Sports Radio Interviews

Lane Kiffin Re-joins ‘SC Family In Turmoil After “Rough Divorce” From Tennessee

Lane Kiffin may have been handed a rough situation at USC – some of which may have been his own doing – but his separation from the University of Tennessee may have been rougher. When Kiffin left Knoxville after just one season to head back to USC and take his “dream job” – his third different head coaching job in three seasons – those wearing orange were not the least bit happy. That may seem like a bit of a compliment, and that’s how Kiffin spins it, but it’s hard to take it that way when threats are involved.

Phone numbers of Kiffin and his family were distributed and threats ensued. To-date, he’s still trying to sell a house in the area – apparently no one wants to live in the house he once occupied. And recently, Peyton Manning commented that, “I think the one thing where Tennessee, as a whole group was kind of hurt, our pride was hurt, was that we didn’t think that Tennessee was a transition job. … I’ve always thought and the big orange nation thought that Tennessee was a destination job. Unless you were fired or retired, that was the place to be.”

Apparently a school with a completely overhauled front office, football scholarships lost and up to a two year bowl ban is the place to be.

USC football head coach Lane Kiffin joined the Petros and Money Show on FoxSports Radio to discuss how he would characterize the state of the USC program as it transitions coaches and front office, keeping track of his third team in three years, the continued fallout of his “rough divorce” from Tennessee and a speech he made to his team about earning playing time.

On how he would characterize the attitude of the program:

“I think we are in great shape. If you look at the overall picture, it speaks to the power of the ‘SC and the ‘SC family. To go through what we are going through, and as you mentioned over the last few months, to have JK McKay coming back, Kennedy Pola coming back and Pat Haden coming back all former Trojans. At a point when people would expect people to run away, powerful people are coming back to help us continue this championship run… It’s been a very smooth transition. We’ve been very fortunate. When you have change like that, your fears as a coaching staff are to have an athletic director coming in from another school that wants to do it a different way and has his own ideas. This is very different. Here comes one of the great Trojans of all times with Pat Haden coming back and bringing JK with him. They understand Trojan football and it’s been very smooth having them back.”

On how he keeps track of his teams having coached in three different locations in three years:

“Yeah and I have a lot of houses that nobody will buy. The first year is always a transition. We are getting a lot of practice at that unfortunately. We don’t want to do that again. We’d like to be here for a long time. There is transition in learning your staff, learning your team. We’ll go through that here at the beginning of the year. Especially because of our practices, not having two-a-days and not hitting too much there’s a lot of questions we are going to figure out about our team in these first couple games.”

On how he feels about moving on from Tennessee:

“It was a rough divorce. Let’s put it that way. I had a great time there. We were very excited about our future there as they were as well. When you leave somewhere that fast, unfortunately, the passion of the fans down there is so unbelievable that they were hurt. I guess if their reaction was different and they didn’t really care about it and talking about it, that would mean that they didn’t like us or they didn’t think we were doing good things. As far as the recruitment and the NCAA, we’ve already spoken with the NCAA. They came and spoke to us. They don’t allow us to comment on that. I can say that we do things the right way. We signed three number one recruiting classes in a row while we were here at USC before doing it the right way. We signed some great players at Tennessee when we were there and we will continue to do that here too. Does that create a target? Sure it does. We get questions all the time, ‘How do you get guys continue to sign all these great players around the country no matter where you are at?’ The answer is really easy. This staff works extremely hard at it year round. We are very proud of our success in recruiting and that we do it the right way.”

And on his speech to his team that the best guys were going to play no matter what:

“I probably would have done that regardless. I thought it was extremely important after last season, after the great run and the falloff last year. In getting here and  feeling when I first got here a little bit of empowerment maybe that wasn’t earned by some kids just because they were putting on a uniform, putting on an ‘SC helmet. That doesn’t make you a great player. That doesn’t make you a championship player. You have to earn it.”

Listen to Lane Kiffin with Petros and Money on FoxSports Radio.

Tags: FoxSports Radio, Lane Kiffin, Pac 10 Football, Petros and Money, Tennessee Volunteers, USC