The Trailblazer Times

Issue date: 1/27/10 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Submitted photo

One year. One year to win a national championship? Is this what Lane Kiffin had in mind? Most likely not. No one has ever won a BCS National Championship during their first year as a head coach.

After spending much of the summer trash talking SEC opponents, including Urban Myer, head coach of the defending national champion Florida Gators, Kiffin promised the players, alumni, fans, and the world, that Tennessee football was back and on the rise to glory. One year.

The Vols were treated to one year of Kiffin and his coaching, a year in which they went a sub-par 7-6 and 4-4 in SEC play.

At the end of the season it was rumored (as it is every year) that USC head coach Pete Carroll would leave the college ranks and go to the NFL. This year, however was different. Carroll DID leave USC for the NFL and became head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. One year.

Kiffin lead a talented Tennessee football team to a record that was one game over .500. As soon as the USC job opened up, Kiffin left.

Now granted, Kiffin was the USC wide receivers coach in 2004 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005 and helped coach the likes of Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, and LenDale White.

But with so much talent on one team, how do you lose? (See Vince Young).

In 2007, Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, hired Kiffin to be the head coach of the struggling Raiders. After one full year in the NFL (and proving nothing as a head coach by going 4-12) and starting the following season 1-3, Kiffin was fired by the Raiders. Kiffin spent much of the next two months whining and crying on national television about how he was treated unfairly (again see record of 5-15), and was hired by the Tennessee Vols in the fall of 2008.

Again with nothing to brag about from a coaching point of view, Kiffin wasted no time in heckling SEC coaches and even going as far as accusing Urban Myer of cheating and violating NCAA recruiting rules. One year to turn around the Vols program; one year was all he needed.

Well, one year later with a record of 12-21 as a head coach, the dominant USC Trojans called (and still has sports fans wondering why) and Kiffin answered.

Days after announcing that he was leaving UT, Kiffin totaled his car. Well, the car that the University of Tennessee had given him on lease. Days after signing his USC contract, Kiffin was put on watch by the NCAA for committing his 10th recruiting violation, by picking up a recruit in a limo.

Best of luck USC Trojans, best of luck with an unproven coach who can't seem to win, who can't drive, and can't read the NCAA rule book.

The rest of the country wishes you the best of luck on the upcoming season…you'll need it.

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