What's Your Deal?: Lane Kiffin Won't Miss a Beat in Balmy Stanford-USC Rivalry

“What’s Your Deal?!?”

These are the now infamous words spoken by Pete Carroll to Jim Harbaugh during their post-game handshake after Stanford’s 55-21 pounding of USC.

The deal was, in the waning minutes of last year’s game with Stanford up by 27-points, Harbaugh elected to call a number from the playbook of a drunken college student handing a beat down to his roommate in EA’ Sports Madden 10.

Instead of doing the classy thing and running out the clock, High-Noon Harbaugh reloaded his six-shooter and kept firing at the carcass of the Trojans.

For some Stanford fans, Harbaugh’s decision to run up the score helped release years of built up aggression caused by continuous struggles with the Trojans.  For USC fans, it was an atrocity and immediately put Stanford’s flamboyant coach atop Southern California’s Most Hated List.   

And for marketers, it was a one thing…a financial gold mine.    

The “What’s Your Deal” Package , Stanford’s newest marketing campaign for the 2010 season, is making sure fans won’t quickly forget the salt that Harbaugh gleefully poured on USC’s opened wounds.

In a promotion that Harbaugh decided was not in poor taste since Carroll had moved on, he failed (or choose not) to remember the thousands of Trojans fans still outraged by his outright childish gesture.

Ever since he entered the Pac-10 coaching ranks, Harbaugh seemed to put a huge target on Carroll’s Trojans. It started out as a backdoor jab by Harbaugh regarding Carorll’s offseason job prospects and has apparently reached its culmination with his scoreboard parting shot in their final college football matchup. 

Despite Carroll’s departure, there will definitely be lingering animosity when these two teams duke it out on Oct. 9.  Luckily for USC, their incumbent head coach is more than willing to facilitate classless behavior through whatever medium possible.  Even luckier for Kiffin, this year he actually has the talent to back up his overtly loud bark.

Kiffin is not a stranger when it comes to crafting media statements that carry a poisonous sting .

From Oakland to Knoxville and now back to Southern California, if Kiffin has proven anything, it is that he isn’t afraid to poke the bear.  The man is a master at creating controversy, whether it is warranted or not, all in the name of helping out the team.

People definitely buy into Kiffin’s outlandish personality and he was certainly a popular pick to take over this high profile, Hollywood-centric squad.

Although Kiffin’s head coaching record is far from respectable (12-21), this prodigal son has been provided with an ideal situation to prove that the only thing holding back his superior coaching prowess was the lack of talented players. 

However, Kiffin takes over during a year where USC’s talent is the rawest it has been in recent memory and their success will truly depend on his ability to mold young minds. 

With his team already dead center in the spotlight and expectations reaching heights he has yet to experience as a head coach, it could take some time before we see Kiffin’s trap yapping in front of a camera again. 

But as Stanford has displayed so early in the pre-season, they too are willing to poke a sleeping beast in order to benefit their team’s perceived personality. 

Stanford so desperately wants to be considered a true Pac-10 Championship contender and this recent marketing campaign is just a way of reminding people about their success against this perennial powerhouse the past few seasons. 

In a year where a team with two conference losses could still contend for the Pac-10 crown, a second straight win over USC would be monumental for the Cardinal’s championship aspirations.

Making sure that this game maintains a high intensity level from the opening kickoff to the final whistle will be important, especially since Stanford could be licking their chops coming off two straight games on the road (Notre Dame and Oregon).

The homecoming atmosphere felt on the Farm folded together with last year’s antics and the possibility of a Harbaugh/Kiffin media grudge match could be the perfect recipe to assure that this match-up picks up right where it left off.    

The Pac-10 could definitely use a new school twist on an old school rivalry.  With these two outspoken head coaches set to lead their schools for the unforeseeable future, Stanford vs. USC might be it and their matchup should indefinitely be labeled as highly combustible.