USC announced the hiring of Lane Kiffin as their next head coach Tuesday night just two days after Pete Carroll officially tendered his resignation. Kiffin, a former USC assistant, leaves Tennessee just 14 months after taking over for Phill Fulmer and with just three weeks remaining until Signing Day.
Reports have also said that Kiffin is bringing his father, Monte, as his defensive coordinator along with fellow former USC assistant Ed Orgeron with him from his Tennessee staff.
ESPN’s Shelly Smith has also reported that former USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow could be on his way back to USC in the same capacity after spending the past two seasons in the same capacity at USC’s cross town rival UCLA.
Wow.
Let that all sink in for a little.
Should Chow be officially announced as part of the USC staff along with the Kiffins and Orgeron, the Trojans will once again have a very formidable staff in terms of both coaching and recruiting. Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron are both considered to be elite recruiters and Monte Kiffin and Norm Chow are among the best coordinators in football.
Earlier Tuesday it was reported that Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio, thought to be the front runner as of Monday night, would be staying in the Jacksonville. This led most to believe that USC was going to be scrambling to put together a staff. Just a few hours later it appears as though the Trojans not only have most of their staff in place, but also have assembled an all star supporting cast for their new head coach.
Most Notre Dame fans had hoped that the Irish could benefit in recruiting from USC’s coaching search, but Tuesday’s news could put a damper on those hopes. Kiffin is known as an elite recruiter and could be able to hold USC’s impressive class together assuming he can convince recruits that any looming NCAA sanctions won’t be major.
Notre Dame is still recruiting Kyle Prater (USC commit), Seantrel Henderson, Dietrich Riley, and Dion Bailey among other recruits that are either committed to USC or heavily considering them. How the Kiffin hire affects Notre Dame’s chances with each is unknown at this point.
Considering how quickly Kiffin took every chance he could to take shots at Tennessee’s rival Florida and their head coach Urban Meyer, the Notre Dame-USC rivalry could even a little more interesting. With Kiffin and Brian Kelly both heading into their first years at their respected schools, it seems likely that the two will forever be linked and compared to each other in the storied rivalry.
I really don’t think Kiffie’s minor infractions at TN mean a thing. That’s the way it is in the SEC. You’ve got to play the game to be competitive. I’m not saying it’s right, but If I’m a coach in a conterence where everyone else is pushing the limits, I’ll work the grey area all day long. You can’t say Kiffin represents everything that is wrong with college football without saying the SEC represents everything that is wrong with college football.
Kiffin and USC deserve each other. Hopefully, Kiffin will take the fall for vainglorious Pete. Integrity is not Kiffin’s calling card with Pete as his mentor.
Lane Kiffin represents everything that is wrong in college football. Here is a guy with a loosing record as a head coach yet he spouts off like a little punk bitch. He’s a pimp. He uses young girls (Hostesses as he calles them) to rub elbows(and a whole lot more!) with high school seniors that he happends to be recruiting. He’s a liar and a cheat. He doesn’t give a rats ass about the kids who play for him. Then agian he doesn’t give a rats ass about the people at Tennessee who stuck their neck out for the little gutter bum and gave him a chance at one of the top football colleges in the nation, or the NFL team that trusted him. To all the Tennessee fans, you’re better off without him.
What loving, caring, concerned parent would even for a moment, consider handing over their son and his college career to lane Kiffin.
Hell you would get better results if he was coached by Snoop Dogg. At least the Dogg is up front. With him you know your kid will spend most of his time treating woman like gargage, talking smack, and burning blounts.
Same things happends with Kiffin, he just stands in your house, lies to your face about it, and flashes his fake smile the whole time.
Somehow you just know some poor kid is going to buy into his flim-flam
and end up with his life in ruins. And that’s the sad part of it all. The people that get used.
Kiffin had problems at UT. How many of his players were arreseted for doing something stupid. He also left in a short period of time. I don’t think it will be a great hire. He will have trouble and USC will have some recruiting violations. He made three of them at UT and had to address those issues. I like Kelly and I think that he will do fine at ND. USC has always been able to get talent, we will see if Lane can win.
I loved to hate Pete Carroll, I will love to hate Lane Kiffen. He is a perfect fit for USC. Make no mistake, he will take cheap shots at ND before the season starts and he will pretend that he was the one that beat up on us over the last 8 years taking all the credit. All ND fans will want to punch him in the mouth, which is great motivation for our team. It’s almost good vs evil anymore. It will be fun.
You got admit that ND does it right and I take great pride in that.
nice guys always finish last.
still i’m proud of the way ND does it.
U$C will be better than ever now.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
I wouldn’t say they will be better than ever. Carroll was a major reason for their success and while the potential staff that Kiffin is building is formidable, it will still come down to his ability to run the team and keep that staff working together. Remember, we all thought that Weis’s first staff was excellent and that didn’t work out too well for us.
