Kiffin running players out of Tennessee - jmik58's Blog

jmik58's Blog

Kiffin running players out of Tennessee

Posted on May 12, 2009 at 10:31 AM.

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According to an ESPN article, Tennessee Volunteers football coach Lane Kiffin, has had eleven players leave the team since he took over. Out of those eleven, four have exited stage right following the recent Orange and White spring scrimmage.

Personally, I have been in a similar situation as a player. The previous year our record was 0-10, which naturally led to the hiring of a new coach.

The new coach was the biggest A-hole from the date of his hire to the start of the next season; obviously trying to weed out some of the players with poor attitude weak mental makeup.

Several players quit, but he also pushed out some other guys with his insensitivity and overbearing brash methods of sending "a message."

Regardless, the team went 5-5 that year and won a share of the conference championship the following year; so apparently he knew a little bit about what he was doing though the team has been stuck in mediocrity since.

With that being said, I would just caution that this is a normal process, but the media is riding the vapor trail of the Kiffin's past headliners.

He does need to be careful with how he goes about the process, but I get the impression that a head coach in a new place will sacrifice a few good ones to make sure he gets rid of all the dead weight.

If nothing else, Kiffin gets himself more face in the press over this, which it really is a non-story.

Comments

# 1 rudyjuly2 @ May 12

Kiffin has liked being in the spotlight. He just better hope the spotlight doesn't shine too bright if he loses a lot of games this year.

He has college experience at USC so I can only assume he knows what he's doing. But you can't treat every kid the same way. Some need a kick in the pants while others a pat on the back.

# 2 jmik58 @ May 12

It is a great P.R. move, but like you say he better make good on all of it. He's set himself up for a high risk/reward year.

Your final point is well taken also. The coach I encountered didn't understand the whole "pat on the back" thing. In my opinion, he did a poor job identifying some of the good kids and ran a few of them out of the program because they were being treated like thugs.

# 3 Kado456 @ May 12

Kiffin will prove to be what he is, A BIG JOKE, this guy can't win, as far as the USC days don't put a lot of credit in that the results there were because of the other coaches. Here's my predicton, all the SEC coaches that have been there are waiting to light this dude up. He might, and I say might get a win against Auburn. People said Al davis lost some screws in his press conference about Kiffin, but I say there's always a little truth to a story.

# 4 jmik58 @ May 12

It will be hard to rate Kiffin or Chizik (Auburn) based on their success this year. They are playing with leftovers from the previous regime and have to teach everything new. However, there is little sympathy and understanding from 90% of the media and fans out there so they will definitely be judged on wins and losses this year.

# 5 deaduck @ May 12

Yeah, give Kiffen some time. Maybe he'll work, maybe he won't but it's silly of your average fan to expect "change" in such a short span.

The good news for Kiffin is as rabid a group of fans the Vol's are they do tend to give coaches a bit of time before completly turning on them.

# 6 jmik58 @ May 13

Kiffin seems like the type of personality that you either love or hate. I had a coach like that in my past. The administration hated him, but he was loved by his players like a father.

# 7 jmik58 @ May 14

Time will tell with what talent he brings in and what he does with it. No matter how I feel about a coach, if I put myself in that situation I'm asking for 3 years before judging my success in wins/losses.