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Morning Brew: Cocky coaches fill the SEC

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By Case Keefer

Friday, February 27, 2009

Your football program is one bad season away from becoming totally irrelevant. It’s on the brink of cementing its place as the fourth-best program in a six-team division.

So what does the coach do? He starts talking trash. He makes false allegations. He masks his lack of experience with taunts.

This is new Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. With spring football set to kick off around the nation over the next few weeks, a lot of attention is focused on Knoxville, Tenn., where Kiffin has created more riffraff than Stefhon Hannah at a nightclub.

In the last few months, Kiffin — whose Tennessee team went 5-7 last season, including a defeat to Wyoming under coach Phillip Fulmer — has managed to start feuds with Southeastern Conference rivals Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

Kiffin accused Florida coach Urban Meyer of violating NCAA rules by phoning a recruit while he was on the Tennessee campus. Too bad that’s legal and not a violation.

Kiffin said assistant coach Lance Thompson, whom he hired away from Alabama, was the reason for Alabama coach Nick Saban’s recruiting success. Good idea, insult the 2008 National Coach of the Year.

Kiffin said Georgia only signed Marlon Brown, a top-rated receiver from Memphis, because his grandmother didn’t want him to commit to Tennessee. Didn’t mention that Brown might be interested in an SEC Championship and that Georgia has had two in the last 10 years as compared with Tennessee’s zero.

He’s also gotten into a public argument with South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier over recruiting rules.

All of this from a guy who has never served as a college football head coach and went 5-15 in two seasons as the coach of the Oakland Raiders.

Sure, he spent some quality years on coach Pete Carroll’s staff at USC. But Kiffin is in for a rude awakening this fall when he tries to compete in the SEC, the nation’s unquestioned best football conference.

He’ll quickly learn that the Volunteers don’t have the talent to match up with the teams he’s targeted. He’s going to find out that while running his mouth was fun in the offseason, getting pounded during the season isn’t as enjoyable.

Kiffin needs to make the most of Tennessee’s upcoming spring practices. Ultimately, the Volunteers are going to need a lot more than that to drown out their arrogant coach.

MISSING: HATED COACHES IN THE BIG 12

Between Kiffin, Spurrier and Meyer, the SEC is full of coaches who are infamous for stirring up controversy with their cockiness.

The Big 12 is not. Think about it. There are no truly despised football coaches in the Big 12. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Texas coach Mack Brown are envied. Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is eccentric. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy and Colorado coach Dan Hawkins are famous because of press conference rants.

But none of the guys initiate inner-conference coaching feuds. Someday, that will change. It only takes one guy like Kiffin to do the job.

— —Edited by Liz Schubauer

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