Kiffin: The Portal has turned college football players into mercenaries

#1
Freak

Freak

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#1
The headline quote is a beauty: "We don't have many kids that are dying to be here. They didn't grow up wanting to go to Ole Miss."

"Accepting that you're going to not have phenomenal culture. It doesn't mean I don't work on it, but I think I have to realize, hey, it just is what it is," Kiffin said. "One, we don't have many kids that are dying to be here. They didn't grow up wanting to go to Ole Miss. These transfer kids are going to a place that fits them best at that time. It's not about the school. And they're not on their third, fourth, fifth year with you, where, 'Hey, they know how we do it. They know the expectations, the culture, the other players.' Unfortunately now it's like plug and play."
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"A lot of that locker room, that's where they wanted to play when they grew up. In the NFL, it's business," he said. "It just makes for a very different dynamic. We're now moved toward that to where it is really business and I would say the joy is not the same."
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https://footballscoop.com/news/lane...ned-college-football-players-into-mercenaries

 
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#2
#2
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#3
#3
He's not wrong about kids not wanting to go to Ole Miss. He's also not wrong about the direction of college football.

I thought Jayson Swain had a pretty reasonable response to Kiffin's comments on their radio show. It was more or less "we know, Lane." He explained that everyone knew what Kiffin was talking about, but wasn't something new and unless Kiffin had some idea of how to fix it, he didn't see the point of him bringing it up like he did at SEC Media Days.
 
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#6
#6
I'm expecting Lane to begin yelling at the local children to get off his lawn any day now.

I could be the smaller man and point out that what the players are doing is no different than what Lane himself did as a younger man. Namely, taking the best chance to win immediately and for more money regardless of the contracts and promises you had made only a few months earlier.

Again, I suppose one could say that.

As things are, Lane looks and sounds like a man who doesn't have much in the cubbard for this season. He planned to be gone to the Barn and had essentially checked out on the Rebels halfway through the season. Pity we don't have them on the schedule this year.
 
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#7
#7
It's like Kiffin is complaining about players acting the way he has acted. I can remember some locker rooms Kiffin has destroyed. He was on the phone with Auburn days before his team was to play their traditional rival last year. "But nobody wants to be at the team I coach," Kiffin whines.
 
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#9
#9
Can you imagine what it feels like for his players hearing their coach on TV complaining that none of of their teammates want to be at Ole Miss? And their coach thinks college football is not fun anymore?

Kiff is not very self aware.
 
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#10
#10
Orange. said:
Can you imagine what it feels like for his players hearing their coach on TV complaining that none of of their teammates want to be at Ole Miss? And their coach thinks college football is not fun anymore?

Kiff is not very self aware.
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He seems rather forlorn to start this season off. Not one member of our fan base has came on here to give mad props to his dope twitter game in months.
 
#12
#12
Fightmaker said:
He seems rather forlorn to start this season off. Not one member of our fan base has came on here to give mad props to his dope twitter game in months.
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I would hope that by this point, even the Kiff fanboys have accepted that we are in much better shape with Heupel and Co than we would have ever seen with Lane and his traveling circus.

While Heupel is not the most exciting guy in the world as a public speaker, he's calm/professional and seems to have mastered at least conversational English. That alone puts him above our last guy lol.
 
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#16
#16
Freak said:
The headline quote is a beauty: "We don't have many kids that are dying to be here. They didn't grow up wanting to go to Ole Miss."




https://footballscoop.com/news/lane...ned-college-football-players-into-mercenaries

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sad-crying-black-guy.gif
 
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#17
#17
So is the same as when he didn’t want to be here? Or when he left FAU ? When he was growing up did he dream of coaching at FAU?
#GoOwls
IMG_1474.gifIMG_1473.gif
 
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#18
#18
He's right. Between the portal and NIL the notions of loyalty or the players actually caring about the university they might play for is a distant memory in college football.

20 years ago, heck ten years ago, the top athletes with a real shot at the NFL down the line went to the a school where they thought they'd be developed correctly. That with rare exception meant one school for four, maybe five years. They were part of the program.

Now they measure that sort of devotion in weeks.
 
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#19
#19
RDU VOL#14 said:
So is the same as when he didn’t want to be here? Or when he left FAU ? When he was growing up did he dream of coaching at FAU?
#GoOwls
View attachment 570367View attachment 570368
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I thought that hand gesture was racist and strictly verboten

A coach who has left multiple jobs mid-contract for a higher paying job is calling out players transferring to what they believe are better opportunities?
 
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#21
#21
I think Kiffin is playing this brilliantly. He know's Ole Miss will eventually be Ole Miss, regardless of the coach. Cutcliffe did OK there, but he was "placed" there by the Mannings. He is setting the narrative for, at the end of the season when he bolts, the message to the alumni is: Told ya so. He'll blame NIL for the reason why he left and it'll have nothing to do with the fact that he'll only win 6 games at best. His message is: "It's not me, it's you (Ole Miss faithful)... You didn't "pony up" enough NIL money, so now I'm off to ________ fill in the blank with one of the schools whose coach is on the hot seat. I'm no Jean Dixon, but my guess is Joey Bongwater is in his last season at Ole Miss.

edit: One more piece of supporting evidence. He was vocal at SEC media days about lack of NIL money at Ole Miss. Now think about it. Is that really the theme you want "on the street". Let's say I'm a 4 star recruit and maybe Ole Miss is on my radar. Then you got the coach b*tching about the inability to "pay players". Isn't that a great way to push good players the other direction? If I was about to sign with Ole Miss and heard this "coach speak", I'd consider somewhere else (Hey, Vandy has money!!)

Yes it was a message to the boosters, but that trickles down to the players as well. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, and he's got a "save face" excuse at the end of the season when he bolts.
 
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#24
#24
dobre_shunka said:
I thought that hand gesture was racist and strictly verboten

A coach who has left multiple jobs mid-contract for a higher paying job is calling out players transferring to what they believe are better opportunities?
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Exactly. Of all people to be complaining about this.
 
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