The Night Kiffin Left Knoxville, An Oral History

Hoover's comment about the young fans in relation to the older fans was an interesting observation. I've never thought about that before.

Crazy night.

 

I agree with you and I'll go even farther: I don't hate Lane Kiffin at all.

 

I don't hate him. I think he's unprofessional as all hell and has the mentality of an 11 year old, but I don't hate him. I like what he did here infinitely more than what Dooley, Hart and Hamilton have done / did.

 

Yup.

He was fun. For the younger crowd, he was a welcome breath of fresh air after 15+ years of hearing continual coach-speak and always being on the receiving end of the one-liners. Right, wrong, indifferent, it was a fun 13 months.

 

As soon as Kiffin called out Meyer on NSD, Slive was investing in his failure.

 

That clip of the pre-presser meeting that Ford instructed was price less.

I didnt care either way that he wanted to make a statement but the 7 or 8 mins prior were awesome.

I can see Jimmy H thinking to himself.
" I wish these people would shut up. Theres no way I can get this out by next weekend at this rate"

 

I don't care who's phone he used.

 

Okay.

 

I think he wears out of his welcome anywhere. it will happen at Alabama too. the players at USC liked kiffin at first too.

 

So you're mad he did what every coach does when going to a new school?

 

It just shows how this stuff kind of got its own legs. Obviously everyone had their minds made up prior to that story coming out. It looks like what we know is that "someone" received a phone call and Tyler Bray got a text. Neither piece of info has been corroborated by the same someone or Tyler Bray. Everyone just sort of assumed the worst and it was automatically accepted is fact.

 

The farther away we get from Kiffin the more I understand his reasons for leaving and the less angry I am that he accepted the USC job.

The farther aware we get from Dooley the less I understand how the F**K his name was even mentioned in passing as a candidate for the job (much less that he was actually ****ing hired) and the more angry I become that his name will forever be associated with my University.

 

Will Muschamp
Guy from Air Force
[ddiapos]

There's your search. Kippy Brown looking like a pretty damn good deal now.

 

Brown would have been the Luke Fickell to our University of Tennessee...they made out ok.


I was adamantly against an interim but, hindsight being 20/20...I was wrong. Muschamp said no. Calhoun would've been a stop-gap but he actually knew how to coach a team so, he wouldn't have been the dumpster fire that was DD.

Apparently the only criteria Hamilton used was (1) Currently Coaching College Football (2) Wants the job.

Mike Hamilton's name deserves to be cursed just as much as Dooley's. He fuhkin hired the guy...

 

I was so livid the second I heard we were going that direction I swore off UT football to my family. That's a very high threshold at my house.

 

Read the story linked in the initial post and it becomes pretty clear how we landed that loser, we had an even bigger loser as AD. Hamilton knew USC may eventually seek out Kiffin and he did nothing to help lock him up in case those dominoes fell. Instead, he went to Colorado and stayed as far away from his duties as AD as humanly possible.

 

Read the article, not the thread yet.

5 years ago I probably wouldn't have said this and actually took the opposite stance. While O was poaching at least certain players, undoubtedly, he was also the one looking out for them, too.

We all know the bulk of players come to play for the coach, not the love of the school. While playing the sport, they fall in love with the school. If I had a son who was an EE that day on some level I would be grateful to O for calling them and telling them not to go to class. Upon K's departure the future they had chosen changed. By not going to class they had some control of Their own future and were able to buy time to make the appropriate decision with their families.

 

What should have happened in the first place IMO. We would have been a lot better off with Kippy as interim for a season and then hiring someone else the season after when the candidate pool was better.

 

Hamilton made an awful hire, but let's be honest...he gave the Tennessee fan base exactly what it wanted.

Bitter and scorned by the cocky and brash west-coast city boy, the only acceptable solution would be a humble, southern gentleman with SEC roots. We needed a common man, the kind who refers to his pants as britches. And everyone slept easier for a few months, until football started again.

 

People also want free money and public executions.