Don't Cry for Tennessee: Vols Deserve What They Got!

I know, I am supposed to be outraged at Lane Kiffin, or at the very least sympathize with the Tennessee fans and bemoan the cutthroat culture that college football should become.

But you know what? Tennessee fans deserve what they are getting right now. The program will rebound, but they deserve to spend a few years in the wilderness.

No, I am not saying that Philip Fulmer should have never been fired. Fulmer, by his own admission, went into cruise control after winning the 1998 national title. His personal recruiting effort lagged.

He allowed other universities to raid his staff without either battling to keep them or trying to replace them with guys that were as good or better.

Also, because Fulmer seemed intent on establishing a reputation as an offense guy apart from David Cutcliffe, his handling that side of the ball was a long-running disaster, from his stubborn refusal to fire Randy Sanders (Fulmer and Sanders ridiculously tried recruiting California QBs and putting in a complex pro-style offense!) to the spread offense disaster in Fulmer's last year. So, it was time for Fulmer to go.

Instead, the problem was the thought process that led to the Lane Kiffin hire, which was dominated by one thing: jealousy. Intense, insane, deep hateful jealousy.

Tennessee fans were envious to the core of the program that Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer built at Florida. It is true, Alabama was their main historical rival. However, Tennessee fans never deceived themselves about not being Alabama, even when Fulmer was owning the Crimson Tide in the 1990s.

But the idea that they were the No. 2 program in the SEC behind Alabama was very important to them, and it was very helpful that other programs like Auburn, Georgia, LSU etc. either couldn't get over the hump or maintain success when they did.

Then comes Spurrier and after him Meyer, who not only blew right past Tennessee but actually built a long-term viable program that can challenge Alabama for the long term. That sent Tennessee folks into a rage at having lost their cherished position.

The result: Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer were not merely guys who happened to be better coaches than the ones that they currently had at a program with more inherent advantages than theirs.

No, Spurrier and Meyer were bad, evil people, despicable human beings. Further, their location gave them an unfair competitive advantage, and HOW DARE they blatantly utilize it!

That was why after firing Fulmer (which had to be done) Tennessee's AD couldn't just hire a qualified, established known quantity who could have easily used the immense advantages of the Volunteer program to build up a contender the right way and over time.

The Volunteer fan base, rabid in their hatred of Florida, wouldn't allow it. 

First off, they denied that Tennessee was this definite top 15 and possibly even top 10 program with great tradition, facilities, alumni support and proven ability to get great talent not only from SEC country but other regions. Instead, to hear Volunteer fans tell it, they were Purdue or Wake Forest.

That allowed them to claim that they needed to take extreme measures, to think out of the box, to throw a Hail Mary pass to become a contender. (Never mind that Tennessee had the talent to win four titles under Johnny Majors and three under Fulmer, and the failure to do so was bad luck and less than excellent coaching.)

It also allowed them to take an "ends justifies the means" attitude. It was needed to overcome their oh so great disadvantages that left their heads barely above water (that even during Fulmer's decline Tennessee still played in 3 SEC title games this decade, just ignore little facts like that!) and especially to put an end to Florida's evil.

Of course, it was all nonsense. They didn't want a very capable and qualified guy with a plan to build a contending program in six or seven years. (The fact that it took Spurrier seven years to win a national title where it only took Fulmer six ... don't mention that to these people!)

They wanted a guy who promised to start beating Meyer and winning national titles IMMEDIATELY, NO MATTER WHAT IT TOOK.

Enter Lane Kiffin. He promises to give Tennessee exactly what they wanted: a "press the envelope" approach to recruiting to help the program that was consistently top 5 in producing NFL players address its chronic severe talent deficiencies, an "anything goes" PR campaign to get a forgotten program that had finished No. 12 in the country and had only SEVEN NATIONALLY TELEVISED GAMES two years previously back into the national consciousness, and best of all bring on his father Monte Kiffin to rebuild a terrible defense that had ONLY finished THIRD IN THE NATION the prior year.

(That Tennessee's defense went from No. 3 under John Chavis to No. 28 under Monte Kiffin sort of escaped the attention of Volunteer fans UNTIL THE KIFFINS WENT TO USC!)

And while Kiffin was at Tennessee, he gave the Volunteers exactly what they wanted. Not so much the great recruiting, as the Vols really recruited no better under Kiffin than they did when Fulmer and Majors were at the top of their games, or than any capable and qualified coach would have.

(The Tennessee fans who were so thrilled over Kiffin's No. 10 class in 2009 conveniently forgot that Fulmer got the No. 3 class in 2007 and the No. 4 class in 2005.)

