Thursday, January 14, 2010

Laaaaaaaane Kiffin

Laaaaaane f--kin' Kiffin (link NSFW) is the new football coach at USC. You may have heard this news break in the last 48 hours, provided you follow sports and/or don't live under a rock. While this has been met with some mild criticism in certain regions of the south...and...the rest of the country, including southern California. Here's what we know.

He brings in a legit staff with his dad and Orgeron. There was talk that he was trying to bring in Norm Chow to be his offensive coordinator, and from the start, I thought that was about as likely as me leaving the David James Agency to go become the sports information director at Crespi. Tomorrow.

To USC: Yes, there are NCAA secondary violations on his record from Tennessee. Yes, there are questions about his experience. We may even lose a handful of games next year. I know...God forbid. But will everyone please just calm down? We're turning this thing into the Salem Witch Trials all over again. Wait and see what happens before you go into a panic. If you're a real fan, you support your program. If you don't like the hire, fine. That's fair, but you're not in charge. Your choices are to either accept it, or abandon ship. If you're even considering abandoning ship, do it. We don't want you anyway, if that's the case.

To Tennessee: There is only one group of characters in this whole soap opera for whom I feel bad. The Tennessee football players. They got thrown under the bus. Plain and simple. But the fans who are rioting on the street and the athletic department that had jettisoned Phillip Fulmer the year before have no reason to expect loyalty. This is division I athletics. This is how things work. Never again will we see another Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno...at least not at that high profile of a program.

I said it to Trojan fans when the news first broke. Stop acting like a psycho ex-girlfriend. Colin Cowherd used a similar analogy on his show this morning: Tennessee is bent because Lane Kiffin dumped them before they could dump him. The end. That's it.

Don't feed me, a former D1 athlete, some line about loyalty in NCAA athletics. It, like the rest of the world, bows to the almighty dollar. And the almighty dollar comes from wins and marketability. That's what it's about. You want loyalty? Get a dog. Truth.

2 comments:

  1. What? You won't be the SID at Crespi tomorrow? Weird. Also, I'd like to come on board the ship--I'll gladly take a disloyal fan's spot. Cardinal and garnet are definitely in the same color family.

    More seriously, I feel for the athletes at Tennessee, but as you say, the days of coaches staying long term at big time schools are over. To make a coach, especially one who has recently moved around a bit, your reason for choosing a program is short-sighted.

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