USC Hits Home Run With Kiffin

While there is plenty wrong with Lane Kiffin leaving Tennessee after just fourteen months to take over at USC, looking at it from a business standpoint everything is right. USC needed someone like Kiffin, someone strong-willed, cocky, and preferably young. Lane Kiffin fits all of those and even more, he will be able to assemble an all-star coaching staff including his father Monte, recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron, and they are rumored to be in on bringing back offensive coordinator Norm Chow from UCLA. Kiffin is a very polarizing figure in sports, and he's starting to get a reputation similar to John Calipari at Kentucky. But I believe, like Calipari, Kiffin will enjoy incredible success at USC, even though the NCAA will be watching closely.

As a fan, I am certainly disappointed with the state of college football where this can be allowed to happen. Coaching contracts really do mean nothing anymore, and it's unbelievable that we got to this point. With that aside, this is how it was before Kiffin's announcement, and it is how it will stay. Everything wrong about this move, I am more than happy to dismiss as the ways of the business, but there is one thing that I have a real problem with. If the rumors that Kiffin and Orgeron are actively contacting USC recruits and telling them to follow the staff to USC, there needs to be change to protect against this. Kiffin is hurting the Volunteers enough by leaving them without a coaching staff three weeks before national signing day. USC's recruiting class should be safe. They were ranked 10th, and with Kiffin and the superstar staff coming in, very few, if any of them will be leaving. Unfortunately Tennessee isn't that lucky. Kiffin had put together the 6th best class in the nation, of which several have already decommitted.

Look, I understand players commit to a school for the coach just as much as they do for the school, but situations like this need to be avoided. Since it's clear that you can't trust coaches to do what is morally right, and you can't expect kids to stay at a school that they no longer want to attend, a rule needs to be made. Perhaps something along the lines of those players being allowed to leave, but not follow the head coach to his new school. I see nothing wrong with a player going to the school that finished 2nd or 3rd for their services, but if a super class can be composed, much like what we're likely to see at USC this year, something is wrong with that.

I wish Kiffin all the best at USC, and I think if he plays his cards right, he has the potential to have legendary success there. I also hope Tennessee can get there guy and get him soon. I've heard that former coach Phil Fulmer has been contacted which makes all the sense in the world after the Volunteers have gone through this Kiffin mess. Fulmer is a phenomenal coach and recruiter who the school would not have to worry about betraying them. Seeing Kiffin bolt after only one year, it really makes you appreciate someone like Fulmer who has bled Tennessee orange for 35 years.

Pete Carroll To Seattle And What He Leaves Behind At USC

All signs have pointed to the marriage between Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks to be a done deal. The contract has been reported at 5 years and worth an incredible $35 million. Carroll will also take over as team president, a stated must for any team looking to lure him away from the dynasty he has continued to build at USC. The reasons he is leaving are obvious. First and foremost, there’s the money. Carroll will go from making around $4 million per year at USC to $7 million in the NFL. However everyone who follows sports knows that Carroll could have easily used the Seahawks’ offer as leverage to negotiate a richer contract at USC, though it is doubtful the university would have gone all the way to match the offer from Seattle. So with that, we can gather that Carroll either wanted a new challenge, was scared of future NCAA sanctions that could be imposed on USC for their recruiting violations (most recently with Joe McKnight), or a combination of both.

Regardless of why he left, the bottom line to USC and college football now is that he’s gone. Leaving behind an incredible legacy and one of, if not the most traditionally desired coaching job in the country. This leads me to my next question. How does USC replace Pete Carroll? Ok the names that have been tossed around are fine, but this is Pete Carroll you’re replacing. If you are USC, you cannot afford to get this hire wrong, but with the threat of sanctions, you don’t present the value that you should. The name that is brought up most in connection with the job is Mike Riley, the head coach at Oregon State. Riley is a USC alum and a good coach, he figures to be at the top of the list. Also on that list are Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack del Rio, Boise State head coach Chris Peterson, and Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh (who just signed an extension with Stanford but those mean nothing in college athletics these days). Of course these potential coaches may have a recipe for disaster if they come to USC and have to deal with the Trojans’ high hopes mixed with the harsh reality of NCAA sanctions.

When USC is winning, there is no better place in the world to coach, but if they are not, the university may be looking for another head coach in just a few more years. Coaches beware.