I was at trivia tonight, getting my brains beaten in because one of the categories was vague-as-it-sounds "classic cars" when I noticed the TV showing some breaking news.
Lane Kiffin will succeed Pete Carroll at USC.
Wow. That's a surprise. Kiffin had only been at Tennessee for a year, and I figured that with all of the posturing and trash-talking that he'd done in his short time in Knoxville, he'd be around for the long haul.
Apparently not.
In just about every sense, this move works for the Trojans. Mike Garrett, USC's AD, has come out smelling like a rose despite the fact that he's fumbled the twin NCAA investigations on his campus right now. Kiffin brings a sense of familiarity and comfort to the USC program. Though he hasn't been on campus since 2006, he knows what it takes to win at USC and was a good coordinator for Carroll until he departed to become head coach of the Oakland Raiders. The transition should be a seamless one for USC.
Though it's true that we're not entirely sure how good of a coach Kiffin is due to the small sample size with which we've been provided, I'm impressed with the staff he's putting together. Norm Chow, the revered offensive whiz, is leaving crosstown rival UCLA to come back to USC, where he coached from 2001-2004; Monte Kiffin, Lane's dad, is a highly-respected defensive mind and will follow his son to L.A.; Ed Orgeron, a valuable assistant who is noted for his terrific recruiting abilities, will also go with Kiffin to USC. Considering that offense, defense, and recruiting are the big three components of any college team, Lane has done a great job of filling those needs. The position coaches will be named later, but with the leadership of the aforementioned guys, the Trojans should keep on rolling.
Where does Tennessee go from here? I have no idea, but I think it's funny that Lane Kiffin treated them like a mid-major school. After the Volunteers unceremoniously dumped one of the most winningest coach in their program's history, Phillip Fulmer, they thought they had a young guy that would lead them to the promised land again and again in Kiffin. Instead, he dumps them for a hotter girl in a different part of town and leaves them heartbroken and confused. I hate to say what goes around comes around, but it's kinda funny. I would be laughing harder, but I see the same thing happening to my beloved Seminoles in the near future...but I hope I'm wrong. If I'm the Vols, I just repeat what I did when I fired Fulmer: find the best coach available. Forget about looking in the Tennessee family, forget about trying to get creative; just find the best coach. My first call would be to Kevin Sumlin, the current head coach at Houston. He's shown the ability to put productive offenses on the field, and was a valued commodity at offensive coordinator at Oklahoma prior to that. He knows what to do with expectations and would be a good fit for the program. The ball is in your court, Vols.
Lane Kiffin will be a good fit at USC; mark it down. The only question is, can he win at the level Pete Carroll did? Considering few coaches have won at Carroll's rate in the history of college football, I'm skeptical; but given the hand they were dealt, the Trojans did about as well as could be expected with their hire.
Can Tennessee do the same?
~~ Lank
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