Interesting article on Kiffin

[EricBlackerby]

Rick Reilly: Is USC head football coach Lane Kiffin really as bad as everyone thinks he is? - ESPN

What do yall think?

 

[Clubfitter]

Rick Reilly: Is USC head football coach Lane Kiffin really as bad as everyone thinks he is? - ESPN

What do yall think?

Rick Reilly is trying to put lipstick on a pig.

 

[EricBlackerby]

Rick Reilly is trying to put lipstick on a pig.

:biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2:

 

[KrAzY3]

I notice they addressed a few things, but not really his coaching ability (or lack thereof).

12-21 as a head coach is not a very impressive resume. I will enjoy watching him fail miserably at USC. They have a ton of talent but that can't last and I assume that there are going to be a lot of teams that will just love to crush USC/Kiffin.

 

[GreatDanish]

I actually enjoy Reilly's writing sometimes. But, there's no question that he came up with the premise first ("Hey, everyone's bashing Kiffin. I'm going to support him!"), then made up his arguments... He conveniently left out:
1. He falsely accused Florida of illegally recruiting a Tennessee commitment.
2. He (well, Dillon Baxter, but come on) falsely accused Florida, Alabama, Oregon, Washington, and Fresno State of breaking the rules.

I mean, those are two biggies when Reilly's basically saying, "He's not that different than you or me!" I didn't read the article very thoroughly, but I didn't see those items referenced...

 

[bayoutider]

I don't know. USC has a new no-bull president (Max Nikias), who didn't hire him, and a new no-bull AD (Pat Haden), who didn't hire him. And they both want to keep the NCAA as far from campus as possible.

Ah the vote of confidence usually comes just before the vote to kick you out.

 

[CaliforniaTide]

I actually enjoy Reilly's writing sometimes. But, there's no question that he came up with the premise first ("Hey, everyone's bashing Kiffin. I'm going to support him!"), then made up his arguments... He conveniently left out:
1. He falsely accused Florida of illegally recruiting a Tennessee commitment.
2. He (well, Dillon Baxter, but come on) falsely accused Florida, Alabama, Oregon, Washington, and Fresno State of breaking the rules.

I mean, those are two biggies when Reilly's basically saying, "He's not that different than you or me!" I didn't read the article very thoroughly, but I didn't see those items referenced...

Reilly actually addressed that.

While I understand the the criticism that Kiffin has received (and a lot of it is deserved I think), we don't know what happened with Baxter. I can see Kiffin going that angle, but since he has been at USC, we've basically haven't heard a peep from him at all (when compared to his short stint at UT).

 

[jeremy]

The picture and the first 3 sentences are all that needs to be said.

 

[GulfCoastTider]

Lane Kiffin is a walkin, talkin, coachin' example of the Peter Principle.

 

[TidePhin]

Not a fan of Reilly

 

[AlofBama]

Kiffin tells another wopper in this article. Coach Fisher said today in a newspaper article that he hasn't changed his mind at all about his thoughts on Lane and what he did. It's not about the state of TN, it's about his lack of class and "all about me" attitude in everything he does. He's such a jerk!

 

[IH8Orange]

I think that you might be able fabricate a defense of Kiffin on minutae, but when you add it all up, along with his description an SEC reprimand as a letter "that means nothing", it appears that Kiffin just believes that he is above the law and above consideration for others. Rules are there for others to follow... not for him.

I guess it's possible that he's absolutely lacking in any shred of couth and doesn't purposely run roughshod over everybody else. That would make him a guided missile with a huge Id warhead and a faulty or inoperative Superego guidance system. If this is the case, he must have been protected somehow during his formative years or he would never have survived. Someone would have beaten him into a coma at some point.

 

[Ole Man Dan]

No such thing as an 'Interesting Article' about Kiffin...

Folks at Tennessee took a little while to get over being left at the alter, but now most Vol fans see the light. The last interesting article about Kiffin was when the story broke that Kiffin was sneaking out of town in the dead of night. :biggrin2:

The very adolescent coach Kiffin looks his best, while he's boarding a bus
to leave town.

 

[HITIDE]

I also would like to see Kiffin lose every game at USC but it won't be all bad if he turns out to be a good HC.........the vile fans will continue to wonder "what if" he had stayed in the moonshine state and led them to glory.

