Nothing’s official, but rumors are rampant that ex-Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin has jumped to the top of the list to replace Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer, a story that Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist John Adams all but backs up with this column.
Writes Adams:
An SEC source told me Tuesday afternoon that “Lane Kiffin was moving up the leader board.” I appreciated his golfing analogy almost as much as his opinion.
. . . Kiffin has head-coaching experience in the NFL, an NFL defensive guru (Monte Kiffin) for a father, and a reputation as a national recruiter - based on his work at USC under Pete Carroll.
If Kiffin is your candidate, you probably have a package deal in mind. If the kid couldn’t convince his dad to leave the Tampa Bay Bucs to assist his son, maybe he could at least talk former USC recruiting sidekick, Ed Orgeron, into making a college comeback. Orgeron, whose fanatical recruiting was detailed in the book, “Meat Market,” took an assistant coaching job with the New Orleans Saints after being fired as Ole Miss’ coach.
Like Leach, who has an off-the-wall personality and an off-the-charts offense, Kiffin isn’t a conventional candidate. He’s only 33. He has never been a college head coach.
But how do you expect to overtake Urban Meyer at Florida and Nick Saban at Alabama with a conventional coach?
As well, ESPN’s SEC blogger Chris Low believes Kiffin could be at the top of Tennessee’s list:
I’ve thought since Tennessee fired Phillip Fulmer that Lane Kiffin was at or near the top of Tennessee’s list. I still believe that, although it would be premature to call it a done deal. Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton and his search party are still out talking to people. In fact, they’re on the road today. What I know to be fact is that Kiffin has already started talking to people about coming with him to Tennessee. One of those people is former Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron, now an assistant with the New Orleans Saints. Orgeron was a recruiting whiz at Ole Miss, and he worked with Kiffin on the Southern California staff earlier this decade. I could see Orgeron coming as either a defensive coordinator, associate head coach and/or recruiting coordinator. I think the Vols will have their coach named by the middle of December. The other names to keep an eye on are Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly, Texas Tech’s Mike Leach and Air Force’s Troy Calhoun. I think the Vols have also talked with Minnesota’s Tim Brewster. But I’ve thought from the beginning that the final decision would come down to Kelly or Kiffin.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
Be careful relying on John Adams. While I hope you (and he) are right that Kiffin will be named UT’s next coach, it won’t have anything to do with Adams and he’ll be among the last to know. The fact is Hamilton hires a firm for this stuff and they don’t leak. So whatever we are hearing is “filtered” and who knows if its accurate. Plus, Adams’s shenanigans the last few years have forced UT to dstance itself from his rag and when they do share info they don’t share it with Adams. Guys on his staf like Pennington, Strange, Griffin, etc. are far more likely to have good info than Adams. To the extent his staff has good info I don’t doubt they share it, but Adams will not get it from anyone who is next to Hamilton. Its the sad state of affairs we face in Voldom right now that the hometown paper gets scooped by unnamed bloggers and Chris Lowe almost everytime. Good thing is that Lowe has written all along that Kiffin was in the top 2 for the job. For my sake and sake of Voldom, I hope Lowe is right. As for Adams, we got rid of one problem in Knoxville let’s make it 2. Chris Lowe for sports editor of the KNS?
I don’t care who they hire as their head coach. I just hope he’s as successful as Steve Kragthorpe.