Kiffin-palooza: Who else is not sure what to make of this hire?

Count me as being as wrong as I am confused. In what surprised many observers of the Nick Saban era at the University of Alabama, Former Oakland Raider, Tennessee and USC head coach Lane Kiffin has been hired to take over the Crimson Tide offense.

I thought such a thing would never happen. I was wrong.

“We are excited to have Lane join our staff,” said Alabama head coach Nick Saban in a statement. “He is an outstanding and creative offensive coach who has great experience both at the college and NFL level. He has a very good understanding of the game and I have always been impressed with what I saw in the games he called. He coaches with a great deal of passion and enthusiasm, and also does an excellent job as a teacher. Lane will be an outstanding addition to our coaching staff and we look forward to him and his family joining us at the University of Alabama.”

I agree that the guy can coach. We all know that he can recruit. But he’s been fired from two of his last three jobs as a head coach, which means he’s also either a helluva salesman of his own acumen, he’s a locker room polarizer, or both.

I’m not sure what to make of this. Does Saban really see Kiffin as the guy, or did Kiffin convince Saban that he was the guy in what may have been the most seductive, most irresistible sales jobs in the history of seductive, irresistible sales jobs?

It’s said that a good salesman can sell crap to a sewer man and ice to an Eskimo. It’s also said that Nick Saban is a genius when it comes to identifying highly qualified assistants. Maybe Kiffin is an excellent salesman who is also a highly qualified assistant that just happens to be a locker room polarizer.

If Saban can rein in the latter of those three extant character traits of the boy wonder, this might prove to be a brilliant hire. If the product sold proves to fraudulently defective and the boy wonder’s ego causes strife and tension in the locker room and staff meetings, all hell could break loose and college football’s most prolific program could spend enough time wandering in the wilderness to make the head coach wonder if it’s time to go watch the ducks F$%^ on the lake.

It is a splashy, albeit risky hire for Saban.

Kiffin’s background is in pro-style and West Coast offensive strategies. He’s a decent play-caller and has made the most of the talent he’s had on the field (whenever he’s had enough talent to make a difference). The one thing that Kiffin has never had the benefit of in any of his three previous coaching stints is a roster full of talent that is as deep as it is heralded. In fact, in this space I discussed how his roster management skills gave USC a chance to be competitive in an NCAA sanctions environment that was intended to make his team far less competitive than it was. It could make a difference.

Or, it could result in Lane just being Lane, and it could be a disaster of biblical proportions at the Capstone.

Beginning with the 2014 season, we’ll find out. But, I’m still not sure what to make of this, and I dare not make any more predictions. My scorecard on that account is woeful.

[ed note: This post is corrected to reflect that Kiffin was fired from two of his last  three jobs, not all three, as originally posted.]

NCAA sanctions don’t stop USC – Yet.

There’s an interesting analysis from ESPN.com’s Brian Maisel today, in which he explains how USC’s Lane Kiffin has managed to escape the expected punitive smackdown of the NCAA sanctions levied in the Reggie Bush case.

Kiffin did it through a stroke of luck and some shrewd roster management. We touched on this subject right after signing day, dubbing Kiffin the Sith Lord of Roster Management.

Maisel describes the plan, just as this site did about seven months ago. It really was a masterful use of the system and the situation Kiffin found himself in, and it underscores why so many people are thinking that this punk kid of a coach might be smarter than we gave him credit for:

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In 2010, the NCAA smacked USC with a loss of 10 scholarships per year for three years and an overall limit of 75, 10 below the FBS maximum. Kiffin laid out for university president Max Nikias and athletic director Pat Haden the difference between serving the penalties immediately and appealing them.

He created a chart showing the impact of the scholarship cuts if taken immediately. Years of undersigning by Kiffin's mentor and predecessor, Pete Carroll, combined with the departure of several players who transferred after the Trojans suffered a bowl ban, left USC with 67 scholarship players as it entered the 2010 season. If Kiffin could bring in only 15 players per year beginning in 2011, it would be difficult to climb back to full strength.