The viles backed every childish and underhanded thing he did while he was utk HC, just like they backed Fulmer's lies and corruption. It didn't bother me the way the kitten sneaked out in the middle of the night.

 

[Black Warrior]

While I've been into the Kiffen saga for entertainment value and general comic relief, and yes, some "justice served" kind of payback to that clown. But I'm worn out from it, tired of it and pretty much done with it. The way things stand with him and the USC debacle, it seems that some natural course of things is being served in a karmic sort of way, and it's moving along nicely without any help, input, or interference from me.
That being said, I think I'm not gonna give much more time or thought to it and enjoy the heck out of our upcoming season and put Kiffen and his riffin' on the back burner......... Lane who? WhoSC?

 

[Redwood Forrest]

Anyone who would try to defend the antics of Kiffy is lacking in ethics, morals and common sense. I mean, really, how do you defend a multi-repeat offender? Grasp at straws? Make up excuses?

 

[graydogg85]

I notice they addressed a few things, but not really his coaching ability (or lack thereof).

12-21 as a head coach is not a very impressive resume. I will enjoy watching him fail miserably at USC. They have a ton of talent but that can't last and I assume that there are going to be a lot of teams that will just love to crush USC/Kiffin.

This.

For all the ludicrous attention and publicity Kiffin receives (both positive and negative), there has been scarce mention of this. In my opinion, he's showcased very little in the way of actual tangible coaching ability thus far in his career. Basically, he recruited a couple of high-profile players at USC and co-managed the offense for a couple of years with Steve Sarkisian (who I think was decidedly the better-equipped and more influential half of that equation). I don't understand the hype he received that snowballed into him landing head coaching gigs with Oakland, Tennessee and now Southern Cal. He was more or less a glorified quarterbacks coach with less than a decade of experiencein the coaching profession when he landed that NFL head coaching gig. I think his last name has a lot to do with it, obviously, but it still baffles me.

I don't think he's a very good coach from a schematic and tactical standpoint. His offense is a dated, conservative pro-set scheme similar to the one Mike Shula utilized here, and he calls it in a very similar manner. The Vols underachieved last year relative to the talent available.

 

[CapitalTider]

The article does seem like it's a PR job for Kiffin, the writier starting with the premise that Kiffin isn't so bad then making arguments to support it.

I have a few complaints with the article:

The lawsuit is phonier than Tori Spelling, of course. Pola, who played at USC and has a son who's going to walk on there, was the only one legally obligated to ask permission, not Kiffin.

I don't really like the characterization of the lawsuit as phony. Sure he's right that Pola is the one who had a legal obligation to notify the Titans and Fisher. However, tortious interference with contractual obligations is a real legal cause of action and there are facts to support an argument that that is what Kiffin did. It that suit common, especially in employment contracts? Probably not, but it's not a phony suit.

And don't forget, Kiffin knew USC was about to be hit with some whopper sanctions by the NCAA over the Reggie Bush case, sanctions he had no hand in creating. He came anyway. And now that the sanctions are twice as bad as he thought they'd be, is he leaving? Is he complaining?

Again, this is the best possible spin to put on the situation. What about Kiffin telling so many recruits that the sanctions wouldn't be that bad? Was he lying to them or did he really believe that? The first is obviously a problem, but the second kind of dismisses the first part of the quote. Also, it's unknown whether Kiffin had NO part in creating the sanctions. He worked there during the period in question, but the NCAA did not name him in the case.

Finally, another article had Kiffin complaining that everything he did was scrutinized and got a lot of attention from the media. Gee, isn't that what he wanted? He said as much at UT. Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't really put it back. He seems like all of the Hollywood types to me, they crave the attention and want it when it's useful to them, but then want to cry about all of the attention when it doesn't suit their purposes.

 

[Lost in TN]

:biga:I think that the main reason I hate Kiffen is that while he was at TN it was easy to hate. Phat Phil and then Kitten. But I like Dooley. I think that the current Vol coach is a good man and a good coach who will clean up a vey bad mess and do it the right way.

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit....

Viles--Please fire Dooley and bring in Tuberville. Make the world right again.:biga: