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Kiffin’s Detractors Pointing To His Age
Published by MoonDog on December 4, 2008
To all of the so-called football geniuses among us who’ve blathered on recently about the University of Tennessee’s decision to hire 33-year old Lane Kiffin as its next football coach, pay attention if your fragile minds will allow you to do so.
Tennessee Vols Head Coach Lane Kiffin
The arguments I’m hearing from the likes of Mark May and Ivan Maisel of ESPN and Ron Higgins of The Commercial Appeal are focusing on Kiffin’s lack of college head coaching experience and his age.
If memory serves me correctly, the Oakland Raiders are a franchise in the National Football League.
Didn’t Kiffin coach the Raiders into this season before being fired by Al Davis under questionable circumstances?
Unless I’m misconstruing something here, the NFL is a tad better than the SEC.
Kiffin got the job in Oakland based on his performance at Southern California, not because of his age or previous head coaching experience.
If you really want to look at Kiffin’s situation realistically, his new position is a step down from his previous job.
Granted, the Raiders are a mess, but they’ve been a mess since Jon Gruden left to take over in Tampa Bay.
Most of the problems created in Oakland were the result of a bumbling front office led by Davis. Any head coaching experience in the NFL is far superior to some of the coaches May and Maisel have pointed out as apparently being “proven” or more qualified than Kiffin.
While Florida head coach Urban Meyer has become a proven commodity, some tend to forget the only head coaching experience of any significance he had prior to taking the Gators’ job was at Utah.
No offense to the Utes, but the Mountain West isn’t the SEC. It’s certainly not the NFL either. I can’t help but believe Meyer would have learned more about coaching in the NFL than he ever could while coaching at Utah or Florida.
When Mark Richt took over at Georgia, he didn’t have any head coaching experience. Since he’s been at the helm in Athens, the Bulldogs have enjoyed their most success since the days of Vince Dooley.
All of this emphasis placed on college coaching experience as a prerequisite for overseeing a major NCAA football program is absurd. Even more absurd is the focus on Kiffin’s youth as being a perceived lack of ability.
What the detractors arguments amount to is nothing less than veiled discrimination against Kiffin because of his age. If Kiffin were 43 years old and had two years of coaching experience in the NFL, we wouldn’t have heard a word from anyone.
When the Boston Red Sox hired Theo Epstein as their General Manager, he was 28 years old. All he’s done as the Red Sox GM is win two World Series titles.
Age is irrelevant, especially at the college level. College coaching is primarily about the ability to recruit talented prep prospects and to surround yourself with a competent staff.
Kiffin proved his recruiting ability while serving on Pete Carroll’s staff at USC and he’s already made several significant hires to work on his staff next season.
In the end, Kiffin’s performance will be based upon his ability to recruit talented players, getting the most out of them and winning championships. That’s what every college coach is graded on and it doesn’t have anything to do with age.
But if Kiffin fails to turn the Vols around, you can rest assured everyone claiming this was a bad hire will point to his youth and his lack of college head coaching experience, just so they can say, “I told you so.”
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F. C. King Links « Loser with Socks on Thu, 4th Dec 2008 10:02
[...] Kiffin, is he to young? [...]
tophatal on Thu, 4th Dec 2008 12:51
Moon Dog
I think that it’s not an oversight on your part. But with Esptein in Boston. He still has Lucchino looking over his shoulder. And though we know where the ultimate power lies and who’s the real architect of the Sox’s success. One can’t help but wonder what they’d be without Epstein.
As for Kiffin he was in the wrong place at the wrong time up in Oakland. The Raiders have and will be for forseeable future the laughing stock of the NFL ! The league knows it as to do their most devoted and loyal fan. Whilst Al Davis can still draw breath nothing’ll change.
I just hope that the opportunity provided to Laine Kiffin will be one where he can flourish. I think that it’ll be great if his father Monte Kiffin will be able to join him as the Vols defensive coordinator. It bodes well for the future of the program.
tophatal …………..