Imagine the excitement around UT football if Lane was introduced as the next coach of the Vols! Big orange-white game sales, trolling other teams, Halloween Jerseys and best of all, totally forgetting about all this garbage...knowing we finally got a big name SEC caliber coach!
The OP
Your otherwise wonderful analogy has one glaring fault. Doug Dickey was always--as a player, a coach, and an athletic director--an honorable man of integrity and class. Meanwhile, Lane Kiffin is a disease composed of no integrity, low values and great immaturity.
They both left Tennessee to return to their dream jobs. Got it. If only that were the full story. Eh?
Your otherwise wonderful analogy has one glaring fault. Doug Dickey was always--as a player, a coach, and an athletic director--an honorable man of integrity and class. Meanwhile, Lane Kiffin is a disease composed of no integrity, low values and great immaturity.
They both left Tennessee to return to their dream jobs. Got it. If only that were the full story. Eh?
Agree all day.
What I don't understand is the repeated sentiment by those who say "Lane has changed" "Lane knows what he did" "Lane has overcome the mistakes of his youth".
Based on WHAT exactly? The Kim Jong Un tweet? Flirting publicly with another employer while his team is still playing? Trolling UT for years on Twitter? Mocking his former employer like a spurned 10th grader?
And I'm sorry but the guy took off in the middle of the night while contacting our recruits, trying to decimate our recruiting class. He wasn't 25 when that happened. He was 35. He agreed to take the job at what was, at that time, was one of the best jobs in his profession and he didn't give a da##.
How many of you would open the door for a hot ex-wife who left you and the kids for her ex with a Porsche who she reconnected with on Facebook? And then spent the next 8 years mocking you to your friends? Oh, and she ran up all of your credit cards before she left.
Last- if everyone else didnt use the runaway girlfriend analogy, would you? That has to be the most idiotic and fake comparison i have seen. UT made it very easy for Lane to leave. Not his fault. So foolish.
"he wants the job".....huh? says who?the guy has done nothing but troll and make fun of Tn during this coaching search,and somehow from all the slapstick humor he's making at Tn, you and some others magically read into it that "he wants the job".The guy showed he had no commitment at all to the school by just walking away.What does it take to make you see he's not interested in the job at Tn?"The worst decision I ever made," were the words Doug Dickey said to me at church one Sunday in 1984 when he was working a day job in Lakeland, Florida.
Coach Dickey had beaten Bear Bryant 3 times in a row (1967-1969) as UT's head coach (3-2-1 v Bear), and won the 67 and 69 SEC Championships, but his heart lead him home to Gainesville where he'd been the QB in the early 50s. Vols felt betrayed, having given Coach Dickey his 1st head coaching job, and embarrassed because Florida was a 2nd-tier program.
Instead of UT continuing to dominate the SEC and play for NCs, Dickey's absence at Tennessee left a vacuum that put Bryant and Alabama in the record books. We've never really recovered. Dickey's coaching career was over in 9 years, after going 58-43-2 at Florida and only once finishing higher than 4th in the SEC. He was 0-4 in bowls.
Swallowing our pride, forgiving the insult and using our heads, in 1985 UT named Doug Dickey its Athletic Director, a post he occupied through 2002. His time as athletic director was notable for the improvement and expansion of the university's athletic facilities. Neyland Stadium was expanded to more than 100,000 seats, and other additions included the ThompsonBoling Assembly Center and Arena, the Lindsey Nelson Baseball Stadium, the Goodfriend Tennis Center, executive suites at Neyland Stadium, the NeylandThompson Football Complex, and the Thornton Athletics Student Life Center. Dickey also had the unusual experience of watching his son, Daryl Dickey, become the starting quarterback for the Volunteers in the middle of the 1985 season and leading them to a 357 win over #2 Miami Hurricanes in the Sugar Bowl.
For those of you with too much pride to forgive Kiffin for the poor decisions of his youth: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU. It's about this university's great football heritage and the pitiful mess it's become. As a football coach, Kiffin is as good as anyone. Knows more about offense than Saban. Knows a lot more about coaching than he did 8 years ago. Next to Miles, Kiffin Has a better resume than anyone we have considered or are considering.
Hiring Kiffin is an easy call. He wants the job. He'll bring in a top coaching staff. We'll get our Top-5 recruiting class back. The kids will love playing for him. If he doesn't work out (unlikely), we'll make another move in 5 years not wondering whether we twice lost lightning in a bottle.
Agree all day.
I'm not saying that it isn't tempting to bring him in right now. He can call plays and he is a known commodity. But don't we know enough about him at this point?
What I don't understand is the repeated sentiment by those who say "Lane has changed" "Lane knows what he did" "Lane has overcome the mistakes of his youth".
Based on WHAT exactly? The Kim Jong Un tweet? Flirting publicly with another employer while his team is still playing? Trolling UT for years on Twitter? Mocking his former employer like a spurned 10th grader?
And I'm sorry but the guy took off in the middle of the night while contacting our recruits, trying to decimate our recruiting class. He wasn't 25 when that happened. He was 35. He agreed to take the job at what was, at that time, was one of the best jobs in his profession and he didn't give a da##.
How many of you would open the door for a hot ex-wife who left you and the kids for her ex with a Porsche who she reconnected with on Facebook? And then spent the next 8 years mocking you to your friends? Oh, and she ran up all of your credit cards before she left.
To make things worse, the only woman who will have you after she drags you is Derrick effin Dooley.
Have some pride and realize that the only "growing up" this guy has done was while he was pinned under Saban's thumb at AL and was forced to keep his mouth shut.
Again, I get it. He can call plays and he's popular. But I haven't seen any data to say he has changed.
The most frustrating turd that won't flush is the "get Kiffin" and "get Gruden" crowd. If both Gruden and Kiffen came out and said "tennessee sucks and I would never coach there",there would still be those who cling to the outside hope they might change their mind. Because neither of them have not shown any interest in coming,they see what the rest of us don't-that deep down both secretly can't wait to sign with Tn.Just delusional!
He was interviewed by ESPN on radio and he said he would take the job. He said "sure, people who breakup make up all the time.""he wants the job".....huh? says who?the guy has done nothing but troll and make fun of Tn during this coaching search,and somehow from all the slapstick humor he's making at Tn, you and some others magically read into it that "he wants the job".The guy showed he had no commitment at all to the school by just walking away.What does it take to make you see he's not interested in the job at Tn?