The administration might have decided to file an appeal for the same reason that anyone files an appeal -- to look for relief. But USC also filed an appeal to game the system. By delaying the scholarship penalties until the appeal had been heard -- and denied -- the Trojans could sign a full class of recruits in February 2011. In fact, because several players enrolled in January, the Trojans signed 31 players, well over the limit of 25 (early enrollees may be assigned to the previous year's allotment).

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While gaming the calendar and taking advantage of Carroll’s drop-off in recruiting, Kiffin also took another masterful step—he promptly redshirted half of 2011 class. This buying forward approach is shrewd, but it likely only delays the inevitable. By redshirting half of the 2011 class and combining it with the 17 signed in the 2012 class, Kiffin enters the fall camp with a wealth of talent.

With arguably the 2013 Draft’s first pick in QB Matt Barkley, a tenacious defense and that much talent, there’s a very good chance that USC runs through a favorable schedule and makes a run at the BCS Championship.

But the fact remains that USC is still thin in several key units on the team. No need to go into specifics on that here, but the penalty phase of USC’s sanctions run through 2014, during which Kiffin may only carry 75 total players on scholarship and still faces a limit on initial counters for the 2014 signing class.

NCAA sanctions are carefully crafted and there’s about as much of a chance of totally escaping the damage as Johnny Favorite did of escaping his deal with the Devil in Angel Heart.

Kiffin can still minimize the damage, but a lot of things have to go his way. First, he has to have the successful 2012 season he’s expected to. Second, every one of his incoming players must be can’t-miss contributors and need to play right away. Third, he can’t take any academic at-risks or have kids kicked off the team. Fourth, he has to make sure that all of his players hold the rope and don’t transfer or skip early to the NFL Draft. Fifth, he has to escape serious injury that sidelines key players on both sides of the ball.

Last of all, he has to stay out of any further NCAA trouble, a prospect that many fans scoff at given his track record.

Even if he does all that as well as he managed the 2011-12 signing classes, the 2013-2015 seasons are likely to be nowhere near as sweet as the 2012 season is expected to be. NCAA sanctions are designed to be punitive. You can run, but sooner or later…

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Tee Martin reopens old wounds and joins Lane Kiffin’s staff

When former Vol QB Tee Martin left Kentucky to join Lane Kiffin’s staff at USC, he irked a Vol fan base that shunned him just a few short years ago. Martin, who was investigated by the NCAA in 2002 and 2003 for receiving impermissible benefits from a UT fan in Mobile, found himself ostracized by the program he led to the 1998 National Championship. When asked about Tennessee fans’ feelings by ESPN, Martin responded:

“Who cares?”

"I'm excited about working with Coach Kiffin. I called a lot of people before I made this decision, a lot of people who worked with him at Tennessee and other places, and not one time did I hear anything bad. Not one time."

"And so for me, that was great. Of course, I was one of the people that was upset when Coach Kiffin left UT, and that's out there, but I understand his decision, and it's similar to the decision I ended up having to make. He didn't know his dream job was going to open up. When it did, he had to take it."

The move reopens old wounds and gives Martin a chance to settle an old score.

In 2002, former Mobile Press-Register reporter and columnist Neal McCready reported that Martin allegedly received $4,500 from Mobile insurance executive and UT fan Diane Sanford. Sanford was alleged to have given the money to another former Press-Register reporter, Wayne Rowe, who then wired the funds to Martin during the 1999 season.

The NCAA enforcement staff investigated the matter in 2002 and in January 2003, closed the case. The NCAA determined that Sanford was not a booster and found no evidence that the school had knowledge of the improper payments. However, Martin’s amateur status should have been voided and any games he played in after the payments should have been vacated.

