Say it aint so? Another coach ala Mike White from the west coast has worn out his welcome in the SEC.
Lane Kiffin has accepted the USC head coaching job and I think the Trojans really did get their man and he was more than happy to get out of Knoxville and Tennessee is more than accommodating to allow it to happen.
He doesn’t come alone as family and friends are on the plane. Kiffin will bring his father and defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, and assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron (ex-Mississippi head coach) to Southern Cal with him. Wide receivers coach Kippy Brown will be named interim head coach at Tennessee, but that won’t last for long.
With Kiffin, USC will get a proven offensive mind who knows the system. Kiffin already has Matt Barkley and he will be able to work with the best QB prospects in the country in the coming years. What the Trojans just did was reload, not rebuild. I don’t know how they did it, but they got better in coaching plus they have a young team primed for success and they will drive even more recruits to the school. Sorry to my beloved UCLA, but this is a great move by Mike Garrett who I hate with a passion orchestrated this along with Pete Carroll masterfully.
Now, who is the Vols next coach? Does Gruden now have a chance to take over a program where he started his coaching career as a graduate assistant in ’86? I think if he wants to coach college over pro then he wont get better than this, but he could be waiting for or an opening in the NFL in 2011.
Kiffin has left the cupboard full with a young solid team and 22 recruits leading to the #6 overall 2010 ranking from Rival Sports. 14 of the recruits are 4 stars and Kiffin recruited defensive studs, top wide receivers and straight up athletes from all over the country. See a pattern? Sound familiar? This is a win/win for both school. Also, do you really think Kiffin leaves Tennessee for USC if there was a death penalty coming? USC is the #8 ranked recruiting class with only 14 recruits, but of course three were 5-stars and eight were 4-stars.
