Lane Kiffin’s gone, and the Big Orange is mournin’
So how do you feel now, Vol fans? Your brash young coach is no longer your coach at all. The guy you defended whenever he committed one of his secondary violations, which was hourly; the guy you believed would recruit his way to the top of the SEC … well, he’s in the wind, and you’re up the creek.
This is what you get when you entrust your program to a brat. He hits town talking big, and he leaves you in a Big Orange lurch. Ten years from now — heck, 10 minutes from now — we’ll be looking on Lane Kiffin’s season in K-Town and saying, “What the heck was that?” Called Urban Meyer a cheat, choppered down on Georgia high school stadiums, smirked at every abrogation of NCAA bylaws and then … poof, he’s gone.
Like Keyser Soze. Gone so fast you wonder, “Was he here at all?”
What do you do now, Vol fans? Gonna go hire yourselves another fast talker? Jon Gruden, maybe? Gonna let your heart be broken by another guy with an eye on the escape hatch?
Say this for the guy deposed to make room for Kiffy: Phillip Fulmer was a loyal Volunteer. He won you a national title and two SEC championships and never ran off to California or Connecticut or anywhere in between. He wasn’t glib and goodness knows he wasn’t sleek, but by gosh he was a Vol. That orange jersey meant everything to him. (Heck, he wore the thing.) Know what it meant to Kiffin? A way back to L.A.
Apart from signing a few players and making a slew of enemies and beating Georgia by 26 points, what exactly did Kiffin do? His one and only team finished 7-6. And if you were looking for his second team to topple a Tebow-less (and perhaps Urban-less) Florida, you can forget it. There’ll be no second team. Just another coaching search, another new man, another season of transition. Only this time — surely — at lower volume.
I feel for you, Vol fans. You gave your hearts to the brat, and he tore them out and stomped those suckers flat. (Apologies to Lewis Grizzard.) He’s gone to Southern Cal with his lovely wife and his professorial dad and his henchman Ed Orgeron. And you’re sitting at home in Caryville and Oak Ridge and Sewanee and Chattanooga weeping tears of rejection.
Weep not, I say. Or at least not for long. For all the turmoil you’re about to undergo, yours is the luckier program. You’ll find yourselves a coach and go forward and try to forget this ever happened. The Trojans, meanwhile, have traded the NCAA scrutiny left in Pete Carroll’s wake for the heavier dose sure to come under Kiffy and Eddie O. And here’s the darnedest part: Nobody is yet sure if Kiffin the Younger can coach a lick. (Career record: 12-21.)
You can do better than him, Vol fans. You knew as much all along, but you let yourselves be charmed by glitz and brass and promises now rendered as empty as the West Town Mall on a day when the Vols are playing. Deep down you’ve known all along this would never work. Deep down you knew the proud program of Cafego and Atkins and White and Holloway and Majors and Gen. Neyland was never a place for a brat.
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1,115 comments Add your comment
Again, idiots with a big, huge 'I'
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
Anyone that would actually wish for Coach Richt to go anywhere else is an absolute boneheaded moron. I hate it for the Vols that their fans got taken in by the idiots of the university that were taken in by a spoiled, untested pretty boy who spent more time in front of the mirror than his wife. You had a good coach who was run off the first time he went through a little rough spot, similar to the idiots who would run Coach Richt off now. You want a coach with a really hot wife? Hire Kirby. You want a proven coach who can win? Go after Tuberville before he signs the contract. Or call Muschamp, no one really thinks he’s going to wait until Mack Brown retires to become a H.C, do they? Either way, ‘Lane the brat’ will combine his secondary violations with Pete Carroll’s major violations and make it awfully hard for the NCAA to continue to look the other way when it comes to USC. Either way……….HBTD
#1 UGAfan in ATL
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
how bout this, Kirby Smart goes to UT, then we can beat hm every year and make him regret not coming to the sec east and back to UGA
kerryb
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
Tenn fans relax. You will be better off in the long run. You had to see the trouble that was coming down the road with this guy. You have a great SEC program and a lot of good coaches will be lining up for that job. As a UGA fan I’m just glad we had one year of this knucklehead in the SEC. He did’nt belong here.
Al Davis
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
I told you so!!!
