Life in the Fast Lane: Future of USC Has Little to Do with Kiffin

You can hear the voices from Knoxville to Los Angeles, from Tennessee orange to Trojan cardinal and gold. Seemingly everyone has something to say about Lane Kiffin bolting Tennessee after one season to become the head coach at USC, and they aren’t afraid to voice it.

As far as “major” coaching hires go, none in recent memory has garnered as much speculation, doubt, and discouraging words as this one.

The great supporters of Volunteer football were ready to take a wrecking ball to the football complex the moment they heard the news on Tuesday. Outside of the USC players, there aren’t many people thrilled about Kiffin bringing his act back to Southern California.

At best, most think it’s a huge risk by the Trojans, and at worst, most don’t understand any part of it.

But regardless of the uproar, I haven’t seen a head coaching hire have as little to do with the head coach as this one.

If you want to talk about hype and unfulfilled expectations, then yes, this is about Kiffin.

It feels like most people across the country take Kiffin as a bit of a joke. That is what usually happens when you walk into the most powerful conference in the country, the SEC, and start making accusations regarding the most significant coach, Urban Meyer, when you haven’t really accomplished anything in your young career.

To many, Kiffin is still in the “rookie” phase of his head coaching life. The only emotion he stirred up in Oakland was the disgruntled opinions he shared with Raiders’ owner Al Davis. The Black Hole ate up Kiffin before he could even think about building a winner.

Tennessee? That will look like a three-minute dream for Kiffin 15 years from now. Nobody will remember Kiffin as a Vol. 

But if you want to talk about the future of USC football and whether or not the program can sustain its high level of play after Pete Carroll left his Trojan throne to accept a job with the Seattle Seahawks, this has little to do with Kiffin. It has everything to do with the men behind Kiffin.

Look, Kiffin will be the face of the program because that’s what head coaches are. But when it comes to the actual football part, ideally, Kiffin will be more head delegator than head coach.

If Kiffin had to run this program largely on his own while managing the Hollywood-style hype that surrounds USC, he would probably fail miserably. But if all the right assistant pieces fall in place, this could be the start of another great Pac-10 run in Los Angeles.

It all starts with Ed Orgeron, assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator, who was already on campus watching film of USC recruits by Tuesday evening. Everywhere Orgeron has been, he has been a recruiting genius.

Orgeron was monumental in bringing in the great classes that buoyed Carroll’s reign, and he helped put together a Tennessee class that is currently ranked sixth in the country by ESPN.com’s Scouts Inc.

One of the biggest worries when Carroll left for Seattle was that the Trojans’ 11th ranked recruiting class would disperse to other programs across the country. That won’t happen with Orgeron. Don’t underestimate the power of a great recruiter.

Pete Carroll was a great head coach, but much of his success was due to the fact that he was a master recruiter. His personality, energy, and attitude are infectious. Coaches are only as good as their players.

Of course, some coaches are better than others, but Bill Belichick isn’t who is he today without Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, et al. That’s no knock on Belichick or anybody else, that’s just reality. If you want to run a five-star program, you better get your share of blue-chip prospects.

Kiffin will bring his father, Monte, with him to USC, and suddenly the Trojans have one of the great defensive minds on their side. Kiffin’s Tampa 2 defense should be implemented with ease considering USC is the type of program that attracts the best players and the best athletes.

In his Tampa 2 D, Kiffin stresses speed and turnovers. Speed and ball hawks at USC? Check and check.

USC’s defense was down in 2009 after being crushed by the NFL Draft. It has become the premier assembly line for NFL prospects on the defensive side of the ball.

And for the cherry on top? That would be Norm Chow. As of Wednesday afternoon, Chow had not resigned as offensive coordinator at UCLA to accept a job with USC, but ESPNLosAngeles’ Shelley Smith is reporting that Chow “is in the final stages of negotiations with USC.”

We won’t call this a done deal quite yet, but is there any question Chow wouldn’t want to join the men of Troy for another go around? Chow could very well enjoy his time in Westwood as part of UCLA’s staff, but USC is where Chow groomed Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

And, oh yeah, the Trojans happen to have another great young quarterback with unlimited potential in Matt Barkley and Chow would have at least two seasons with Barkley to make him the next great Trojan quarterback.

Chow has done this drill before, and Barkley is frothing at the mouth to be turned into a top pro prospect. By all accounts, Barkley has the talent, humbleness, and desire to reach expectations. Barkley even briefly considered the Bruins while still in high school all because of Chow. This marriage makes too much sense.

Sure, all of this needs to come together perfectly before USC can show up in the Rose Bowl next year, but Kiffin is only the name at the top taking the heat.

He will look like the head coach, he will act like the head coach, but when the doors close, he will merely be another guy among three other great assistants.

The best thing for USC may have been for Pete Carroll to stay.

The best thing for Lane Kiffin may have been to stick to one job and develop some credibility through performance before taking over one of the premier programs in college football.

But USC needs to move forward because Carroll isn’t coming back.

Don’t look at this hiring as Lane Kiffin alone. Considering the exceptional support Kiffin will have, the future for USC football should be very bright.

Kiffin’s only job is to stop ruffling feathers and providing bulletin board material.

You can reach Teddy Mitrosilis at [e-mail].