Apparently Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin wasn’t too pleased with Alshon Jeffrey’s (one of the nation’s best high school wide receivers) decision to play for South Carolina next year, and told him so.
According to Jeffrey and Wilson, Kiffin told Jeffrey that if he chose the Gamecocks, he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who had gone to South Carolina.
Jeffrey was doing his best to stay awake at that point, but that comment from Kiffin woke him up. He clearly hasn’t forgotten it, either.
“He said it, but it’s not worth talking about,” Jeffrey said.
Wilson was a little more diplomatic. He wrote it off as Kiffin pulling out all of the stops and simply not wanting to concede defeat. Wilson acknowledged that’s about as negative as it got that morning.
“It was his last resort. That’s all it was,” said Wilson, who also attended high school in South Carolina.
“When you get pushed against the wall and your back is there, you’re going to come out with something. You should have heard coach Carroll. He was wide awake at 3 o’clock in the morning. Remember, he was on West Coast time and fighting to get Alshon to the very end.
“But the war was over at that point.”
I’m sure college recruiters have said much worse to recruits, but Kiffin’s act is starting to wear a little thin. He’s already pissed off several of the SEC coaches and now he’s not endearing himself to future prospects. Maybe he should relax a little and win a few games at Tennessee before pissing everyone off.