BAMA STAN
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
13 NATIONAL TITLES – 22 SEC TITLES!!!
NoGaGator – Excellent Post – and I would add that any schoalrship restrictions due to cheating follows a head coach to where ever he goes – even if hired as an assistant – for a 3 year period. After 3 years – nothing follows the coach.
Your thoughts NoGaGator – you seem to be on the ball.
ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL TIDE!!!
TNChick
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
Our AD treated Fulmer horribly- he is a good man and was a great coach for our school. His coaching staff (including Fulmer) got a little lazy towards the end of their run. TN fans have tons of respect for him, though. Unfortunately, I think a bridge was burned. I would love for him to come back and tear up the SEC with a renewed energy. Talk in Knoxville— Jon Gruden.
TDAWG
January 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
MB, they lose the HC and the DC. How can that not be be good for UGA? Get real.
Fat Guy in a little coat
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
Tennessee hires Mark Mangino and will pay him in corn chips.
Vince Dooley
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
Dead gum Techies……we’ll never be as good as them !!!
GT STILL IS A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
SABAN IS ON HIS WAY TO THE ROCKY TOP FOR 10 MILLS, LEAVING THE MNC TROPHY AT WAL MART. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
Since Vince
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
I bet Urban thought that was a trick question from ESPN Mr Bradley!
Gen Neyland
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
Way back in mah day we had a thing called loyalty. Seems to be a rarh, rarh quality amongst folks now.
Mark Bradley
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
What if Tennessee hires Bob Stoops? Is that good news for UGA?
Mark "Spray Tan" Richt
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
Hire me! Hire me! This po’dunk team I coach is going down faster than Jenna Jamison!
kerryb
January 12th, 2010
10:45 pm
Bama fans, your coaching search is coming next.
rook76
January 12th, 2010
10:46 pm
Petrino probably has his bags packed just in case
Baba O'Riley
January 12th, 2010
10:46 pm
This rekrootin season will be tough…but UT will come out with that “us against the world” mentality. I don’t think they will slip much.
kerryb
January 12th, 2010
10:46 pm
Enter your comments here
Ross
January 12th, 2010
10:46 pm
Good Lord – as a group, football coaches, with obvious exceptions, are some of the sorriest lowlifes to be found anywhere – they’ll cheat, lie, scheme, and dishonor themselves and the sport – and for what? What?? What is the GD point to be found in the actions of a Kiffin or a Petrino? Why would a grown man throw a chair? Punch a teenager? Lock a kid in a closet? What kind of people are WE that we regurgitate this half-digested human spew with such regularity? What kind of society is this where the homeless and their champions are reviled, while the Kiffins and Petrinos suck down fat checks? I could understand this sort of treatment for a Picasso or an Einstein or even a Thorpe or an Aaron. But Kiffen? He’s nothing but a miserable putz. What a f-ing world.
Booby Bowden
January 12th, 2010
10:47 pm
Dad gummit everyone is spoiling my send off party…..
Slobodan
January 12th, 2010
10:47 pm
Dawg’s need to get the linemen that commited to UT. Then they need to get some more linemen.
rook76
January 12th, 2010
10:47 pm
He’ll leave Fayetville in the dark of night….but he’ll leave a letter
willie martinez
January 12th, 2010
10:48 pm
lane said he loved rocky top
and the rest of the sec he’d mop
but soon he did flee
like a bird from a tree
and the vol chins went kerflop
GT STILL IS A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
January 12th, 2010
10:48 pm
THE LOSS OF KIFFIN IS NOT GOOD FOR UGA, BECAUSE SABAN AND SMART WILL GO TO THE VOLS AND REPEAT THEIR DRUBBING OF THE DAWGS WEARING ORANGE THIS TIME.
mike on lake hartwell
January 12th, 2010
10:48 pm
stoops would be bad for UGA
Vince Dooley
January 12th, 2010
10:48 pm
Dead gum it….we can’t beat Tennessee, we are light years away from having any National Championships like our big brother Tech…..we’ll always be nothing……dead gum it !!!
willie martinez
January 12th, 2010
10:48 pm
you really think they’d stoop to that?
Mike Leach
January 12th, 2010
10:49 pm
Does Tennessee have a toolshed? If so I am in!
