Interesting Article About the Night Kiffin Left

[Delmar]

A decade and a half ago. Who gives a f*** at this point.

LET. IT. GO.

It’s OK to study history. If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.

 

[Big Al Orange]

It’s OK to study history. If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.

This is very true. We need to be getting a better golf ball chunker right now.

 

[rocketskates]

Yep. The thing that folks forget about this was why we had to hire Dooley. Kiffin bailed at such a late date that very few options were left. If I recall correctly, we flirted with Kyle Whittingham. Or was that when we hired Butch? Nightmares and old age make for bad memories.

I think I would’ve liked making Kippy the interim and then going out to get an established coach the following season if he couldn’t handle the job. The Dooley hire knocked us down quite a few tiers on the respect level.

 

[landscapingvol]

I know everybody gets weary of discussing Kiffin but this is a really interesting (and long) article about the night he resigned. Quotes from a lot of players and media who were there. The thing I was really glad to hear was the upperclassmen who just wore him out at the team meeting where he announced he was leaving. Wouldn’t even let him speak. It also goes into great detail what Orgeron was doing while all this was happening. Jawaun James is particularly interesting.

‘All Hell Broke Loose’: An Oral History Of The Night Lane Kiffin Left Tennessee For USC | Rocky Top Insider

15 years after Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for USC, RTI talked to 13 people apart of the night to tell an oral history of that night.

www.rockytopinsider.com

I remember it vividly. I was a member of Volquest at the time and the “Guys, it’s true” reply to the continued questions for the Volquest staff about Kiffin leaving. Grumors have nothing on the days after Kiffin left lol

 

[TNHopeful505]

Quote of the article:

"We would have won some championships...but we would have had to give some back."

 

[Delmar]

This is very true. We need to be getting a better golf ball chunker right now.

It is a cautionary tale of things not to do both for Kiffin and us. He learned a valuable lesson as did we. In his case, the grass ain’t always greener, dream job or not. In our case, never make a panic hire.

 

[Volizona]

The best thing we can do is to ignore Kiffin to let him know he is totally irrelevant and not even a topic of discussion for us today. If we keep responding to his tweets, boo him when he comes to town, rehash his time here, he will assume we still think about him. We need to let him know that we really don’t care about him and we are just fine, in fact much better off without him. Let him know we are totally ambivalent. He is self absorbed and needs attention by hoping he still gets a reaction out of him.

 

[DaddyChad]

He literally had the Auburn job if he wanted it…. His daughter convinced him to stay. That sir is very much an upgrade in job.

Also USC fans turned out to be idiots when they canned him because they indeed did not turn out better for it.

People still having hurt feelings over a guy we would celebrate for doing the same thing for Tennessee are absurd.

K

 

[Jaxon_Vol2017]

And some wanted us to hire this clown back. I'd literally stop watching Tennessee football if we hired that scum bag again.

 

[feathersax]

I remember it vividly. I was a member of Volquest at the time and the “Guys, it’s true” reply to the continued questions for the Volquest staff about Kiffin leaving. Grumors have nothing on the days after Kiffin left lol

Recall watching Bud Ford twist & pound that rolled-up press release, visibly angry & trying to keep the reporters in check. Ol' Bud was fuming.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Hiring Kiffin, maybe as he couldn’t have predicted the USC opening. Fans were not going to support Fulmer any longer. Stadium was empty and that would have carried over to 2009 once another Florida loss happened.

Fans wanted 180 degrees from Fulmer

Regarding Fulmer, I'll be honest, win or lose, after 15 years I was just sick of looking at him! I was sick of his boring brand of football and I used to get so pissed at seeing us go 3 and out over and over and then see him clapping on the sidelines as we marched our punt team on the field.

When we played South Carolina in 2008, we were getting our asses handed to us and the camera showed our guys on the sideline laughing and cutting up. That's when I knew it was over! I knew right then that Fulmer had lost the team and he would be fired.

 

[ZZ13]

Quote of the article:

"We would have won some championships...but we would have had to give some back."

We wouldn't have won anything. He was a 34 year old self absorbed spoiled brat. He would have just done something stupid again soon thereafter.

 

[JMSqb11]

And some wanted us to hire this clown back. I'd literally stop watching Tennessee football if we hired that scum bag again.

Yes the loudest people were to wanting him back was when we were down to hiring Pruitt or Mel Tucker.... We clearly made a better program move by picking between those two.

 

[Chad F]

We can all accept that Kiffin left for his “dream job.” Yes, it was our incompetent administration that made it so easy for this morally bankrupt POS to bolt at absolutely the worst time. And, yes, it’s been over a decade ago.

