Lane Kiffin Demonstrates College Football's Need for the Rooney Rule

Now let me preface this by saying that this is not about Lane Kiffin, who actually did show enough at Tennessee to demonstrate that he has the potential to become a good head coach (though he isn't there yet). Instead, it is the issue that Kiffin raises. 

Lane Kiffin became offensive coordinator at Southern Cal, at the time the No. 1 college football program in the country, not because of his experience (he was 29) or his qualifications (he had none) but because he was Monte Kiffin's son, and Pete Carroll is a friend of Monte Kiffin.

Lane Kiffin became the youngest head coach of an NFL team despite being barely 30 and lacking any head coaching experience on any level because Pete Carroll vigorously recommended him. (And Kiffin did a terrible job with the Raiders, hiring a terrible staff and trying to impose the west coast offense—the only offense that he knows—on personnel that didn't fit it, and the talented defense regressed significantly under Kiffin.)

After getting fired by the Raiders, he was hired to coach the University of Tennessee, one of the top-three programs in the SEC, and replace a national championship winning, future Hall of Fame coach. Why?

Because of USC and Raiders' positions that he got for being Monte Kiffin's son, because Monte Kiffin agreed to leave the NFL to serve on his son's staff, and because Kiffin was able to stock the Tennessee job with several other cronies, including a relative from the South Carolina staff and Ed Orgeron from USC.

And at the age of 34, after a 7-6 season at Tennessee that included as many missteps as positives, he gets the USC head coaching job. Why? Because Pete Carroll hired him to be an assistant and even ran off Norm Chow to advance his career because he was his friend Monte Kiffin's son.

Because he got head coaching experience in the NFL because Pete Carroll recommended him (Al Davis is a HUGE Trojans fan, and he hired Kiffin because he couldn't get the guy that he really wanted, which was Carroll, and Kiffin actually fired the head coach prior to Kiffin because Kiffin was angry over his refusal to draft Matt Leinart).

Because he got the Tennessee job due to his experience at USC, with the Raiders, and because Monte Kiffin agreed to be his defensive coordinator. And because Monte Kiffin and a bunch "getting the band back together" former USC assistants will be on his staff.

And oh yes, because Pete Carroll heavily lobbied for it.

In other words, Kiffin owes his entire advancement to being a legacy. That is the very opposite of anything resembling a meritocracy. Yet, where are Rush Limbaugh and the other defenders of meritocracy from affirmative action, political correctness, multiculturalism, etc. on this issue? 

Can you imagine what Limbaugh and fellow travelers would be saying if Kiffin were BLACK? Limbaugh's ripostes against Donovan McNabb would be MILD by comparison.

Still, Kiffin is only part of a much larger issue. Look at the college football world and the NFL. Bobby, Tommy, Terry and Jeff Bowden. Bob, Mike, and Mark Stoops. Buddy, Robby, and Rex Ryan. Jim and James Harbaugh. Don, Mike, and Dave Shula. Bo and Carl Pelini. Marty and now Brian Schottenheimer. Jim Mora (father and son). The children and siblings of current and former coaches...it goes on and on and on. Meritocracy? Please.

Tommy, Terry, and Jeff Bowden failed spectacularly, so did Mike and Dave Shula, Jim Mora's son has been fired twice already. And that is really just the tip of the iceberg. And those are just the legacies, not the old boy network.

And the most amazing thing: This reminds me of a comment from Jamie Foxx. After discussing the many barriers that he faced as a black actor, he then went on to state that it was actually tougher for white actors to find work. The same is increasingly true for talented white coaches who aren't legacies and don't have powerful connections.

If you are a talented black coach, you have people advocating for you (the Black Coaches Association) and channels you can go through to advance your career.

Case in point: Turner Gill.

It can rather fairly be said that Gill's chances of advancing beyond position coach in college football were slim. But the NFL has an affirmative action recruitment and training program for black coaches (which predates the Rooney Rule) that got Gill a position and administrative coaching job with the Green Bay Packers. 

A job he parlayed into becoming head coach of the Buffalo Bulls, which was clearly the worst Division I-A program in the country—one who actually shouldn't be playing football in the first place, and whose last bowl berth was in the 1950s and what many people felt would be a bad, career killing move for any coach—and made them competitive within two years.

Now, two years later, he is head coach of a Big 12 program in Kansas. This is a guy who, before entering the NFL's affirmative action program for black coaches couldn't even get a losing Division I-AA program in his home state of Texas to hire him.

However, if you are a white coach, there is no White Coaches Association. There are no affirmative action training programs in college or the NFL. So if you are not a legacy and have no old boy network connections, you are stuck. One case in point: Norm Chow. He basically made Pete Carroll what he was at USC and now is being begged to prop up Kiffin. Chow was turned down for the Stanford, Syracuse, and Kentucky jobs, and even some mid-majors have passed on him.

A couple more: John Chavis and Bill "Brother" Oliver, two excellent long-term SEC coordinators whose defenses led their teams to national titles. What they must think of how Will Muschamp could have been the head coach of Tennessee at age 38 if he wanted the job (and he reportedly turned the job down last year, as well) and how Kirby Smart at age 34 will be leading a major program this year or next.

Their problem? Not having the recommendations of kingmakers like Nick Saban, who apparently prefers molding young assistants whose career advancement he can then take credit for.

Obviously, the hiring for head coaching jobs in the NFL and for the top jobs in college have nothing to do with meritocracy.

Getting rid of this legacy/good old boy network system in college football and the NFL would not only benefit qualified black coaches, but would actually benefit even more white coaches, just as (and this is a statistically proven fact that even opponents of the policy concede) affirmative action has helped more white people advance (often but not exclusively, white women) than blacks. And if this means the Rooney rule, so be it!

To those of you who oppose the Rooney rule and similar measures: What do you propose to make college and NFL football hiring a meritocracy—the American way, right?—instead of a legacy/old boy network aristocracy? Don't talk about "let the free market handle it" nonsense.

The NFL and college football are rolling in record profits, further they benefit from a "socialist" revenue sharing system where a few can go out and earn money for everybody else. In college football in particular, some programs—like USC!—have such advantages that the legacy/old boy network hires don't even have to be the best or the most qualified.

Case in point: Mike DuBose actually won an SEC title at Alabama despite being totally incompetent and getting the program the most severe NCAA sanctions since SMU got the death penalty. And yes, that is precisely what is being said about Lane Kiffin.

"He is putting together a staff of great assistants, including his father! And it's USC, where he will always have a huge talent advantage over practically everyone else!" Now I am not saying that Kiffin will never be a good coach, just that it is mighty revealing that even his most ardent backers admit that he did not get a top three job in college football on individual merit. (For instance, what if Norm Chow doesn't come after all?)

Bottom line: If the Rooney rule haters are satisfied with a legacy/good old boy hiring process that blocks the advancement of more qualified candidates of all races—White, Black, Hispanic (please recall that Rich Rodriguez was passed over for the Tulane job, and Tulane has had nothing but a string of bad coaches and losing seasons since), Asian, you name it—then you are nothing but a hypocrite.

Or maybe you were a huge fan of the Cincinnati Bengals and Alabama Crimson Tide back when they were being coached by Shula progeny.