Welcome to the SEC, Lane Kiffin

Are you sure about this? He hired O for more money than LSU would have paid him, and for more money than LSU is paying any assistant. If you count head coaches' salaries, then maybe LSU has a higher football coach payroll, but it's my understanding Tennessee is paying its new assistants more than any of LSU's assistants.

 

I'm talking about cost of the entire staff, including the head coach, which in my opinion is the bottom line. Tennessee gets both Kiffins and Orgeron for just a little bit more than the cost of Urban Meyer, Nick Saban or Les Miles ... around $300,000 more, I think.

But LSU's assistants aren't cheap, either. Miles hired Chavis, Tennessee's former defensive coordinator, and paid him about $200,000 more than he made at Tennessee. Saban pays his guys really well, too. He offered Lance Thompson more money to stay in Tuscaloosa, but Thompson still left.

I heard Orgeron could have made at least as much money at LSU, and maybe a little more, but he wanted to work for Monte Kiffin. He thought that would make him a more attractive candidate for a future head coaching position. I can't see why any big school would ever give him a head coaching job, but someone in Louisiana told me those were his motives.

 

Work and learn under Tampa 2 Monte or simply work (and chafe) under Chief Chavis? Boy, that's a tough call.

Being a line coach under Chafe-us isn't the worst thing in the world, but being a secondary coach who instructs his troops to play ten yards off the ball in a 3rd and 5 situation isn't exactly the fastest way to going up a rung on the coaching ladder.

If I were Kiff, if he really wanted to play to the fan base, next time UT plays the corndoggers of Red Stick, I'd throw a quick out every time it was "3rd and Chavis," just as a cathartic fuck you for all the fans who suffered under Chavis' watch (even though his D kept us in/saved a ton of wins for Phildo).

 

Isn't Doyel a Florida graduate?

 

Maybe his mother was a big Nu'Keese on the Block fan.

 

Finebaum also sharpens his knives...

http://www.al.com/sports/press-register/pfinebaum.ssf?/base/sports/1234260911102670.xml&coll=3

 

And Kiffin does it again:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The University of Tennessee is reporting a third secondary recruiting violation involving new football coach Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin, in a radio interview Friday morning, mentioned recruit Bryce Brown by name and called him "a great player."

According to The Knoxville News Sentinel, NCAA rules prohibit a coach from making such comments before the prospect has signed a letter of intent.

Earlier this week, the school reported violations for a mock news conference held by nine prospects during an official visit to the university, and for using a fog machine as a recruit entered the field at Neyland Stadium.

Additionally, Kiffin was reprimanded last week by Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive for falsely accusing Florida's Urban Meyer of a recruiting violation.


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/2009-02-13-tennessee-recruiting-violation_N.htm

 

Off topic: But why would the AP writer need to credit the Knoxville News Sentinel in this graf?

It's an NCAA rule. It's a fact. It's easily verifiable independently.

 

Here's a simple question. What the hell is going on at Tennessee? Wasn't Kiffin USC's big recruiter? How can he be so ignorant of the rules? I imagine folks in SEC land are mailing copies to Rocky Top on a daily basis.

 

Excellent point, Dan. Really, how can he not know the rules? I'm guessing he was doing this stuff there, too, but just wasn't under the same scrutiny.