Lane Kiffin: Are the Current Challenges USC Faces Karma For Kiffin?

USC limped off the practice field on August 20 battle-bruised and short-handed. The list of causalities was long. Senior tailback Allen Bradford suffered a knee injury. Running back C.J. Gable was sidelined with a strained hamstring. Receiver David Ausberry was out with a possible stress fracture. QB Jesse Scroggins and cornerback Demetrius Wright, both promising freshmen, were banned pending NCAA eligibility certification. Tailback Dillon Baxter, heralded as the next Reggie Bush, was suspended from the season opener for a team infraction. In all, 14 injured scholarship players weren’t able to practice throughout the week.

It’s not a full-scale implosion, but Lane Kiffin’s team certainly doesn't resemble the Teflon-shielded warriors of old with a bench so deep even the water boy was a four-star recruit. Along with an injury-laden roster, Kiffin is dealing with the aftermath of Cyclone Carroll. Upon his departure for the NFL, Pete Carroll left behind a Trojan horse of NCAA sanctions for his successor, including two years of bowl ineligibility, 30 less scholarships over three years and eight less players who bolted as soon as the penalties were handed down in June.

Is it karma for Kiffin?

If you reap what you sow, Kiffin's current challenges with the Trojans may be payback. After a year of flirting shamelessly with the Tennessee Volunteers –building them up with big talk of National Championships – he unceremoniously ditched them to return to USC. He’s like the Sarah Palin of college football coaches – prematurely bailing out of his current gig for more money and visions of greater fame elsewhere. If you’re a Trojan fan, you must hope the comparison ends there and that Kiffin actually has the brainpower and skills to justify all the attention.

Poor Tennessee went for broke when they hired Kiffin, who had just been dumped as coach of the Oakland Raiders after compiling a 5-15 record. He was called a “flat-out liar” who brought “disgrace to the organization” by team-owner Al Davis. Yet the Vols gave Kiffin a base salary of $2 million and spent $3.325 million more on his staff making them the highest paid in the country. In return, a year later Kiffin fled just three weeks before national signing day leaving a smoldering heap of alleged NCAA recruiting violations in his wake. Tennessee is anticipating a letter of inquiry any day and running back Bryce Brown, who left Tennessee for Kansas after Kiffin’s departure, was interviewed about it this week.

Besides the wreckage he left in Knoxville, Kiffin was recently charged with poaching his new offensive coordinator, Kennedy Pola, from Nashville’s Tennessee Titans who are now suing for breach of contract. But all love is not lost for Kiffin in the Volunteer state – a Knoxville attorney filed paperwork with the city council back in January to rename a waste water treatment plant the “Lane Kiffin Sewage Center.” Tough crowd.

Tennessee may yet salvage a bit of pride from the whole ugly affair with Kiffin. First, highly-regarded defensive end Malik Jackson traded USC for Tennessee following the Trojan’s NCAA sanctions. Second, Vol’s new coach Derek Dooley, son of legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley, was able to stave off a recruiting catastrophe. The Vols ended up with the year’s ninth highest rated class and are lining up some solid commitments for 2011.

It’s too soon to know how it will all turn out but one thing is certain: Kiffin traded in one of the nation’s toughest schedules for one of the easiest. Instead of facing a blistering SEC lineup that includes Florida, LSU, Georgia and Alabama, Kiffin’s Trojans face a mishmash of also-rans and non-contenders.  Their Pop Warner League of a schedule includes the season opener against Hawaii (6-7) followed by Virginia (3-9), Minnesota (6-7), Washington State (1-11) and Washington (5-7). USC doesn’t have any real competition until they meet up with Stanford (8-5) in mid-October. By then, Tennessee will already have faced a crucible of SEC competitors.

Viewed in this light, maybe Kiffin’s actions over the last nine months were not so much reckless as spineless. It's easier to rebuild a football program when your team isn't getting pounded by top-ranked opponents every week.

Time will tell if Tennessee or USC will get the last laugh – or the next NCAA title.