One of Knoxville’s most well respected on-air personalities hit us with this gem after CLK’s hire. Nice work, Chip.

The Most Illogical Sports Column Ever
By Chip Kain
Knoxville Focus Sports Editor
chipkain@me.com
(PUBLISHED DEC. 1, 2008 KNOXVILLE FOCUS NEWSPAPER)

Tennessee Director of Athletics Mike Hamilton fired Phillip Fulmer the week of the Wyoming game with the promise of finding a solid replacement for the longtime UT head coach. If you consider his hiring of Bruce Pearl and Todd Raleigh, Hamilton is now 1-1-1.

Pearl’s success with UT basketball is as obvious as it was immediate, but the jury is still out on Raleigh. The former Western Carolina head coach guided the Tennessee baseball team to a 27-29 mark last year and a losing record, six games below .500 at 12-18, in the SEC. To be fair, Rome wasn’t built in a day and UT’s baseball program needed some serious refinements.

One win: Pearl. One draw: Raleigh. Hamilton’s one loss: Kiffin.

Seriously, how do you fire one of Tennessee’s most successful coaches to hire damaged goods from the NFL? How do you fire a head coach with a national championship just to hire a head coach with a losing record? How do you fire a veteran coach to hire someone with no college head coaching experience?

Let’s look at Lane Kiffin- by the numbers. First, he coached 20 games with the Oakland Raiders before he got the boot Sept. 30, 2008. Kiffin was a remarkable 5-15 in the pros. How was he as a head coach in the NCAA? Oh, that’s right. He’s never called one single play or organized a practice or undertaken a season of recruiting as a head coach in college football. I guess Hamilton doesn’t mind a coach who needs on-the-job training. Hopefully he’ll be up to speed by the time he has to travel to the Swamp face the Gators or Tuscaloosa to battle the Crimson Tide in 2009. Will Kiffin still be learning the head coaching profession two years from now? Will he still be learning how to be a head coach in his third and final year?

Tennessee deserves better than Kiffin. The Vols also deserve better decision making at the upper levels of the athletic department and the university as well. Fulmer needed the boot, but the cost of firing him before UT met Wyoming was one of the school’s most embarrassing losses.

Firing Fulmer during the season was not the right approach. If Hamilton gets a coach like Butch Davis, it becomes a non-issue. But there are plenty of coaches that Tennessee could have chosen ahead of Kiffin. Firing Fulmer for Kiffin before the season ended hurt recruiting and the final record of the 2008 Vols. What about Mike Leach? Brian Kelly? Both would have been solid and safe choices for Hamilton and the Vols. Alabama paid top-dollar for a proven head coach. You get what you pay for and Alabama got results.

You say, “Nick Saban was a failed NFL coach and look at what he’s done with Alabama.” I counter by saying he was a successful college coach with a proven track record who made the mistake of going to the NFL. Kiffin does not have Saban’s past accomplishments. Kiffin doesn’t have a BCS championship as a head coach or even as a coordinator. What has he done?

What he didn’t have secured his chance to follow Fulmer as the next head coach at Tennessee. Kiffin’s poor performance with Raiders assured that he wouldn’t have a buyout, like a Leach or Kelly would. Maybe Kiffin was all Tennessee could afford, but certainly for the same price you paid to keep Fulmer happy, UT could find a winning up-and-comer in the college ranks. There has to be at least one successful college head coach who would jump at the chance to coach football at Tennessee in the SEC’s toughest division. Can Kiffin even name all 12 schools in the SEC? He’s a West Coast coordinator with a damaged NFL reputation. He’s also the next head coach at Tennessee.

He comes to UT with a smaller price tag and a much higher risk than the other names thrown around during the coaching search.

There are rumors that Kiffin would bring his dad, Monte, a defensive genius with him from the NFL. That’s a positive check in Kiffin’s list of reasons he should be hired, but I already question his judgment. There are more rumors that former Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron will join Kiffin on staff at UT. That’s a questionable move because of Orgeron’s track record with recruiting around the SEC- it leaves me to wonder whether the Vols will face future probing by the NCAA for rules violations. Not to mention, Orgeron has a history of domestic violence. Questionable character wasn’t a trademark of Fulmer’s assistants.

There’s an old saying that you make the bed you sleep in and Hamilton will have to live with his decision to fire Fulmer in the middle of the season and to hire a head coach on the cheap who couldn’t cut it in the NFL. Tennessee might be looking to fill two vacancies for the 2012 season if this hire doesn’t work out the way Hamilton hopes it will.