According to sources close to the investigation at the time, Tennessee did learn that Martin had accepted improper benefits and investigated the claims. Martin himself hinted that he’d received money while at UT and said he told NCAA investigators about it. Between the Georgia and Alabama games during the 1999 season, then head coach Phillip Fulmer held Martin out of practice, citing an injury. But during that same time frame, then athletic director Doug Dickey traveled to Mobile and met with Sanford at a local Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Dickey “took care of business” during that meeting and returned to Knoxville. Martin was later cleared to play and led the Vols to a 21-7 victory over Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

In its 2003 letter to the university, the NCAA wrote that there is no need "to conduct any further inquiry into these matters at this time," meaning that if additional information surfaced they would reopen the matter.

Later that same year, McCready told WNSP Sports Drive listeners that if he’d gotten one more source to go on the record, he would have blown the case wide open and forced the NCAA to take action. That source never went on the record and McCready had to spike the story.

The case is now ancient history, but Martin still suffered the cold shoulder treatment by the school and its fans.

During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, the one-time hero of the program’s only modern era National Championship team had his sideline passes revoked and was told not to visit the campus conspicuously. The fanbase turned on him, with internet message boards and talk radio callers labeling him as a snitch, a turncoat, a liar or all of the above. Two of the message boards had multipage threads on an effort to rename Tee Martin Drive (which intersects Phillip Fulmer Way) back to its original name, South Stadium Drive.

In a 2005 followup story by the Tennessean, Martin told the paper that he was hurt by the treatment and felt he was being made a scapegoat. He claimed to have done nothing wrong during his career at UT.

In the 2011 season, Martin coached wide receivers on the Kentucky team that beat Tennessee for the first time in a generation. In 2012, he’ll coach along with the most despised man in Vol football history. He’s settling old scores and when asked about it he says: “Who cares?”

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Lane Kiffin: Sith Lord of Roster Management

When it comes to the black art of roster management, there is no equal to USC’s Lane Kiffin. Recruiting under the cloud of the harshest NCAA sanctions handed down since the SMU “death penalty” case, Darth Kiffin is crafting a roster so stocked with talent and youth that it may be hard to see the effects of the penalties handed down in June 2010 and upheld on appeal in May 2011. Reggie who?

The sanctions were intended to severely punish the Trojan football program. It was supposed to wander in the darkness for the better part of a decade. They were supposed to be the ideal homecoming opponent for Colorado. They were not supposed to emerge from probation stocked with talent and ready for runs at PAC-12 and national titles, but they may well do just that.

How could this happen?

The answer lies in looking back in time and reviewing recruiting and roster figures from the years preceding Kiffin’s arrival before the 2010 season. Dr. Saturday has a keen analysis of how USC recruited lightly in Pete Carroll’s final years, leaving Kiffin with fewer scholarship players than the sanctions called for going forward. Once the severity of the sanctions were known (and the chances of successful appeal rated), Kiffin loaded up the magazine. He signed 30 players in the 2011 class, back counted several to the 2010 class and promptly redshirted half of them.

Add those 15 redshirts to the 2012 class of 17 new scholarship players and the freshman class that shows up for fall camp will be more than doubled. These aren’t two- and three-star projects, either. Half of recruits in the 2011 class were either four- or five-star players, so the talent pool on the field next September will be very young, but very rich.

In fact, the 2012 Trojans are one of the most popular picks to win the PAC-12 and play for the national championship.

The NCAA intended the sanctions to hurt and they may still make their impacts felt in the next few years. When recruiting under such harsh limits, you have to have a lot of luck avoiding injuries. Off the field issues have to be kept to a minimum. There is no such animal as a project recruit—every player you sign has to be a bona fide “can’t miss” and has to be ready to contribute immediately. And once you’ve gotten those can’t miss prospects in the corral, you have to convince them to hold the rope and resist the temptation to transfer or jump early to the NFL draft.

If Kiffin can do that, he will not only rule as the Sith Lord of Roster Management, he will also have shown programs like North Carolina how to practice the dark art of beating harsh NCAA sanctions.

Padawan Fedora, are you paying attention?

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UPDATED: Bad week for Tennessee – what else could go wrong?

On Tuesday, legendary Women’s Basketball Coach Pat Summit announced that she had been diagnosed with a case of early onset dementia, but would rely on her assistants and staff as she attempts to coach at least one more year. The outpouring of support and well-wishing was national and sincere, but a long and storied chapter in Tennesee history looks to be coming to end (and far too soon).

