One of the pet topics on sports radio shows lately has been one Mister Lane Kiffin. Kiffin, the cocky, outspoken, controversial coaching wunderkind bolted the University of Tennessee for a program that offered more money and glamour, the USC Trojans. After promising everything to Tennessee fans, he changed his mind after only 14 months.
What has been most remarkable is the ferocious response of Tennessee fans. Office furniture burning, student riots, obscenity laden graffiti…they’ve pulled out all the stops. Kiffin’s desertion stinks, but football is just a game. Vol fans need to take a deep breath.
The situation reminds me of a book I’m reading. It’s called “In the Heart of the Sea.” It’s about a whaling ship that was rammed by a giant whale in the middle of the pacific ocean. The crew was forced to abandon ship and rely on small row boats for survival. Amazingly some of them survived despite tremendous odds. Of course, they had to resort to eating their dead comrades, but they did survive.
Follow me here…Kiffin is the giant whale. Instead of making the sailors (Vol fans) happy, healthy, and wise, he wrecked them and left them to fend for themselves in the middle of one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Pacific Ocean (i.e. the SEC).
Tennessee will survive, but it’s going to be a long, harsh ride to survival. Hopefully some one will come to their rescue before they start dumping salt and pepper on each other.
Watching this makes me thankful for the consistency in the Iowa coaching office. Ferentz may not grab headlines like Kiffin, but it’s nice to not have to put up with this kind of garbage.
On a separate note, Iowa’s men’s basketball team won their first Big Ten game over Penn State this weekend! Good job hawks!
