Kiffin may have hurt the program with how he left, but he is an infinitely better coach than Jones or Dooley.
And that's where we disagree. Better than Dooley for sure. Better play caller than either, but even there, he had his "moments". My favorite example is the 2009 bammer game. Time running out, all we need is a FG to win it, we have the ball with a 42-yarder and 38 seconds left. He chooses to run the clock down and try one from there. Our FG kicker, Lincoln, had some sort of nagging injury that year and was terrible from beyond 40, but actually very good inside it. He had in fact missed two FGs that day from the 40s. Instead of trying to get 5 more yards, which we had plenty of time to do, Kiffin tried the 42 yarder with a kicker that was hitting about 35=40% past 40 yards on the season. That was just ****ING STUPID.
Also stupid. Needing a TD to beat UCLA with time running out, ball on the first and goal at the 7, he chooses to rotate Hardesty and Brown, even though (a) Hardesty is the power back, and (b) Hardesty had been the better performing back all day. Result: Hardesty two carries for 6 yards, Brown two carries for 0, ball turned over on downs, UCLA wins.
Or early in the game against Auburn, who had the worst or second worst run D in the conference, we ran the ball on our first play from scrimmage for 41 yards down to their 24 yard line. At which point, Kiffin, for some reason, decided it would be a good idea for CROMPTON to throw the ball three times in a row. I know that Crompton later in the season came into his own and developed into a decent SEC QB under Kiffin's tutelage (and yes, I give Kiffin credit for that), but this was an early October game and Crompton just wasn't there yet. We ended up missing an FG on that drive, set the tone for the entire game and lost by 4 points. Should have lined up and ran over them to the TD and never looked back, but Kiffin was/is an effing moron sometimes.
We never should have had our arses handed to us at Ole Miss.
We should not have been embarassed in the bowl game.
For all the Kiffin admirers., he struggled to be 7-6 in a year in which, IMO, we should have beaten UCLA, Auburn, and bammer and been at least 10-3, maybe better. Who knows, we win those three games maybe the effort against Ole Miss and in the bowl game is better.
Kiffin was a good to great recruiter, good motivator, and mostly a good play caller (but with some really stupid decisions at times), but not head coaching material, and definitely not in the SEC. He was very mediocre his one year in Knoxville, a big loser with the Raiders, a big loser at USC senior, and so far has had one good season at FAU.
Sorry, didn't drink the cool aid at the time, and still not.
And those of you who wanted Kiffin over Pruitt.....y'all need to be lined up against a wall and shot. I mean, COME ON.....