Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis is quoted as saying "I picked the wrong guy." He was referring to his recently fired head coach, Lane Kiffin. Davis gave the 32 year old USC assistant a chance to coach in the NFL and it went horribly wrong.
Kiffin was accused of being a liar and bringing disgrace to the Raiders organization.
Somehow, he found another team in need of a coach to give him a second chance at the University of Tennessee.
Now after just over a year in the SEC, he has bolted for the premier program in the Pac-10, Southern Cal. By leaving almost as quickly as he got there, he has made it look like Tennessee made a mistake hiring him as well.
While on the surface this looks as simple as him going back to where he got his start, there appear to be more layers to this story.
If one is to believe the media reports, the Trojans wanted a higher profile coach like NFL stalwarts Jeff Fisher of Tennessee or Jack Del Rio of Jacksonville. When they were not available, they started looking at the Carroll family tree.
The only one it seems they could get quickly was Kiffin. Since he was an assistant under Carroll at USC from 2001-2006, he has ties to the program and its recent glory years.
Surprisingly, USC is also getting Norm Chow to leave UCLA to come back and be the Trojans’ offensive coordinator. This is the same post he held under Carroll until leaving to try his hand in the NFL with the Titans, before returning to college for the crosstown rival Bruins.
USC needed someone now, with National Signing Day less than 3 weeks away, they may lose some of their prize recruits due to having no coach in place. Now, with Kiffin on his way to LA, the Men of Troy are hoping that some of the prize recruits that were going to attend Tennessee, will follow the former Volunteer Head Coach to the West Coast.
I don’t think Kiffin’s heart was really into coaching at UT. It just happened to be the best high profile job available at the time, so he jumped at it. And now he has jumped at the next best job available to where he feels he belongs.
Notwithstanding the tumultuous season with the Raiders, what has Kiffin really accomplished as a head coach? In his 14 months in Knoxville, he is know for his smack talking against Florida, six minor NCAA violations, and a very average 7-6 record.
Kiffin acts and talks a good game with an attitude of unearned bravado. He seems to continuously lie out of both sides of his mouth to players, supporters, administration, and possibly, his own staff.
Yet he and his seemingly overblown ego keep getting paid to take the next big opening. And he keeps getting these offers without really having the resume to deserve them.
It also seems a little fishy for a school that is on the cusp of NCAA sanctions in both basketball and football for recruiting issues would take a chance on Kiffin. Why would you want to bring in a guy with his own problems with the NCAA to take over a program that is already in hot water?
Not to mention, he may have already violated more rules by trying to contact some of his current recruiting class at Tennessee to convince them to join him on the left side of the country.
Not a very good business plan to clean up your program. Maybe the basketball team should bring in Kelvin Sampson too, but I digress.
But with that said, this could be a good thing for all parties involved.
Tennessee will get someone who loves the tradition and will do everything they can to be a part of their entire program, not just there for the pay check and the press coverage.
USC gets a coach that is "family", having been a former assistant. He also is bringing with him several former members of Carroll’s staff to help out. With this coaching staff and the young players that are returning, the Trojans should be right back towards the top of the polls in fairly short order.
Kiffin gets to go back home to Southern California where he feels he belongs, much closer to Hollywood than to Rocky Top. As one writer has put it, traded in the banjos for the beach. Seems like a good deal if you can get it.
Can't say I blame him, but it seems very disrespectful to those he left behind. The coach can leave for the money and the bright lights with no penalty, but the kids he abandoned can't transfer without losing eligibility.
It doesn't seem fair, but that is a rant for another day.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The MMA Fights I Want in 2010
Hello Ric's Rants followers. Please check out my latest slide show blog on my Bleacher Report account. Just click on the link below or copy and paste the link into your address bar. As always, let me know what you think with comments either here or on Bleacher Report.
Thanks for stopping by.
Ric
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/322705-the-mma-fights-i-want-in-2010
Thanks for stopping by.
Ric
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/322705-the-mma-fights-i-want-in-2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
My Conference is Better than Yours - What Happened to Team Loyality?
Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn, Oklahoma-Nebraska, USC-UCLA, Pittsburgh-West Virginia, and Miami-Florida State. These matchups are the kind of rivalries that college football watchers used to dream about. There is respect, hatred, bragging rights, and the occasional game trophy on the line for the teams and fans alike.
