Mid-day talker: Lane Kiffin missed the “Minnesota Nice” seminar

Posted on May 27th, 2009 – 11:52 AM
By Michael Rand

kiffin.JPGLane Kiffin, who everyone must know by now is ONE OF US, continues to barnstorm through the SEC like a slick whippersnapper not concerned about upsetting the applecart. He most certainly did not learn to talk this way at Bloomington Jefferson. From the AP coverage of SEC media day Tuesday:

Kiffin called Meyer a “cheater” on signing day in February. Meyer said before meeting Kiffin on Tuesday that he expected their first contact to be “professional.”
“That’s the way we’re supposed to act in this league,” Meyer added.
If Meyer was looking for an apology from Kiffin on Tuesday, there was none forthcoming. Kiffin, who issued a public apology to Meyer and the SEC almost immediately on signing day, said Tuesday that was it. “I don’t have a relationship with coach Meyer, but I did ask for adjoining (hotel) rooms,” Kiffin said with a laugh
.

But wait, there’s more!

“Everybody has to have their own way of handling things and heavens knows I’ve made my share of mistakes with the media,” Nick Saban said. “But we try to represent our organization in a first-class way and do it with loyalty and integrity.”
Kiffin’s story, and he’s sticking to it, is that his actions was to create national attention for a struggling program. The result for a school coming off a 5-7 season is a top 10 recruiting class.
“Do I love everything I had to do to get us to this point?” Kiffin said Tuesday. “No, I don’t. But we had to make an immediate impact. We couldn’t have sat back in the weeds and hoped we signed a top 10 class in a couple of years.”

What about after the media day was over? Well, that’s when the real fun began! From ESPN.com:

As the coaches were filtering out of their meeting room and waiting for an elevator, a reporter informed Spurrier that Kiffin, albeit jokingly, had said earlier in the day that he never got an apology from Spurrier about questioning whether Kiffin had taken the recruiting test.
Spurrier sighed, slumped his shoulders and then wheeled around toward Kiffin, who was standing about five feet away waiting on the same elevator.
“I didn’t accuse you of cheating,” said an animated Spurrier, motioning toward Kiffin, who stood there with his face reddening by the second. “What I said was, ‘Was it permissible to call recruits before you were announced head coach and had taken the [recruiting] test?’ Now, you took the test online, and I didn’t even know you could do that. I thought you had to take the test on campus … and then start calling [recruits].”
Kiffin never fired back, but Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino walked by and quipped, “You’re not getting me in the middle of this one.

Kiffin clearly is doing a lot of this for exposure. And clearly, it’s working. But at what point will he wear out his welcome in a league where plenty of other coaches carry a lot of clout — and at what point could that start costing him the recruits he covets?

Comments are closed.