Former USC coach Lane Kiffin, now the offensive coordinator at Alabama, is one polarizing figure. There’s a whole host of reasons for that. Some of it is jealousy, some of it is his personality. A lot of it is the fact that he was essentially born on third base in the football world because of his legendary dad Monte Kiffin. The “failing upwards” which seemed to occur during his career arc only creates more polarization.
He’s also the de facto number two to Nick Saban at Alabama, and the Crimson Tide have now established themselves as the empire of college football.
Winning breeds contempt. “They hate us cuz they ain’t us” is certainly at work here. His ex wife, Layla Kiffin is about as search engine gold as SEO gold can be, so I’m sure all those people Googling (and also ogling, let’s be honest and fair here) his ex-wife probably have strong opinions of Lane Kiffin too.
Perhaps the main reasons he stirs the pot though, is all the wreckage he left in his wake at USC, Tennessee and the Oakland Raiders. Those are three very large, very zealous fan bases, and when you alienate them, as Emperor Palpatine said “I feel your anger. Give in to your hate.”
You recall that Lane Kiffin was fired in the LAX parking lot. Take a moment to think about what it takes to be fired so badly that they don’t even give you a ride home. What did he do behind the scenes that we don’t know about and perhaps never will?
He’s certainly an interesting guy, to say the least. Last year, the internet essentially broke due to unfounded rumors about him. Why? Because at this point just about any Lane Kiffin rumor you might hear is somewhat reasonable.
Kiffin and the Tide face the Trojans Saturday night in Dallas. Bama are 11.5 point favorites.
“I’m sure Lane Kiffin is excited for the matchup because of history and the past, but when that game starts, all he’s going to care about is winning,” said FOX Analyst and former USC quarterback Matt Leinart.
“He’s an interesting guy, and I’m sure he’s personally excited about the game, but Lane Kiffin is a guy who is going to go out there and have a game plan of what he needs to do to win the game.”
Kiffin and Leinart were concurrently at USC from 2001-05. Lane Kiffin was not a head coach in Los Angeles at that time. He was not head coach then, but instead served as an assistant. He was tight ends coach in ’01, receivers coach in ’02-’04 and offensive coordinator ’05-‘o6
“He’s very, very talented,” Leinart continued.
“He’s a very good play caller, and I think he’s in a perfect fit in Alabama, I really do.”
“And I think he’s starting to get more credit. Because of all the stuff that’s happened and some of the distractions and some of the things he kind of stirs up, people lose sight of the fact that he’s an excellent, excellent play caller and an excellent offensive coordinator.”
Kirk Herbstreit had a great take on the Lane Kiffin storyline as well.
“As far as Lane Kiffin going against his former team, USC, I think he’ll downplay it to everybody in the media,” Herbstreit said.
“I think he’ll try to kind of poo-poo it even. Like this is just another game. We’ve got to get ready. We’ve got to find a quarterback. We don’t know what we have. But I do think that deep down there is something a little bit special for him going up against USC. Just to remind the USC folks what they let go. He’s a human. He has a competitive spirit. If anybody ever left one job and got fired to go to and he got hired in another job and you’re going back to play that school that fired you, I think anybody would be crazy to say that it wasn’t a little bit special or there’s a little bit more incentive there,” Herbstreit continued to opine on the Daniel Tosh lookalike.
“So it will be there. How it will impact the game, I don’t think it will. But I think privately deep down, I think Lane Kiffin’s incredibly fired up to have an opportunity to coach Alabama offensively against USC.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.