Quick Read
Don't expect to find this Gregg Doyel column on Pete Carroll's twitter feed.
``Rural Kiffin has no status, no standing, no résumé. He was born sucking on Daddy's silver spoon, the son of longtime NFL assistant Monte Kiffin using his DNA to get a job with Pete Carroll at Southern California. Rural Kiffin then tapped into the charisma of Carroll and the tradition of USC and the glamour of Los Angeles, and used all of that to become known, by knuckleheads, as a recruiting whiz. Sure he is. You, too, could be a recruiting whiz for Pete Carroll at USC. So could I.''
So what? Bush-Bush Ryan-Ryan Tyler-Tyler Kennedy-Kennedy. Big deal. We'd all love to have that problem.
It seems that with Kiffin's recruiting violations, err, I mean methods, he learned well from Pete Carroll. But he must have missed that class on "Not Getting Caught 101"
Isn't it ironic? During the dark years of hackett, Tollner, etc., the 'football experts' consistently opined that SC could never again be a great power because LA is a ghetto, the Coliseum is an old, crumbling shambles, SC's academic status soared, etc. etc. It only took one great coach to make the 'experts' now declare that, 'well, gee, anyone can recruit and coach at SC with the advantages of LA's perfect weather, the historic Coliseum,a truly great institution and a toothless rival across town to pound on every year. Life is good in Troyland. May it last forver. Please, please let New Weasel stick around. He'll soon as his alma mater to his list of road kill schools, Colorado and Washington.
Cannot charge the writer for perjury.
Kiffin is a snot nosed punk, period. Kiffin will become another dead branch on the Pete Carroll coaching tree.
Hey,
I'm not a big of Lane. He is reason number 1 and 1A why didn't win championships in 2005 (4th and 2) and 2006 (13-9).
Still, that is the worst kind of sports writing, the Plaschke-Mariotti hit piece. Fearless predictions that hold no consequences other than to set itself up for the follow up. (He sucks: I told you so! He's awesome: Look at how he grew!)
Weak.
Between George Vescey demanding that international swimming punish Michael Phelps for taking a bong hit (b/c pot might be bad for you, as if alcohol never killed a soul), this is another reason why sports columnists are considered the dumb-ass, inbred hillbilly cousins of journalism.
Kiffin used a smoke machine and a simulated press conference in his recruiting efforts. Apparently, these horrendous acts of cheating unfairly swayed the impressionable recruits who would have gone elsewhere if not for these devious tricks. Thank god the NCAA has rules against such treachery or else Tennessee might have signed the entire ESPN 150. How can schools like UCLA compete against such a recruiting juggernaut?
Hey, what's with this empty auditorium? Oh right, it's filled with the people who care about this topic...
Cato? Good to see you back on the stump amigo, although it is the BCS that should be destroyed.
"Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." Caesar
I have this theory about coaching that comes from my reading of Taleb's "The Black Swan". It goes like this. A new coach is basically a few coin flips with a potentially unfair coin. If he hits heads three times in a row, he has the big Mo and keeps flipping heads. If he hits tails three times in a row, he is a loser, and will keep flipping tails. Pete Carroll had the extraordinary luck to be able to reset his coin midway through his first season. Most coaches, though, flip some heads and tails and end up being mediocre or serviceable. Recruiting is what keeps the heads (or tails) rolling for those holding the unfair coins. It's what keeps the coins unfair. But you can't use recruiting prowess with a crappy win/loss record to change a regular coin into a winner. Ponder that.
It doesn't mean Kiffin is a bad guy or that he will fail miserably. If he has a decent first season, he could parlay that into holding a good coin. If he has a terrible season, he probably doesn't recover. If he has a mediocre season (7-6 ish), he might be a serviceable coach for a long time.
I think that is the general opinion of Kiffin everywhere. The glaring thing is that no one told the folks at Tennessee. It was ridiculous enough that Al Davis plucked a green college coordinator to be a pro head coach...but Al is not playing with a full deck. But Tennesee should have no excuses. And, for what it's worth, Washington is learning the same lesson with Sarkisian...who has already fessed to some recruiting violations.
Greggy Doyel is a moronic douche. Kiff PULLED A TOP 15 recruiting class after being on the job for only 90 days. He has assembled a very strong staff with deep SEC recruiting ties. He is taking it to the powers of the SEC, and the Vols fan base has never been this jacked. Sure, the proof will be in the pudding of his team's performance over the next few years, but let's be clear....Kiff is off to a STRONG START!
Doyel is a Florida alum.