None of that changes the fact that Lane Kiffin used our program and willfully did us harm on the way out. Once USC called, Tennessee became a means to an end (which was likely how sees everything and everyone in the world around him).

F- Lane Kiffin. While I don’t wish the man ill, I sure as h€ll don’t wish anything good for him. He doesn’t deserve it.

 

[livefaith]

He’s a POS. Has no commitment in any phase of life.

The young man sometimes earns his comeuppance. The man deserved everything he got that night.

 

[livefaith]

Yes the loudest people were to wanting him back was when we were down to hiring Pruitt or Mel Tucker.... We clearly made a better program move by picking between those two.

Doesn't matter if we were below Vandy. I wouldn't have him back.

 

[chas]

i dare say that anyone of us would have done what he did. you get a chance for your dream job and you will take it. i love vols in all sports.and hope they all do great. before this past season in football started and was told tenn. would beat oklahoma, alabama and florida i would have been very happy. always want to win them all and be NC but a very good year thanks again to all tennessee players in every sport. GBO

 

[loservol]

i dare say that anyone of us would have done what he did. you get a chance for your dream job and you will take it. i love vols in all sports.and hope they all do great. before this past season in football started and was told tenn. would beat oklahoma, alabama and florida i would have been very happy. always want to win them all and be NC but a very good year thanks again to all tennessee players in every sport. GBO

It was stupid what he (Kifin) did. As we all now know, the USC job would have opened up again, a few years down the road. In turn, he help crippled the Vols program that they still haven't fully recovered from, burned his bridges with any big major school and is now stuck at Ole Miss.

 

[DaddyChad]

i dare say that anyone of us would have done what he did. you get a chance for your dream job and you will take it. i love vols in all sports.and hope they all do great. before this past season in football started and was told tenn. would beat oklahoma, alabama and florida i would have been very happy. always want to win them all and be NC but a very good year thanks again to all tennessee players in every sport. GBO

You don’t burn the place down on the way out. Remember Heupel said he wouldn’t recruit any of the players from his former program. It’s just something people don’t do especially that late in a recruiting cycle. How anyone doesn’t get this is beyond me.

 

[JMSqb11]

It was stupid what he (Kifin) did. As we all now know, the USC job would have opened up again, a few years down the road. In turn, he help crippled the Vols program that they still haven't fully recovered from, burned his bridges with any big major school and is now stuck at Ole Miss.

Not sure anyone objectively would say he is “stuck” at Ole Miss.

And even if a rational person accepted that, getting paid $9m to win 10 games a year is a great “stuck” situation.

 

[loservol]

Not sure anyone objectively would say he is “stuck” at Ole Miss.

And even if a rational person accepted that, getting paid $9m to win 10 games a year is a great “stuck” situation.

Stuck as in how far he can take a limited program to challenge for a championship. He is a smart coach who is his own worst enemy. If he wasn't a talented coach, everyone wouldn't have been and still is upset with the way he just up and left the program for his "dream" job that ended up kicking him in the teeth.

 

[Doctrippin]

I know everybody gets weary of discussing Kiffin but this is a really interesting (and long) article about the night he resigned. Quotes from a lot of players and media who were there. The thing I was really glad to hear was the upperclassmen who just wore him out at the team meeting where he announced he was leaving. Wouldn’t even let him speak. It also goes into great detail what Orgeron was doing while all this was happening. Jawaun James is particularly interesting.

‘All Hell Broke Loose’: An Oral History Of The Night Lane Kiffin Left Tennessee For USC | Rocky Top Insider

15 years after Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for USC, RTI talked to 13 people apart of the night to tell an oral history of that night.

www.rockytopinsider.com

They left out the part about him wrecking a car the university had given him and walking away from it. Hmm.... might have been worried about calling the police to report it

 

[JMSqb11]

Stuck as in how far he can take a limited program to challenge for a championship. He is a smart coach who is his own worst enemy. If he wasn't a talented coach, everyone wouldn't have been and still is upset with the way he just up and left the program for his "dream" job that ended up kicking him in the teeth.

Sure.... But there is also the fact that USC turned out to be even worse after firing him.....

 

[loservol]

Sure.... But there is also the fact that USC turned out to be even worse after firing him.....

I think you have to be a special personality such as Pete Carroll to coach at USC and make it work.

 

[utvolpj]

Like it or not, grabbing Kiffin at that time was UT going for the big name and other schools realized it. He also brought in a fabulous staff who would likely have won titles. It would have been a much more enjoyable ride