So that's what that nasty odor was that had been in Knoxville for the past 14 months. This whole time I thought it was all the players that couldn't stay out of trouble, but I was completely wrong. It was Lane Kiffin.
This is another clear example that college football is sadly not about the athletes anymore. It's about how much money a school is willing to pay their coach. The coach's desires comes first, and then the students thereafter. That seems backwards to me.
I'm reminded time and time again about that NCAA commercial that says "Most of us will be going pro in something other than sports". That means that most of these kids are getting their last chance to play their sport before they become a person in the real world. Don't they deserve the best experience they can get?
Instead of getting a good experience, many of these players are getting a good idea of what betrayal tastes like.
What's going to come of the nine verbal commitments who chose Tennessee thanks to Kiffin. Is Kiffin going to bring them with him to Southern California? I doubt it.
Kiffin has a whole new recruiting pool he can dip his hands into once he gets to the west coast. Sadly enough, these nine recruits will probably get lost in the dust and be left with one of two options. Unless they chose Tennessee for a reason other than Kiffin, then they're stuck at a school that they really didn't want to go to. If they do decide to leave they'll be left scrambling for a new school.
What really makes Kiffin look like a snake is how he left. People are saying that Kiffin gave a very brief statement to his players that basically said "USC is my dream job and I couldn't pass it up". It has also been reported that many of the players got hostile and had to be calmed down by the interim head coach.
Not only is he leaving Tennessee without a head coach, but he's also taking his daddy, Monte Kiffin, and the recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron.
Oddly enough, Kiffin is still setting himself up for a lot of scrutiny. He still hasn't proven that he's that great of a coach and now he's inheriting a program that hasn't experienced a losing season since back in the 90's. If USC becomes an average program than Kiffin will easily be to blame, and it's my every hope it happens that way.
I can't blame Tennessee fans for feeling betrayed and I guess they're finding out that the fall from grace is a long way down.
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