<p>I wish that I were on ol’ Rocky Top down in the Tennessee hills, WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!</p>
<p>Odds that he says “I can’t wait to sing ‘Fight On’ all night after we beat UCLA this year” during tomorrow’s press conference?</p>
<p>HAHAHAH Lane Kiffin!!!</p>
<p>I hope all of Tennessee’s and USC’s recruits de-commit!</p>
<p>Lane Kiffin? Monte Kiffin, now that’s worth celebrating :)</p>
<p>USC had hardly any recruits even before Pete left (only 3 on defense), with so many freshmen/sophomore starters and key backups returning who would want to come and sit for 2-3 years. I’m sure USC would have hoped to pick up some big name uncommitted on signing day like usual but as long as next year’s class is good I’m not so worried.</p>
<p>For those that don’t follow the SEC, Lane Kiffin is bad news.</p>
<p>He’ll be entertaining to watch, though.</p>
<p>By the way, as a Bama fan, this is like another Christmas. Given some of the rumored penalties USC may have coming their way (a year or two without bowls, 10+ scholarships lost) I’ll happily watch Kiffin drag his team lower and lower.</p>
<p>What the hell is USC thinking?</p>
<p>Wow, people rioting in Knoxville…</p>
<p>[Rocky</a> Top Talk - An unofficial Tennessee Volunteers blog](<a href=“http://www.rockytoptalk.com/]Rocky”>http://www.rockytoptalk.com/)</p>
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<p>none because he actually will beat UCLA unless something crazy happens</p>
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<p>Renaldo Woolridge’s (Swiperboy) twitter is hilarious.</p>
<p>Lane Kiffin’s hiring is hilarious to me. I believe it does not make sense for USC, and it certainly helps my school, Alabama.</p>
<p>First, Tennessee, one of Alabama’s rival’s, has no head coach with signing day only a few weeks away. This will no doubt hurt their recruiting this year and their team for the next few years which of course helps Alabama.</p>
<p>Second, Monte Kiffin who is one of the most brilliant defensive minds in NFL history is out of the SEC. Alabama’s offense struggled against a Tennessee defense that thoroughly confused our entire offense. </p>
<p>Third, Kiffin is a great recruiter, but he recruits thugs to play for his team. Nu’Keese Richardson, Janzen Jackson, Mike Edwards were all recruited by and played for Kiffin before they were arrested for armed robbery. This means that USC will probably have players getting in trouble in the near future, and that is not something the program needs with the current investigation.</p>
<p>Fourth, USC is hiring an unproven head coach. He went straight from being a coordinator at USC to being the head coach of the Oakland Raiders where his record was 5-15. He was fired by a bitter Al Davis who accused him of lying and called him a disgrace to the organization. Then, he goes to Tennessee where he had a 7-6 record. What has this guy done that shows he deserves one of the premier coaching jobs in the country?</p>
<p>To be fair, he is already assembling a great staff at USC with Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator, Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator, and possibly Norm Chow for his offensive coordinator.</p>
<p>I’ll reserve my laughter for 6-8 weeks after Feb. 19-21</p>
<p>TCBH, how did I know I would find you on here? :p</p>
<p>pramirez: Here’s why Kiffin’s hire is good for USC.</p>
<p>In a way, they’re “getting the gang back together”. If Norm Chow comes along, his staff could be one of the best in a long time. Chow on offense, Kiffin on defense, and Orgeron as a recruiting coordinator? You’ve gotta be kidding me. It sounds almost like a fantasy draft. </p>
<p>All these guys (besides Monte) were at USC when all the Reggie Bush/Dwayne Jarrett stuff went down. USC is practically rubbing it in the NCAA’s face with this hire. Facing sanctions, your coach leaves. What do you do? Promptly hire three guys who were his assistants during the years under investigation. Brilliant. This has less to do with Kiffin’s coaching ability than it does getting a great staff together that can still bring in recruits and hopefully weather the storm that potential sanctions could cause.</p>
<p>As far as Kiffin’s record goes, I mean the man coached the Oakland Raiders. Let that sink in for a second. The RAIDERS. I’m not going to fault him for going 5-15 with that shipwreck of a team. And anything Al Davis says about anyone is automatically invalid in my book. I hate that man. As far as his Tennessee record goes, what he did there was less about the record and more about the headlines. He made the Vols nationally relevant again, which was all he could be expected to do in his first season. Would 7-6 be acceptable in his second season there? Probably not, but they went 5-7 in 2008. It’s not like he took over a national championship team.</p>
