Here we go again. Two more national figures have spanked LSU head coach Lane Kiffin’s rear end after his ridiculous commentary about his former employer, Ole Miss.
If you have been living under a rock, here is what Kiffin puked out of his purple and gold mouth: In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, he said recruits would say, “‘Hey, Coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi. That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’”
Wtf? And I won’t translate that for the older crowd, if needed.
But that has been the response of pretty much the entire world. And I for one, do not believe Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian’s comments came out of left field. I believe the basket weaving stuff was part of a Kiffin-led conspiracy of piling on Ole Miss. He and Sark are buddies.
ESPN College Game Day host Rece Davis took Kiffin to the woodshed over his Ole Miss commentary.
“The thing that struck me about this was that it was completely unnecessary from Lane Kiffin,” said Davis. “Because you had five years at Ole Miss to deal with some of these things, and to confront them, and to make a difference in a positive way. Instead, what you choose to do is bring it up in an interview, and it wouldn’t take much for a cynic to say you’re doing it for some type of recruiting advantage, or some type of final dig on the way out the door.
“Again, not questioning the validity that it actually happened, and that there might still be families of recruits in some corners who feel that way. Although I think it’s fair to point out that Ole Miss has made great strides, and has had a tremendous number of black athletes who’ve had great success in Oxford, both personally, professionally, and within their collegiate careers. It just didn’t ring as being something other than some type of recruiting dig.”
CALL PAUL
SEC Network host Paul Finebaum also took issue with Kiffin’s loose talk.
“First of all, the idea that an SEC coach at LSU is breaking big news in Vanity Fair has to be shaking up Fifth Avenue right now. But it’s Lane Kiffin. The most important thing to factor in here was that this was not a slip of the tongue,” Finebaum said on Thursday morning’s Get Up. “I talked to the writer who did the Vanity Fair piece the other day, Chris Smith. He said he didn’t even ask Kiffin about the racism aspect of it. Kiffin just started riffing.
“This is Kiffin trying to wipe Ole Miss off the face of the earth. He is still very bitter at them, even though they’re the jolted lover,” Finebaum continued. “He’s bitter at them because they wouldn’t let him coach in the Playoff. He has to recruit against them, and he also has to play against them on Sept. 19. That’s a game that will gain a bit of attention.”
DON’T DO IT
Can you imagine the intensity inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Sat., Sept. 19? The tendency is to throw golf balls and mustard bottles at Kiffin, much like he was treated at Tennessee a few years back.
DO NOT DO THAT.
He’ll probably have to coach in a helmet, but let the final score of that game speak for itself. That’s how you get to Lane Kiffin.
Belt to arse, or something like that.