Junior’s back to insisting everything he’s done is all part of a master plan.
And he did it for the children.
“Players aren’t going to be any good unless they have a lot of confidence, and that goes back to a lot of the things that I said that maybe some of you guys didn’t like very much,” Kiffin told the crowd. “But understand that when you go back to your players and you’ve put yourself out there like that, your players feel confidence in you.
“They know the staff has their back and they know they have to work to get our back, so it was really neat to see how confident our players were in that spring game.”
Another goal was, obviously, bringing in the nation’s top recruits. Done. Despite very little time to work, Tennessee landed a top-10 class and Bryce Brown, the nation’s No. 1 running back.
“Unfortunately, you have to do some things that may not be what everybody likes, but it gets you out there,” Kiffin said. “It gets Tennessee in the media. It gets Tennessee in Sports Illustrated and on SportsCenter and in the newspapers. It may sound weird to you guys, but understand, that’s what kids nowadays look at. They need to see Tennessee over and over and over again.”
So after all of that — accusing Meyer of breaking rules, boasting about stealing Lance Thompson from Nick Saban, blaming grandmothers for recruiting failures — you have to say his tactics worked. So far. The fans are intrigued. The recruits are interested. Sure, Kiffin is still awaiting his first college coaching win.
But, at this moment, I’ll admit the joke could be on everyone else, even if Kiffin occasionally sets himself up for ridicule.
“Well,” Kiffin said with a smile, “we did get the No. 1 player in the country. So that’s my excuse.”
Gosh, he makes you wonder why a lot more coaches don’t behave like horses’ asses.
Get The Picture 
Getting your ass handed to you by your fellow SEC coaches will get Tennessee attention also.
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Here’s the question that keeps coming up to me when I read the BS excuses that IMO he got straight from UT’s rivals or scout message boards.
If this is a master plan for publicity, aren’t you little stupid to tell everyone that’s what it is?
If being an ass sells your program, why would you want anyone to think you’re just acting like one, but aren’t really one deep down?
If he’s saying it was all for show, why is anyone gonna believe any different the next time around?
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I read every day, Senator, and I’m beginning to wonder if you have a little bit of a crush on our coach. You seem to be writing about him even more than your own Dawgs!
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Senator is just helping him out in recruiting. Isn’t that what all this is suppose to do?
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Hell yeah, I love the guy!
As I said before, from a blogger’s point of view, Junior is manna from heaven. Long may he run.
Unless he gets boring, of course. 🙂
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What I think he should do is sit around quietly all day, worrying about Mark Richt’s vaunted attack.
Bawahahahahahaahahahahaahaahaha
I like a coach who’ll mix it up a bit. We all know what we have in store for us this year, but there are plenty of talented kids who believe in what he’s doing.
You can ask Kelcy Quarles, for one, in a couple weeks.
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Your laughing at our offense when you’ve thrown up two of the worst ones in the conference the past four years. Funny.
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Gotta admit, I can’t argue with this. For Richt (even though we’re not really discussing him here – or at least I’m not), it’s not so much that he can’t get it done and put together solid seasons. He’s a fantastic coach and an even better guy. I would say he has the respect of 95% of the SEC, with the other 5% being a bunch of pagan heathens. But he’s not EVER going to win a championship. I just don’t think he is capable of it. If he can’t win with the teams that he has had the past two years, it ain’t ever happenin’.
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Not capable? How do you quantify that? Don’t forget how much luck is involved in winning a MNC.
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I don’t have to quantify it. It’s just my opinion. I don’t think he will, and the fun part for me is that the odds are in my favor.
Plus, Richt has historically struggled against Florida, and he struggles against Tennessee when it matters.
I think Richt is a great coach, but I wouldn’t want him as ours. And I’m also not saying Kiffin is better or will win a championship. I haven’t formed that opinion yet, while I’ve had eight years to see what Richt’s got.
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Oskie, You are right, all Richt has accomplished in 8 years is end Philip Fulmer’s career!!!
Too bad Lane will not be around for eight years.
