Interesting Article About the Night Kiffin Left

#1
Delmar

Delmar

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#1
I know everybody gets weary of discussing Kiffin but this is a really interesting (and long) article about the night he resigned. Quotes from a lot of players and media who were there. The thing I was really glad to hear was the upperclassmen who just wore him out at the team meeting where he announced he was leaving. Wouldn’t even let him speak. It also goes into great detail what Orgeron was doing while all this was happening. Jawaun James is particularly interesting.

www.rockytopinsider.com

‘All Hell Broke Loose’: An Oral History Of The Night Lane Kiffin Left Tennessee For USC | Rocky Top Insider

15 years after Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for USC, RTI talked to 13 people apart of the night to tell an oral history of that night.
www.rockytopinsider.com www.rockytopinsider.com
 
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#2
#2
giphy.gif
 
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#7
#7
Kiffin was and is a good coach, but not a great coach by any means. He lost me running the same play against UCLA within the 5 yard line.

I would not ever want him near our program again, but I do not blame him as much for the destruction as I do the idiots who failed to check his references. They were totally incompetent.
 
#9
#9
It’s not a bad article but I feel like I knew most of this already. Ed Orgeron was the definitely the biggest POS that night for doing the dirty work.

Oddly enough, I always thought the little “off the TV” press conference was Kiffin trying to feel better about what he was doing. Like trying to do right - but only in a meaningless gesture kind of way after having done something indefensible and realizing just how bad it was being taken.

One might say those mustard bottles on the field in 2021 had been traveling ten years to get there.
 
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#10
#10
Delmar said:
I know everybody gets weary of discussing Kiffin but this is a really interesting (and long) article about the night he resigned. Quotes from a lot of players and media who were there. The thing I was really glad to hear was the upperclassmen who just wore him out at the team meeting where he announced he was leaving. Wouldn’t even let him speak. It also goes into great detail what Orgeron was doing while all this was happening. Jawaun James is particularly interesting.

www.rockytopinsider.com

‘All Hell Broke Loose’: An Oral History Of The Night Lane Kiffin Left Tennessee For USC | Rocky Top Insider

15 years after Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for USC, RTI talked to 13 people apart of the night to tell an oral history of that night.
www.rockytopinsider.com www.rockytopinsider.com
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Still have an old F Lane Kiffen shirt. Maybe he will get ass cancer.
 
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#11
#11
Remember that night well. Someone on VQ had posted something like “something’s happening on the hill” hours before Hubbs posted the “guys, it’s true”

Had my phone downstairs and heard my wife scream for me when it hit the Channel 10 ticker.
 
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#12
#12
Voltopia said:
It’s not a bad article but I feel like I knew most of this already. Ed Orgeron was the definitely the biggest POS that night for doing the dirty work.

Oddly enough, I always thought the little “off the TV” press conference was Kiffin trying to feel better about what he was doing. Like trying to do right - but only in a meaningless gesture kind of way after having done something indefensible and realizing just how bad it was being taken.

One might say those mustard bottles on the field in 2021 had been traveling ten years to get there.
Click to expand...
Don’t think it’s an odd thought. I really believe he thought that Vol Nation was going to accept his decision and wish him well. He found out different at the team meeting when the players lit into him and at the street riot when he had to leave hidden in a car.

I knew a lot of it but I hadn’t heard direct comments from players on the team at the time.
 
#13
#13
Delmar said:
Hindsight is always 20/20. I’m guessing we wouldn’t have wandered in the wilderness for 15 years with Lane as coach. Might have even won an SEC title. But I’m also guessing we would have spent some time in the NCAA penalty box as well.
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Well, we ended up doing that anyway, minus the winning.
 
#14
#14
Majors said:
Remember that night well. Someone on VQ had posted something like “something’s happening on the hill” hours before Hubbs posted the “guys, it’s try”

Had my phone downstairs and heard my wife scream for me when it hit the Channel 10 ticker.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I remember some guy coming on there and breaking the news, and he got roasted for about an hour until everyone realized he was right. Multiple Vol sites crashed once it really got going.
 
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#15
#15
It was 15 years ago, he took his dream job and we’re a better program now than his Ole Miss program. Did it suck for a while ? Yep. It sure as hell did. Was it his fault? A little bit. But I can place more blame on those who were in place to make the right hires and decisions at the time.
 
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#16
#16
Voltopia said:
It’s not a bad article but I feel like I knew most of this already. Ed Orgeron was the definitely the biggest POS that night for doing the dirty work.

Oddly enough, I always thought the little “off the TV” press conference was Kiffin trying to feel better about what he was doing. Like trying to do right - but only in a meaningless gesture kind of way after having done something indefensible and realizing just how bad it was being taken.

One might say those mustard bottles on the field in 2021 had been traveling ten years to get there.
Click to expand...
Kiffin greenlighted Coach O to contact our recruits. Kiffin cared nothing about feeling better; he wanted to look better.
 
#18
#18
DaddyChad said:
Kiffin greenlighted Coach O to contact our recruits. Kiffin cared nothing about feeling better; he wanted to look better.
Click to expand...
Orgeron used a University of Tennessee issued mobile phone to tell some of our mid-term enrollees not to go to class the next day .... AD Mike Hamilton had his phone disconnected. It was a surreal time.
 
#19
#19
Once I heard that Steve Mariucci was being interviewed / talked to about the USC job, I was prepared for it to be Kiffin...... USC really thought they were going to go thru NCAA sanctions and poach a NFL coach.... lol
 
#21
#21
Delmar said:
Hindsight is always 20/20. I’m guessing we wouldn’t have wandered in the wilderness for 15 years with Lane as coach. Might have even won an SEC title. But I’m also guessing we would have spent some time in the NCAA penalty box as well.
Click to expand...

I've only wanted him back 1 time.... And that is after Schiano Sunday AND when it came out we were talking to likes of Dave Doeren AND when it came out Fulmer was down to Mel Tucker or Jeremy Pruitt.... At that point we were already a national laughingstock (which I did NOT care about) so we could have made any hire we wanted... When it was down to Tucker or Pruitt who have never been coach or Kiffin publicly lobbying for the job with Tee Martin and Kevin Steele ready to roll with him, it would have been a wonderful end result compared to where we started.

The Pruitt years obviously led us to Danny White and Heupel, but there is no one with one shed of IQ that thought (or thinks) that Pruitt or Tucker came anywhere close to Kiffin at that point.

Since it would take a contract for whoever we hired, we could have made Kiffin's buyout very hefty to protect us, but it would have likely not mattered. Kiffin has been at Ole Miss about 2-3 seasons longer than most expected.
 
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#23
#23
We would not have fallen so hard if we had just promoted Kippy Brown as interim HC. He sure would not have done any worse than DD, at least he could have held the program together to have time to determine if Kippy could handle the job or at least have proper time to hire someone else besides a desperation hire backed 1000 % by Saban. He sold Hamilton 100 acres of beachfront property in Arizona for sure, Saban knew DD would set the Tennessee program back a minimum of 5 years or better.
 
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#25
#25
Only thing that makes me feel better about the Kiffen situation is knowing he went to his dream job and got canned on the tarmac before even getting on the plane...that was a small taste of justice right there.
 
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