It was Athanasius who was exiled five times by various Roman emperors before he became a saint. He was even known as Athanasius Contra Mundum, which is Latin for “Athanasius Against The World”.  The following is a brief history of Lane Kiffin.

Lane Kiffin had been fired by Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis in 2008.  Kiffin’s Raiders tenure had been an unmitigated disaster, just like those of his immediate predecessors and successors.  It was a dark time to be a Raider.  The drafting of players like JaMarcus Russell had handicapped the franchise in the short-term and severely downgraded their chances in the long-term.  Neither Vince Lombardi nor Bill Walsh could have injected the amount of personnel management and strategic know-how requisite for success as a modern NFL coach.  Kiffin had youth and inordinate talent on his side- he would be valued by someone.

Tennessee was a program starving for a winner.  The Vols, a once mighty program steeped in tradition only matched in the former confederacy by Alabama, hadn’t won an SEC title since 1999- a year before Y2K.  Phillip Fulmer had ran the once-proud program into the Shields-Watkins Field turf and his career strength, recruiting, had taken a turn for the worse.  The loyal fans were desirous of someone fresh and exciting.  They wanted to trade their pixie dust and phrases like “Workin’ like Heck”  in for Lil’ Wayne references and Steve Spurrier-esque incendiary rhetoric.  Tennessee wanted to enter their version of The Attitude Era.

The Kiffin era started out with a bang on Rocky Top, as one of the most impressive recruiting periods in the history of college football happened under Lane’s watch.  Tennessee, which hadn’t been relevant on the national stage since that fateful December night in New Orleans in 2001, was an afterthought to elite recruits.  Kiffin and his aide-de-camp, recruiting extraordinaire Ed Orgeron, changed all that.  Elite four and five star recruits began trickling onto the Tennessee commitment list.  Darren Myles of Atlanta.  Nu’Keese Richardson of Pahokee.  Janzen Jackson of Lake Charles.  Mike Edwards of Cleveland.  The best, however, had yet to come.  The consensus number 1-ranked player in the country, Bryce Brown, of Wichita, Kansas,  committed to Tennessee after a brief courting period.  It was an absolute coup for Kiffin.  Shock waves were sent across the entire Southland.  It seemed everything was going well on Rocky Top.  The Vols were back.

Although Kiffin had recruited remarkably well in the two months prior to National Signing Day, the Tennessee roster had been left in relative shambles after years of subpar recruiting under the Fulmer regime.  Losses to UCLA, Florida, and Auburn had the Vols record sitting at 2-3 heading into their October 10th matchup with a fierce rival: the Georgia Bulldogs.  Kiffin had remarked that his staff would never lose to Georgia; that state’s fertile recruiting grounds were far too important.  The Bulldogs didn’t only lose that game at Neyland Stadium- they were pounded into submission.  Tennessee’s fans were singing Rocky Top all night long after the 45-19 thumping Kiffin had handed Mark Richt.  Next up on the schedule were the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide, coached by Nick Saban.  The Vols would march into Bryant-Denny Stadium and put up a valiant effort, only to be defeated 12-10 as Terrance Cody blocked Daniel Lincoln’s last-second field goal attempt.  Alabama won that battle, but the message was clear: Tennessee was yet again going to make the Third Saturday In October a war.  The Vols would wind up improving their record from 2008 to 5-7 to 7-6, with further losses to Ole Miss and Virginia Tech in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl.  Recruiting had gone extremely well throughout the course of the season.  Tennessee was the most bandied about program in America.  Lil’ Wayne mentioned Kiffin in a rap song.  Urban Meyer had the power T in the Florida locker room.  David Reaves was sending beautiful women to far-flung Southern towns to recruit the best of the best.  It worked.  Kiffin would end up enrolling or doing the ground work for several important contributors of the Dooley Era, namely, JaWuan James, Da’Rick Rogers, Zach Fulton, Tyler Bray, Michael Palardy, amongst others.  Tennessee fans were later to be devastated on a cold January night.  Mattresses were burned.  Opprobrious appellations were hurled.  Underneath the visceral reactions to the pain felt by Lane’s abrupt departure, Vol Nation knew what they had lost.

I will never forget that impromptu June press conference in which Lane Kiffin addressed the biggest college football story of the decade.  The year was 2010.  Lane Monte Kiffin and his staff of marauding mavens of the football recruiting world had just left Knoxville, Tennessee for what he deemed were greener pastures in the nation’s second-largest metropolis of Los Angeles.  Indeed, Kiffin had accepted the role as head football coach at the University of Southern California, replacing Pete Carroll, who had left for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.  Little did Kiffin know the NCAA was about to festoon upon the mighty Trojan program a set of debilitating sanctions, which included a two-year postseason bowl ban and a limit of 15 scholarships per annum for three seasons.  That would set the stage for the outright sullying of the Kiffin brand.