Also on Tuesday, former Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl was informed by the NCAA that the league’s Committee on Infractions was handing him a multi-year show cause penalty for his role in a major infractions case involving improper recruiting.

On Wednesday, Football Coach Derek Dooley announced that Junior Safety Janzen Jackson had been dismissed from the team. Jackson’s career at UT had been troubled from the get-go, but he was arguably the team’s most talented player and his dismissal is expected to have significant consequences for the Vols’ 2011 season outlook.

What else could go wrong?

Accompanying the notice from the NCAA was something to the effect of “oh, by the way. We’re handing down our public report and sticking you with sanctions on the Pearl and Lane Kiffin cases.”

A press conference is likely later today.

Exit Question: Where is Roy Kramer when ya need him?

UPDATE: Maybe he’s on the Committee on Infractions. ESPN’s Andy Katz explains that UT has already seen the Committee’s report and that the Committee has accepted the school’s self-imposed penalties.

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University of Tennessee releases NCAA Notice of Allegations

Affects men’s Basketball and Football programs, Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl and former Head Football Coach, Lane Kiffin.

To wit:

The University of Tennessee yesterday received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA regarding the school's men's basketball and football programs.

This Notice results from a 22-month investigation by the NCAA and the University of Tennessee in response to reports of alleged violations reported by the University and from external sources. The University and its Athletics Department have cooperated fully with the NCAA in this matter, and the receipt of the Notice of Allegations signifies the end of the initial review and fact-finding period.

While an examination into potential rules violations by the University of Tennessee baseball program was referenced in the initial Letter of Inquiry from the NCAA, there are no alleged violations by the baseball program listed in this Notice.

The Notice contains the following allegations of violation of NCAA rules against the men's basketball program:

• Impermissible contact with prospective student-athletes resulting from a cumulative total of 96 impermissible phone calls over a 24-month period (Aug. 1, 2007 through July 29, 2009).
• By the head men's basketball coach: impermissible contact with prospective student-athletes during an unofficial visit, acting contrary to the principles of ethical conduct, failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance, and failure to monitor the activities regarding compliance of all assistant coaches within the men's basketball program.
• By the head men's basketball coach and associate head coach: impermissible contact with a prospective student-athlete at his high school.
• By the three members of the men's basketball assistant coaching staff: failure to furnish full and complete information relevant to the investigation.

The notice contains the following allegations of violation of NCAA rules against the football program:

• By former members of the football coaching staff: impermissible telephone contact (16 total calls) with prospective student-athletes from Jan. 3-9, 2010.
• By a former assistant football coach: allegations relating to impermissible contacts with prospective student-athletes.
• By a former head football coach: failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program and failure to monitor the activities regarding compliance of several assistant coaches have also been made against a former head football coach, and permitting a football recruiting intern to make impermissible contact with high school staff during a recruiting visit.

Additionally, the University is alleged to have failed to monitor the men's basketball coaching staff's telephone contacts with prospective student-athletes and their relatives in order to ensure compliance with NCAA telephone contact legislation (from Aug. 1, 2007 - July 29, 2009).

The University has a deadline of May 21, 2011 to formulate and submit a response to this Notice of Allegations to the NCAA. It is anticipated that the University's appearance before the Committee on Infractions will be during the committee's meeting on June 10-11, 2011.

Because the University and Athletic Department are now in the response phase of this process, there will be no further public comments regarding this matter by any University official until this process is complete.

At first blush, the underlined allegations appear to be the most serious.  Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl is alleged to have had impermissible contact with prospective student athletes and then lying to investigators about it.

The failure to monitor allegation is against former Head Football Coach Lane Kiffin. This allegation—to the relief of the UT faithful—stops short of the dreaded “lack of institutional control” violation that typically triggers near catastrophic penalties.

Via Twitter and online press reports, Lane Kiffin is declining comment on advice of counsel.

To my Vol friends, good luck and Godspeed. I am a fan and admirer of Coach Derek Dooley and I think he comes through this fine.

