Today marks a new era in Tennessee football. Fourteen months after the last one started. The ride was bumpy, the climb was steep, and instead of halting slowly back at the station, our roller coaster ended abruptly and flew off the tracks.
The anguish and heart ache across our Volunteer Nation runs deep today. Not because we lost a coach, not because Lane Kiffin quit, but because the majority of fans stood behind the loudmouthed, cocky, rule bending coach that hung us out to dry. I feel betrayed. I had many friends who would give me hell for how our coached acted, every time I stuck up for him, for our program. And he leaves after fourteen months, three weeks before national signing day, and after he ran off scores of players prior to last season.
There was talk that Lane wouldn’t fit in with the southern culture. That he was too familiar to the west coast vibe. Everyone who said this, sure got that right. Southern hospitality obviously is not part of Kiffin’s repertoire as a coach. Not giving eye contact, fidgeting, and being jittery in front of the camera is however. A magician of the spoken word, able to recruit anyone and anything into believing him. Proof being his wife Layla. If there ever was a man who out kicked his coverage with a woman, Lane is it. If he can talk her into marrying him, imagine what stories of grandeur he told Mike Hamilton when he interviewed. All of the press conferences, the coach talk about how Tennessee has great tradition, all a lie from his mouth. If we had such great traditions that he cared about, if he truly cared about Tennessee, how then after fourteen months does he leave for USC?
To go back and look, hindsight is always 20/20. Think about all the remarks Kiffin made about how UT will be the USC of the South? The traditions, the chants, the curse-ridden music at practice, all instated by Kiffin, all of which were not unique to Kiffin, but to that of the USC Trojans. The writing was there, the idea that Tennessee was #1 in his mind was not at all, but that UT was second rate to that of USC. If our traditions were not good enough, if our storied program not good enough, why take the job, Lane? Because Tennessee was nothing but a stepping stone to the biggest job he wanted, his coveted USC job. The Cadillac of scooter’s which is the Pac-10. The competition is too steep in the SEC, the ability to win championships, is more difficult. But all is not lost, because he has words, words that are not backed up by actions. Not one definitive win while he was here at Tennessee. Lost to Florida, lost to Alabama, lost the bowl game, but hey, he beat Kentucky in overtime!
The stories of Monte Kiffin constantly watching film, constantly around football his life. I think it’s finally caught up with him, and shown that maybe he should have spent a little more time with his family, and spent more time being a father to Lane. Because he obviously raised a brat. His son has no moral fortitude, Lane jumps at the quickest opportunity, and does not honor his word. His son did not honor his word to his employer, his recruits, his players that bought into this system. He leaves them all high and dry, and asking the question “Why?” A good man does not do what Lane Kiffin did to Tennessee, but especially to the players. The players are his family, he should be like a second father to them, yet all he did was sell them out, and use them to advance his career. Oddly enough, Al Davis might not be the crazy, senile old fart we all thought he was.
The problem with college football today is that honor and integrity are far and few between. The dollar is king, and the “what’s in it for me?” mantra is what rules the world. The idea that you are bound by honor, that there is some figment of moral fortitude has eluded most facets of the college football world, and the real victim’s are the players who truly want to be student athletes. To them, Kiffin owes an apology.