure, Lane brings his dad, Monte, with him as defensive coordinator, but for how long?


USC, which is facing a multi-sport, department-wide NCAA bloodletting next month, just hired a guy who in his tenure at Tennessee was a walking secondary violation (six of them), had two players booted off the team after an attempted armed robbery and leaves with NCAA investigators looking into how the program used recruiting hostesses. And, of course, he was a Trojan assistant when the compliance trouble USC must answer for began.

USC, which is still smarting from the supposed “disloyalty” of Pete Carroll (who left after nine years, mind you), just hired a guy who Raiders owner Al Davis accused of being “immature” and a “flat-out liar.” Kiffin, 34, did his best to disprove Davis by walking out after a single season on a UT administration that gave him a plum SEC job for no known reason.

(Wait, did USC athletic director Mike Garrett just make Al Davis look like he was correct about something?)

Oh, and Tennessee? That roll of the dice on the Smirk of the South leaves them coachless weeks before signing day when finding a viable replacement is exponentially more difficult. Hey, the one-liners about the Gators and the Pahokee High fax machine were fun while they lasted though, right?
Mike Garrett

And despite all of that, I don’t think this was the worst move by the Trojans.

It tells you what you need to know about Garrett and Kiffin, both of whom deserve plenty of ridicule. In terms of potential wins and losses though, this might actually work out. That’s especially true if USC winds up with a staff that includes Norm Chow as offensive coordinator and Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator.

Of course, Lane also needs to avoid self-destructing and no one, absolutely no one, can guarantee that won’t happen.

In the meantime, the real question is who is cackling harder right now: 1. Urban Meyer, 2. Phil Fulmer, 3. Notre Dame fans?

Fulmer, no doubt, doesn’t look so old and uncool to the fans who wanted him out (didn’t you see me in “The Blind Side”?). ND can point out that when it took a flyer on an unproven coach at least Charlie Weis had four Super Bowl rings as an assistant. As an added bonus, it now has a coach, Brian Kelly, who might have a decided schematic advantage over their archrival after all.

That said, based on the video of a laughing Meyer checking his text messages at Tuesday’s Florida basketball game, we’ll go with No. 1. If nothing else, Meyer’s stress level just returned to normal. This clinches it. Soon, the Gators are getting their daddy back.

The least happy person is Volunteer AD Mike Hamilton. He stuck his neck out for Kiffin because Kiffin talked a good game and, hey, when the clairvoyant Al Davis (for about 15 minutes) thinks someone might be the perfect coach for his new franchise quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, how don’t you pay attention?

Now Hamilton is stuck wondering what happened and hoping, when it comes to an NCAA investigation, that nothing actually did. Good luck to Hamilton finding an SEC-level coach at this time of year. This will be especially difficult since the Kiffin debacle will likely undermine his authority and send his boosters into a state of infighting chaos.

After all, Tuesday night police were called in to break up a crowd of fans who were standing outside the football offices chanting obscenities about Kiffin, according to local news reports.

Or, consider my five favorite thread titles on the Volquest message boards Tuesday night (or, at least the printable ones).

5. Glad I only named my dog Kiffin.

4. Al Davis wasn’t as crazy as we all thought.

3. Pat Summitt is more of a man than Lane Kiffin.

2. It’s like getting a divorce from a stripper!

1. Layla can stay.

Mike Garrett was a heck of a running back in his playing days – he won the 1965 Heisman Trophy for the Trojans. He never moved quicker than he did since Carroll left for the Seattle Seahawks. This was the speed dating of all coaching searches, Garrett apparently running down his wish list like he was on a last-minute mission to find a prom date.
Lane Kiffin coached Tennessee to a 7-6 record in 2009.
(Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

He finished with Kiffin, the fair-haired father’s son who may turn out to be a good hire or may be a complete disaster.

The thing with Kiffin is there is truly no way to know – he hasn’t lasted anywhere long enough to show he’s more than a confident kid with a famous football name (Monte was considered a defensive genius during his long career as an NFL assistant). There’s a hint of potential to him, but also a tendency for self-inflicted mistakes. Garrett is the third person to hire Kiffin. The first two wish they’d never heard of him.

Screwing over UT certainly doesn’t say much about Kiffin. Yes, it’s the USC job, coveted beyond belief. And yes, this is America and everyone has a right to better their situation.

There’s also a thing called loyalty. Even by the pathetically low standards of college athletics, this one was rough. Naturally Kiffin soothed everything over by holding an approximate one-minute news conference in Knoxville.

“This was not an easy decision,” he said of the decision he must have mulled over for, what, a half an hour?

Then he refused to take questions and left. He all but stole the school’s last gallon of orange paint on the way out.

Once the smoke of hurt feelings is left behind in the Smokies, Kiffin will settle in with one of the sport’s true Cadillac jobs. Has there ever been a coach who got progressively better gigs despite not experiencing any success at the previous one?

