The Ticket Chest

USC Trojans Hire Lane Kiffin as their New Head Coach

Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | College Football, NFL, Seattle Seahawks, Sports, Tennessee Volunteers, USC Trojans | No Comments

The USC Trojans have hired Lane Kiffin to replace Pete Carroll as the university’s new NCAA college football head coach.  Carroll left USC earlier this week to take the top post with the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL.

Kiffin was a former coach and offensive coordinator under Carroll at USC for 6 years, so the hiring makes sense in that regard.  In every other regard, this could be one of the worst college football coaching hires in the history of the game.  Since leaving USC, Kiffin spent less than 2 years as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in the NFL.  Raiders’ owner Al Davis ultimately fired Kiffin after just 4 games of the 2008 NFL season because he felt that Kiffin was “immature” and a “liar”.  Kiffin logged a 5-15 record as the Radiers’ head coach.

For whatever reason, the University of Tennessee felt it necessary to try to lock up Kiffin before he could land another gig in major college football.  Kiffin may be a great college recruiter (although ethics and rules-adherence may not mean anything to him), but can he really coach?  The Vols went 7-6 in 2009 and Kiffin racked up 6 secondary NCAA violations in just a year at the helm.  Two football players were also kicked off the team because of an attempted armed robbery scandal and the NCAA is now investigating how Kiffin used recruiting hostesses during visits.

Now, with USC facing a multi-sport NCAA investigation (potentially because of infractions committed by Kiffin while he was at SC), the university decides to bring this guy back?  Shouldn’t USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett realize that the Vols required a provision in Kiffin’s contract that he would have to pay the university $800,000 if he left the school after 1 season to take another job as a sign that the guy can’t be trusted?

Gotta love Kiffin’s quotes too – “This was not an easy decision.  This is something that happens very quick.  We’ve been here 14 months,, and the support has been unbelievable here.  I really believe the only place I would have left here to go was… Southern California.”

Ha ha ha.

The state of College Football is a joke.  This is a business just like any other business.  And it’s about time that the powers that be start allowing the players to reap some of the reward too.  The “student-athletes” that the NCAA is trying so hard to “protect” are at the mercy of these mega-universities and the NCAA.  It’s a complete charade and it’s about time something gets done to address the situation right now.

Tags: Al Davis, Lane Kiffin, Mike Garrett, Pete Carroll