Kiffin Hire Is Great News for USC...Or Is It?

Read all about it! Read all about it! Lane Kiffin now the head coach of USC!

Lane Kiffin, who told the world about the future of Tennessee just 18 months ago, has now left the snowy Appalachians for the beautiful-if-a-little-in-debt rolling California hills, taking the job at the University of Southern California.

Kiffin turned around Tennessee in one respect, taking them back to a bowl game after a horrible 2008 year — although the game against Virginia Tech showed that the team had a lot to do. Kiffin is an ace recruiter and he's not a bad coach, which will mean that a lot of the "lost" recruits may as well come back to Cali.

The SEC is going to be lot more boring and congenial without you, Lane. No more yelling at Urban Meyer (that's another soap opera to look out for in 2010, kids), no more calling out the opposition, and no more guaranteeing victory. And Matt Barkley's quite frankly an upgrade to Jonathan Crompton — despite Crompton's seniority.

But here's the problem: Kiffin is not unknown to have recruiting violations. Hell, he self-reported most of them at UT, when he did everything for recruits except get an air force flyover. We need more "hostess" photos — anyone know where we can get the video?

And USC, at the moment, will be trying to keep its nose clean, with questions being asked about agents, Reggie Bush, and Joe McKnight.

Kiffin's "anything to get a recruit" philosophy may have worked in the SEC, but one can only doubt that after the mayhem of the last few years, one dumb mistake may cost Kiffin his job and the school its scholarships.

Good luck to him, though.