Lane Kiffin's Impact on the Alabama vs. Tennessee Rivalry

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Tennessee chancellor Jimmy Cheek sent an email to students following a 10-9 loss to Florida on Oct. 4.

The UT student section had been caught on TV chanting, “F--k you, Florida.” Cheek obviously did not approve of the cheer coming through loud and clear on a national broadcast, so he sent the email admonishing the “totally unacceptable” chant.

His email, though, will probably largely be ignored this week, as Tennessee will host a homecoming as unwelcoming as any in recent memory.

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Lane Kiffin, who was Tennessee’s head coach all of 14 months before bolting in the dead of night for his dream job at USC, will come back to Knoxville as offensive coordinator of No. 4 Alabama.

Kiffin, whose departure incited riots in the streets of Knoxville that included a burning mattress, has joined forces with Tennessee’s most hated rival and the fanbase's other most hated personality in college football: Nick Saban.

And in turn, it has cranked up the intensity on a rivalry that has fallen flat over a seven- (likely soon to be eight-) game winning streak by Alabama.

“That email and that request will probably fall on deaf ears by the time (the game) comes around,” said Zac Ellis, a Sports Illustrated college football writer and former editor of The Daily Beacon, Tennessee’s student paper, who grew up in Knoxville.

If you are a Tennessee fan or lived in Knoxville at the time, you knew where you were the night of Kiffin’s departure.

It came suddenly, around 9 p.m. local time. It didn’t take long for word to spread, and suddenly, Knoxville looked more like a war zone than a college town.

Among the memorable scenes from the night was Kiffin holding a press conference in Knoxville—almost unheard of for a departing coach.

“Students were out there burning mattresses and burning Tennessee T-shirts with Kiffin’s face on them,” Ellis said. “People were trying to get into the actual building where the press conference was taking place. It was a bunch of nonsense. Didn’t make the fanbase look very good, in my opinion, on a national level. But it was a pretty crazy night.”

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The hatred toward Kiffin in that moment was twofold. The first part, Ellis said, is the way it cast Tennessee on a national level.

“Tennessee fans really have a tough time accepting that anybody would look at Tennessee as a stepping stone,” he said. “In fans’ minds, that’s what they think Kiffin did.”

The second is the fact that Kiffin was doing some good things in Knoxville. He was 7-6 in his lone season and recruiting at a high level. Seven wins don’t seem like a lot for a program like Tennessee, but the Volunteers haven’t hit that win total since.

“Most places that don't like him is because he left and they were mad because he left,” Saban reminded people after Kiffin’s Alabama debut. “They weren't mad about anything he did while he was there.”

The hatred toward Kiffin quieted down some, though, in the ensuing years. Derek Dooley took over, and as Kiffin had his ups and downs at USC, the vitriol subsided somewhat.

Then Saban came calling.

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“Despite everything that’s happened in between, the hatred for Lane Kiffin with Tennessee fans is about as strong as it’s been,” said Josh Ward, host of Sports 180 on The Sports Animal WNML in Knoxville. “Not as much as the night he left, but since then, they’ve held that hatred at a really high level.

“It probably helped remind Tennessee fans that they hate Lane Kiffin and that they really want to see bad things happen to him. And they would love to be responsible for it with Tennessee taking on Alabama as a rival. Maybe for a short period of time they didn’t spend as much energy hating Lane.”

It’s hard to see Tennessee fans getting their wish for revenge this weekend.

The Crimson Tide looked like the best team in the country last weekend in a 59-0 dismantling of Texas A&M. Tennessee has yet to notch an SEC win, losing even to hapless Florida.

That doesn’t mean that fans will hold back their feelings, especially early on.

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“There will be a chorus of boos,” Ward said. “It will be very loud, and it will be very obvious who they are pointing that anger towards. Alabama is going to be booed no matter what, so I don’t know what the difference will be. It’s fascinating to see that he’s on the sideline.”

Kiffin’s presence on the sideline—where he’s been all year, instead of the press box like previous offensive coordinators under Saban have been—will only ramp up the tension. The Tennessee student section sits right behind the visiting sideline, so it will be very easy for students to make their voices heard.

“You have to wonder if there will be a specific chant,” Ward said. “I wouldn’t be surprised—as much as Butch Jones and Jimmy Cheek, the chancellor, have said, ‘Hey we don’t want that at Tennessee’—I wouldn’t be surprised to see that at Tennessee this week.”

Saban, of course, is downplaying the Kiffin homecoming from his side of things.

“I think it's only a distraction if you allow it to be a distraction,” he said Monday.

But whether the team lets it be a distraction, whether players hear it or not, it will be there. And it will be a welcome injection of life into an otherwise stale rivalry.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow on Twitter: @marctorrence.