For the man who started it all
This just in. According to news reports yesterday Lane Kiffin was offered (and accepted) the Tennessee Volunteers head coaching job. He has also apparently started to assemble a coaching staff. No news yet on whether he has been hitting the recruiting trail. I would say probably not yet since he didn't even know whether he would have a job and there's probably a rule against that. It's too early to tell if it will be a good fit, but if nothing else it will make the SEC even more competitive, adding another coach with NFL head coaching experience to the conference, joining Nick Saban of LSU and Steve Spurrier of South Carolina.
There are conflicting rumors of Kiffin not being offered the job (Tennessee's athletic director denied he has been offered the job) but I think it likely that his contract details still have to be worked out and that's what's holding up the announcement. This is great news for Kiffin and I hope it works out for him. I will be following the Volunteers from now on if he does get the job because I'm a huge Peyton Manning fan and he went to college there. I also just like the program. They do a great job of developing players for the pro game and I think he'll help that process more than ever.
11/28/08
Kiffin accepts USC job
I'm aware that Kiffin made a pledge to Tennessee to be the head coach for a long time and improve the program. Kelly made the same pledge to Cincinatti, but he bailed before a very important bowl game against Florida because he was offered his dream job. Kiffin was also offered his dream job and bailed his previous program for that dream job, but is now being crucified by the media because the media believes his timing was poor.
First off- and this is just my opinion, just like it is everyone else's opinion that Lane Kiffin is a scumbag for going to USC after one year at Tennessee- I believe that Lane Kiffin is being treated too harshly. I think that the Tennessee program is in a better position to win games in the future than it was before Lane Kiffin became the coach. Also, I believe that his timing was actually bettter than Kelly's because he didn't leave the program before a very important bowl game and left weeks before high schools recruits can sign their official letters of intent.
One more thing. How often does the USC job become available? I think that for any coach his dream job becomes available only once in a lifetime. Imagine your dream job being offered to you. Could you turn it down even if there are circumstances that make it hard for you to accept the job?
People can slam Kiffin for accepting his dream job, but they are doing so not because it is a scumbag move -no other coach in college football would receive the same amount of negative press as Kiffin (example: Kelly)- but because Kiffin is an unpopular person.
He made the move that 9 out of 10 people would have made. It's a better location. It's a bigger and better program. He knows the area and, as a result of that, the recruits much better than he did at Tennessee. And, most importantly, he inherits a much better team than the one he got at Tennessee.
So, we can all play the blame game, where we take out all of our problems on Lane Kiffin. Or we can face reality and just accept what Kiffin did as part of life and not fault him for what most of us would have done in the same situation.
1/23/10
