Lane Kiffin seems to be skirting the boundaries of normality when it comes to running a college football program. First, Kiffin trash talks and makes unfounded accusations of cheating toward rival coaches.
Then, he goes about building his team by throwing out common sensibilities and allowing certain, shall we say, characters, to attend the University of Tennessee on a football scholarship.
His staff also reflects his "screw-the-rules approach" to college football.
To start with, he brings in Ed Orgeron as his chief of staff, so to speak. Coach "O" is a man who was accused of domestic violence in Florida and battery stemming from a bar fight in Louisiana. He was said to have ripped his shirt off while coach at Ole Miss and challenged anyone on the team to take him on.
Kiffin then decides to allow Daniel Hood, who participated in the rape and sodomy of a 14-year-old girl, to join the Volunteers, and now, there are rumors that former Miami Hurricane's quarterback, Robert Marve, will transfer to Tennessee.
Marve, who has already had a brush with the authorities in Florida, doesn't feel the need to attend classes much of the time, and now wants to transfer to the SEC's version of the Oakland Raiders, and who can blame him? He will fit right in.
Someone needs to ask Lane Kiffin this question.
What are you trying to do in Knoxville—put together the University of Tennessee's version of The Dirty Dozen?
For those of you not familiar with the original Dirty Dozen, it was a feature film released in 1967. It starred a bunch of renegade actors playing a bunch of renegade soldiers in World War II.
In the film, the army needed a group of disposable soldiers to send on a suicide mission against a well fortified German position to kill as many of the Nazi leadership as possible.
Someone at H.Q. came up with the idea of using misfits and criminals to do the job. They were called The Dirty Dozen!
For the purposes of my remake of this classic, Lee Marvin who played Major Reisman, a loose cannon that doesn't follow the rules, will be played by Kiffin.
Playing the part of Col. Everett Dasher Breed, played by Robert Ryan in the original, will be played by Tennessee's Athletic Director Mike Hamilton. Breed was hoodwinked and played for a fool by Marvin's/Kiffin's character—I think that says it all.
Finally, Orgeron will be playing Ernest Borgnine's part as General Worden just because they look and act so much alike to me. Checkout Coach "O" at 40 seconds into this clip.
Really, I think Coach "O" should play the part of Archer Maggott, played by Telly Savalas, because they are both crazy. Checkout Archer Maggott at 2 minutes 30 seconds into this clip.
General Worden would of course be played by Monte Kiffin because he is the one who is actually in charge in Knoxville right now.
The Dirty Dozen will be played by the Tennessee Volunteers football team.
Major Reisman was ordered to gather and train 12 misfit soldiers who were drummed out of every decent outfit in the army. He trained them for a suicide mission, and they were given the choice of prison or possible death.
Their motto was, train them, excite them, arm them, and turn them loose on the Nazis. Kiffin's motto should be, train them, excite them, arm them and turn them loose on campus.
In my version, it will not be the recruits who are on the suicide mission, it will be the University of Tennessee.
You see, I believe Kiffin is gathering every misfit player he can find to accomplish his mission, and just like in the movie The Dirty Dozen, consequences be damned!
Kiffin arrived at Tennessee just the way Marvin's character arrived at Head Quarters—brash and cocky. He has been given a mission to succeed, with no restraints and very few rules he was asked to follow.
All joking aside, it is obvious that Kiffin has done a lot of trash talking, and I am beginning to wonder if it has maybe started to sink, in that he didn't have the players to back it up. I believe that to be the case because he now seems willing to take every misfit and prima donna he can lay his hands on in an attempt to save face.
Maybe Tennessee fans believe they can take all these chances and not get burned. The truth is...the more rejects, misfits, and prima donnas you put in one place, the more likely something can and will go wrong.
When you accept players like Bryce Brown—who already has an entourage and a manager—and Hood, an admitted accomplice in a rape and sodomy, it might seem there is nothing that would keep Kiffin from offering a player a scholarship.
Now, it seems as though the troubled Hurricanes' quarterback may be headed to the one team that all the misfits are now flocking to. Players that have worn out their welcome at other schools are seeing Tennessee as a place of rehab and second chances.
Monte and son are playing with fire, and the University of Tennessee is the one that will get burned when things go wrong and they will.
The Kiffins don't seem to be trying to build a football program at Tennessee, they seem to be building this one team.
In the NFL where football is a business, troublemakers and athletes of low character are accepted in order to succeed in the short term. I believe the Kiffins are taking the NFL approach to building their team, rolling the dice and letting it ride hoping for the jackpot so they can rake it in and move on.
What ever damage they might do will be left for someone else to clean up after they are gone.
Make no mistake about it, it is Lane's father Monte that is in charge at Tennessee, if you believe Lane is in charge then you have never had a father.
When Terry Bowden was at Auburn, he often called his dad (Bobby Bowden) for advice. When Mike Shula was at Alabama, he called upon his dad (Don Shula) for guidance. Make no mistake about it, Monte has the last word at Tennessee.
Putting all the rotten eggs in one basket could lead to big problems for the Vols. It is trouble just waiting for a time and place to happen.
It happened at Miami in the 80s and 90s, more recently it has happened at Florida State.
Now it could happen at Tennessee, if Kiffin continues to assemble Tennessee's version of The Dirty Dozen.
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