Lane Kiffin's Name Prompts Reporters To Jump Gun

Lane Kiffin must drive a station wagon bigger than the one my mom had back in the '80s. And that one was pretty big.

There is no other way he has the room for everyone to hop on his media bandwagon the way reporters have in the past several months.

Case in point: Secondary violations are reported every year by numerous schools in handfuls (South Carolina 11, Clemson 13, Georgia three, and Florida two, all in 2008).

Those are minor examples too. Since 2000, Ohio State has reported more than 375 violations.

These violations are commonplace among a lot of schools and have never made news until recently.

But type the words “secondary violations” into a Yahoo search engine and the first three articles you find will be about Lane Kiffin’s half a dozen secondary violations since joining the University of Tennessee.

It makes you wonder—why now? Why are these violations so newsworthy now?

The answer has to be Lane Kiffin’s name. Love him or hate him, evidently you are reading about him.

In fact, the Kiffin name is so sought after that reporters have twisted words from a 13-year-old in order to sell a story with the coach’s name.

Andy Staples of SI.com reported, on Jun. 30, that Kiffin offered a scholarship to Evan Berry, the brother of Junior Eric Berry who plays safety for the Volunteers.

The story soon hit the front page of Yahoo! Sports, and even for a coach as unpredictable as Kiffin, something smelled funny.

The truth is, Kiffin hasn’t offered a scholarship to Evan.

According to The Tennessean, Evan and his twin brother, Elliot, who will start the eighth grade this year and not the ninth grade like the Birmingham News reported, were at a track meet when reporters approached them and brought up Tennessee.

Knowing Evan was the brother of Eric, the reporter prodded him for his school choice and Evan answered, “I’m committed to Tennessee.”

Why wouldn’t he be? His father was an All-SEC running back there, and his brother is an All-World safety there currently.

But the words “I’m committed to Tennessee,” in addition to Kiffin’s name, were all the reporter needed to sell the story.

By yesterday, Yahoo’s front page, not just the sports section, had a headline that read “Kiffin offers 13-year-old scholarship”.

It has since been retracted, with this editor’s note:

"The NCAA prohibits schools from formally offering scholarships until a prospect has registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center. UT has not offered Berry a scholarship."

You could almost see the drool running from the reporter’s mouth when he ran with this. Hopefully, someone gave him a towel.