Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Kiffin Heading To Tennessee?

According to OSG sources close to the Tennessee coaching search, Lane Kiffin is expected to be named head football coach of the Vols after Saturday's season finale against Kentucky. An announcement could come Monday, December 1st.

Those sources also tell OSG that an agreement between the university and Kiffin was reached last week.

It's no surprise that Kiffin would be the choice of UT. Kiffin was a highly successful assistant at Southern California and parlayed that into a head coaching job in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders. Though the Raiders stunk during Kiffin's short reign in Oakland, he had to deal with Al Davis. Draw your own conclusions.

Kiffin is a hot coaching commodity having interviewed for the Clemson position and being mentioned for the soon to be vacant University of Washington head coaching job.

Tennessee has had an infatuation with Kiffin and it's seems to have come for athletic director Mike Hamilton. Kiffin is an offensive coach which seems to be priority in Knoxville however, he's is also in demand and it seems Tennessee acted to secure Kiffin's services.

One last element to throw on the fire... Kiffin's agent is Jimmy Sexton- a major-league power broker in those circles. The hiring of Kiffin also gives Tennessee a foothold in Southern California for recruiting... a long-desired area for the Vols to fill their rosters every year.

You don't think they just "go out" and play UCLA, do you...?

Photo Courtesy: A.G. Messerschmidt/Getty Images

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

great! just what they need. a coach with baggage.

Anonymous said...

a great fit! besides Gruden probably the best choice

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure who said "just what they need'. But it's our problem not yours. so shut the h*** up

Anonymous said...

ynWe need a coach with more gray hair. As I recall, Kiffin does not take critisism to well. How’s he going to handle the expectations in Knoxville? Good offensive coordinators do not also translate to good head coaches (Norv Turner anyone….Hello!!!).

Anonymous said...

Great Choice! We welcome Coach Kiffin to Knoxville!