.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
With an aggregate record of 12-21 as head coach of the Oakland Raiders and the Tennessee Volunteers, one wonders how 34-year-old Lane Kiffin ever acquired his reputation as a wunderkind.
But after attending his inaugural press conference at USC’s Heritage Hall on Wednesday evening, I can tell you exactly what it is: a capacity for denial and spin that borders on genius.
Less than 24 hours before, word of Kiffin’s hasty departure from Knoxville had caused undergrads to carry on like inmates -- congregating as an angry mob and burning things, namely, T-shirts and mattresses. But when asked about it, Kiffin chose to interpret the near-riot as a token of his good works:
“I really thought to myself, ‘You know what? They’re upset that we’re leaving because of what we’ve been doing.’ If they weren’t upset that we were leaving, then we weren’t doing anything right. …We had done so much in such little time, they saw where it was going.”
Good thing the Volunteers didn’t upset Alabama. The entire campus would’ve been reduced to cinders.
For the record, Kiffin spent just over a year in Knoxville, a period that saw him rack up a total of seven wins, six losses and another half-dozen of what the NCAA terms “secondary violations.”
“It was not a large amount of violations,” he said. “It was not out of whack with other teams in the conference.”
Besides, as Kiffin adds, “In 14 months, we had one arrest incident.” He means only one, and like most things that occurred on his watch at Tennessee, he’s quite proud of it.
Kiffin came off as a lightweight. He has a degree in Leisure Service Management from Fresno State, and he wears his collars a half-size too big. Still, I can’t blame the guy. USC is his dream job, for sure, and it probably wasn’t coming around again. He didn’t break a contract. If the old college try now lasts a total of 14 months, so be it. College football has the guy it deserves. Besides, I actually think Kiffin will be fine.
He has, as some have noted, a smoking hot wife. I say that out of respect and admiration. But I also figure that if he convinced her to marry him, he can convince high school seniors to matriculate at USC. Again, his skill in portraying events in only the most outrageously optimistic light will serve him very well.
I’m not sure the same can be said for his boss, athletic director Mike Garrett. These are not good times for Garrett’s department. He has voluntarily punished the men’s basketball team, depriving them of any postseason. But his real problem is football, with allegations going back to the middle of the decade when Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart were winning Heismans. From all appearances, the NCAA is considering charging USC with the dreaded sanctions warranted by a loss of "institutional control.”
So what does Garrett do? He hires Kiffin, who comes as a package with Ed Orgeron, reuniting the offensive and recruiting coordinators from the Bush-Leinart glory years.
Regarding the investigation, Kiffin said: “I feel very confident that it will not affect us in recruiting. It will get resolved and we will move forward. ”
What did he base that on? “Conversations I’ve had with people here,” he said.
Still, I had to ask, what he would tell the recruits?
“We just give them all the accurate information we have.”
The accuracy of the information depends on who’s spinning it, of course. Kiffin was asked if reports about Orgeron contacting prospects he had recruited for Tennessee were true.
“The information I have is that that isn’t accurate,” said the precocious coach, adding that he had yet to speak with Orgeron -- this despite the fact that they had flown in together for the press conference.
On his way to the airport, Kiffin promised Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton that he would not recruit players he had already recruited for the Vols. “Unless they decide they don’t want to go there and they call us,” he said.
Once you heard the word “unless,” you knew the charges had some merit. Could he say that none of those recruits had been called?
“I’m not going to make a statement that every one of the coaches on our staff has not contacted anyone because I wouldn’t know that right now.”
Calling recruits to switch universities before they enroll might not be an NCAA matter. But it’s an ethical one. Then again, in big-time college football, the only ethic is winning.
For the record, Orgeron -- already among the highest paid assistants in America -- admitted contacting a bunch of high school seniors he had signed for Tennessee. “I did call recruits to give them suggestions,” he said, but only on behalf of their concerned parents.
“Families call me with questions,” he said. “I have answers. I always try to guide them in the right direction. I inform them. I give them the information I believe is correct.”
No wonder they were burning things in Knoxville.
