Over the last 24hrs, it had been reported and confirmed that Lane Kiffin has left the University of Tennessee for greener pastures in SoCal at USC. Talk about the level of disappointment UT fans must feel. For Lane Kiffin to feed all that BS down the player’s, student’s, fan’s, administrator’s, and community’s throats about building a program, and then bolt back to USC at the blink of an eye is disgraceful. How could you ever again believe a man that looked you right in the eye and told you one thing with conviction and trust, and then pull something like this?
The same thing happened to the Falcons when Bobby Petrino left Atlanta for the Arkansas Razorback position only one year in. Miami too were victim tot he same act when Nick Saban left for the Alabama head coaching job in 2007, after aggressively denying all possibility of leaving the Dolphins for the Crimson Tide.
Call me old school, but I like to think that there is still a sense of comradeship or loyalty to a college program. I know it doesn’t exist in the corporate world anymore, where an employee would come in at an entry level position and remain there for their entire li
fe before retiring – committing everything toward the advancement of the company, but I’d like to think it does exist somewhere. In many respects I think football and other team-based sports, especially in the collegiate ranks, still has some of that loyalty left. This act by Kiffin shows me that those deep relationships don’t stand in the way of “business”.
And if you have any question as to what I’m talking about, think about what Tom Landry, Joe Paterno, Hank Stram, Bobby Bowden, Paul “Bear” Bryant, or Knute Rockne would say to these “men” given the situation they were in and the course of action they chose. The mantra ‘They don’t make em like they used to’ apparently applies to head coaches too.
You could see from here that it was not going to be Texas night. From there Texas got another break after they kicked off, and Alabama did not cover the kick. Texas had another opportunity to get six but had to settle for another field goal to make it 6-0. Texas walked away wanting more, and Bama showed why they are the Champs by squashing any real momentum early in the game.