Not so much big wins or great victories, as Tennessee didn't beat a single ranked team under Kiffin and actually lost to two unranked ones.

Nope, what they liked about Kiffin was his tactics and his statements. They LOVED Kiffin's determination to steal key recruits from his rivals, even if it resulted in Kiffin's signing kids that he knew didn't fit into his system and happened because Kiffin made promises of early playing time that were unrealistic.

They CHEERED Kiffin's going after mercenary recruiters from other programs instead of trying to find the best guys for developing talent and building the program. (Kiffin actually tried to get a longtime defensive coach from Georgia to switch to a key offensive position coach simply to sabotage Georgia's recruiting.)

Why? Because when you are motivated by jealousy, it really is more about tearing the other guy down than building yourself up, isn't it?

That's why even Kiffin's amazing claim that he took the NCAA reprimands over his recruiting violations "as a compliment" was embraced and defended despite everyone knowing that the NCAA loves to hammer brazen scofflaws and almost certainly has its own separate operation to deal with the oft-troubled SEC.

But what they REALLY loved was Kiffin's running his mouth. His endless stream of vicious, vile statements against other SEC coaches and programs (not to mention the typical bigoted cultural/class broadsides that outsiders always aim towards the South ... I guess Tennessee fans considered themselves not to be southern or something, well know they know different I suppose!), they ate it up.

Why? Because they so envied and hated Meyer, Saban, Richt, etc., that they liked it. It entertained them! Even the stuff that was proven to be untrue...so what? Meyer, Saban, Richt, Miles and their fans are crooks and cheats anyway, so who cares what he says about them!

And when even the SEC office had to step in to stop the viciousness that Kiffin was stirring up, the Tennessee fans were enraged. Conspiracy! An attempt to silence Kiffin and keep him from telling it like it is!

Trying to stop Kiffin from doing what he needs to do in order to keep our longtime downtrodden and disadvantage program from rising to the top!

Proof that the SEC, the media, and the NCAA itself are in the pocket of the Gators, Tide, Tigers, and Bulldogs! Well, no fear, because Kiffin is going to take them all on and WIN!

Further, the justifications for what Kiffin was doing were nonsense. For instance, Bob Stoops walked into an Oklahoma Sooners program that actually was what Tennessee fans claim is true of theirs (declining profile, little in-state talent, decades since their last good season) yet somehow managed to turn it around without trashing Bill Snyder and Mack Brown and racking up all those secondary violations.

Bo Pelini: same story for Nebraska. Other than his winning 20 games in his first two years, you'd hardly know he's there.

Steve Sarkisian didn't trash the top Pac-10 coaches or do recruiting and hiring geared more towards sabotaging other staffs to rebuild a Washington program that hadn't done anything in years, and neither did Mike Stoops at Arizona.

Why? Simple. One: it isn't necessary. Two: IT DOESN'T WORK!

For instance, take Kiffin's boasting over the Nu'Keese Richardson recruitment, and then his trashing Richardson's high school and small town. What did Kiffin accomplish other than alienating players from that talent-rich region (which produced Anquan Boldin, among others)?

Also, other SEC programs had quickly adapted, taking defensive and offensive measures against what Kiffin was doing, forcing him to pull out all the stops. That's why despite his best efforts, Kiffin was unable to poach very many recruits from other programs, and the recruiting class that he was working on for the Volunteers this year wasn't rated much higher than the previous one. His antics were bringing diminishing returns already.

The best part was when not only SEC fans but fans of other programs (including ironically USC fans!) tried to warn Tennessee fans that Kiffin was really bad for their program, they refused to listen.

It was because of some hatred for Tennessee and fear that he was going to beat them on the football field, pillage their recruits and coaching staffs, loot their safe deposit boxes of cash and precious metals, carry off their women and children into exile...you know all the stuff they claimed Saban and Meyer were doing.

Tennessee fans in their jealousy convinced themselves that all the successful SEC coaches were snakes and sharks. They refused to believe that they were simply good football coaches, and that all they had to do was hire a good football coach of their own.

So, out of their jealousy, they went out and hired a guy that they knew was a snake and a shark, a guy who went to them PROMOTING HIMSELF as a snake and shark, thinking that it would be okay because at least he was THEIR snake and shark.

And now they want to cry in rage because Kiffin turned out to be just what they wanted and hired him to be?

Look, watch the guy in his press conferences after he left Knoxville. Tennessee fans really can't complain, because Kiffin is just repeating the same nonsense that they did: about how Tennessee had fallen off the map, hadn't had a good class in years, needed to resort to extreme tactics to get back, etc.

