Lane Kiffin Recruiting Violation: Implications for USC, Kiffin with New Report

It appears that the Tennessee Volunteers are in more hot water, as new details are coming out in the investigation involving Lane Kiffin and former Tennessee assistant Willie Mack Garza.

Garza paid for five-star recruit Lache Seastrunk and his mother to fly to Knoxville for an unofficial recruiting trip during Lane Kiffin's tenure at the school, Yahoo! Sports reported Monday night.

Garza reportedly sent the money to one-time scout Will Lyles, who paid for the plane tickets for both Seastrunk and his mother.

Colleges are allowed to pay for airfare for recruits during “official” visits, but are not allowed to do so prior to the first day of a player’s senior academic year. Seastrunk had just completed his junior year.

Seastrunk never took an official visit with Tennessee, and chose the University of Oregon in 2010. After one season, he then transferred to Baylor, where he is sitting out for a year.

Both Kiffin and Garza are no longer involved with the University of Tennessee, as they both left for USC. Just recently, Garza stepped down, due to "personal issues unrelated to USC."

Now, with this report, we know what those personal issues were.

Tennessee reimbursing a third party for the cost of an unofficial recruiting visit is clearly against NCAA rules.

This really shouldn't surprise anyone when it comes to Lane Kiffin and the people he's involved with. The guy has been surrounded by nothing but controversy, everywhere he has gone. From the Oakland Raiders to Tennessee and now USC.

I don't understand why any team would even get involved with Kiffin after all of the headaches he has caused. And what makes it even worse, is he isn't even a great coach.

His 5-15 record in the NFL was horrible, so, he had to go coach in college. He ended up coaching two elite programs, with an overall record of 18-11.

It could be worse, but it's definitely not worth the hype.

Kiffin only has a name in football because of his father Monte, one of the greatest defensive coordinators in NFL history. Monte is the reason his son has a job right now as a coach, and that's it. If it wasn't for his father, we would have never heard of this guy.

USC would be better off just washing its hands of Lane Kiffin, before the Trojans end up in even more trouble.

As for Tennessee, it's just coming off a two-year investigation that involved its basketball and football programs. The NCAA did not punish the university beyond its self-imposed sanctions, which included two years of probation.

Looks like they're not out of the woods yet. Thanks to Kiffin.