Lame Kitten Appears To Be Just A Puppet: Hasn't Even Spoken To Chow Yet

last night, I kept waiting to hear from anyone anything official. Nothing. If nothing else, $C certainly knows how to throw up a… an excrement storm. I keep getting the feeling that Neuheisel is sitting on something, waiting to make a play, and when he does $C will look like a bunch of tools.

One of the critisims of PC in recent years is that his staff became a joke after multiple defections and rifts. The decision makers at SUC (i.e. not Garrett) tried to build a staff from the bottom-up.

It makes sense that they wanted Chow and Ed O. – both were familiar faces and experienced tremendous success at the school. As I understand it, Kiffen was told who SC wanted to surround him with, and if he didn’t like it, too bad. That approach was also likely attempted with other candidates (including Gruden) but wouldn’t have been appealing in most cases.

What is up in the air is whether NC actually wants to work with Lame. I suspect that if SC tried to build the staff in this manner, they may have known whether NC would work with a particular candidate or not.

http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/01/12/volunteer-sources-say-kiffin-never-embraced-tennessee/

They are in turmoil
They lost their do called genious coach out of the blue
They are under investigation with possible sanctions coming
They are having recruits waver on their commitments
They hired an unproven head coach with a losing record
They have an athletic department which apparently “lacks institutional control”
They have a basketball team which can’t even play in the Pac-10 tournament
They are looked at as being a disgrace to college athletics

Of course, they are sc

But ESPN reported about 10 hours ago that Chow was going to $c*.

Somebody at Inheritance Hall must have been feeding (figurative usage) Shelly with her info, which says that these decisions were already made, (in their minds, at least). Why does their new 6th choice for head coach not get to pick his own OC? Who is really calling the shots over there?

Case Keenum coming back for SR year. Our schedule is murderous next season.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4823544

CNC could have ended it with an emphatic statement that no matter what he was offered, he would honor his contract.

Right now, the only statement we have from his camp is that sc has yet to contact CNC. And, that the rep would feel duty bound to present all offers to CNC should they develop.

Again, CNC could have instructed his rep to not accept or proffer any offers — a way of saying that he would not leave under any circumstances.

He didn’t.

My take is that CNC is probably enjoying the attention — nothing wrong with that. And, waiting to see what both schools will do.

Unfortunately, in academic circles, getting an offer from another school is often the only path to a big raise. It sucks because one who really does not want to leave or play games is at a disadvantage in the negotiation.

CNC could have taken himself out of all speculation — which would have taken himself out of a chance for a raise at UCLA.

So, one strategy could be that he is going to listen to sc and see what UCLA will do to keep him.

Best case, we do enough — whatever that is, and he stays.

Second best, he stays as a matter of principle — he honors his contract. I put this in second place because in my experience as an academic, salary negotiations are often what one looks at to see just how much he is loved. Staying on principle, after having not been offered a significant boost — equal to what was offered by another school, often ends up with an employee who is less than happy and somewhat resents the employer. He stays because he has a contract, but he’s not a happy camper.

Third, he leaves. In one way, that is the worst case. But, I have confidence that we will keep a big chunk of our recruits and that we will have a great, new OC. There may be a collateral benefit, too. CRN may take more responsibility for the QB’s and O; he may not be Chow, now — but he will grow. CNC may not be here much longer, no matter what. CRN will be.

Bottom line to me: We sit back and wait. We don’t call CNC names. We don’t freak out. Whatever happens, we will deal with it.

Should Norm Chow return, UCLA would retain its complete primary staff for the first time in quite a while… the biggest thing about consistency is consistency

Unless they are affiliated with a traditional media.

I wonder if Carroll is even a little jealous of the fan reaction Kiffin got at UT. I mean they are rioting, burning shirts, giving out addresses, blocking the athletic department, etc. All Carroll got was some pathetic candle light vigil that about 12 people went to.