<p>His questionable morals will fit right in at USC, and for that I give the Trojans a pat on the back for making a great hire (for now). But what he did to Tennessee is scumbag-level.</p>
<p>Fine, fight on after they beat Oregon. That was funny how he said that he’d sing Rocky Top all night after they beat Florida, but it didn’t happen!</p>
<p>pramirez, </p>
<p>Yeah, not having a head coach will certainly not help recruiting for Tennessee, not to mention the infractions and problems UT has had over the past year. Not to mention that Alabama will have a huge recruiting class, no doubt. However, if Tennessee can hire a big name coach, then it may be a good thing Kiffen is leaving (I’ve heard John Gruden and Mike Leach thrown around)</p>
<p>Second, yeah, that may hurt, but the next coordinator might use the system and be just as good as Monte. We won’t know until he’s hired, so hold the phone on that. But yes, losing Monte is bigger than losing Lane for sure.</p>
<p>Third, then it’s good for UT to get rid of him, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Fourth, once again, getting rid of an unproven coach is good then for UT, wouldn’t you agree?</p>
<p>I really fail to see how losing Kiffen would really hurt Tennessee except that they/we lose Monte on the wayside. It might turn out for the better in the long-run.</p>
<p>Either way, Lane Kiffen is a scumbag.</p>
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<p>Looks unlikely that they’ll get Chow. So they’ve just brought back the recruiters plus a good DC. It’ll be interesting to see, though, who Kiffin can hire when his father is gone - assuming he hasn’t taken another couple jobs by then.</p>
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<p>Non sequitur. Sarcasm?</p>
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<p>Acting the fool is only novel for a certain amount of time. We’ll see how many other tricks he has up his sleeve.</p>
<p>It seems to me that Garrett rushed to make the hire while he still had the power to do so. It’s hard to really predict how it will turn out, but at the very least the next coach (whether that’s in 3 years or 3 decades) will probably have a decent amount of talent to work with - assuming Kiffin isn’t Lavinoma 2.0.</p>
<p>TCBH: Even though it’s not good for the game, I’m drawn to programs that attract negative attention from the NCAA for whatever reason. SMU in the 80s, Miami in the 80s/early 90s, USC. They make for good reading. I like the bold move by USC in hiring a guy that committed a bunch of little violations this year and was on the staff that is under investigation by the NCAA. They’re telling the NCAA “Your move.” It makes for good entertainment.</p>
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<p>Huh?</p>
<p>USC has the 7th rated class by Rivals (would be rate higher but for the small size of the class) and the highest average star rating, and the 14th rated class by Scout (again, the highest avg. star rating).</p>
<p>1 DL, 0 LB for USC.</p>
<p>As it is, their recruiting class has a balance issue.</p>
<p>I still have a little bit of a bad taste from Lane’s play calling and lack of an ability to adjust. Ask any USC fan about J.D. Booty’s batted pass problem or the strange play calls from 2006 when Lane was OC.</p>
<p>That said it’s easy to see some reasons. Lane’s offense is basically identical to the one USC already runs. The #1 m.o. at USC is always recruiting and Orgeron can keep mining orange county.</p>
<p>Monte Kiffin’s defensive schemes are also very close to what Carroll ran (Carroll was a Monte Kiffin protege and understudy, hence the Lane connection to USC) so there is a lot of continuity there also.</p>
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<p>The difference is, the first two committed a lot worse than what USC is accused of. SMU was on probation already, and paid athletes to come and play. Miami took kickbacks from players for financial aid and also got mixed up in fraud. USC (maybe) had a football player’s parents, hundreds of miles away, accept benefits from a sports agent unaffiliated with USC in anticipation of the NFL (not to play at USC).</p>
<p>Still, it’s bad PR no matter what. I don’t want to hear any of Kiffin’s loud mouth giving USC any more of a black eye.</p>
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<p>I don’t get it. First everyone accuses Carroll of jumping ship because of NCAA sanctions, and then USC’s new coaches are insiders (who would know more than anyone else the chances of sanctions). If Kiffin thought sanctions were coming, why would he come to a sinking ship?</p>
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<p>Because at the end of the day, sanctions or not, USC is USC.</p>