Tennessee Vols Football: No More Lane Kiffin Updates, Please!

While perusing my favorite sites this morning I came upon a rather unfortunate story on the Tennessee Vols' top site.

Here, on the eve of Mar. 1, you would not expect too much in the way of football news. So maybe it’s understandable that the writer was desperate to a certain extent.

Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News Sentinel is one of the very best writers in the south when it comes to recruiting. His evaluations, reporting, and predictions are usually spot-on.

This time, however, I have to call a foul on one of my favorites.

The day after Tennessee’s basketball team beat the No. 2 team in the country; the day after Tennessee’s baseball team beat the No. 9 team in the country; during the NFL combine where five former Vols are showing off for NFL scouts; we get “When it comes to recruiting, Kiffin all business.”

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock or in outer space the last two months, Lane Kiffin is about as a close to a curse word as you can utter in Tennessee circles these days. Or at least you can't speak that name without hearing a few curse words associated with it lately.

After Kiffin left Tennessee in a major bind three weeks before national signing day when he bolted Knoxville to become USC’s head coach, Tennessee fans burned mattresses, threatened bodily harm, and harassed Kiffin’s poor wife.

There have been billboards erected in Kiffin's honor—or dishonor—comparing him to Tiger Woods for “screwing an entire city.”

A wealthy UT graduate decided to put up the money to rename a local sewage plant after Kiffin.

I vowed to no longer write about the fool or even type his name in a related story—opting to refer to him as “what’s-his-name.”

Obviously that did not last, but my point was made, nonetheless.

So my question during this relatively happy time for Big Orange clad Volniacs is: Why in the world would one of the Knoxville News Sentinel’s best writers think that we would give two flying flips about Lane Kiffin’s recruiting efforts since joining the mighty Trojans of Southern Cal?

How is it that someone would think we fans, who were spurned by this Benedict Arnold/Judas Iscariot wannabe, would want an update on USC recruiting?

The story follows an earlier one that came at the first of the week, in which Kiffin claimed his dismay at Mike Hamilton for saying Kiffin was never a great “cultural fit” in Knoxville.

For all of AD Mike Hamilton’s faults, he was dead on in that opinion.

Kiffin tried to change Tennessee customs and traditions. He showed obvious disdain for General Neyland’s Maxims. He ripped off some of USC’s infamous cheers and forced UT recruits and players to join in.

Kiffin’s top goon, Ed Orgeron, single-handedly tried to completely obliterate this recruiting class when asked to stay on as Kiffin’s recruiting coordinator with USC.

He called Tennessee’s early enrollees and told them not to go to class. Then the snake-bellied fool lied about it.

So again I ask—why?

Did Hooker know that it would elicit this kind of reaction? Did he want to make national headlines?

If that was his goal with these two pieces on Kiffin, I would consider it "mission accomplished."

Many of the participants in the comments section of the story on govolsxtra.com share my same sentiment.

Quotes from Hooker’s earlier story did make national headlines.

So it’s a job well done if that’s the criteria.

But if the reasoning for these stories was to update Vols fans on how an old friend is doing, much like a story on Peyton Manning or any other former Vols would be, this has to be considered a writer FAIL.

I couldn't care less about Kiffin right now. I care about Derek Dooley. I care about the Tennessee Vols.

Maybe that’s partially untrue. There is one aspect of USC football and Lane Kiffin that I am paying close attention to.

The NCAA is a few weeks away from issuing their penalties on the program for the impropriety of the Reggie Bush era.

I know speculation has been that the basketball program, with it’s payments to O.J. Mayo, may take the brunt of the NCAA’s wrath, but that does not stop my hope for a gigantic dose of Karma to hit Kiffin right between the eyes.

I, and many Tennessee fans alike, would enjoy seeing Kiffin and USC given harsh sanctions including a loss of scholarships and a postseason ban.

I don’t think the NCAA would do that to one of its sacred cows in this day and age, but that does not stop me from hoping against hope that it does.

So there you have it—a story about Lane Kiffin that Tennessee fans can enjoy and agree with. Too bad the professional writers do not understand how that’s done.