Another Secondary Violation For Vols...?

((HT: GoVolsXtra/Dave Link))

Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin ((pictured, thanks Boston Herald)) may have committed a sixth NCAA secondary recruiting violation since his hiring, this one resulting from a segment featuring him on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”

During the segment first televised Sunday, Kiffin is shown meeting and talking with a recruit. At the end of the segment, ESPN’s Bob Ley, host of the show, brought the possible violation to light.

“Now, Kiffin’s arrival has brought several secondary NCAA violations,” Ley said. “It is entirely possible that you just saw another one. Remember the scene where Lane Kiffin is speaking with a recruit?

“Well, in the infamously thick NCAA rulebook, Rule 13.0.1, (it states) media members cannot observe recruiting contact by coaches. Tennessee tells Outside the Lines it is reviewing this matter. The NCAA is reserving comment until the story airs, so we look forward to hearing from them today (Sunday).”

UT spokesperson Tiffany Carpenter said Sunday UT is looking into the situation.

In the scene with the recruit, Kiffin welcomes the defensive back into the room.

“So, how’s it going?” Kiffin said.
“It’s going alright, man,” the recruit said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Kiffin said.

Kiffin’s appearance on “Outside the Lines” will certainly continue to stir things up.

ESPN reporter Wendi Nix reported in the segment that as of June 6, UT had self-reported five secondary recruiting violations since Kiffin’s hiring, from the simulated news conference for recruits to improper use of Twitter.

Kiffin was then shown with a response to the violations.

“If you really study recruiting violations, minor violations, they happen very often at a lot of places, unfortunately, and so you can’t do everything right,” Kiffin said. “Sometimes you make a mistake, and nothing that we’ve done has been set out to do something against the rules or on purpose.”

Nix’s report also mentioned Kiffin’s short reign as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. The segment showed part of the odd press conference when Raiders owner Al Davis fired Kiffin, and Davis reading the reasons for the firing while an overhead projector showed the text on a screen.

The Raiders then issued a statement for the “Outside the Lines” segment on Kiffin.

“Lane Kiffin is a flat-out liar,” the statement read. “He lied to the team, he lied to the fans, and he lied to the media. He will try to destroy that university like he tried to destroy the Raiders, and will eventually clash with (Pat) Summitt and (Bruce) Pearl. Other than that, the Raiders can say nothing further.”

During the segment, Kiffin again denied telling a recruit that he would end up pumping gas like other South Carolina graduates, if the recruit went to play for the Gamecocks.

“No, there’s no way that I said that,” Kiffin said. “I wouldn’t say anything like that. First of all, if you look at, I don’t think that anybody pumps gas because everything is self-serve nowadays. There’s no full-serve stations, so I’m smart enough to not have said it because of that, number one. But number two, we don’t negative recruit.”

Here's the Kiffin piece as it aired on ESPN...

But if it's true that Kiffin doesn't "negative recruit..."

What's this...???

((HT: GoVolsXtra))

Just axin'...