Why hiring Lane Kiffin would be a bad idea for Alabama
Lane Kiffin is interviewing for the Alabama’s offensive co-ordinator’s job, according to CBSSports.com.
He was asked to come in and ‘evaluate’ the offense before the Sugar Bowl by ‘Bama head coach Nick Saban, who incidentally shares his agent, Jimmy Sexton.
But would this be a good idea?
Let’s get this clear, if there’s a person more persona non grata in college football than Lane Kiffin, we’d really to know who he is.
Here’s a list of fanbases who loathe him:
1) Tennessee’s fanbase: He preached loyalty, and then left to the University of Southern California after 14 months. The team who signed up for him were shocked and outraged. The fans still are.
2) Florida’s fanbase: During his stay in Tennessee, he accused Florida of recruiting violations, naming a recruit by name. SEC God Mike Slive gave him a vocal reprimand, so he’s probably not liked by Slive either.
3) Alabama’s fanbase: Nick Saban must have a short memory. Because when Kiffin brought linebackers coach Lance Thompson from Alabama, Kiffin basically said that Saban was nothing without Thompson’s recruiting skills. Way to go, Lane.
4) USC fans: Promised championships and the world. And failed to even get into a Pac-12 Championship. He also lied about putting the Trojans as pre-season No.1, which didn’t go down to well with the pollsters. He also violated a number of other NCAA rules, which USC hardly needed bearing in mind the situation that Reggie Bush had put the school in. Kiffin was fired mid-way through the season after Arizona State put 60-odd points on the Trojans….at LAX. And the team, who seemed to HATE playing for him, immediately improved.
5) Penn State fans: During the first year of Penn State’s problems, schools were allowed to try and pick off Penn State players with no NCAA one-year transfer issue. Kiffin didn’t ask about 1 player…..he asked about 25. Including some very junior players and some walk-ons. According to friend of the SEC blog: “O’Brien – infuriated – called Kiffin and said: “I can’t believe you’ve done that! No wonder no-one likes you”, and before Kiffin could try and weasel his way out of the situation, the phone was down.” Kiffin, by the way, only managed to get Silas Redd….who has spent most of his time in California injured.
BOTTOM LINE: If you want someone who’s been in continuous trouble with NCAA for underhanded stuff not only off the field, but on the field, then please, go for Lane Kiffin, Alabama. You haven’t been in trouble with the NCAA in a while, and Lane Kiffin will probably make sure you find trouble again. But the menace of Kiffin isn’t only that. He’s got to be disliked by Mike Slive, who probably doesn’t want him back in the SEC. Multiple fanbases really don’t like him. Not only that, but he’s not loyal. In the least. See what he did to Tennessee for details. Does Alabama, who’s done everything to rebuild its reputation after FulmerGate, really want to go back there?