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How so?
In the past five years, Tennessee’s worst in two decades, Fulmer was 3-2 against the Dawgs. In 2004, Georgia’s national championship hopes were crushed by the Vols. In 2006, the Vols put up 51 on you in a fourth quarter dismantling of UGA’s defense and special teams. In 2007, the loss to the Vols kept you from playing in the SECCG and eventually a chance to play in the title game. Richt’s two wins over Fulmer in the past five years came in 2005 and 2008, where they joined at least five other teams that beat those Tennessee teams, some of the worst in two decades.
Richt may deserve some partial credit for Fulmer’s firing, but the consecutive losses to Bama and to Florida are the main ones that will get you fired.
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RECRUITING
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This is the most stunning hilarity I’ve ever seen.
IF every game was against Richt, Fulmer would still have a job. And another national championship.
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Fulmer was 3-5 against Richt. If every game was against Richt, you still wouldn’t go to a bowl game.
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I just wondered what would lead you to make such a definitive statement about a coach with one of the best winning percentages in the nation. I don’t know if he will win one or not, but saying he is not capable is ignorant. But hey, that’s just my opinion.
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Oh, that’s what I meant by “get it done and put together solid seasons.” Richt has no problem putting together a 10-winner, that’s inarguable. He’s just always going to cough one up to a team he’s not supposed to.
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Oh I understand your rationale now. Winning ten games a year for 8 years leaves you incapable of winning a Nat. Title. That makes perfect sense. Don’t tell Mack Brown though.
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This is exactly what people were saying about Fulmer prior to 1998. Bowden before 1993 and Osborne before 1994.
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@oskie, of course he’s writitng about Kiffin. His job I to report and entertain, and ‘Mark Richt behaved professionally again today’ just doesn’t go very far towards that end.
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Funny, even though we’ve been at our worst, we’ve still beaten Georgia more than they’ve beaten us lately.
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Touché, sir. Let’s just say that no one was happier to see Cut take the Duke job than I.
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Yeah, Cut definitely had a lot to do with it. I can’t argue that.
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So Kiffin is the George Costanza of recruiting.
Coooo-stanza
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But the good news is Richt is a fantastic person?
I fear that stellar offense I witnessed in the G-Day game.
Hey, I love you guys, by the way. Read a couple times a week.
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Well, in light of the way that Kiffin and his fans are trying to explain away the fact that he’s a bona fide ass, maybe Georgia fans should say something similar about the G-Day game: that lackluster offensive performance was all a part of our “master plan” to fool future opponents into thinking that they can play soft defense against us.
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A lot has been made of this “master plan” business, but most of the people arguing that Kiffin is some sort of evil genius aren’t Vol bloggers at all. Or Vol fans for that matter. I, for one, think some of this may have been intentional, but there’s no way Kiffin is that smart.
Regardless, it got his name in the news. No coach has been covered and mentioned more in the press over the past three months or so. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen, but it’s hard to argue with having your coach’s face on PTI once a week.
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“It’s hard to argue with having your coach’s face on PTI once a week” … ?
Not really. Given the choice between (a) having Mark Richt’s face on PTI once a week, discussing such things as recruiting violations, outright lies, and how badly Urban Meyer is going to bitchslap him in Gainesville, or just (b) NOT having Mark Richt’s face on PTI once a week, … I’d happily take the latter.
I know Vol fans would like for that dictum “all press is good press” to be true, but we’ve yet to see any good reason to believe that it’s true in the case of Lane Kiffin. So the positivity coming out of the Vol fan base these days seems to the rest of us like nothing short of delusional.
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Kiffin said it himself: He got the number one recruit in the country. Even with all that press that you want to argue is bad. I don’t see how that is delusional at all, especially when you have writers all over the place like Wojo at ESPN talking about what an evil genius he is. Of course you aren’t going to think it is a good thing. You are laughing at Kiffin, and rightly so. But if he ends up getting this thing together, you’re not going to be laughing for long.
