First, it goes without saying that as a Georgia fan, I don’t have a dog in this whole Kiffin-Meyer, Kiffin-Saban hunt, but for me as a college football blogger, Lane Kiffin is manna from heaven. Best of all, he’s just getting warmed up. So when I use the word “final” in the post header, rest assured it’s just a reference to the current fooferaw. With regard to Junior, I feel certain that this is the beginning of a bee-yoo-tee-full relationship.
Anyway, here’s some stuff to chew on, some of it serious, some not so much:
- For all the talk about the resumes of the guys LK has taken on with this, don’t forget that Junior’s got a pretty good one, too. How many coaches can say that by age 33, they’ve been the head coach of an NFL franchise and a major SEC program? I can see why the guy is a little cocky.
- That being said, doesn’t Junior bear a somewhat eerie resemblance to George W. Bush at this point? (Not politically speaking, of course.) Both used their daddies and connections to move up the ladder with a series of gigs that neither proved particularly adept at. If this doesn’t strike you as Junior’s “bring it on” moment, I don’t know what will. And it’s likely to have the same effect: great theater for the true believers, an invitation that will be accepted by the ones it was directed at.
- I think I underestimated the blow to the collective ego of the Volunteer fan base that the last few years of the Fulmer regime delivered. But judging from the almost universal adoration Junior has received from Urnge Nayshun, at least as evidenced by what I’ve seen posted on the Vol message boards, it’s pretty clear that he hasn’t. That’s smart on his part, but at some point in time he’ll have to replace the bravado with wins and titles, won’t he?
- Seriously, Vol fans, give this whole “the SEC is skeered of Lane Kiffin” stuff a rest. People slow down all the time to look at car wrecks. That doesn’t mean they’re afraid of the guy who crashed his three year old Volvo fourteen year old Chevy pickup with the busted tail light.
- HeismanPundit – well played, sir.
- I realize that Meyer is likely buried in a rewrite of his latest book with a new chapter being written entirely in third person references to himself and thus unable to respond, but why, oh why, haven’t we heard from the GPOOE™ by now?
- Oh, about that apology – “if I offended anyone“? If? You mean you’re not sure if calling someone out in public as a cheat would offend them? That’s lame, brother.
- For those of you who have been cracking jokes about which question Junior missed on the recruiting test, don’t you know that Spurrier hates it when you steal his material?
- And for those of you who don’t see any difference between Junior’s comments and The Celebration, at least Mark Richt’s move was directed at lighting a fire under his team so it would play hard. Junior’s likely set his team up for a couple of ass whippings this year just to get a rise out of the fans seven months before the season starts.
- I can’t wait to see what Eric Berry decides to do with his career after this season’s over, particularly if UT only wins six or seven games. If he turns pro, how much credit do you think the Kiffins try to claim for themselves for his success?
That’s all for now anyways.
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UPDATE: Jerry, over at The Joe Cribbs Car Wash, has the perfect Auburn perspective on this.
… but forgive me Vol fans, for the time being I’m glad to have the leagues’ new successful-coordinator-but-poor-head-coaching-record head coach who’s got his coachin’ head down and out of the way.
Get The Picture 
This is a pretty good article by Steve Patterson over on ugasports.com. As far as I can tell it’s a free one, so if it asks you for a membership, my apologies.
http://uga.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=909464
The funny thing to me is that the hillbillies are defending him hook, line and sinker and think it’s funny that he pissed off the Gators. I get why insulting Urban is funny to them. As a UGA fan, I certainly am not having a problem comprehending that. But they seem to forget that their coach doesn’t know the rules or recruiting. For an intelligent college football fan, that should be embarrassing.
I thought when he said that he couldn’t be right about that. When you’re recruiting eighty kids at the beginning and they are taking officials earlier and earlier in the process, how can a guy be absolutely sure he’s not visiting this place or that one.
I just think it’d be too easy to unintentionally break the rules on that one.
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We all thought Al Davis was just a senile old man ranting last year during that presser when he fired Junior because Davis has always been a little off. But I think I recall him talking about a lack of maturity and being unable to cover up all the comments made before thinking. Looks like Hamilton should have paid closer attention because Davis was providing free insight.
Like you Senator, I don’t know what is more embarrassing, the stupid childish remarks by someone so unaccomplished, or the myopic Vile fans rushing to excuse and embrace his macho approach. I have always put Florida at the bottom of the SEC for the program/fanbase that was most unlike what the SEC has always been to me with TN next to the bottom. I have to admit, the race looks to get even tighter as they both try to set a new standard for classlessness. Trash talking is just tacky, running your mouth and being dead-ass wrong/stupid is worse. Defending either situation is jus’ not the Suthn way.
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I realize every coach has an ego, but Kiffin is really showing his ass out there, and I’m kind of at a loss to figure out where it’s all coming from. Is it possible that, coming from a USC program that routinely dominated its conference with little fear of anyone stepping up to challenge them, Kiffykins has gotten comfortable and presumed that the SEC will be just as easy a mark? You’d think that his dad, who’s been around the block a few times at virtually every level of football, would be looking to rein Junior in on this a little, but evidently not.
