Welcome to the Pac-10, Lane Kiffin

He has to be cocky and arrogant about his decision, though. What'd you expect, for him to express doubt and uncertainty?

I think he can be confident in the package deal that came with Kiffin. If it was only Kiffin, I doubt he'd have pulled the trigger.

 

I remember the last time a guy people weren't sure about ended up getting the nod because the people he was bringing with him were solid, experienced and respected. Didn't turn out so well.

 

Hopefully Garrett did his due diligence. On the surface, he's getting a coach who appears to be all hat, no cattle, as they might say in Texas.

I'm not a USC fan, so personally, I'll be rooting for Kiffin to fall on his smarmy, arrogant ass. It'd be a shame for him to take a legend like Garrett down with him, though.

 

Not sure it's the "best" hire they could hope for, but I agree with your take on Cutcliffe. Don't know about last year or the year before, but Duke was damn competitive this year. Gave a lot of teams fits. I think he's a pretty good hire.

 

This nugget ought to make for some interesting family reunion chatter.

http://blog.al.com/kevin-scarbinsky/2010/01/scarbinsky_lance_thompson_took.html

 

THIS Vol fan [FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm A VOL FANBOY, AS IF YOU COULDN'T TELL BY MY HANDLE hi zags!] throws up in his mouth at the thought of Coach Cut for one simple reason: He's a Fulmerite. Oh, and he has no NFL experience. And he's known as a lazy recruiter.

UT needs 1. a guy with NFL experience and 1b. a guy who can recruit.

At this point, I'm hoping it's Lovie Smith (who is a former Vol coach), although the rumors of a Tony Dungy deal in the works would be fantastic.

 

I'm not a Vols fan but I can answer this - because it is a safe, nice, neat choice and he'd do a reasonably good job.

The problem is a nice, neat job in a division with Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, Mark Richt and a league that also includes Nick Saban, a nice, neat job isn't good enough.

Say what you want about Kiffin but let's face it, his upside is very high whereas Cutcliffe, I'm not so sure. I think Tennessee would be a nine or ten win team under him most years but that's not what Vols fans are looking for.

They want a guy who will compete for national titles and SEC titles annually and that means a guy who will recruit his ass off for big-time players needed to do that.

And I don't think they "hate" the idea, I think they see it more as settling for a hamburger, which certainly is tasty and gets the job done, instead of going after the prime rib.

 

This is a friggin nightmare.

 

What's the hangup with NFL experience?
It didn't work out too well for Charlie Weis, the second tenure of John Robinson at USC and Mike Shula at Alabama to name a few ...

 

That to me is a blessing because he was the fallback, safe choice, like I said and frankly they reached out to him to get the process done.

And Tennessee, as much as I rag on some of the fanboys around here, is one of the best jobs in the country and they should be able to hire a top-notch coach.

But they have to be willing to take their time and get the right guy and stop worrying so much about signing day being some sort of arbitrary deadline.

They have a lot to offer, they just need to be patient and make sure they give it to the right guy.

 

I'm not saying it's a nightmare because Cutcliffe pulled out. I was lukewarm on him at best.
I'm saying it's a nightmare because nobody seems to want it.