Hey Coogs, sorry to be the wet blanket on the potential Kiffin hire, but I must weigh-in. As many of you know, my son played for Sumlin, Levine, and Herman in his Coog football career. Our family is now and will continue to be die-hard UH supporters. What many of you don’t know is that I am a USC alumnus and 30 plus year season ticket holder there despite my 20 plus years of Texas residency.
There has never been a coach who was a bigger embarrassment to the USC program than Lane MFing Kiffin. I’m not talking about X’s & O’s or recruiting either. He is a complete douche and was never anything but an embarrassment of our University and brand… I am defending the Coogs hard on the USC message boards this week, but the UH brand is already a laughing stock for even having his name mentioned in association with it.
And for those of you who think (and rightly we all hope) that he’s matured, I’d submit for evidence the theory that his hiring has been prematurely outed because he’s been offering assistant spots to others. If indeed Renu is still in need of approving a hire, or maybe UH is trying to control the announcement on their timeline, and with Tillman and Hunter stating no offers yet, then why would any legit candidate be foolish enough to leak the hire on his own?
LMFK, is why.
And the ‘offensive genius’ tag has been part of his resume since forever. Big deal. The Rhule hire at BU was panned for being an out of Texas hire vs. how cliquish the in state recruiting can be; what makes you think that any HS coach in state will treat LMFK any different?.
I’m hoping for your sake he’s not the choice, and if he is, I’ll be praying that he has indeed matured.
One more thing, Monte’s cover 2 sucks, it’s out dated and college O’s ( especially the ones in the AAC) will eat it up. You best hope that he can retain Orlando or has someone else up his sleeve, maybe with Bama/Saban experience.
There is a big difference between being an Offensive Coordinator and being a Head Coach. Kiffin should not be a head coach anywhere with his personality and character deficiencies. One rarely ‘matures’ from that.
I agree with that. LK doesn’t feel right. To me this feels like that Herman to LSU thing. Wasn’t it they who said Herman was going to LSU? I mean USAtoday!!!? Do they even have an office in Houston? I trust Berms and JD. I mean they were not even 30 min in to the so called “leak” before it was shut down.
Also, @Cowtown no wet blanket. We welcome good stuff like this. Thanks
May I ask why? What made him embarrassing to USC? I would think that Sarkisian being drunkenly abrasive at alumni functions would be hard to top from an embarrassment to the university standpoint. I keep hearing these “douche” comments and that Lane has some character issues, but never anything specific outside of him leaving Tennessee after a year.
Orlando doesn’t ask his MLB Matt Adams to drop 30-40 yards deep into coverage on a WR, RB, or TE like Monte’s T2 does. It’s also a bend but don’t break philosophy. Do you really want to see your Coog D go to a non attacking style? Hell, Gibbs and especially Orlando’s blitzes have been as much fun as watching GWJr run around out there.
It takes a rare talent at MLB to make that Tampa 2 work. Under Monte at USC, they never had that talent. Do you think UH will find one where USC couldn’t? And that’s without giving up the size and ability needed to stuff the running game or cover side to side vs a spread attack. Monte had pro bowl LB Derrick Brooks at Tampa do that for him. At USC he tried Devin Kennard (6’3", 250) - now a 3 yr starter at OLB for the NY Giants - and he couldn’t get it done (and he’s had a longer NFL career than UH greats like DMatt and ERob combined).
ERob got smoked by CJ Prosise vs Seattle a few weeks back trying to cover - not even a WR, a RB, and he’s a great college MLB and solid pro so far. He wouldn’t have been able to perform like D Brooks in a Tampa 2.
I’m telling you, Tampa 2 sucks particularly at the NCAA level. It’s old, and the offenses have moved past it.
First of all, Fight On! It’s nice to see another Trojan on the board (class of '05). I grew up in Houston, and attended UH, before moving to CA and transferring to USC.
Many people here may not agree with you, or with me for that matter, because I think most people really haven’t seen Lane’s actions close up. I posted a few days ago on another thread running down his history, from the clashes with (and pushing out of) Norm Chow, to the banning of Scott Wolf (regardless of opinion on his reporting) from the meetings and locker room, to the fight with Kennedy Pola at the Sun Bowl, to his night on the tarmac with Pat Haden.
His entire coaching tenure has been non-stop examples of being arrogant and bratty, in stark contrast to the same actions out of someone like Nick Saban or Urban Meyer who have accomplishments.
As an X’s and O’s guy, he was great in the OC role. The offense at SC was great when it was Leinart, Bush, White, M. Williams, Colbert, Alex Holmes, Fred Davis, etc. The ball was spread out. But as a HC, he would pick one receiver to feature and live/die by that guy’s ability to make plays from a bubble screen. And I never saw him walk away from the offense on the field to talk up the defense in my years at the Coli…did you?
His Xbox offense was great, but a lot of OC would have been with the greatest assemblage of college talent ever. And yet, on 4th and 2 to seal the National Championship against Texas, he has Heisman winner Reggie Bush on the sideline, allowing Earl Thomas to be free and stuff Lendale White’s attempt and the rest is history. Offensive genius? pffft.
I didn’t think his back-stabbing ouster of Norm Chow was worthy of discussion here since he duped Pete Carroll into that, but it cost Pete one, possibly 2 National Championships.
Eric, not sure if you know the entire back story or not…but I’d like to explain. Kiffin and Saban share the same agent. Saban and Monte Kiffin go way back. So Lane went to Alabama to remain in a high-profile position and do something he’s very good at, coordinate an offense, in a place where there’s little worry about his personality getting him into trouble, since Saban won’t let his assistants talk to the media.
But if you don’t know the history behind the circus that has surrounded Lane, just look up his time at USC (which I’ve written about on another thread here), at Oakland (huge blowouts with Al Davis), and at Tennessee (from the verbal arguments/accusations of Urban Meyer, to his leaving for USC as half the campus was on fire).