For years, fans have chosen sides, caused family infighting, started arguments at work and at bars, and rooted like there is no tomorrow for their favorite team. But for some reason, it has turned from being loyal to a team to fans feeling a sense of self-importance, greater worth, and the right to trash talk at other conferences because of how a select few at the top do against the rest of the country.
When is the last time you heard a Boston Red Sox fan say, "The AL East is obviously better than the NL East because New York beat the Phillies to win the World Series. Go Yankees!"
Or how about a Cleveland Browns fan proclaim "the NFC West is awful because the Cardinals lost to our AFC North brothers the Steelers in the Super Bowl!"
That doesn't happen. Only in college football do you hear the perennial bottom dwellers of a BCS conference disparage another conference because of what their conference champion in a bowl game or in a regular season high profile game.
Recently, the Big 10 has become the whipping boy of all SEC fans because Ohio State lost back-to-back national title games to Florida and LSU, respectively. But when is the last time that a team like Vanderbilt or Mississippi State beat, or for that matter even played, a top tier Big Ten team? So why do their fans feel they have the right to bash Ohio State and Penn State for their recent bowl struggles?
I am not specifically picking on SEC fans, they are just currently the most vocal about it due to their success in football over the last seven years. Four of the last six titles and Alabama in in this year's National Championship game. The SEC has a right to crow about it, but the lower level teams are beating their chests like they actually won the big games themselves.
I realize that being a fan of the Buckeyes, many may think I am just crying sour grapes. Having attended Kentucky, I do watch a lot of SEC football as well and have an appreciation for how they play. It is not a matter of who wins or loses, it is how the fans handle the success of others in the conference that their own team cannot achieve.
When the Buckeyes lost to Florida, my SEC friends had a good laugh at my expense. When LSU won the following year, you would think my friends had won the lottery. But they are mostly Kentucky fans. They generally loathe Florida and LSU, but somehow my friends felt they had earned a free pass to pile on with the Gator and Tiger fans.
When the USC Trojans beat Oklahoma to win the title for the 2004-2005 season, does anyone remember the fans of 1-10 Washington calling out the Sooners and Texas? It is utterly ridiculous that some people act this way.
And it is not just college football fans that practice these shenanigans. ACC basketball fans do the same thing.
When Duke or North Carolina have great teams, the worst of the league claim they are better than the SEC, the Big 12, and the Big East because of what the top rated Tar Heels and Blue Devils have done on the national stage. This is regardless of the fact that these less than competitive teams are sitting with 20-plus losses and dropped games to Ivy League and Patriot League teams on a yearly basis.
More and more fans are leaning towards this trend in most college sports. There is no clear reason why this started. It may be when the media started buying conference broadcasting rights rather than individual team rights. If a certain station is the official station of a conference, all of their commentary and analysis tend to be bias towards their contracted league.
If you watch NBC, you hear about how great Notre Dame tradition is. CBS screams the praises of the ACC and SEC. ESPN just got the rights for the future SEC games and gives a rub to the Big East. Fox Sports leans towards its broadcast partners in the Pac-10 and the Big 12.
It is real easy to look at the last five to 10 years and jump on the bandwagon of a certain team or conference when they are currently having success and the media keeps pumping up the legend of the last 48 months.
A true fan sticks with their team through the great seasons and the long droughts alike. Feel free to appreciate another team's style of play or respect another conference's dominance over a short period of time. Root for others in your team's conference in bowl games and tournaments if you please. All of this is typical fan behavior and it does not put a blemish on the feelings you have for your favorite team.
Do not pat yourself on the back and feel the need to bash other teams and conferences based on the success of others. Do not feel superior to other conferences that you don't play against yourself because others in your conference won a game. Do not hide in shame when your team goes 1-11 and then turn around and rip a 10-2 team that lost to the best your conference has to offer.
There is a lot to say about fans showing passion, just make sure it is directed in the right direction. Support your conference, defend your team in good times and bad, and talk smack to your biggest rival like your life depends on it.
Just don't go overboard with the misdirected hatred and the ludicrous superiority complex because of a few great teams that happen to be aligned in the same league. Please pick a team and go with them, don't piggy back on the prosperity of a conference. Stop basking in their glow when 364 days out of the year you are hoping the other team's entire roster comes down with the Swine Flu the week before you play them.
Now it is off to have my wife beat me at Wii Sports again, and then wait on the abuse I will take from her friends about how they are better than me, too.
But that is a rant for another day.
