Don't Forget Hello Kiffin: A Big Part Of Trojans' Dirty Mess

by DCBruins on Jun 11, 2010 4:33 AM PDT

It is becoming obvious what USC did in sanctioning their basketball team, was to try to avoid damage to their football team. They failed.

But is USC interested in fixing their football team's ethical problems? It does not seem like they are. If they are why did they hire Lane Kiffin and pay him such an exorbitant sum? Obviously, they paid so much for Kiffin to keep him in the face of the pending sanctions. However, if you are trying to fix things, why not hire someone who was not associated with the past problems?

Yet ESPN is reporting that, except Garrett, no one is around from the time of the sanctions. The truth is Kiffin was in the middle or at least the fringe of everything.

Kiffin joined the "University of Southern California (USC) staff in 2001 and became the wide receivers coach in 2002. In 2004, he added the duties of passing game coordinator and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005. Kiffin also took the reins as recruiting coordinator that year, after offensive coordinator Norm Chow left USC for the same position with the NFL's Tennessee Titans. Along with these duties, Kiffin continued as the wide receivers coach."

Obviously Pete Carroll has more responsibly for what happen. But should Kiffin, promoted to recruiting coordinator, have known what SC was doing at the time and what they had done? If Kiffin tried to clean things up, that would be one thing. But there is no evidence he did anything different and was if anything Caroll's prodigy/mentor.

Kiffin had to know what was going on and obviously he went along and was promoted. If SC wanted to clean house, why not hire someone else at that outrageous salary who had a history of running clean programs. If they wanted to change the culutre why not hire someone from the outside?

It seems the forward looking sanctions in this case may be extremely appropriate given that USC has shown no desire to change their culture and the people who led or were leaders in the program during the period in question, Garrett and Kiffin, are still there and have been retained or, in Kiffin's case, rewarded.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Comments

I know for a fact it is why he was brought in.

I heard it from the ’horse’s mouth.’ Same person that told me M Knox was leaving UCLA. Same guy that said D’Anthony was going to SC. In his words, SC would be fine because “Lane knows how we do it.”

The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Jun 10, 2010 11:07 AM PDT reply actions

Lane - a TRUE SCumbag

Lane was there when all this was happening. He was probably the instigator along with Ogre. He is a Cheat Pete clone. I wish the sanctions were worse! CHEAT ON, Lame!

by Forever a Bruin on Jun 10, 2010 12:07 PM PDT reply actions

lame kitten = placeholder

by LoyalAlum94 on Jun 10, 2010 4:29 PM PDT reply actions

+1

by VenturaHwy73 on Jun 10, 2010 4:58 PM PDT up reply actions

An Appeal Will be Ruinous

There is nothing worse than uncertainty for new recruits. If an appeal by USC takes more than a few month, it will harm their recruiting program for an extra season.

The Troylets are nuts to string this out. But the culture of cheating will permit nothing less.

The Troylets – flushed winners of the Porcelain Bowl in 2010-2011.

Bleeding powderkeg blue and gold for 55 years. Go Bruins!

by Digdog on Jun 11, 2010 5:39 AM PDT reply actions

Perfect Situation for Lame?

I’m wondering if this actually might be the perfect situation for Lame. If he had stayed at Tenn, he would have been exposed for the crappy coach he is relatively quickly as Tenn Football is down and he would have had to build it back up himself. Which we all know wasn’t going to happen in the hyper competitive SEC. After being exposed this way, he’d probably be relegated to the non-BCS leagues for his next head coaching job unless he took an assistant role somewhere. Either way, a major reduction in pay/prestige.
By coming back to u$c, he knew one of two things were going to happen, major sanctions or a slap on the wrist. Since u$c was already near the top of the football world, if sanctions were a slap on the wrist he knew he could rely on u$c previous reputation to bring recruits in for several years before his coaching deficiencies became known and recruiting took a dive. That would mean he would be there for 6 – 8 years before he drove the program down enough to get canned.
If sanctions were major as we know see they are, he can simply point to them if their record is bad and say it was impossible to do anything with those sanctions in place. After 3-5 years he would then skip out of town ala Carroll and go to the next gullible major program looking for a “name” coach and keep pulling in the big bucks while still being a sucky coach. That program would then probably keep him around for at least 4-5 years to allow him time to “build” the program
So basically by jumping onto the sinking u$c ship, he’s almost guaranteed himself head coach pay for the next 8-10 years. Of course I’m probably giving him to much credit for that kind of forward thinking.

by Insomnia333 on Jun 11, 2010 7:37 AM PDT reply actions