Suspended SEC Officiating Crew
January 12th, 2010
10:49 pm
That ACC team named Virginia Tech taught the boy a lesson.
Is Lane and his daddy having a layover in beautiful Shreveport on the way to Southern Cal ?
Sir Stealth
January 12th, 2010
10:49 pm
Tennessee will offer Cutcliffe thinking he’s a sure thing, and Cutcliffe will turn them down to stay at Duke. And Tennessee will be embarrassed.
Since Vince
January 12th, 2010
10:49 pm
I bet its gonna be the bowden boys terry and tommy with mickey as DC at Tenn..
SAWB
January 12th, 2010
10:49 pm
Mark, its a shame I can’t pick up an Atlanta Constitution in the morning and read Lewis’ take on the goings on in Knoxville. I image as much as he’d poke fun at Big Orange, he’d also wonder what happened to the age where coaches were tough, honest and loyal.
Gen Neyland
January 12th, 2010
10:49 pm
Maak, who is this rather attractive young lass that keeps poppin up on this computa picture doohicky?
GT STILL IS A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
January 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
I WONDER WHAT CAN BE A BIGGER NEWS THAN SABAN LEAVING BAMA FOR THE VOLS.??????????? SABAN NEEDS TO OUTSHINE KIFFIN ANYWAY. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHHA
Fredo
January 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
Kiffin’s farewell address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0T3WAbU6tg
Go Vols.
Sonny Clusters
January 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
Mark, we knew Lewis a little bit. He was always friendly to us, too. Nothing mean spirited about him. He and Ludlow talked with us one day. He had his cousins for an entourage and they drove him places. When he arrived it was a big deal. We also knew Piney Woods Pete a little bit but that is another story.
hind tit
January 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
we been at each others throats eversence kiffin got here. let’s hugg and makeup
Mike Slive
January 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
Mark, have you seen my lifesavers??
Vince Dooley
January 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
darn it…….Mark Richt just called said he’s getting the heck outta the sess pool of the south, and headed to Rocky Top, dead gum it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ptc dawg
January 12th, 2010
10:51 pm
This is unbelievable. I have some good friends who bleed Big Orange and I really feel for them now. I can’t believe that the UT AD was seduced by the Devil.
As Keyser Soze would say “The Devil’s greatest trick was to make us think he didn’t exist”
Maybe Keyser Kiffin will stay in Californication and we will look up one day and poof , he will be gone. Again.
Gridiron Gator
January 12th, 2010
10:51 pm
Yesterdays Hero…Todays bastard!!…According to the KNS, fans gathered at his press conference and were cussing Kiffy Boy out…so much so, they had to call the cops! We tried to tell you Vol fans, BUT YOU WOULDN’T LISTEN!!!!!!!
son_sir
January 12th, 2010
10:51 pm
In the long term, this is the best thing to happen to UT. This guy has a classic case of Narcissistic personality disorder if I’ve ever seen it. UT will be the better for his departure. He was well on his way to making Knoxville, Outlaw Central. I hope he falls flat on his face in the spotlight at USC. Paul Carroll had some class. This guy has none. The Trojans will live to regret this move.
Fred
January 12th, 2010
10:51 pm
Al Gore to coach Vols. Tenn to play only day games in silk robes.
Relax Tech Fans
January 12th, 2010
10:52 pm
I don’t think there are many Big Time Programs that want Paul Johnson.
candler
January 12th, 2010
10:52 pm
hahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahaha
what a spoiled brat… i woulda liked to see him get torched in athens next year!
willie martinez
January 12th, 2010
10:52 pm
so, so happy for Richt. the dc search looks like a walk in the park compaired to this.
Lilburn Dawg
January 12th, 2010
10:52 pm
Guess Kiffin proved himself correct…….UGA will never beat Tenn while he is there!!
Will Rogers
January 12th, 2010
10:53 pm
I actually never met this Kiffin guy.
JESUP
January 12th, 2010
10:53 pm
Man football is over but this here coaching reality stuff is great, …….Urban affair with a student…..Kiffin train derailed….makes it look like our DC position problems look small…..we need to steal recruits…..its a dawg eat dog world…
hind tit
January 12th, 2010
10:54 pm
leach i been growin one fer forty years