For years, fans have chosen sides, caused family infighting, started arguments at work and at bars, and rooted like there is no tomorrow for their favorite team. But for some reason, it has turned from being loyal to a team to fans feeling a sense of self-importance, greater worth, and the right to trash talk at other conferences because of how a select few at the top do against the rest of the country.
When is the last time you heard a Boston Red Sox fan say, "The AL East is obviously better than the NL East because New York beat the Phillies to win the World Series. Go Yankees!"
Or how about a Cleveland Browns fan proclaim "the NFC West is awful because the Cardinals lost to our AFC North brothers the Steelers in the Super Bowl!"
That doesn't happen. Only in college football do you hear the perennial bottom dwellers of a BCS conference disparage another conference because of what their conference champion in a bowl game or in a regular season high profile game.
Recently, the Big 10 has become the whipping boy of all SEC fans because Ohio State lost back-to-back national title games to Florida and LSU, respectively. But when is the last time that a team like Vanderbilt or Mississippi State beat, or for that matter even played, a top tier Big Ten team? So why do their fans feel they have the right to bash Ohio State and Penn State for their recent bowl struggles?
I am not specifically picking on SEC fans, they are just currently the most vocal about it due to their success in football over the last seven years. Four of the last six titles and Alabama in in this year's National Championship game. The SEC has a right to crow about it, but the lower level teams are beating their chests like they actually won the big games themselves.
I realize that being a fan of the Buckeyes, many may think I am just crying sour grapes. Having attended Kentucky, I do watch a lot of SEC football as well and have an appreciation for how they play. It is not a matter of who wins or loses, it is how the fans handle the success of others in the conference that their own team cannot achieve.
When the Buckeyes lost to Florida, my SEC friends had a good laugh at my expense. When LSU won the following year, you would think my friends had won the lottery. But they are mostly Kentucky fans. They generally loathe Florida and LSU, but somehow my friends felt they had earned a free pass to pile on with the Gator and Tiger fans.
When the USC Trojans beat Oklahoma to win the title for the 2004-2005 season, does anyone remember the fans of 1-10 Washington calling out the Sooners and Texas? It is utterly ridiculous that some people act this way.
And it is not just college football fans that practice these shenanigans. ACC basketball fans do the same thing.
When Duke or North Carolina have great teams, the worst of the league claim they are better than the SEC, the Big 12, and the Big East because of what the top rated Tar Heels and Blue Devils have done on the national stage. This is regardless of the fact that these less than competitive teams are sitting with 20-plus losses and dropped games to Ivy League and Patriot League teams on a yearly basis.
More and more fans are leaning towards this trend in most college sports. There is no clear reason why this started. It may be when the media started buying conference broadcasting rights rather than individual team rights. If a certain station is the official station of a conference, all of their commentary and analysis tend to be bias towards their contracted league.
If you watch NBC, you hear about how great Notre Dame tradition is. CBS screams the praises of the ACC and SEC. ESPN just got the rights for the future SEC games and gives a rub to the Big East. Fox Sports leans towards its broadcast partners in the Pac-10 and the Big 12.
It is real easy to look at the last five to 10 years and jump on the bandwagon of a certain team or conference when they are currently having success and the media keeps pumping up the legend of the last 48 months.
A true fan sticks with their team through the great seasons and the long droughts alike. Feel free to appreciate another team's style of play or respect another conference's dominance over a short period of time. Root for others in your team's conference in bowl games and tournaments if you please. All of this is typical fan behavior and it does not put a blemish on the feelings you have for your favorite team.
Do not pat yourself on the back and feel the need to bash other teams and conferences based on the success of others. Do not feel superior to other conferences that you don't play against yourself because others in your conference won a game. Do not hide in shame when your team goes 1-11 and then turn around and rip a 10-2 team that lost to the best your conference has to offer.
There is a lot to say about fans showing passion, just make sure it is directed in the right direction. Support your conference, defend your team in good times and bad, and talk smack to your biggest rival like your life depends on it.
Just don't go overboard with the misdirected hatred and the ludicrous superiority complex because of a few great teams that happen to be aligned in the same league. Please pick a team and go with them, don't piggy back on the prosperity of a conference. Stop basking in their glow when 364 days out of the year you are hoping the other team's entire roster comes down with the Swine Flu the week before you play them.
Now it is off to have my wife beat me at Wii Sports again, and then wait on the abuse I will take from her friends about how they are better than me, too.
But that is a rant for another day.
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