Lane Kiffin named new Tennessee football coach

Lane Kiffin definitely knows how to “land on his feet”.  It was only a couple of months ago that he was sent packing by the Oakland Raiders and thrown under the bus by team owner Al Davis, who called Kiffin “a disgrace to the organization”.   On Monday, Kiffin was named the new head coach of the University of Tennessee replacing Phil Fullmer who was fired after 17 years in early November. 

Now the youngest head coach in Division 1-A/FBS college football, Kiffin has an impressive resume at the collegiate level.  He served in a number of coaching positions at USC under Pete Carroll, and is credited for much of the Trojans’ recruiting success while serving as recruiting coordinator.  In 2005, Carroll selected Kiffin to replace departing legend Norm Chow as offensive coordinator.  Kiffin had some big shoes to fill after Chow was hired by the Tennessee Titans, and he more than exceeded even the loftiest expectations posting a 23-3 record during his stint as offensive coordinator.   He was hired as the Oakland Raiders’ head coach in January 2007.

Kiffin has been around football literally since birth—his dad is longtime NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.  He credited his early immersion in x’s and o’s as invaluable in his development as a coach:

"The experience has been unbelievable and then to combine that with still being young enough to be able to relate to recruits and be able to manage them and handle them, I think is very valuable”

Kiffin is the Vols 21st head coach, but only the third in the last 32 years succeeding Fullmer and legendary Johnny Majors.  He was gracious in Monday’s press conference as he spoke of the man he’ll replace:

"I'm extremely honored to follow him(Fullmer). I'm not trying to be him. All I'm trying to do is carry on some of the things he's done."

His first hire at the helm of the Vols program might not get a lot of media run, but could be crucial in shaping the fortunes of Tennessee football—Kiffin immediately hired David Reaves, who recently resigned as Steve Spurrier’s QB coach at the University of South Carolina.  Reaves, who is also Kiffin’s brother in law, was also recruiting coordinator at South Carolina and his experience with SEC recruiting will be invaluable. 

With the exception of several assistants who were kept on for at least the short term to aid in the transition, Kiffin sent the rest of Fullmer’s former staff packing.  He said it was important to him to not leave them hanging in limbo:

"There's a direction on part of our staff, some of the positions where I know where we're going to go. I wanted to make sure that got handled with class. The last thing I wanted to do was keep those guys around knowing where I was going to go."

There’s much speculation that Kiffin will bring in his dad, Monte, as defensive coordinator.  He refused to comment on this rumor, and the elder Kiffin dismissed it as “speculation”.  He did manage to get in a backhanded compliment tweaking his former boss Al Davis, suggesting that his experience as Raiders’ head coach was valuable as he learned how to "deal with a completely dysfunctional franchise".

Like numerous coaches before him, including Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban, Kiffin said that he was through was the NFL and wanted to remain a college football coach indefinitely.  He concluded his press conference with the following statement:

"I'm not promising how many wins we're going to have, how many championships. I can't do that, there's too many variables in all that. But I can tell you this right now, no one's going to outwork us, no one's going to outwork me as a head coach, and no one's going to outwork our staff that we put together."