Kiffin watch: it’s never easy saying goodbye.

It sounds like it’s suddenly dawned on the UT brain trust that there are only so many kids you can lose in an off season without having some potential ramifications.

… Hamilton said Friday there was no foolproof method to predicting possible departures during a coaching search in any sport.

“I don’t know that there’s an expectation,” Hamilton said. “We’ve had changes where we haven’t had folks who have left. But with a sport with the squad size of football’s, with a change I’d think it would be a normal occurrence where you’d seen some turnover.

“I don’t think you can put a finger on exactly how many will leave or the reasons for them leaving, but I think that’s always a possibility.”

Rarely do summers pass without additional roster turnover, and one more departure would put the Vols into double digits. That naturally raises eyebrows in the era of stricter NCAA student-athlete academic legislation.

The NCAA’s Academic Progress Report — or “APR” — was designed to evaluate every program’s eligibility retention and graduation figures…

And if this isn’t the lamest thing Junior’s let out of his mouth, it’s gotta be in the top three.

… Kiffin made multiple references this spring to urging departed players to keep attending classes — something he said would benefit the futures of each player and their former teammates.

“There’s a right way to do it, and we certainly hope that happens,” he said after one practice.

Let’s see… I’m a kid leaving a program, voluntarily or otherwise, and the guy who’s created the situation that’s caused me to leave – a guy who didn’t even bring me into the program in the first place, by the way – wants me to stick around awhile to help him out?  Seriously?

Were that me, my response would be along the lines of the immortal words of Sergeant Al Powell – why don’t you wake up and smell what you shovel’n?

But that’s just me.  Maybe Demetrice Morley is hard at work earning his degree as I type this.  After all, everybody wants to help the Laner.

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By the way, if you think any of this is seeping into the consciousness of the Vol faithful, you might want to read this analysis of how Junior handled the quarterback controversy he faced in his first year as head coach with Oakland and think again.  The Raiders went 4-12, his quarterbacks were inconsistent, the Laner blew hot and cold with them seemingly on a weekly basis and arrogantly dismissed fan concerns.  Somehow that is construed as support for this blogger’s premise that since being named the Tennessee head coach “… Kiffin has been handling the quarterback situation as it works best for the program.” The Kool-Aid is lip-smackingly good in Knoxville these days, it seems.