Tennessee's Lane Kiffin Needs To Hire a Real Offensive Coordinator

(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

I would imagine by now Tennessee fans are beginning to question Lane Kiffin's ability as not only a head coach, but also his ability as an offensive coordinator.

I know Kiffin is not the official offensive coordinator, but everyone knows who's calling the shots. Kiffin should either hire someone who he trusts and is comfortable running the offense or give Jim Chaney a real chance to show what he can do.

Watching Tennessee's offense is painful and embarrassing, and watching Kiffin force his incompetent quarterback to make throws he isn't capable of making is just pitiful.

Knowing that you have NFL caliber running backs but insisting on putting the game on your shaky quarterback's shoulders would be the same as having a NFL caliber quarterback and still insisting to run dive plays over the middle with your overweight Fullback.

Anyone who knows anything about football knows you play to you strengths and try to hide your weaknesses. 

There were questions about whether Lane Kiffin made a name by coaching USC's powerful offense and I believe those questions are being answered as Tennessee's misery continues under Kiffin's leadership.

USC had a great offense before Kiffin took over and they still had one the day after he left.

There have been a few head coaches that were able to pull off the head coach/offensive coordinator job at the same time, but Kiffin is not capable of doing both. 

Many are beginning to wonder if he can do either?

Alabama had the same problem when Mike Shula tried to hold both jobs while at Alabama. He, like Kiffin, had an official offensive coordinator, but everyone knew who was calling the plays and making the game plan.

Many blame Tennessee's quarterback for these problems and to a certain degree that is true. I would remind those people that Crompton was a five star recruit and an All-American coming out of high-school. What does Kiffin need  a fleet of NFL caliber receivers and a six star, All-World quarterback in order to score points?

It sounds like Kiffin is making excuses to me? The question still remains, why does Kiffin continue to play him and who is calling these plays that they say he can't execute?

Smart head coaches play to the strengths of their teams and good Offensive Coordinators should do the same.

Tennessee has a sound running game and Kiffin would be wise to use it to keep his team in the game while throwing higher percentage passes to keep Tennessee's opponents off balance. That along with Monte's solid defense would have this team in every game.

It would have been good strategy especially against a team like Auburn that uses its fast pace offense to wear down your defense.

Lane Kiffen should follow Auburn's Head Coach Gene Chizik's lead and give up his coordinator's headset and just try to be Tennessee's head coach. He needs to stop pretending he knows how to call plays or build an offense—because it is obviously not his strong suit.

Mike Shula's stubbornness in wanting to be the play caller eventually cost him his job at Alabama and I predict Kiffin will not be at Tennessee for long if he continues to try to do both jobs.

Kiffin is barely a head coach and barely an offensive coordinator and by trying to be both he is setting himself up for disaster. When you try to do two jobs at the same time, you often will fail at both.

His overblown ego will likely not let him do the right thing. If that happens, Tennessee will end up staying at the bottom of the SEC rankings and continue looking anemic as an offense.

Even Monte Kiffin is starting to look a little frustrated with the way things are going.

Maybe he can talk some sense into his son and make him realize that it is the best interest of Tennessee and all involved if he would just stick to clapping his hands and trying to look like a head coach and just stay away from Chaney's offense completely.

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