Southern California was loaded, so the experts said.  Matt Barkley was the latest in the line of Orange County quarterbacks who would become a superstar and lead the Trojans to a national title.  When one digs deeper, one can surmise that wasn’t the case.  This wasn’t the 2003-04 USC team that had bludgeoned Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.  This was the team that Pete Carroll only mustered a 9-4 record with the season before.  They were struggling against Boston College in the Emerald Bowl.  They had suffered massive recruiting misses (Manti Te’o and Vontaze Burfict come to mind) and other issues (Frankie Telfort’s heart condition) with top talents sprung up.  That was the USC Lane Kiffin inherited.  The 2010 season would prove to be average on the field- an 8-5 record sits on Kiffin’s dossier for that year- and a complete disaster off the field, as USC was hammered with sanctions.  In quite the paradox, the next season would prove to be one of Lane’s biggest downfalls.  Indeed, he may have coached too well.  The Trojans won 1o games and beat a top 10 Oregon team on the road at Autzen while under heavy sanctions.  It’s one of the top 10 most impressive things in college football history.  USC would be wildly overrated to start the 2012 season, as the deleterious effects of the sanctions had not been taken into account.  The preseason number 1 team in America would go on to have a record of 7-3 before Matt Barkley was injured in the UCLA game.  The season came to an unceremonious end in the Sun Bowl with a loss to Georgia Tech, which cemented the Trojans at 7-6 and one of the most disappointing teams in history, if the media hype is to be counted. One thing was official: the sanctions had sunken their teeth in and were taking their toll.  The next season would mark the coda of Kiffin’s tenure in LA, as athletic director Pat Haden showed extreme class and grace in firing Lane on the tarmac at LAX.  Members of the college football intelligentsia didn’t expect a talent like Kiffin would last long on the market, however.

Nick Saban had what many consider to be the greatest dynasty in college football history at Alabama.  His defenses were fast and ferocious, but his offenses weren’t comparable to the Oregons or Ohio States of the world.  Being the consummate perfectionist he is, Saban realized he needed to make a change.  Enter Lane Kiffin.  He accepted the job on January 10th, 2014 and got to work tutoring Blake Sims.  Sims would have a sensational season, as he passed for 3,487 yards and 28 touchdowns en route to the Sugar Bowl, where the Tide would lose to Ohio State in a 42-35 shootout.  Kiffin wasn’t finished doing impressive things at Alabama: Indeed, the Tide would be back in the College Football Playoff again with another QB: Jake Coker.  Coker would toss for over 3,000 yards and 21 touchdowns en route to winning the national championship.  2016 would prove to be more of the same for Kiffin: he was the only coach in the country who went undefeated, and he did so with a freshman quarterback.  Jalen Hurts would throw for nearly 2,500 yards and 21 touchdowns.  Kiffin would be sacked before the 2017 national championship after he was hired to lead Florida Atlantic as its head man.

Lane Kiffin has proven he’s great with quarterbacks.  He has proven he can enhance a superpower like Alabama.  He’s proven he can recruit, attract top talent to his staff, and call offenses.  He’s even proven he can win big games and produce big seasons at the highest level.  To borrow from one of Florida Atlantic’s great architects, Howard Schnellenberger, Lane Kiffin is on a collision course with superlative success.  The only variable is time.

So you are saying you think Lane is Groovy!

That is either copy and pasted or New Owl is a journalist.

yawn

illinoisowl said

That is either copy and pasted or New Owl is a journalist.

Posted On: Feb 2nd 2017, 4:09 PM #366763

I'm just a college student in Tennessee whose favorite coach is Lane Kiffin.  He's been my guy since 2009.

I got through about 50 words then looked at replies. Does that make me a bad person ?

New Owl said

I'm just a college student in Tennessee whose favorite coach is Lane Kiffin.  He's been my guy since 2009.

Posted On: Feb 2nd 2017, 4:26 PM #366765

I think it is very well written. If you ever want to do a blog hit me up… 

It was awesome, welcome to the fold new owl!

"Opprobrious appellations were hurled." Is a line I'd never thought I'd hear uttered out of Tennessee! 

teambeer said

It was awesome, welcome to the fold new owl!

"Opprobrious appellations were hurled." Is a line I'd never thought I'd hear uttered out of Tennessee! 

Posted On: Feb 2nd 2017, 9:52 PM #366813

And probably will never hear again!

Ridiculous employment of illustrative language.

ENC 1101 = A+

 

OK. Went back to read it. Heck of a story. Well written and informative. I liked Lane before but like him more now. Any time there is success or failure, there are side stories that often times go unnoticed. I want to watch U Alabama this season to see the NO-Lane effect. Also, if Lane has success this season, some credit can be give to the condition that Charlie left it in. Well written Enjoyed it.