USC head coach Lane Kiffin was apparently a little confused by comments made last month by Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton. Hamilton said Kiffin wound up not being a “good cultural fit” for UT.

From GoVolsExtra.com:

“I don’t really know exactly what that means,” said Kiffin, who was UT’s coach for just 14 months. “I don’t think at the end of day that has anything to do with whether you score points or whether you win games. Where you’re from? I don’t know. That’s just my opinion.

“Is Nick Saban from Alabama? Is Urban Meyer from Florida? Those are two of the best coaches in the country. So I don’t think that really means anything.”

What’s funny about Hamilton’s comments is that he never would have made them had Kiffin stayed at Tennessee and won. Had Kiffin won with the Vols, he probably would have done so in the same brash manner he exhibited when he first set foot on UT’s campus. But since he was a cocky, abrasive loudmouth that didn’t fulfill his promises, all of a sudden he wasn’t a “good cultural fit.”

I’m no Lane Kiffin apologist, but I think Hamilton is reaching here. Steve Spurrier is from Florida and was one of the cockiest head coaches the SEC had ever seen. Yet the conference embraced him because they either loved him or loved to beat him.

Was he not a cultural fit in Gainesville?

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]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/02/24/lane-kiffin-confused-by-comments-made-by-tennessee-ad/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/02/05/usc-lands-top-quarterback-recruit%e2%80%a6who-happens-to-be-13/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/02/05/usc-lands-top-quarterback-recruit%e2%80%a6who-happens-to-be-13/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:45:26 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=34075 Lane Kiffin got a solid jump on the Class of 2015 when he got 13-year-old David Sills to commit to USC.

Wait…what?

From ESPN Los Angeles.com:

“His skill set is off the chart,” Clarkson said. “I’ve never seen anyone at his age do what he’s been able to do.”

Clarkson then directed Kiffin to a video of Sills that is making the rounds on YouTube.

Kiffin watched it and called him back immediately.

“He was like, ‘This kid is incredible. How old is he again?’

“I was like, ‘That’s the problem, he’s 13.’ ”

A couple of hours later, the Sills family called Kiffin and they spoke for the first time. USC had always been Sills’ dream school, according to his father, David Sills IV.

“I’m as shocked as anybody,” Sills’ father said. “I was just talking with friends yesterday about what it’ll be like four years from now when David goes through the recruiting process. I never expected this to happen so soon.

Here’s the YouTube footage:

I have a wide range of opinions on this topic, the first being whether or not the kid will change his mind by the time he actually is ready to play college football. I mean, do you remember being dead set on anything as a 13-year-old? I was the biggest Bengal fan in the world (Boomer Esiason was my hero) for about two years, then I saw Deion Sanders play against the Saints in a 1991 playoff game and I’ve been a Falcons fan ever since. I know the young man wants to play at USC now, but a lot can change in five years. I guess he could opt out of his commitment, but will he feel pressured into honoring it when the time comes? And what about the fluke chance that he doesn’t want to play football anymore after high school?

Another thing I would worry about is how much pressure this puts on David. He’s already receiving a ton of media attention and while that should die down, everyone will know he’s the 13-year-old that committed to USC. I just hope all of this doesn’t hurt his psyche going forward.

Lastly, what if he gets hurt in high school? Will USC revoke his scholarship and leave him with nothing? What kind of damage could that cause?

At least he has a free ride to a major university and as of now, he’s guaranteed to get a college education. That’s priceless and as long as he has a good support system, I’m sure he’ll be fine. Don’t get me wrong, the upside here is huge. But I just worry about all of these questions and wonder whether or not the NCAA should have rules in place to protect parents and children from having to make a decision like this so soon.

Either way, he’s quite a talent and here’s hoping he succeeds down the road.

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Peter Schrager of FOXSports.com points out that maybe Al Davis was right when he called Lane Kiffin out for being a liar.

Back in October 2007, the media jumped to call Al Davis everything from “crazy” to “senile” when the Raiders owner fired Kiffin under the most bizarre circumstances imaginable. With an overhead projector exhibiting a hand written letter he had penned to Kiffin, Davis referred to his then 32-year-old coach as a “flat-out liar” and said he was guilty of “bringing disgrace to the organization.”

On June 8, 2009, the Raiders organization issued a statement about Lane Kiffin’s hiring at Tennessee. The statement read: “Lane Kiffin is a flat-out liar. He lied to the team, he lied to the fans, and he lied to the media. He will try to destroy that university like he tried to destroy the Raiders.”

At the time it was released, the media viewed it as nothing more than sour grapes. In hindsight, Davis was right on the money. Once a weasel, always a weasel.

Now, the rat will have his cheese (and some wine) in Southern California.

After he fired Kiffin in ’07, Davis famously noted, “It hurts because I picked the guy. I picked the wrong guy.”

The University of Tennessee now knows just how Davis felt.

And if history tells us anything, so — eventually — will USC.

See, I told you Al Davis wasn’t crazy.

It is amazing how Lane Kiffin stormed into Knoxville, made all of these brash comments about turning UT into a winner, attacked other SEC coaches, brought in some recruits that would later be arrested for armed robbery and then left the program after only one season. That’s freaking unbelievable.

I’ve always wanted to see the expression on the guy’s face that volunteered to burn his mattress when he woke up the next morning and didn’t have a bed anymore.

“Troy…Troy!”

“What?”

“What the hell happened to my bed man? It’s gone!”

“Dude, you burned it in the protest last night. Don’t you remember?”

“F**k no I don’t remember! What the hell, man!”

“Yeah, you wanted to do it to protest Lane Kiffin’s departure.”

“Lane Kiffin’s gone, too?!”

In rather surprising news, USC has tabbed former Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin to fill the position vacated by Pete Carroll, who signed a contract over the weekend to coach the Seattle Seahawks.

From ESPN.com:

“We are really excited to welcome Lane Kiffin back to USC,” Garrett said in a statement. “I was able to watch him closely when he was an assistant with us and what I saw was a bright, creative young coach who I thought would make an excellent head coach here if the opportunity ever arose. I’m confident he and his staff will keep USC football performing at the high level that we expect.”

He was a member of the USC coaching staff from 2001 to ‘06, first as wide receivers coach and then as offensive coordinator under Carroll.

Kiffin will bring his father and defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, and assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron to Southern California with him.

The hiring is surprising, but what isn’t surprising is the way Kiffin left Tennessee after just one season. The fact of the matter is that college coaches come and go as they please. As long as there is more money and a bigger opportunity to be had, coaches will always be a threat to leave.

That said, it never ceases to amaze me that coaches can walk into a recruit’s home and talk about commitment, loyalty and family, and then leave a program at the drop of a hat. There is something incredible wrong with the process, but it has become such a norm that nobody is surprised by it anymore. As the clichéd response goes: It is what it is.

I wonder if some in Knoxville are secretly glad to see Kiffin go. He rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and never seemed like a great fit for UT. Considering he helped Carroll make USC’s program a success earlier this decade, it stands to reason that he will be a much better fit in Southern Cal, but we’ll see. It’ll also be exciting to see what Monte Kiffin can do with the talent he’ll have on the defensive side of the ball at SC.

This is pure conjecture on my part, but if I’m venturing a guess as to whom will replace Kiffin at Tennessee, I’d say Jon Gruden might be a great fit. He was a graduate assistant there from 1986 to 1987 and also met his wife at UT as well. If he wanted to take a crack at the collegiate level, Knoxville might just be a solid fit.

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