It’s all almost enough to make me root for Pope Urban to drop another 59-bomb on ’em this year, and that’s saying something.
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SEC coaches’ reaction to Lane’s latest launch:
Richt: “I am blessed.”
Saban: “Don’t want to talk about it anymore, aaight!”
The Hat: “Where’s my hat?”
Urban: “I’ll never forget this and I’m writing another book about it.”
Spurrier: “That son of gun is a big a smart alec as I was before I went to the Redskins.”
Bobby Johnson: “Our players are coached to think before they speak.”
Mullins: “I can’t wait for Lane to get a load of Urban in September.”
Nutt: “I’m happy I’m not getting the attention about phone hijinx anymore.”
Brooks: “This kid is a dumb***.”
Petrino: “I’m going to light this guy’s daddy’s defense up.”
Chizik: “I am blessed.”
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SEC coaches’ reaction to Lane’s latest launch:
Richt: “I am blessed.”
Saban: “I don’t want to talk about it anymore, aiight! Press conference is over!”
The Hat: “Where’s my hat?”
Meyer: “This is another one that I’ll never forget and my agent is finalizing a deal for my second book on it.”
B. Johnson: “Our kids are coached to think before they speak.”
Nutt: “Glad someone other than me is taking heat for phone hijinx.”
Mullins: “Can’t wait to see Lane get an extra-strength dose of Urban this September.”
Brooks: “Monte ought to take his kid over his knee and spank him.”
Petrino: “I can’t wait to light up this guy’s daddy’s defense.”
Spurrier: “This kid is a bigger smart alec than I was before I went to the Redskins.”
Chizik: “I am blessed.”
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Doug, did you write No. 4?
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I don’t fault the Vol faithful for their unabashed adoration of Hello Kiffin. That’s part of being a fan: irrational exuberance & blind, faithful optimism.
But, when Mike Slive comes out and basically says (paraphrase), “I expect our coaches not to be dumbasses… at least in public,” then your AD or your fanbase or the one person in Tennessee with an ounce of sense needs to step up and reign in the coach. It’s great to get the masses riled up, but you don’t want to give rivals like Florida and Alabama any incentive to take you behind the woodshed.
(Much like Dog in Fla said…) Direct beneficiaries of Hello Kiffin’s unquenchable desire to be hated:
Gene Chizik & Mark Richt. Instead of thinking about the streak or the celebration during the Spring and Summer, Alabama and Florida will have one focus: Embarrassing the Kiffins. Whether that be by shutting out the vaunted Lane Kiffin attack or scoring 60 on the elder Kiffin’s super-duper, amazing, never-seen-before defense, they will have singularity of purpose. This makes for good television.
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Yeah, I’ll be watching.
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After reading the HeismanPundit article, I have to agree with The Realist…
Where’s UT AD Mike Hamilton? For some reason, I envision him sitting behind a double-sided mirror, just chuckling. Or maybe he’s like the woman owner in Major League, who’s trying to see how many crazy jackasses she can ruin the program with so she can pick it up and move it to Florida. And that’s Phil Fulmer sitting next to her/him in the press box, singing along to “Wild Thing.”
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Pingback: Capstone Report » Friday links: Kiffingate & Recruiting links
Why does yet another otherwise decent blog have to bring politics into sport? And at least get it right. Bush may have been given the connections by his father, but unlike Kiffin, he actually had used those connections to show some tangible success, success that was rewarded when he was re-elected Governor of Texas by wide margins.
That success didn’t translate into much as President, and if you want to take shots at W., you have a full arsenal. You don’t need strained analogies to college football coaches to make it.
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but unlike Kiffin, he actually had used those connections to show some tangible success…
Such as?
And as for your question, which part of “Not politically speaking, of course.” didn’t you get?
If there had been a underachieving Kennedy who had a “mission accomplished” moment, I would have been perfectly happy to use him or her as a foil here.
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Kiffin to Bush? Really? That’s a leap & stretch at best, if not a pretty horrible distortion of facts.
Wouldn’t a more successful & appropriate analogy involve another Father/Son duo in football?
Tommy or Terry Bowden come to mind.
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And this is why you separate politics from sport.
First, when you said “not politically speaking,” the inference was that Bush and Kiffin were a lot of like (though not necessarily in terms of ideology). That statement, in the context in which YOU used it, doesn’t imply that you aren’t drawing politics into the discussion, which is an inherent part of your post.
As for the other part of your statement, whether Bush had “success” or not as Governor of Texas (your post implied that he didn’t) is a classic example of a political question in which the answer largely turns on one’s policy preferences. If you don’t like school testing, you won’t think his reforms in Texas were successful. Same for reforms relating to the criminal justice system. These are inherently subjective issues, and they invite divisive discourse centered around the politics. Most of us get enough of that outside of sport, which is why sport is such a great refuge until you come across that person who simply cannot separate politics from life.
Rather than take this as constructive criticism, however, you have instead chosen condescension (“which part didn’t you get,” etc.). It’s your blog, you obviously have that right. But in this reader’s opinion, which obviously means very little to you, I’d prefer to keep politics out of the discussion.
