Grading Kiffin: More Ups Than Downs for Vols' New Coach

Even after a stellar win over an especially hated conference foe, there was controversy.

In the aftermath of Tennessee's 45-19 win over Georgia at Neyland Stadium on Saturday afternoon, safety Eric Berry told reporters that Vols' coach Lane Kiffin promised his team they would never lose to the Bulldogs, as long as he is coaching.

"He basically made a promise to us that we wouldn't lose to them anymore," Berry said.

Even when Tennessee is winning, Kiffin's comments are stealing the spotlight.

As Tennessee (3-3, 1-2) enters a bye week halfway through Kiffin's first year in Knoxville, Vol fans can catch their breath, and assess, where their new coach stands at the midway point of his rookie season.

It has been a year filled with controversy. Months before the season even began, there was a public reprimand from SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, after Kiffin falsely accused Florida's Urban Meyer of cheating in the recruitment of Pahokee, Fla.'s Nu'Keese Richardson.

After publicly sniping with the Ol' Ball Coach at South Carolina, and drawing the ire of Georgia fans during the recruitment of wide receiver Marlon Brown (who is playing ball in Athens this fall), Slive delivered an ultimatum to coaches: Cool your heels. It wasn't hard to see through Slive's thinly-veiled message to its real intent—Chill out, Kiffin.

There were self-reported secondary recruiting violations. Five of them, in fact. There was a revelation that Kiffin, allegedly, told South Carolina recruit Alshon Jeffery that he would wind up pumping gas if he signed with the Gamecocks.

Then the season started. All was well in East Tennessee as the Vols pounded upstart Western Kentucky, 63-7, to open the season.

One week later, maligned quarterback Jonathan Crompton threw three interceptions in a 19-15 loss to UCLA, and criticism began. Why did Kiffin run the ball four consecutive times inside the 10-yard-line near the end of the game (resulting in a turnover on downs at the one-yard-line)? Why didn't he replace Crompton with junior backup Nick Stephens?

The criticism from the orange-clad faithful came to an abrupt halt Saturday afternoon. It's hard to criticize a coach whose team scores 45 points against any SEC foe, especially one as talented as Georgia. The win seems to have, temporarily at least, stopped the in-fighting amongst the fan base, and refocused attention in Knoxville on the bigger picture.

The bigger picture, according to Kiffin, is competing for conference and national championships by 2011, his third year on the job. By that time, Kiffin and his well-compensated staff of renowned recruiters will have three classes under their belts, and, presumably, self-evaluated talent at almost every position on the field.

The bigger picture, according to Kiffin, has been the goal all along.

The former Southern Cal offensive coordinator has repeatedly defended his off-season remarks by saying that he wasn't fond of making them, but had to return Tennessee to the spotlight.

"Do I love everything I've had to do?" Kiffin said. "No, but I think it had to be done for us to do what we needed to do immediately."

If that was the goal, it seems to have worked. Kiffin's first recruiting class, finalized in February, was ranked No. 10 in the nation by Rivals.Com. It was capped with the 11th-hour addition of runningback Bryce Brown, the nation's No. 1 prospect. The 2010 class is currently ranked among the Top Five nationally, by both Rivals.Com and Scout.Com. This before Tennessee returns to a January bowl game; before the Vols prove they're ready to compete on the same stage as Florida and Alabama, once again.

To his credit, many of Kiffin's remarks were blown out of proportion by an overzealous sports world focused on his every word. Not that he didn't bring it on himself. With 14 words—"I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still couldn't get him," the reference to Richardson—Kiffin thrust himself into the spotlight.

But when sports columnists repeat Kiffin's "singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida next year" comment from his introductory press conference at Tennessee, many neglect to mention that Kiffin immediately followed with, "Just kidding, Urban. That was (Tennessee athletics director) Mike Hamilton's idea."

In reality, Kiffin has been relatively silent since February. The foot-in-mouth headlines are mostly regurgitated lines from before spring practice began.

Meanwhile, Tennessee's football team wrapped up the off-season with zero arrests after Kiffin arrived on campus Dec. 1. Grades were up; the team's GPA entering the season was the highest it had been in five years.