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Ruh Roh: NCAA to Hammer Tennessee?

Clay Travis at NCAA Fanhouse has the exclusive, so I’m only going to link to his article and post this snippet.

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The NCAA will cite the University of Tennessee's football program with a failure to monitor violation stemming from the short tenure of head coach Lane Kiffin, multiple sources close to the investigation both inside and outside the university told FanHouse.

The violation is related to improper recruiting contacts by Vol coaches and by Vol hostesses in the since disbanded Orange Pride program. What's more, in a stunning development that reaches across the country and implicates another of the nation's most-storied programs, the NCAA will also cite current USC head coach Lane Kiffin with a failure to monitor charge as well as additional citations against Kiffin's brother-in-law, David Reaves, formerly an assistant quarterbacks coach at Tennessee.

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And then I’ll remind readers that yesterday, the media was abuzz over the fact that Kiffin was on his way to signing a big time class at USC, despite that program facing crippling sanctions over the Reggie Bush affair.

While that case is under appeal, the sanctions weren’t binding until the Committee on Appeals has ruled. This lets the staff sign as many as the rules allow.

Exit question: Do you think Kiffin’s nose thumbing at USC has anything to do with the severity of the coming hammer blow?

Double Exit question: Do you think that given the recent antics down on the plains at Auburn, the NCAA lowers a heavier boom if pay-for-play and deliberate eligibility gamesmanship is proven?

Recruiting: Lane Kiffin playing with fire, or playing by the rules?

Dave Miller at National Football Post wonders if former Tennessee head football coach Lane Kiffin is taking advantage of a loophole in NCAA recruiting rules. Kiffin and USC are recruiting lights out for the 2010 class, and National Signing Day is tomorrow, February 2. They have 25 verbal commits already, and NCAA rules allow up to 28 to address academic non-qualifiers.  But wait… Isn’t Southern Cal under sanction?

Last year, the NCAA Committee on Infractions absolutely hammered the football program over the Reggie Bush fiasco. The Committee imposed a 30 scholarship reduction over three years (10 each year), which was supposed to go in place before the 2011 calendar and season.

So how is Kiffy able to load up on top drawer recruits, following a no-bowl, dismal 8-5 season?

Enter the ubiquitous NCAA loophole!

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Lane Kiffin is merely taking advantage of the appeals process as the school fights sanctions that would limit its signing classes to 15 for 2011 through 2013. Until the NCAA makes a ruling on the Trojans’ appeal, the sanctions will be kept on hold. The school also is fighting the back half of the two-year bowl ban.

is not expected until February or March.

Which means that Kiffin is on the hunt for several of the nation’s top prospects, and the former Tennessee head coach has already snagged some of the best available talent in what he has described as “the most important class ever signed at USC because of the situation surrounding it.”

Out of the school’s current 25 commits, nine players have already enrolled early in January. Quarterbacks Max Wittek and Cody Kessler were big “gets” for Kiffin, as well as addressing the lack of depth at offensive line. The class also could include multipurpose threat De'Anthony Thomas and receiver George Farmer, perhaps the nation's top receiver.

Of course, real drama could unfold on National Signing Day if players who have made commitments give in to final sales pitches from other major programs.

But for now, the situation at ‘SC doesn’t appear so bleak.

So what happened to the program being handcuffed? Is Kiffin taking advantage of a loophole?

Well, it depends on how you look at it.

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If I recall correctly, USC fought the NCAA tooth and nail, managing to stall the league for years. I don’t think they self-imposed any scholarship reductions, so continuing on as if the sanctions are not in place is in technical compliance with the rules and consistent with a profession of innocence.

But the “playing with fire” aspect of this story is that Kiffin is running a terrible risk. The appeals committee might treat Kiffin’s latest play with such scorn that they make the sanctions stick in the 2011 year, forcing USC to cut loose ten recruits.  Which ten?

Exit question: What are the chances that the NCAA allows any and all 2011 recruits to retain all eligibility and transfer to any school of their choice?