Just when we started to think that water was wet and the sky was blue, Rivals goes and pulls a move like this… and totally redeems Lane Kiffin.
In the late hours of Signing Day, the Trojans pulled two elite recruits, snatching four-star Junior College defensive end and UCLA commit Marquis Jackson away from the Bruins, and four-star fullback Soma Vainuku, only days after a last minute visit and offer. Apparently those two commits, and the rest of the star-studded class, were enough to push the Trojans slightly ahead of the Gators, according to Rivals’ complex mathematical formula.
(I’d ask JT to explain it to all of you, but Florio and the guys at NBC didn’t supply us with calculators…)
Here’s how you know that this was a crazy recruiting season: the two top teams in the country had a coach that either wasn’t with their program on New Year’s Day or announced he was retiring from the profession.
But Lane Kiffin and Urban Meyer are anything but your average coaches. In Kiffin, USC has a coach that’s willing to push the limits that USC has become so famously known for pushing. And in Meyer, Florida has a coach that’s bulletproof. Even when he openly abandons a commitment he allegedly made to his faith, family, and health, he’s able to recruit a class full of athletes even more thoroughly committed to playing for him, regardless of character concerns.
While recruiting national championships are an exercise in subjectivity, maybe USC and Florida’s ascension to the top of college football goes to show you that when it comes to recruiting — especially with Lane Kiffin and Urban Meyer — everything isn’t quite as it appears.
Lane Kiffin brings a resume of profound mediocrity yet amazing has inspired amazing amounts of mis-placed hope wherever he’s been. This allows him to put lots of cash in his bank account. Good for Lane, right?
Kiffin also has unfailingly left a wide trail wreckage wherever he’s been — and then bailed out of his own self-interest. Good for Lane, again – it’s all about Lane.
Notice a pattern there?
Why any prep athlete – or athlete of any age – would every want to play for an unjustifiably pompous narcisisstic slime ball with such an established track record of sinking to the lowest of the low while never ever achieving anything above mediocrity… is beyond my comprehension.
For Wick:
Dont be a hater…Kiffin was the OC at USC and they had one of the greatest runs in college history…that’s doesn’t sound like “mediocrity” to me. And working for Al Davis? Tell me who HASN’T had problems with that guy…
TrojanHorse…do your HW.
Lane was a OC for 2 years…zero national titles. In 2005 he inherited a defending national title team loaded with 2 HT winners on O. They were previously coached by Norm Chow. Yup, USC was awesome that year, but you could hardly credit Lane as the core of the O was the same from the previous year under Chow. In 2006, the decline began. They lost to two unranked teams. I assume you can recall the awesome offensive performance against UCLA. Lane then bolted for the NFL.
There you have it…2 years of OC for the Trojans, but not much of a resume of achievement. Enjoy the Kool Aid.