As for the impending bitchslap, Mark Richt has already done enough to Urban to warrant that. Not that Urban has some new level that he takes it to out of vengeance – we all know that he has only one level that he coaches at: Ruthless.
I’ve spent more time here than I have our own site today.
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Resistance is futile. 😉
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I have to say that no fanbase is as obsessed with Kiffin as UGA fans. The AJC is like the Kiffin Journal-Constitution. It’s phenomenal.
All this press, man. It’s really helping UT. Whether you want to admit it or not, Bryce Brown and David Oku committed AFTER the Urban remarks.
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All reports suggest that Bryce Brown is almost as much of a self-obsessed, attention-starved child as his future coach. He’s talented, sure. But a talented jackass is still a jackass. (By the way, what’s the status on that problem-child LB that Georgia tossed to the curb? Has Kiffin swooped him up yet?)
In the meantime, Mark Richt pulled in a better recruiting class WITHOUT making an ass of himself in order to do so. He’s also built a reputation as one of the most respected coaches in the league … an accomplishment that Lane Kiffin, after only a matter of months, can now never dream of achieving.
And yet, Vol fans continue to wave the flag high …
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There’s will always be only one Evil Genius for me – even if the OBC has lost some of his bite with the move to Columbia.
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Senator, it appears that I actually brought our entire 3SIB staff with me. The good news? The Alabama fans are your allies.
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I’m honored. You guys do a great job at one of my favorite sites.
Maybe I should change the subject to something we all could agree on. How ’bout that Gene Chizik? 😉
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Or Saban?
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I just realized you meant “all” as in UGA, UT, and UAT fans. Nevermind. Chizik it is. Or Meyer.
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This sounds eerily familiar to our nation’s “Economic Stimulus Plan”.
Utter buffoonery!
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I think we should have these discussions every day.
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I need to hate Georgia more than I do. I’ll work on that.
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Global War on Lane status report (extended version) – 21 April 2009
Somewhere deep inside an underground bunker Green Zone, Knoxville:
0700: Monte calls the Department of Fatherland Security meeting to order and makes Lane take muster of assistant coach troopers. Lane reports to Monte, “All present and accounted for, Sir!”
Monte shakes head, disappointed that some of the assistant coach troopers had not either wandered away from the Green Zone without their re-access cards or been captured with a ransom demand made on Monte. Of course, Monte had planned to deny re-access into the Zone or ignore any forthcoming ransom demand.
Monte had even prepared canned remarks for the media such as “I don’t deal with terrorists. Possession is ten tenths of the law. You got ’em, they are now part of your overhead, not mine.”
Layla Two reminded Monte that it’s never good to state the obvious and seem like you’re the #1 most uncaring person in the world. Monte needed a press release that would, on its surface at least, make it looked like Monte cared.
Monte told Layla Two to make a canned one up and also write up a special Ransom of Red Chief response that Monte could keep in his back pocket when and if Lane were ever captured and held for ransom. Layla Two thinks that it’s good that Monte has not yet completely given up hope four and half months before teeing it up.
Monte instructs Lane and Coach O to stop cutting up and grab-assing throughout the meeting as they have been doing since arriving inside the Green Zone.
Layla Two reports the latest daily intel to Monte which not surprisingly reports that enemy propagandists remain sucessful in earning a living waiting with bated breath for Lane to open his mouth and take the bait, which he almost always does.
Some emeny correspondents think that is he is like a large mouth bass going after a shiner. Others say that, increasingly, Lane will open his mouth and speak words unsolicited even when there is even no bait around.
Enemy correspondents know deep in their collective figurative hearts that rather than being a toxic asset, Lane is the sole proponent in the stimulus act for them in putting food on their families.
Monte remains concerned that his son is about to reprise the role of Custer at Little Big Horn while the Sioux chieftain SEC head coaches silently await in ambush.
Monte had previously thought that because the enemy chieftains like Meyer, Spurrier, Saban, Miles, Richt, Johnson, Brooks, Nutt and Petrino had, every now and then, gotten their teeth kicked in during a particular season, that it was just an embarrassing broken tooth smile problem that kept them from saying more in response to Lane’s hyperbole.