The discipline has carried over to the field. Through six games, Tennessee is the least-penalized team in the SEC, averaging 31.8 yards per game in penalties. The next least-penalized team, LSU, averages 47.0 yards per game. Last year, the Vols were in the middle of the pack in the same category, averaging 44.9 yards per game.

While Tennessee hasn't necessarily looked like a Top-25 team through the first half of the 2009 season, the Georgia game withstanding, the improvement is evident.

After finishing the 2008 season with a 5-7 record, and ranked 115th in the nation in total offense, the Vols are currently ranked 48th in the same category. Despite using a makeshift offensive line—an already depleted line lost starters Josh McNeil and Vladimir Richard to injury—Tennessee ranks 16th nationally for sacks allowed, and 34th in the nation in rushing offense.

Defensively, the lone bright spot a year ago, the Vols may be even better under Monte Kiffin and Ed Orgeron, two high-profile coaches Lane Kiffin lured away from the NFL to join him in Knoxville. When Tennessee held Tim Tebow and the Gators to 23 points and Georgia to 19 points, it marked the first time since 1999 that the Vols had held each of their biggest SEC East rivals to fewer than 24 points.

But, 19 points doesn't tell the tale of what the Tennessee defense accomplished against the Bulldogs. Georgia's offense didn't so much as sniff the end zone, managing just three points, and failing to drive deeper than UT's 34-yard-line.

Through much of the first half of the season, Tennessee faced spread offenses; offenses that were largely unfamiliar to the elder Kiffin. But Mark Richt's bread-and-butter is the pro-style offense, the defense of which Monte Kiffin spent the last quarter-century perfecting. If Saturday's performance at Neyland Stadium is any indication of what's to come for teams featuring conventional offenses, a meeting with Tennessee might once again strike fear in the hearts of the SEC's offensive coordinators.

In a town where Bruce Pearl led the basketball team from a 14-17 record to an NCAA Tournament No. 2 seed in his first season, it's easy to forget that transition troubles often prevent teams from achieving their best in a new coach's inaugural season. The college football world is rife with examples.

Rich Rodriguez enjoyed a hero's welcome at Michigan last season, replacing future hall-of-famer Lloyd Carr. In his first season, the Wolverines struggled to a 3-9 record and failed to receive a bowl invitation for the first time in 34 years. By year two, Rodriguez was beginning to make his mark on the program. After signing the nation's No. 8 recruiting class in 2009, according to Rivals.Com, the Wolverines are 4-2 through the first half of this season. Their wins include a 38-34 victory over rival Notre Dame, and their losses are by a combined eight points.

Nick Saban was similarly celebrated in Tuscaloosa when Alabama lured him away from the NFL's Miami Dolphins. After a quick start to the 2007 season, Saban's team struggled to a 6-6 record that included a disheartening loss to Louisiana-Monroe. By Saban's second season, the Tide was back in the national championship picture for the first time since the 1990s.

There are exceptions to the rule. After struggling to a 5-7 record last year, Auburn is off to a quick 5-1 start under first-year coach Gene Chizik (including a 26-22 win over Tennessee).

Whether Kiffin can manage a Saban-esque second-year resurrection in Knoxville remains to be seen. Given the talent level on the Tennessee squad, it seems more likely that his self-described three-year plan is more realistic.

Either way, there are worse things than losing to Auburn and UCLA in the first year of a new era. Allegations of NCAA violations have made headlines in Ann Arbor this season, and Alabama was forced to vacate four of its 2007 wins in Saban's first year. Mentioning a recruit on ESPN (one of the secondary violations Tennessee has self-reported under Kiffin) pales in comparison.

Oh, and as for the fan criticism and claims that Kiffin was being "stubborn" by refusing to shuffle his quarterback rotation? There was the matter of Crompton's career-high 310 yards and four touchdowns against Georgia, as the fifth-year senior produced one of the best games by a Tennessee quarterback since Peyton Manning finished his collegiate playing days in 1997.

If Crompton's performance against the Bulldogs is a sign of things to come, not only will Tennessee win some games they aren't supposed to win the rest of the way this season, but Kiffin will go from stubborn to ingenious by the time the Vols are accepting their post-season bowl invitation.