I don’t think any top coach would take that kob right now. You want to be the guy who comes in after the NCAA sanctions are almost over. And Kiffin won’t clean the program up. That’s one thing you could say about Butch Davis.
USC is on the brink of being handed a series of penalties due to their numerous recruiting and coaching duty violations. Given the tone of the last couple days with the Carroll/Bates rumors of tenuring a deal with the seattle seahawks and a number of USC juniors declaring for the draft???I question the suspicious timing of these lastest headlines. Furthermore, the NCAA was gracious to Bobby Bowden given his last game as coach for FSU was not mired with the painfully reality that their latest penalties handed down to Florida State would result in Mr Bowden having to forfeit 14 of his school’s football games. (Too bad 93′ wasn’t included the irish would have another National Championship which should have been ND’s anyway fn BC). Also, the OJ mayo thing at SC isn’t just a coincidence…NO> Mr Floyd saw what Mr Carroll was doing and said,’hell we why not do what he’s doing?’…Afterall, nobody cares about SC’z basketball program..Well Mr floyd…the little guy that does care Just handed you a 3 year probation sentence including post season play and schlorship reductions. And that’s just your AD…Wait till Mr NCAAz your ass// So to conclude: I leave you with an article from none other than the lib fruits and nuts paper we call out here the LA’d times:
Los Angeles Times reports.
Pete Rodriguez, who has coached for several professional teams, told the Times that he attended USC practices, monitored games and offered Carroll behind-the-scenes advice on matters ranging from improving individual players’ performance to avoiding penalties during punt returns.
“I would watch practice and tell Pete, ‘Hey, this guy needs this and this,’ ” Rodriguez said. He said he believed that his work complied with National Collegiate Athletic Assn. regulations
The NCAA is exploring whether Carroll’s employment of Rodriguez was in violation of rules that limit the number of coaches and consultants a team can use.
“That’s coaching,” J. Brent Clark, a onetime NCAA investigator who practices law in Oklahoma, told the Times when told of Rodriguez’s statements. “The rules are designed to level the playing field for all institutions regardless of the size of their budgets. It would make no sense for the rich and powerful to be able to compensate coaches with NFL backgrounds outside the coaching-limitation rules.”
If using Rodriguez does constitute a violation, that could widen an already active NCAA inquiry that’s exploring allegations that the football team gave improper benefits to two players, and that the university has lost “institutional control” of its athletics department as a whole.
The NCAA has been looking at the USC football and basketball programs for three years.
Furthermore,
Report: Reggie bush has submitted sworn testimony to be made public this month. Reggie Bush has submitted testimony during the bye week of the N.O. saints playoff schedule. This was released December 29th which many believe will indict the entire USC football program for numberous recruiting violations…IE Just the tip of the iceberg.
New York times report:
An appellate court ruling in a long-running lawsuit against Reggie Bush opens the door for Bush and USC Coach Pete Carroll to be questioned about whether the running back received cash and gifts while playing for the Trojans.
The decision, released Monday, represents the latest development in a suit brought by would-be sports marketer Lloyd Lake, who claims he gave cash and gifts to Bush and his family beginning around late 2004.
The state court upheld an earlier decision blocking an attempt by Bush’s attorneys to force the suit into confidential arbitration.
“This will play out in open court for the public to see,” said Brian Watkins, who is Lake’s attorney.
An appellate court ruling in a long-running lawsuit against Reggie Bush opens the door for Bush and USC Coach Pete Carroll to be questioned about whether the running back received cash and gifts while playing for the Trojans.
@coz to say the ncaa is going to bring the hammer is laughable. what have they done since the death penalty of smu? in my eyes, the ncaa is a joke, wool pulled over our eyes, the illusion of authority, etc.
@frank what usc has done here is slapped the ncaa in the face with a white glove by hiring 2 coaches with recruiting “shortcut” tactics in lane and orgeron while being investigated for loss of institutional control. to say they are “elite” is part of the problem in college football. what seems like “elite” is really violations in both of their cases.
I do think the NCAA will bring the hammer down. Look this is good marketing. Everyone turned a blind eye when it happened. The guy who did it, ( although Garrett is culpable too ), has been purged. The NCAA can save some credibility by slamming USC. USC’s marketablity was waining anyway. So now in 3 to 5 years, the NCAA hopes for some resurrection and new marketing of a Los Anageles based team. Both the NCAA AND USC betrayed us all, but the NCAA has turned on USC and will save it’s own credibility at USC’s expense. USC deserves alll that’s coming and more. But don’t think the whole thing isn’t being orchestrated by the NCAA. That’s what makes it almost predictable.
Probation Probation Probation now we know USC will never have a player with a GPA higher than 1.9. This could become the recreation of thug U.
Now ND and USC both have terrific coaches. The rivalry is officially back!!! YES!