A week ago today, Lane Kiffin rumors ran rampant. That opened the floodgates for the Lane Kiffin to Illinois rumors to resurface once again. These rumors may be as credible as those sung about by Timex Social Club but the “Lane Kiffin Illini,” “Lane Kiffin Illinois” search volume was quite significant anyway.
We’ll pass on disclosing what the Layla Kiffin search terms were; you don’t want to know.
Layla Kiffin related search queries are always there seemingly everyday (just confirming once again how creepy the internet really is), but rumors for both Kiffins were just off the charts last week, and it reinforces how Kiffin is possibly the most polarizing man in college football. In terms of the Crimson Tide media addressing and reporting on the Lane Kiffin rumors, this is the closest we saw anybody come to actually doing that.
As the Alabama SID has confirmed, Kiffin is still gainfully employed by the University, and isn’t in any trouble. So he’s not looking for a new job right now.
Of course, Kiffin is also known to change jobs quite often (he’s been in four different places since 2008) and he will get a head coaching job again somewhere. That destination is better than you will expect too, because Kiffin consistently displays a George W. Bush level tendency to fail upward during his career.
Plus he brings certain traits to Champaign that Tim Beckman didn’t, and Bill Cubit wouldn’t if his interim tag were removed. Unlike Beckman, Kiffin doesn’t use press conferences as opportunities to promote nonsensical acronyms and mangle the English language “like a Kleenex at a snot party,” as Lt. Col. Leslie Hapablab would say.
Cubit is not a sexy hire, nor a splash hire, while Kiffin actually would be.
(I discussed this topic a bit on KOZN 1620 The Zone yesterday. Podcast is below:)
Hiring Lane Kiffin makes Illinois nationally relevant again, but unfortunately that’s only as a punchline.
It would be Ron Zook hire 2.0 in this regard; only with more risk/reward and also more potential baggage. Kiffin is a better Xs and Os, game strategist than Zoo, but almost everyone agrees that Zook is a nicer guy.
Just as we saw during the Zook era, you would have top tier talent in Memorial Stadium again…along with the off-the-field issues that usually come with that. Also it’s hard to imagine a Lane Kiffin hire having a happy ending in Champaign as well. Following Kiffin’s career is like tailing the path of a tornado- there’s debris in the wake. Last year, the idea of the Illini hiring Lane Kiffin didn’t seem so bad, as he’s still an upgrade over Tim Beckman.
(Even I felt this idea was ok last fall).
Now that Becks is actually gone, reality has set in, and this idea seems a lot worse. Bar closing time has come, the music’s over, the lights are on. So what do you do now?
As we said in preseason, P.J. Fleck is not the long term answer at Illinois. We went into detail on that here at this link. Western Michigan is 1-3 with a -65 point differential on the season. To be fair, the Broncos have played the #1 and #2 team in the nation already. Then again, Fleck was just 9-15 at WMU entering this season anyway.
Also, if you didn’t care for Beckman’s for #WINT and #OSKEE, then I doubt you’ll enjoy Fleck’s #RowTheBoat. He even included the catch-phrase hash tag while Tweeting his engagement photo. He wears a shirt that says “ROWER” on game days.
Fleck must have one of the best publicists in the business when you consider all the hype he’s getting in spite of his winning percentage.
Also, the media have an absurdly delusional “homecoming” and “home town boy done good” bias. Look no further than Derrick Rose and Chris Collins for examples of this. The Chicago media give D. Rose a pass on as much as they can until he says or does something that’s so egregious that they have no choice but to call him out.
During Collins’ first year in Evanston the local media celebrated his victories over 11th and 10th place teams as if he had reached the Elite 8.
So I guess the next name would then be Bowling Green’s Dino Babers.
Like Lane Kiffin, he’s moved around a lot too (he’s on his third job since 2011). Read into that fact what you will.
His success as Eastern Illinois will push the “Illinois connections” narrative, even though he was actually born and raised in California. Babers doesn’t have the full body of work yet to really say whether or not he’d be the right guy to lead the Illini out of the tunnel at Zuppke Field. Memphis Coach Justin Fuente anybody?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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