| 13 January 2010
It has been a rough fourteen months for UT football fans. That is for sure. While the Lane Kiffin Experience turned out to be of mild psychedelic benefit to the conference ... ok, it was a major distraction ...
Kiffin is gone. Adios. Hasta. He took one (of the apparent three) dream jobs that he held in his heart. Had Pete Carroll's staff at USC kept their program clean, I would not be pondering this article. It is time for Vol fans to collectively breathe in the good, let out the bad.
Even though Lane Kiffin has already left the bride at the altar, there are still two major looming questions that need to be examined: did the staff violate NCAA rules (again) and why are the fans so torn up?
First, did (at least) Ed Orgeron commit recruiting violations while Coach Kiffin addressed the team regarding his exit? According to sources close to the team, and some online reports, yes he did. There were at least two phones that were on speaker-phone, did the players hit their record buttons and record what was happening? If yes, the players that recorded the audio need to come forward.
Apparently, while Lane told 'his' players about his dreams, Coach Orgeron was burning through his speed dial list ... calling recruits ... and letting them know he has their back ... at Southern Cal. Yes, you read that correctly. Orgeron was reportedly offering full-rides at his new coaching stop.
On the face, many people reactively said that they would do the same thing. Yes, they would except for a couple of small details.
Recruiting is still in the 'dead period'. Obviously Coach O did not understand care about the small things ... like NCAA rules or ethics. Dead Period means DEAD Period. Period. Coaches can have exactly zero contact with recruits during the dead period. This is not rocket science.
When coaching staffs pick up and leave in the middle of the night, they will typically go after the key players they had spent so much energy on. That is a given. Even if recruiting had been 'live', offering athletes scholarships before you have even left the meeting room is simply classless. It is underhanded. It is plain wrong.
As an SEC fan, I can simply offer the following advice to Lane Kiffin and his staff: Stand up,be a man, and quit allowing your father to run behind you attempting to clean up your messes.
Lane's father, Monte Kiffin, called a Knoxville area sports show in an attempt to deflect the criticism ... it did not work.
The second question that needs to be answered is the amusement/wonder that is being exhibited by fans outside of the SEC. For this group, many simply do not understand why UT fans were so torn up over a coach leaving a program.
In the South, football is a way of life. Marriages, divorces, birthdays, you name it are all planned around football schedules. It does not matter what level of football either. College, High School, Pee Wee, Pop Warner. Every level of football is taken seriously in this part of the country.
While the sun did rise the morning after Kiffin's departure, for many fans, the sun did not shine as brightly. Why?
This is easy. Trust, honesty, and honor are major tenets of the Southern way of life. In the eyes of UT fans, Lane Kiffin violated all three. In Lane Kiffin's eyes, this was another business decision. Irregardless of which side of the fence you fall on this subject, Southerners can not stand to be lied to.
Kiffin sold Vol Nation a bill of goods with his mouth that his butt could not pay. When dealing with a habitual lier, this eventually happens every time.
An honorable man would have turned the offer down, at least in our Southern point of view, because he had only been on the job 14 months. Following his team's loss in the Chik-fil-A Bowl, Kiffin had promised his fans (and detractors alike) that he was only getting started. Apparently he completed the job faster than expected.
UT fans will move on, eventually, but the sting from the slap the fans received from Lane Kiffin will hurt for quite some time and will likely sow mistrust towards whomever the next coach is.
