Lane Kiffin knows a potential return to Tennessee would be fraught with hurdles. The way he left UT’s program in 2009 was far from ideal.
In case you’ve forgotten, there was a near riot outside of UT’s athletic facility complete with mattress burning, a controversy over Kiffin’s staff contacting UT’s prospects to follow him to Southern California and a fan base that felt like a jilted lover. However, things can change, Kiffin said during a recent interview on WGOW radio in Chattanooga.
“Time heals things,” Kiffin said. “You get further removed from something. Someone joked the other day. Boys and girls have break-ups. They break up and they’re really mad at the boyfriend or girlfriend right away then after a while, time heals and you remember it differently. You start to say ‘Well, he wasn’t that bad really. Let me actually think of the good things.’”
Kiffin made the radio appearance on Monday and was quick to point out that the interview was pre-scheduled and wasn’t simply a response to UT firing Butch Jones on Sunday. WGOW had been working on the interview for since Nov. 2. However, the timing certainly made the interview more interesting.
Kiffin could become a candidate for UT’s position. However, to this point, there’s no reason to believe he is. UT athletic director John Currie didn’t reveal any names nor hints during the press conference in which he fired Jones on Sunday. Kiffin is likely a longshot to become UT’s next coach and there’s no guarantee he’d accept the position. In his first season at Florida Atlantic, the Owls are 7-3 and 6-0 in Conference-USA. They currently lead the East Division and a source close to Kiffin said he’s very happy with the school and his surroundings.
However, if one is willing to remove the UT-Kiffin divorce, making Kiffin a candidate makes sense. Kiffin has head coaching experience at UT, Southern California and FAU. He was the offensive coordinator for a high-powered offense at Alabama that won a national championship. Still, there’s that pesky departure.
“Winning and losing solves a lot…That’s how fans and media are,” Kiffin said. “Now, it’s funny with Twitter and stuff that I do. If we were losing, I promise you every fan would say ‘Look, he’s not focused on the team. That’s why we’re losing. Bad coach.’”
That hasn’t been an issue during Florida Atlantic’s six-game win streak. If Kiffin were ever hired at an SEC school, don’t expect him to use the tired cliches that Jones used to use in hopes of tempering expectations. There will be no ‘Brick by Brick’. When asked what kind of coach the Vols need to hire, Kiffin said, “With the landscape the way it is now, you better have someone that knows about the SEC…If they don’t, their staff (had) better (know the SEC).
“You’ve got to have somebody that’s going to come in there getting ready to go beat Alabama, not say ‘It’s going to take awhile. Just bear with us. There are some teams that are way ahead of us.’ I don’t think that really works. You’ve got to go in there in-house with the top 25 kids in the southeast and wait at that door right next to (Alabama) coach (Nick) Saban and say ‘Let’s go.’”
That certainly wasn’t Jones’ approach. When tempering expectations didn’t work, he seemed to bristle at the criticism he received late in his tenure at UT.
“The SEC, more than ever, is just a different animal,” Kiffin said. “You’ve got to be a special coach that’s really thick skinned and you’ve got to be ultra competitive or it’s going to chew you up and spit you out…You’ve got to embrace it. You’ve got to be able to deal with it or it will just eat you up and you’ll be miserable.”
It doesn’t appear Kiffin will ever approach coaching as a chore. Moments before his interview with WGOW, he said he had just Twitter trolled pop star Taylor Swift.
“You see these old coaches and they’re all gray and look miserable,” Kiffin said. “They’re miserable because they’ve acted their entire life how they’re supposed to as a coach and just have no fun, be so serious, swear at everybody and be miserable…They tell everybody how serious you are because it’s 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, you’re working for the program. And they’re really not, but they say that…It’s alright to have some fun and be a good coach too.”
Kiffin said he’s learned plenty since he coached at UT. He now delegates the offensive game-planning and play-calling duties to Florida Atlantic offensive coordinator Kendal Briles in order to focus on other aspects of his program. That would seem to make him a better fit for a bigger program than Florida Atlantic. Kiffin certainly views UT as that sort of program. He’s publicly said that the Vols have everything needed to compete with Alabama.
“From what I’ve heard over the years, the facilities are even better, obviously an awesome stadium, unbelievable fan base…It’s not that long ago I was on the other sideline in Tuscaloosa (in 2015) and it went down to the final series or Tennessee is about to win at No. 1 Alabama. Things can turn quick.”
The Vols lost that game 19-14 and haven’t been competitive against Alabama since. Could Kiffin turn things around quickly at UT? Could fans forget about the hurt they felt when he suddenly left in 2009? Kiffin went back to his girlfriend/boyfriend analogy.
“She was really fun to hang out with and really good looking so you start to remember the positives,” he said.
There were plenty of positives with Kiffin at the helm in 2009. The Vols finished 7-6 and nearly upset Alabama in Tuscaloosa. That was a significant improvement after the Vols finished 5-7 in 2008, which led to coach Phillip Fulmer’s firing. Kiffin also resurrected former UT quarterback Jonathan Crompton’s career and excited the fan base with his brash style. Then came that fateful night when Kiffin headed west.
It seems unlikely that the Vols and Kiffin could ever rekindle their relationship. It also seems unlikely the Vols will be able to hire anyone with a resume as good as Kiffin.
