In this segment, who starts at quarterback?
Q: Scott, in all seriousness, when are you going to get over your vendetta against Kiffin? What is the root of it? That he continues to ignore you? That he makes more $$$ than you? Jealous of his personal life? What is it? Does not make sense. Your overall reporting loses all impact over this nonsense.
A: If a coach making more money than me caused me to resent them, I would have had a horrible relationship with Pete Carroll. I don’t feel like I have a vendetta though I respect your opinion.
My job naturally requires me to be skeptical of a coach and unfortunately for Lane Kiffin, he has done a lot of things that require skepticism. Should I have taken him at face value when he lied about his coaches poll vote? Actually, I did report his comments as fact but USA Today later revealed he was not honest.
More importantly, what about the daily comments he made leading up to the Sun Bowl that Matt Barkley might play. It was abundantly clear that Barkley was never going to play in the Sun Bowl. He never even practiced.
Does this make Lane Kiffin a bad person? No. Does it mean the media has to question the validity of what he says? Absolutely.
If this comes across as a vendetta, that is unfortunate. But it more a result of Kiffin’s behavior than mine.
Q: gotroy22 asks:
Scott, now that a few years have passed and you have perspective, what was the most shocking thing you covered during the Pete Carroll era?
A: Hmmm. I need to really think about it. Maybe when he had LenDale White fake jumping off a building during practice. I can still remember a couple players reacting very emotionally when they thought White had jumped.
Q: B.Miller asks:
How are the injuries looking? Can we get any information regarding injuries?
A: As I said today, Marqise Lee might be held out of training camp to get him healthy for the Hawaii game. Silas Redd seems close to coming back full speed. Su’a Cravens looks 100 percent. Ty Isaac and Justin Davis look like they minor injuries. I’m not sure the extent of Jordan Simmons’ injury.
One player I’m concerned about is D.J. Morgan. He said he is 100 percent but has not really been getting carries in practices and did not play in the scrimmage.
Q: BallHog asks:
Who do you think starts at QB?
A: This is a tough question. Cody Kessler and Max Wittek are really fairly close in practices. There seems to be a conventional wisdom in the media that Lane Kiffin would like to start Wittek. I think Kessler is smoother and probably makes less risky passes. Part of that is because Wittek has a stronger arm and can make more difficult throws.
So that is the dilemma. I think Kessler is a Cade McNown-type, which means he might not be tall but he can make the plays you need to move the offense. Wittek has home-run potential. I actually think in the coaches’ eyes, Kessler has a slight edge at the moment.
Hey, at least it was just a fake player falling off a building, and not a real kid falling off a scissor-lift in high winds.
Scottie: why not poll the readers of this blog to get their opinion on whether you have a vendetta again Coach Kiffin or whether you are just reporting the news?
Maybe a better question for the readers should be, what has Kiffin done that is so praiseworthy?
Scott, thank you for answering my question. However, it does come across as a vendetta and here’s why: I honestly don’t remember anything you’ve written that is positive about Kiff. Even in your answer above, it’s petty. Do you really think a coach is going to tip off the opponents that his QB is OUT of the game weeks before? Come on, even you know the answer to that. Sure, Kiff misled a lot of people on his voting. I’ll give you that. But even you know that Pete “put up with your b.s. and that’s because of his personality. My bet is he feels the same way Kiff does, but is more of a politician than Kiff. You’d be taken more seriously if you reported both sides of the street.
After you cut through all the posturing in his answer the vendetta is still clear and present