61 seconds.

That’s all we got.  Maybe that’s all we were worth.

Lane Kiffin was brash, he redefined hubris, he sold the Tennessee football program as well as anybody before him.  That’s probably why he was so beloved, so fast in Knoxville.  We all bought into his act and believed it was all calculated for the express intent of redirecting the football program’s momentum from its downward slope.

For the 9 months preceding the 2009 college football season, Tennessee fans grinned through gritted teeth while Kiffin jabbed opposing intra-conference coaches, many of whom had already established championship resumes. We actually enjoyed having a coach willing to levy pre-emptive strikes on Gainesville, Tuscaloosa, Athens, and Columbia. We were awed by the rush of 4-and 5-star recruits who started switching allegiances and ultimately signed to play in Knoxville. The Kid was on fire and he possessed a sack the size of The Hill filled with snarky comments for every occasion.

Nevermind the occasional secondary violations, nevermind the fact that we were returning a 5-7 team and changing the entire offensive and defensive systems. Tennessee was back!  Bring on Bammer!  Bring on the Gators!!

Yet, through it all, many of us were feeling uncomfortable…uneasy about the methods. Would the ends justify the means? Were we still gonna be waxed by our biggest rivals?  We’d have to wait and see how the games played out on the field. But, why were we so uneasy? We had what we wanted, the opposite of Phil Fulmer.

We talked amongst ourselves about our uneasiness, and knew its source.  Kiffin’s style wasn’t reflective of Tennessee.  His brag first, back it up later mentality was completely opposite of everything General Neyland, Coach Majors, and Coach Fulmer had raised us to expect from our Tennessee program.  Those guys believed in the play on the field doing all of the talking.  The 2009 team had yet to play a down under its new head coach and the bulletin board material was already aplenty in opposing teams’ locker rooms.

Despite all of the inherited and self-made adversity, the 2009 season was a success, even better than the 7-5 win-loss record reflected.  Tennessee took the field in Gainesville and stood its ground.  The Dawgs came for a visit to Knoxville and the Vols ran them out of the building.   It had worked!  Lane Kiffin was crazy like a fox!  He managed to use his brashness to bottle all of the pressure and scrutiny and hoist it onto his shoulders, which, consequently (and OBVIOUSLY part of the plan), allowed the players to play stress-free.  Sheer brilliance!

Yes, the Chick-fil-A Bowl beatdown from Virginia Tech was demoralizing…but only temporarily because the Hokies really were the better team coming into the matchup on paper, and the Vols are required, by law, to play any game in the Georgie Dome with concrete uniforms.  Whatever…all of that was secondary to the fact we were on the cusp of a big recruiting haul on the fast-approaching Signing Day.  Many rating services had Kiffins first full class rated in the top 5 nationally, and 8 of those guys were midterm enrollees, including a 4-star quarterback.  If Kiffin could transform Jon Crompton from the catfish of the SEC into a top 3 quarterback, what could he do with a fresh, talented freshman who was to begin working out on campus this Spring!?

We’ll never know.

Lane Kiffin has performed a miraculous feat…he is now hated by all 12 schools in the SEC.

He gave us 14 months to see what could be, and only required 61 seconds to snatch that away.  I call that being efficient.

Today is 20 days from Signing Day and the first day of the Spring 2010 semester classes.  Those 8 midterm enrollees who were to begin class today and galvanize their relationships with the Tennessee team and family will not be stepping foot in a classroom.  According to multiple sources (including Marlon Walls, a current Tennessee player), Coach Ed Orgeron requested that these 8 highly rated players not attend class so they can begin the process of being recruited by Southern Cal.

Awesome.

So, where is Tennessee football now?  Well…I don’t know.  What I do know is there are 20 days until Signing Day and the Vols are in real danger of having nothing to show in the way of a 2010 class.  I also know that the names being thrown around to fill the open coaching position are somewhat unimpressive: Houston Nutt (Ole Miss), Bobby Petrino (Arkansas), Will Muschamp (Texas), Gary Patterson (TCU), and Troy Calhoun (Air Force).  There’s nothing spectacular and little inspiring on that list.

Firing Fulmer was necessary, I still believe that.  Hiring Kiffin was risky, but the risk had given us a glimpse of great rewards.  However, contrary to Fulmer, Kiffin was unstable.  And guess what..water is wet and hindsight is 20/20. I saw this coming.  I knew Kiffin had no ties whatsoever to Tennessee the school or Tennessee the state.  I picked up on Kiffin’s mannerisms immediately.  Wanna take a guess at who he emulates?  Try this guy…his former boss and mentor.  The words they speak may be different, but their delivery is spot on.  Kiffin essentially assembled a Southern Cal-lite coaching staff at Tennessee to re-establish the recruiting juggernaut he enjoyed at Southern Cal (here’s where Coach O fits in).  It seemed to make too much sense that as soon as Pete Carroll left Southern Cal, Kiffin was the most logical to follow him.  I just thought that time wouldn’t come for another 4 to 5 years, and the reason would be Carroll’s retirement and full-time gig on GameDay.  Then, last Friday happened and Carroll took the deflection route to answering questiong regarding the rumors/reports that he was on his way to Seattle to coach the Seahawks.

Stability will salvage a recruiting class.  None on the above list constitutes a Tennessee guy.  I think there are two options here: open First Tennessee Bank’s vaults and allow Bammer’s Nick Saban to name his price, any price, knowing his commitment is only good for a few years; or, call Duke’s David Cutcliffe and bring him back to Tennessee while naming his price.

In the meantime, I’d like to speak specifically to the Tennessee fans here: SETTLE DOWN!!  Kiffin is not taking your puppies and girlfriends with him to Southern Cal.  Burning mattresses and t-shirts is unnecessary and very West Virginia-ish:

And while we’re addressing the mob-mentality phenomenon, can we please avoid blocking off roads and requiring the occasional tear gas and pepper spray application from the local fuzz?  Please?

I would like to thank sophomore Tennessee Basketball player Renaldo Woolridge for providing front-row seats play-by-play from Gibbs Hall throughout the fiasco.

I don’t really know what else to say at this moment.  I know our program is screwed.  I know this signals a hopefully temporary shift from annual relevancy to annual conference also-ran status.  I feel pretty confident that Mike Hamilton may be the first person ever to not contract the flu, yet still barf and poo his pants simultaneously.

I wrote a post in November, 2008 regarding Phil Fulmer’s firing (can’t find the link…the internet ate it I guess found it!!), and, if memory serves me correctly, I concluded the post by thanking Fulmer for giving his all for Tennessee for 17 years.  This one won’t end on a similar note.

Good riddance, Lane.

Popularity: 3% [?]