Monte now knows that not to be true because outside intel reveals the enemy head coaches have delivered and received some of the worst ass-beatings imaginable by, between and among themselves and most could care not care less about cosmetic dentistry, even those who had dental schools on campus.
While ambushes this season may be a good teachable event for Lane, Monte grows increasingly concerned that his defense will have to be drawn into battle more than usual because of incensed enemies to save the defense’s own ass while coincidentally sometimes saving Lane’s.
Monte also knows that he got the sweetest part of the deal from Hamilton (who also remains underground, but in a much smaller solitary confinement bunker) because UT always had a good defense.
Monte knows he can coach ’em up better than Chavis could but that may not be a universally shared opinion outside the Green Zone it having been said before that the combo of Cutliffe and Chavis kept Phil on life support much longer than many thought possible. Monte already knows how to work with a diva having had that experience with Gruden in Tampa.
Monte also knows that soon, the timing of his escape from the Bucs immediately prior to the Glazers firing Gruden has the possiblity of ranking right up there with TARP and AIG as being among one of the sweetest deals of pure capitalism and entrepreneurship pulled off within the past couple of years.
Regaining focus, Monte instructs his assistant coach troopers that the Plan of Day is relatively light. Only Lane, as the public affairs junior officer, has a scheduled appointment outside the bunker.
At 1200, Lane is to report to Head Coach Pat Summit’s executive office suite for a bring your own lunch meeting to receive the George W. Bush “Mission Accomplished!” Silver Spoon Award for having shot off his mouth exhausting all ammo before the start of the real battles.
Lane is psyched having convinced himself, but no one else, that any pub is good pub. Monte thinks Head Coach Pat Summit could be trying to pull one on Lane or maybe it’s nothing more than something like a Good Citizenship Award in elementary school.
Monte instructs Coach O to lock and load and walk point for Lane on their way to Head Coach Pat Summit’s executive office suite for the award ceremony.
Monte tells O to zig-zag to avoid the daily harrassment and interdiction mortar and rocket fire coming into the Green Zone from across the Tennessee River.
O straps on his catcher’s cup, batting helmet, batting gloves, elbow and shin guards and flack jacket, salutes and says to Monte, “Sir, Yes Sir!”
Monte tells O and Lane, “Carry On. Dismissed!” Lane says to his Dad, “Dad, it’s an half an hour before the awards ceremony. Do we have to go now?” Monte replies, “Yes. It’ll do you and O some good to get outside and play even though it’s only inside the Green Zone. Just watch out for friendly fire. Dismissed.”
Lane and O climb up the lengthy bunker escape ladder, open the hatch, and hit the ground hauling ass to Lane’s award ceremony. Suddenly, O looks back at Lane and Lane looks back at him. They each freeze because both realize that they forgot to pick up any flowers as homage to Head Coach Pat Summit. They have been inside the Green Zone long enough to learn the hard way that there are two people, and people only, who you cannot offend. They turn and sprint back to the bunker…
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I think Richt is doing an admirable job in Athens. I want to win the MNC as much as the next guy. But, If you told me I could take CMR and win 9-11 games a year with the occasional SEC championship and NEVER win the MNC, I would still want him. I truly believe he is just what this program needed. Behind Kemp and Harrick, we need someone who cares more about the hearts and minds, someone willing to jeopardize his standing in the W/L column to mold boys into productive young men. To do that and still win 9-11 games a year is pretty special to me, and I wouldn’t trade him for all the shirtless wild boyz everywhere!
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“and I wouldn’t trade him for all the shirtless wild boyz everywhere!”
Well, that and the fact that 9-11 wins is more than Kiffin/Orgeron have won combined.
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The only thing Kiffin has done is piss off everyone else in the SEC and make the pressure on him even higher
Maybe he thinks UT will have his back if he loses 2-3-4 games next year and when they lose, he won’t have it. They will turn on him BIG TIME.
No SEC Title appearence will have many questioning his coaching ability.
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