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BA, ordinarily I’d let your comment pass, particularly since Realist’s response to you is spot on, but in this case, I feel a response is in order.
The only way your argument in this paragraph
makes any sense is if you believe that I know what Lane Kiffin’s political beliefs are to compare and contrast with W’s. Do you? I sure as hell don’t. Thus, you’ve rather spectacularly misconstrued my straightforward disclaimer about what I was comparing between the two men. You then purport to tell me what was “inherent” in what I blogged, despite the fact that I stated otherwise. If I was condescending in my response to you, it was because I sensed that your argument was driven more by whom I chose to link Kiffen’s behavior to than the behavior itself.
As for separating politics and sports, given that we live in a country where the President, various members of Congress and at least one state’s Attorney General are currently advocating significant change – and in many cases, governmental intervention to force it to happen – to the college football postseason, I would think you’d have much bigger fish to fry on that front than an obscure blogger making a small point in a much larger post. (Ironically, that’s something I bitch about on a pretty fair basis here.)
In any event, I don’t spend that much time blogging political points here, any more than I mention things like beer or barbeque, but I can’t say that I intend to stop. I’m sorry if that bothers you, but as you say, it’s my blog.
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Picking nits. The analogy is valid on its surface. It was made without political commentary except that which you read into it. Take it at face value and move on. Everything that mentions political figures does not have to spiral into divisive political discourse.
I know nothing of W’s policies in Texas (nor do I care), but I could put two and two together. Kiffin got the job because of Daddy’s name. He riles up his supporters with premature declarations when he might ought to consider keeping his mouth shut. He’ll likely be remembered for better or worse for those two things. That’s a pretty eerie resemblance to G-Dub. Point made. Move on. No hurt feelings. See? Everyone is happy again.
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“And this is why you separate politics from sport.”
If only the politicians would learn such a valuable lesson.
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And yet it always does, Realist. Because the validity of the analogy turns largely on your perception of the politics. Whether you think Bush had ever accomplished anything prior to being President or whether you think his statements on foreign policy were for “true believers,” those are the types of judgments that turn on your political assessments.
The fact that the jabs are subtle — and political — don’t mean they aren’t jabs.
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It is indeed your blog. On that much we agree.
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By the way, it’s exactly because you don’t know Kiffin’s political beliefs (nor would I expect you to) that the modifier in parentheses — “(not politically speaking, of course)” — would logically be interpreted as a statement by you that you don’t pretend to know Kiffin’s ideological beliefs. That is only reinforced by your use of “of course.”
In any event, rather than than accept that there is some ambiguity in the phrase, you again go down the road of condescension, saying that you’ve been not only misconstrued, but “spectacularly” so. If you write enough, you’ll be misconstrued, and sometimes, it’s not always the reader’s fault (or, shudder the thought, it could be that both parties are to blame).
If I read too much into your statement, you have my apologies. You are free to run the site as you please, but I can assure that a little less condescension would go along ways. And the comment about keeping politics out is not reserved for those picking on Bush or anyone on his side of the aisle. I’ve made similiar comments to those who criticize the current President in sports forums because it inevitably drags the discussion down. But you’ll do what you want to do, and I hope you’ll do so with some measure of respect for those with whom you disagree.
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BA, correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem to want to have it both ways here.
On the one hand you tell me that what I wrote was ambiguous which is why you concluded as you did about what I wrote. On the other you tell Realist “Because the validity of the analogy turns largely on your perception of the politics.”, which would indicate to me that you believe there’s only one way to interpret what I posted.
As for respect, I hope you realize that the time I’ve spent responding to your points is an indication of that.
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W. was a sucessful Governor, and he got handed the worst set of cards of any President sent FDR, history will appreciate him even if you don’t. Back to sports, Junior is a trainwreck.
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People, this is great, that guy did managed to get his team and UT nation fired up, so did Ron Zook.
He will get handed at the very least three 50 point drubbings and his recruiting will take a hit and they will all look at each other and wonder what happened.
Oregon (or whatever his name is) is such a blowhard and so stuck in 6th gear that he has convinced the Kiffens and all of the other coaches that together not only can they win, but they can be @*&$suckers at the same time.
Oregon should know that this is not the PAC 10, but he is such a dumb ass, he thinks he got the shaft end of the stick at Ole Miss, not that their losing was his fault. So in his mind with such and “elite” program then they can just talk shat and they will win.
There are four coaches who have won NC’s and several coaches who have coached teams to NC as coordinators who are just shaking their heads.
I know you all enjoy it when they slam Urban, but this guy and his posse have shown their true Douchebaggery. I have been saying it all along, but now the flags are flying high.
After they get several cans of ass whooping next year, by our team, your team and a bunch of others, then they will see what a dumb ass this dude is.
I give him three seasons tops. You do not want to follow the guy what did so much for your school. Just ask Ron Zook or that guy who followed Coach Dooley.
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All I’ve got to say is “Thank you. Thank you Lane Kiffen.” There was a point following the Fulmer firing, especially while watching Phil shed a few tears as he stepped down, where I felt sorry for UT. All that sadness is but a distant memory thanks to the Kitten repeatedly, and deeply, sticking his foot in his mouth…
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