The Good of Kiffin:
1. Confidence. "Singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida," and "I promise I will not lose to Georgia". I liked the swagger, and it translated to his teams.
2. Competitiveness. He beat Georgia 45-19, destroyed Spurrier and South Carolina 31-13. With the exception of the bowl game and Ole Miss (Dexter McCluster****), he lost the other games by no more than 10 points (lost by 10 points to #1 Florida, led by Tebow, lost by 2 points to #1 and eventual NC Bama, lost by 4 points to Auburn, and lost by 4 points to UCLA. All 6 of his losses were to teams that had a winning record that year.
3. Fun. The single best moment of Kiffin's tenure was the black uniforms at Halloween, as well as the "Crompton Shove". Kiffin's players by all accounts loved playing for him, and it showed.
4. Development. Jonathan Crompton, the 5* phenom out of high school, went largely a disappointment during his first 3 years at UT. Kiffin and Chaney managed to make him draftable, and had a great offense that year that was fun to watch. It was nice to see his story turn around.
The Bad Of Kiffin:
1. The Recruiting Class That Wasn't. Kiffin recruited a lot of guys that had off-field issues, and that had red flags around them. Janzen Jackson, Nukeese Richardson, and Bryce Brown to name a few. While it was an outstanding class on paper, loaded with talent, the lack of character was begging for trouble. If Kiffin was to be the hire, he would not be able to recruit that level of character here. It left us in a massive roster deficit, as I think only 2-3 players from that class survived.
2. The NCAA issues. Obviously, there were some rules broken, and that left us in NCAA trouble that crippled the next regime, and left Kiffin untarnished. Again, not something that could be allowed now. I hope that now, his reputation is better where he doesn't need to break rules like he did. But another negative.
3. The way he left. If we are honest, we were ticked because we liked him so much. His football was fun. We liked the way recruiting was going. We liked all of the things I mentioned. We saw things headed in the right direction. But many were (and still are) ticked at the way he left. But in hindsight, anyone who seriously looks at the situation cannot blame him. He got the opportunity for his dream job, and unsure how many times in his life he would get that chance again, took it. USC was not long removed from winning the National Championship, and it was a very attractive job to someone who was well known there, and whose wife loved California. I know he has said he regrets it, but many people are still bitter.
Kiffin is difficult. He has many positives. His players loved him. I can remember years later articles about how much fun he was to play for, and how great he was. We loved him. But he was, and maybe still is an immature guy who broke the rules and who left us in a tough place. I still believe that had we made a better hire than Dooley, we wouldn't be so mad at Kiffin. But here we are, 11 years later, and some still haven't let it go.
I don't think the administration will go that route. I'd be okay with it. But, between the past history and the NCAA flags, I'm not sure that White could confidently hire him and trust things are being done on the up and up.