He keeps failing upward, which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to fail at Troy.

First off, you have to be one lousy football coach to screw up the USC juggernaut.

Yes, there are potential NCAA sanctions coming, but the NCAA doesn’t have a punishment in its bag that can derail one of the big-time programs. Cutting some scholarships or recruiting visits would be a spitball off the Trojan battleship. Only a multi-season postseason ban (not going to happen) or the death penalty (really not going to happen) could slow SC.

If the Trojans have the proper coach, they’ll keep winning. After all, Alabama is on NCAA probation right now and Nick Saban just won the BCS title. A year ago Oklahoma played in the title game while on probation.

Carroll left the Trojans with a slew of future NFL talent, a top-five recruiting class and arguably the hottest brand name in the sport (even if star tailbacks have to stop driving tricked-out cars).

Kiffin can make that work. If there is one thing he learned from his father’s NFL experience it’s to hire assistant coaches who can actually coach. He assembled a top-line staff at UT and is on his way already at SC. ESPN is reporting he will lure UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow back to USC, a gangster move that would be a huge boost for the Trojan offense and a kick in the teeth of its cross-town rival.

During the course of his one season, Tennessee players appeared to go through a measure of development not always seen at the college level. Especially on offense, the Vols got better. UT was expected to be worse next season due to a lack of talent, but it wasn’t out of the question that Kiffin was going to win in the long-term.

So, yes, the record isn’t much, Kiffin talks a far bigger game than he’s delivered and the complete lack of regard (or understanding) of the rule book would be troubling to most schools (not Mike Garrett’s USC, of course, but most schools). Still, there’s at least a chance this will work out in the win column. Does anyone in L.A. care about anything else?

One way or the other, it won’t play out quietly – it never does with Lane Kiffin.

[Glory's Sun]

I'll concede the Rooney argument..

I just don't see how this kid manages to keep falling into good jobs. He's like Charlie Weiss, great offensive X and O's coach, but horrible on the head coaching front. If anything, I think Tennessee should be holding a parade that he's gone. Just don't get what's his name from Duke. I like watching Duke play now.. they are entertaining and I really hate the tarheels.

Tennessee has had a recruiting massacre since all of this happened. We've seen it happen at Florida (fuck the gators!) and now Tennessee. Looks like it's all Georgia and 'Bama for the SEC next season.

I'm just wondering if the AD for UT is going to still be around. A lot of prominent alumni and board members are putting him on the hot seat. His next move better be golden or he's gone.

[crow_daw]

Well I live in Knoxville. Been a UT fan my whole life (and coincidentally, also an Oakland Raiders fan), so I've been going to bat for that fuckstick for about 3 years now. That's why everyone here in Vol Country is so irate and pissed at Kiffin: he just made us all look so god damn stupid. The entire rest of the country was right, and we were wrong. Hell, even Al Davis had a bead on this guy, and we just swallowed all of his bullshit like it was chocolate fucking sorbet. He's such a classless piece of shit.

Did you know that right after he took the UT job, his wife Layla gave birth to a son, whom Lane subsequently named Knox. That's correct: he named his fucking child for a PR stunt. If he actually gave a shit about the program/job/players/town/anyone-but-himgoddamnself, then it would be different. But he branded his own son with a name that he will presumably bear for the rest of his natural life just to send a false message of loyalty and devotion.

The thing that I keep telling myself is this: surely this will adversely affect him in recruiting, correct? I mean, how can ANY recruit from ANYWHERE look this guy in --the eye and believe a single word he fucking says? If I was a five-star blue chip entertaining a recruiting visit from Kiffin, I would have to think the dialogue would go something like this:

LK: "You and I, Crow_daw, we're going to bring a championship to Southern California before you graduate. I'm going to help you do that."
Me: "Sorta like you were going to help Janzen Jackson and Bryce Brown do that?"
LK: ".....but this is different....this is....well this is my dream job."
Me: "Yeah, until the god damn Dallas Cowboys fire Wade Phillips right? Or any other NFL job comes open for that matter, you opportunistic piece of shit?"

God what I would give to actually engage in that conversation. But anyway, the silver lining in all of this that has yet to be mentioned is that we did hire Derek Dooley, who seems to be a stand up guy. I would encourage anyone interested in the situation to YouTube his press conference. His head coaching record isn't that impressive on its face, but when you consider what kind of program he took over at LA Tech, and the fact that they lost some tough games last year, I think it becomes a little more encouraging. Further, he had two number one recruiting classes as the recruiting coordinator for LSU under Nick Saban, who worked with for six years. The guy has a football pedigree, a law degree, and the right attitude. I think we're going to be OK.

And just to reiterate: Fuck Lane Kiffin in his sorry fucking ass.

[tfp320]

I am losing respect for his dad also following this circus from town to town