Lane Kiffin Fired

[MWM]

After getting blown out by ASU, Kiffin was fired by USC. I really hope this is the last we see the guy in college football.

[dabvu2498]

After getting blown out by ASU, Kiffin was fired by USC. I really hope this is the last we see the guy in college football.

I have a feeling it'll be much worse than that... ESPN seems like his likely destination.

[Stray]

So with his career path we can expect him to be....the next coach at Texas? Never seen an undeserving coach get so many good jobs like he has.

[redsfanmia]

So with his career path we can expect him to be....the next coach at Texas? Never seen an undeserving coach get so many good jobs like he has.

I was thinking Dallas Cowboys.

[MWM]

What boggles my mind is that everyone could see this coming, except USC. If there was ever a time where I was certain it was going to end badly, it was Kiffin to USC (and Rich Rod at Michigan).

[dougdirt]

Pulled him off of the bus as the airport to fire him.

Classy, USC. Classy.

[MWM]

Maybe it was a match made in heaven. :)

[WVRed]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I think even his dad saw the writing on the wall and got out.

His one year in Tennessee told me everything I needed to know about the guy. How he treated other coaches, and ultimately how he left Knoxville. I'm a UK fan but I felt sorry for the Vols when he upped and left.

[WVRed]

On a semi related note, I wonder what it will take for Texas to can Mack Brown? The only coach I've seen do less with more is Rick Barnes, who ironically coaches at the same school.

[Revering4Blue]

What boggles my mind is that everyone could see this coming, except USC. If there was ever a time where I was certain it was going to end badly, it was Kiffin to USC (and Rich Rod at Michigan).

To be fair, current AD Pat Haden didn't hire Kiffin; former AD Mike Garrett -- who didn't even know who Gene Keady was when Keady called to express interest in the Trojan hoops opening in '96 -- did.

Unlike Kiffin, Rich Rod was a proven head coach when Michigan hired him. One can also present a strong case that ponying up 750,000 to pry Greg Mattison away from the NFL to become Michigan's DC has had a larger impact on Michigan's resurgence than hiring Brady Hoke as HC and if the Michigan powers-that-be had done so for Rich Rod, he's still be there.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Kiffin was a total joke. I went to two USC games this year and I've never seen an offense with so much talent be completely wasted by inept coaching. Play calling, scheme, rotations...everything was mismanaged and awful. With even half way decent coaching this team could win every game left on the schedule minus Stanford.

[KronoRed]

Pulled him off of the bus as the airport to fire him.

Classy, USC. Classy.

Kiffin was never classy in any of his moves, why should usc?

[Mutaman]

I think Kiffin's problem is he didn't cheat enough. he should have taken some tips from his predecessor, Pete.

[dougdirt]

Kiffin was never classy in any of his moves, why should usc?

I honestly don't know much about what he did/didn't do. But pulling him off of the team bus at the airport to fire him isn't how you go about it. Call him to your office after the game. This wasn't a situation where he and his boss got into it and it led to an on the spot firing. They planned this. It was in poor taste.

[jojo]

I honestly don't know much about what he did/didn't do. But pulling him off of the team bus at the airport to fire him isn't how you go about it. Call him to your office after the game. This wasn't a situation where he and his boss got into it and it led to an on the spot firing. They planned this. It was in poor taste.

Elements of the account of his firing such as being pulled off the team bus are in dispute.

[Boston Red]

I don't think anyone would have complained too loudly if they had just thrown him out of the team plane somewhere over the desert.

[KronoRed]

I don't think anyone would have complained too loudly if they had just thrown him out of the team plane somewhere over the desert.

Now that might have been classless.;)

[dougdirt]

Elements of the account of his firing such as being pulled off the team bus are in dispute.

If that is the case, then I will retract my statement. Unless the way they went about it was just as bad.

[Revering4Blue]

Lane Kiffin was never the long-term solution for USC football.

He was an eleventh-hour poker play in 2010 by former athletic director Mike Garrett, a desperate short-term move to save a program from the NCAA sanctions that were about to be handed down under Garrett's arrogant watch.

Never mind Kiffin lacked the credentials or the pedigree, he was a not-too-distant member of Pete Carroll's old glory guard.

Kiffin, a former Carroll assistant, was a stopgap brought in to save Garrett and, more important, a recruiting class.

This article, which likens Kiffin's tenure at USC to Mike Shula's tenure at Alabama, is long, but well worth the read.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/football/la-sp-0930-dufresne-usc-kiffin-20130930,0,2513207.column?page=1&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20latimes%2Fmostviewed%20%28L .A.%20Times%20-%20Most%20Viewed%20Stories%29&track=rss

[Matt700wlw]

Karma

[Caveat Emperor]

Just another guy trading on his old man's name.

I expect he'll end up as an assistant somewhere and get another shot at coaching eventually.

[19braves77]

you can't compare the alabama and USC sanction years. Kiffin never got to play with a full roster unlike Mike Shula did in 2006. When Saban came in, he had enough info to know what was going to work and what wasn't going to work. Saban would go on to 7-6 record. USC is just now over the scholarship reductions and is still going to have a couple of rough years regardless of who they hire.

[Revering4Blue]

you can't compare the alabama and USC sanction years. Kiffin never got to play with a full roster unlike Mike Shula did in 2006. When Saban came in, he had enough info to know what was going to work and what wasn't going to work. Saban would go on to 7-6 record. USC is just now over the scholarship reductions and is still going to have a couple of rough years regardless of who they hire.

I don't disagree with you at all. Even though I agree with the general premise of the article -- that Shula and Kiffin were arguably hired as quick-fix "caretakers" -- the article, as you pointed out, is not without flaws. The tenures of both HCs were similar in some ways, but the differences within the tenures -- particularly the hiring processes and what proved to be the final seasons for both Shula and Kiffin -- were/are definitely pronounced.

IIRC, after the untimely late spring '03 firing of recently hired HC Mike Price, rather than go with an interim HC for a year before conducting a National HC search following the '03 season, Shula, whom many Bama faithful felt was an underwhelming hire at the time, was hired as permanent coach. In other words, there was no time for an exhaustive National search before the upcoming '03 season.

Whereas, Kiffin, unlike Shula, as the article states, was hired early enough in the off-season for a National Search to still have taken place as a quick-fix solution to salvage a solid recruiting class and as a last-ditch attempt to save the soon-to-be outgoing buffoon of an Athletic Director.

[Chip R]

The inside story of Lane Kiffin's tenure at Tennessee.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27638015/trash-talk-mattress-fires-flying-projector-lane-kiffin-year-tennessee

[Kingspoint]

UCLA can't stand there and justify Chip Kelly's performance. There should be two LA College coaches sitting in forced retirement.

[KronoRed]

Funny to see him say they should have stayed at UT, probably would have been fired about the same time he was at USCw.

[Boston Red]

Funny to see him say they should have stayed at UT, probably would have been fired about the same time he was at USCw.

Well, they're the only ones that would have been wrong to fire him. He surely would have done better there than the clown show that's followed him through Knoxville.

[KronoRed]

Well, they're the only ones that would have been wrong to fire him. He surely would have done better there than the clown show that's followed him through Knoxville.

At best he does as well as Butch Jones, still gets canned.

[Griffey012]

The inside story of Lane Kiffin's tenure at Tennessee.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27638015/trash-talk-mattress-fires-flying-projector-lane-kiffin-year-tennessee

Unrelated but it is nice to see ESPN getting back to some journalism and writing interesting stories. It has to be caused by The Athletic.