I hope you’ve got a subscription to The Athletic, because this story ($$), about a nine-year old Tennessee fan who’d had enough of the Vols and decided to change allegiances, is fucking hilarious.
The gist of it is that he, with the help of his father, decided to write four SEC head coaches (Orgeron, Saban, Kiffin and Heupel) in the hopes that one of them would recruit him to support their program. Here’s a sample:
Saban responded. So did Coach O. Amazingly, Tennessee didn’t.
But Junior was the winner.
And then, the phone call came.
“I got a message that said, ‘Coach Kiffin would like to recruit Landon. Is he available for a phone call?’” Justin said. “I thought maybe it was going to be an assistant or somebody saying they’d send us a shirt or a hat or something like that.”
But not long after, Kiffin was on the phone.
“Landon answered the phone and it was Coach Kiffin on the other end,” Justin said. “It was shocking to both of us.”
Read the whole thing, if you can. It’s a hoot.
Get The Picture 
Say what you want about Junior, but he gets that this isn’t life and death. He has fun and has grown into the job. They still can’t play defense, but he is bringing a fun style of football to Oxford.
The fact that he made time to call this kid to “recruit” him is pretty darn awesome.
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Dammit! I’m not supposed to like this douche bag.
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Russ, you’re not supposed to like BigMacs either. But sometimes….
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Junior has become a lot more likable since he went through the Nick Saban meat grinder.
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Laner is a lot more likable probably because he doesn’t have to put up with this anymore.
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Classic. My brother watched that Tosh show seemingly all the time. He bet me I would find it funny and I lost a crisp hundy when he showed my the Kiffin bit.
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Probably not a popular opinion around these parts, but Junior has grown on me over the years. This story was a great one.
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Same here.
That’s a great story. Great read.
The vowels just being vowels.
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The hilarious news of this is only magnified by the subtle but unmistakable pettiness of the Laner poaching 9 year old UT fans. Kind of a casual middle finger to Rocky Top, but all in the name of supposedly innocent fun.
Revenge really IS a dish best served cold, eh, Lane?
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It’s good publicity, and he can take a dig at a school he’s recruiting against for those under the radar 3 stars.
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Kiffin being the winner is too fitting. The long winter he brought to Knoxville in 2009 may never end.
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uh oh. The NCAA will penalize Ole Miss because it is against the rules for Kiffin to publicly comment on a recruit prior to getting a signed LOI. /s/
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Just waiting for the NCAA to strip Ole Miss of post-season eligibility for impermissible contact of a recruit…
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If he were the AD at Ole Miss, McGarity would have done it proactively.
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You beat me to it, Senator.
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Great minds think alike. 😉
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#TheGeorgiaWay 😉
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The former Georgia AD would have already agreed to strip 5 scholarships and restrict Kirby from recruiting off campus as a result. He probably would have also suspended JT Daniels for 4 games just to make sure the NCAA was happy.
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Not to mention, reduction in tailgate parking, self imposed game day experiences at Sanford Stadium and lastly, no more condoms….
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This actually shows just how far Tennessee has fallen in the last few decades. I think I’ve told this story before, but my older brother was an All-American at Tennessee and remains close to the program since his days ended back in the mid-90s. They live in Nashville. Anyway, he has two sons who are both in high school, and neither of them give a rip about UT.
The oldest is a bama fan and the younger one likes Florida. I know, disgusting, isn’t it? Oh, and they both hate Georgia…mainly because of me giving their dad such a hard time after all those Georgia wins over Tennessee over the past 20 years. Otherwise, I suspect one of them might be a UGA fan right now.
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Probably has to make your brother cringe at the thought of one son is a fan of the school every Tennessee fan hates (Bama) and the other is a fan of the program whose legendary coach is from East Tennessee and tweaked Phat Phil at every opportunity (Florida).
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Man, if I was that kid that certainly would have made me an Ole Miss fan for life. Cracked up at Laner’s line about having seen a lot of Tennessee games.
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The irony of the whole thing has been pointed out above. But, I would add that this is nothing but good PR for Ole Miss and the Laner knew that as soon as he got the kid’s letter.
I was initially offended he left out Kirby. But after reading the article, sounds like he’s a fan of some NFL players and picked the schools based on their alma maters.
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Yep. Honestly, PR is what Kiffin lives for I think. I can imagine his face lighting up and dropping whatever he had going on to make this call happen.
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Well, it sure is great you got over being offended by a 9-year-old’s choices!
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That kid’s a loser. How does Georgia not make his final four?
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TripleB,
Grades still matter. Word is on the grapevine …… aw hell this is just plain funny stuff and Laner outplayed his rivals. Dam good story thanks for sharing.
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He’s a prima donna … we didn’t want him. 5-star, my @$$.
😉
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“I mean, yeah, WTAF?” –law dawg
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The “Hotty Toddy” P.S. is classic!
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This kid has unwittingly put a TON of pressure on the entire Vol program. And I love it.
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Cool story.
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Seriously, Tennessee? You couldn’t even throw the kid a freebie ball cap or something?
Of course, remembering Danny White’s attitude while he was at UCF, White has probably decided the Vols are too good for such shenanigans.
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Kid’s a winner. Life is about relationships and you can see he already grasps that at nine! Too bad so many of our organizations shit on their relationships with customers, business associates, employees and anybody else they contact. Some people have it and others like McGoof and Coach Eddie Haskle down at Florida don’t. An organization only focusing on what they can get out of you ($$$) is begging you to transfer your allegiance elsewhere. One other thing; Go you Hairy DAWGS!
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His the kid officially signed on as a fan? Is Kirby working on another last minute flip?
Whenever I read anything about Ole Miss I still see mental images of Laremy Tunsil wearing his gas mask. Still happy he did not end up at Georgia.
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So Kiffin, wonder if Kiffin Googled the Mom before making the call?
Kiffin will probably send some tickets his way when Ole Miss plays ut because why not.
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ABC – always be closing and Joey Freshwater knows how to close. Mitch & Murray would definitely let him use the Glengarry leads.
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This whole post is why I love college football.
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