Lane Kiffin: The SEC's Village Idiot

Very few head coaches in the world of SEC football are vocal to the media. Nick Saban hates the media for stupid questions. Gene Chizik has yet to open his mouth since being hired. Hell, even Urban Meyer hasn't said a word since beating Oklahoma for the national title.

With so many coaches focused on many other things, such as recruiting or player development, the amount of words you have heard from new Tennessee head football coach Lane Kiffin makes you wonder how much of an idiot this man really is.

Before we start, though, lets take a look back at the last SEC coach who opened his mouth about another team. Enter Les Miles' comment about how Alabama can't beat any team from Louisiana. Not only did the Crimson Tide go 2-0 against team from the Bayou in 2008, they even went to Baton Rouge to shut up Miles and the Tigers in their own backyard.

Granted since Kiffin has yet to coach a game, so no one has had a chance to put the new kid on the block in his proper place. However, to think that any coach is going to go nice on him this year is an absolute farce because Lane Kiffin makes Les Miles look like Charlie Chaplin.

To refresh your memory, here is what the Village Idiot with the hot wife has done since coming to THE premiere college football conference:

• Before Kiffin could even set up his office, The Ol' Ball Coach himself, Steve Spurrier, was already wondering if Kiffin was breaking the rules by contacting recruits without taking the test. Kiffin responded with his test score, a 39 out of 40, then asked what Spurrier made on his test when he first took it. In an article in The Tennesseean last week, Kiffin said he was just joking around with Spurrier. Apparently no one told him that football is taken very seriously in the South.
• In mid-January, Kiffin announced the official hiring of some of his coaches, including Lance Thompson from Alabama and Eddie Gran from Auburn. These guys were added to a staff which already included the former SEC Village Idiot Ed Orgeron and Lane's faja Monte Kiffin. Too bad Lance got kicked out of his own house and Auburn wanted nothing to do with Eddie Gran anymore, but Kiffin still decided to make some more noise. "To be able to take South Carolina's recruiting coordinator, Mississippi State's recruiting coordinator, Alabama's best recruiter and Auburn's best recruiter over the past 10 years was a great accomplishment for us." Apparently landing his own father for his staff was a great accomplishment as well, but you see how that is working out for Jeff Lebo and Auburn Basketball.
• Finally Signing Day rolled around and Lane decided that he needed a breakfast to celebrate his No.16 ranked recruiting class. Kiffin went first, and boy was this something for everyone to behold.

• Oh, no he didn't!!! And he wasn't done. Kiffin then went on to attack Nick Saban as well. "Nick Saban (Alabama's coach) should have started his press conference (Wednesday) by saying, 'Our great class that we signed ... I'd really like to thank Lance (Thompson) because Lance signed eight of those guys.'" Apparently no one told Lane a lot of things. One, Alabama has beaten Tennessee by a combined score of 70-26 the past two seasons. Two, Tennessee has yet to beat an Urban Meyer-coached team, losing to Florida by an average of 18.7 points in those four games. Three, Alabama (1), Georgia (9), and Florida (10), Tennessee's three biggest rivals, finished with better recruiting classes than the Vols did (16). Four, there is no rule about coaches not being allowed to call recruits when they are on other campuses. Mike Slive quickly jumped in and by the end of the day, Kiffin had released an apology to Florida.
• In this same news conference, Lance Thompson said that he was going to lock down Memphis, the highest quality of talent city-wise in Tennessee. Just a day later, Nick Saban got commitment number one of 2010 from one of the best receivers in Tennessee...out of Memphis.
• Finally, and most recently, Lane Kiffin eventually got around to trying to smack talk Georgia, the only rival he had left alone...to that point at least. Kiffin was commenting on recruit Marlon Brown who signed with Georgia over Tennessee. Kiffin said it happened because Brown's grandmother wouldn't let him go to Tennessee. Richt, surprisingly, didn't say a word and took the high road. I have to side with Grandma on this one, because Athens is ten times better than Knoxville.

That right there is just all the stupid things he has said. Now we will get into the stupid actions he has done.

• On February 9th, Tennessee self-reported two secondary recruiting violations to the NCAA...committed by Lane Kiffin. You know, the same guy who called out Florida and Urban Meyer for their "recruiting violations." Kiffin set up a fake news conference for his recruits during their visit and used a fog machine to let the prospects run through as they entered Neyland Stadium. The actions break the rule which prohibits the mimicking of game day atmospheres.
• Kiffin wasn't done being sent to the NCAA. A week later, Kiffin mentioned unsigned recruit Bryce Brown by name on radio after being reminded by the radio host that he is not allowed to do such a thing. Tennessee self-reported this violation as well, bringing baby face Lane's total up to three violations, averaging out to more than one a month since he has been hired.

All this, and Lane Kiffin hasn't even opened spring practice.

It takes real strong individual to make all these statements about other schools and coaches. Well, either that or an all out idiot, and I know no one who doesn't believe Kiffin fits into the latter category. When Al Davis fired Kiffin from the Oakland Raiders last Fall, many people thought Davis was off his rocker, but somehow Kiffin has managed to make Al Davis look like a sane, grounded person.

So, as the fall approaches, Lane will hopefully keep his mouth shut for the sake of his team.

Not only did the Volunteers not make a bowl last season, they must travel to Gainesville and Tuscaloosa in 2009 to take on two schools they are a combined 1-7 against in the last four seasons.

In other words, don't complain as Urban Meyer calls a time out with fifty seconds remaining just so he can get that tenth and last touchdown against Tennessee in late September.

Don't be surprised when Nick Saban runs over the Vols for a third straight season and doesn't even look back like he did something wrong.

And don't start to panic when Tennessee leaves Lexington on November 28th 0-8 in the SEC, because not even Vanderbilt is scared of the daisy orange anymore, especially with the Village Idiot at the helm.