It is because of the nonsense that Vol fans were shoveling that Kiffin can regurgitate it and make it seem like he did Tennessee such a favor by getting them back in the headlines and signing a good (not great, but good) recruiting class and by coming up with a couple of almosts at Alabama and Florida.

And when asked about the trashy comments that he made about Meyer, Saban, the SEC and the south in general? After praising the west coach and Pac-10 programs and coaches, Kiffin used the Tennessee line against them: he said that because he needed to build Tennessee up from their woeful state, but those tactics aren't needed at USC.

Then he repeats his claim that "I had to do some things to breathe life into that carcass of a program that I regretted." What were those things? Kiffin won't say what they are.

Most important: at no point did Kiffin take a single thing that he said back or truly apologize for them.

(Even when forced by the SEC and his AD to apologize, he issued the "I am sorry for those who are so lily livered and thin-skinned to be offended by what I said, and it was true anyway and that is why you are really mad!" non-apologies.)

Why? Because Kiffin believes that they are true. He really, truly honestly does revile the SEC and the south, its coaches and traditions.

He was only willing to apply a little cognitive dissonance and exempt Tennessee from his disgust because they were paying him and he needed to in order to advance his own career, but you had better believe that when he landed on the west coast the first thing that he did was take a long shower!

Now of course, most of the people in the country hate the SEC. That's why they try to give an asterisk to every single national title the SEC wins. And the SEC hatred is most palpable on the West Coast. And they have a right to their opinion.

The problem is that Tennessee fans were clueless as to the obvious consequences of hiring a shark and a snake who hated being there every second UNTIL HE WAS NO LONGER AROUND TO VERBALLY ATTACK URBAN MEYER AND NICK SABAN AND ATTEMPT TO SABOTAGE THEIR PROGRAMS.

And Kiffin was right. Tennessee fans are angry because he was doing exactly what they hired him to do and now he is gone. The problem is that Tennessee fans never wanted a guy who would act in the true and long term interests of the Volunteer program.

They just wanted a guy who would give them an emotional reaction by childishly trying to stick it to and sabotage Meyer, Miles, Saban and Richt. And guess what: it had no chance of working.

No matter what Kiffin did, Meyer and Saban were still future Hall of Fame coaches, Miles and Richt (who are having problems that have NOTHING to do with Kiffin or anyone else) were still very good ones.

Those guys were going to get their players and win. They knew it. Their fans knew it. Kiffin knew it. Everybody knew it ... but Vols fans!

And Vols fans insisted on this delusion despite everyone trying to warn them otherwise, and despite the actual results on the field and in recruiting.

Now Kiffin was giving the Volunteer fans what they wanted and getting what he wanted in return. But who can blame the guy for wanting better? For wanting to go to a place where he can actually build a program for people serious about wanting a winner instead of being satisfied with feeding their jealous hateful delusions?

Tennessee fans were more than willing to let Kiffin bring the NCAA hammer on them so long as they got a national title within four years out of it.

They were going to take the title, complain about some SEC and NCAA conspiracy, AND THEN LABEL KIFFIN A CROOK AND CHEAT AND RUN HIM OFF and be perfectly happy that their inferiority complex to LSU, Alabama, Georgia and Florida would have been assuaged.

Was this in Kiffin's interest? No. Was it in the interests of their own program? No. But you had better believe that it is what they wanted.

If they wanted something different, something better and more honorable for themselves than indulging in their jealousy, THEY WOULD HAVE HIRED SOMEBODY ELSE.

That's why Mike Hamilton really can't be blamed for making the offer or Kiffin for taking it, because both parties were only trying to give the Tennessee fans what they wanted. And that's also why Kiffin can't be blamed for wanting more for himself and going to a place that offered it.

Dream job? Please. Kiffin is only passing through USC on the way to the NFL. But a better job than the "we don't care what you do, just get Meyer and Saban and make them look bad in the process" description? You had better believe it.

So Vols fans, I am not sorry for you one bit. You made your bed, so go lie in it.

(The truth is that Kiffin may not have even been that much of a shark and a snake, but might have only been pretending to be one to get the job and keep you people happy. Can you imagine the negative reaction that would have resulted from Kiffin's actually trying to act like a football coach instead of the sideshow act that the people in Knoxville demanded him to be?)

You will get through this mess, but only if you get rid of the green-eyed monster long enough to allow your university to hire a quality coach, and then allow that coach to do his job.

In the meantime, leave Kiffin and USC be. Kiffin was only giving you guys what you wanted, which was to be a cheap parlor trick, and it is to your benefit that it had to end and you all were forced to face reality...that you can build a dominant program like Alabama and Florida but it will take time and patience...before it went on any longer.