Regardless of Kiffin’s current stupidities, Roger Goodell works for the owners and Al was a huge part of the past labor peace and will be called on again for the current negotiations. Goodell will not piss of Al with the petty Kiffin grievance that is under the circumstances without merit.

Kiffin was a boy playing a man’s game in the NFL and now at Tennessee he should have looked to daddy before inserting his foot repeatedly into his mouth.

He lied to the Raider Nation and to Al… He acted as if he was putting the team before himself but in reality there was nothing about him that I miss. He thought he could come into Oak-town and run business like Gruden (but in retrospect Gruden has way more talent than this clown).. He was a little kid and when he didn’t get his way he threw a tantrum.. I’m glad we are free from this prick and I hope Al doesn’t pay him a cent of money.. Now we have the Cable Guy who’s sole duty is to bring back the Raider Nation from the Abyss and win another Superbowl to make it 4. He has more loyalty than Lane ever would have had as the Coach for the Oakland Raiders.

I was a Kiffin supporter throughout the year. I really honestly thought that Al was just getting jealous of the attention kiffin was getting. After seeing him completely cut down his young recruits and take a shot at a legend in the making with Urban Meyer, i can say here i was completely wrong.

How fucking stupid can you be? He will be out of a job midway through a season yet again if he keeps this up. If i was a recruit for Tennessee my confidence would be shot and id honestly consider transferring.

Not a huge cable supporter but im much happier now with him rather than “LAME” KIFFIN!!!! good riddance u arrogant lil fuck

Kiffin is making enemies all over the south and in the SEC with his comments, but spend some time on the front page (and the second page) of Rocky Top Talk and other Vol blogs. The consensus appears to be that he goofed by accusing somebody of a rules violation when it wasn’t a violation, but that his other statements are actually appreciated by the fanbase.

sucks. And so do you Bacon. Get off this blog hater.

Really pissed me off when he went to Tennessee and said quote, “You can’t learn crisis management like in Oakland.” This was very disrespectful and I think he is being punished for his cocky behavior now. Cable is a coach I’am proud to have and I can’t wait to see a true believer in the Raiders coach.

he NO LONGER has anything to do w/ Oakland. Why can’t we let this go? Honestly people, we’re trying to move on here. Stop dwelling about the past and bringing the past up again and again and again.

 Are we going to see a front page post every time the Vol’s loose? Just to rub it in to Kiffin? Come on now. This isn’t even close to news worthy for S&BP. For a college forum, I’d agree.

And I have to say I don’t think he was smart in what he said about Urban Meyer, BUT theres a lot of hyperbole thats flying around about all of this, and being blown way out of proportion

The quote, “[u]nderstand this class is far below the standards we have here and what will be here in the future” is being totally taken out of context. Before he said that, he had just praised the skills of the players he signed. What he was referring to was the size and composition of the class he brought in, as he only signed 20 players, which is well below the normal 25 size class, and there weren’t any QBs, RBs, or defensive linemen, all of which UT is in need of. Tennessee’s recruiting class was ranked in the top 15 this year, but has been in the top 5 in the past couple of years. You can’t get a top 5 recruiting class with only 20 players signed, and with as short of a time as he had to come in here and take over Fulmer’s job and all the time he had already invested in recruiting these guys. So of course there is room for improvement, but he wasn’t talkind down about this class’ skills.

And Paul Finebaum, who is saying UT needs to fire Kiffin already, is a hack. All he is a sports writer in Bama territory trying to light a fire under the Tide’s ass. Of course he’s going to be critical and over the top in his assessment of Kiffin in Tennessee. Especially after he went and hired one of the best recruiters Bama had. But he is certainly nowhere near an unbiased opinion and a good source for insight, all he does is spit hyperbole.

Look, say what you will about Kiffin, I understand if Oakland wasn’t happy with him, and I honestly believe Kiffin will be a better coach in college than in the NFL, but I just wanted to deflate some of this exaggeration that is going on. I, for one, am excited about our new coach.

I don’t like to act that way, and I know that they don’t either.

I would advise you to be cautious about Finebaum, though. (He’s the guy who just had to be the first on the FIRE KIFFIN NOW bandwagon.) He’s a sports shock jock and makes his living by getting other people mad at him. He’s a perfect fit in Alabama because he’s actually a Tennessee grad and Alabama/Auburn fans are easy to spin up, but he doesn’t speak out of conviction so much as audacity. Right now, even most Tide fans think his assertion is a little too caricatured to be taken seriously by anybody.

Kiffin will be judged according to his W-L record. If he wins (entirely possible, but not immediately), his quotes will be written off as “quirks”, like many other winning coaches. If he loses, the record will still get him fired before his tongue does.

It’s a long, long offseason for both college and pro football fans. We all need something to keep us occupied and distracted from the impending snoozefest that is MLB; the only thing we have right now is hyperbole. There is some reason for concern about Kiffin’s statements, but both sides of the fence are taking things waaaaay out of proportion right now. He’s made some gaffes, but he’s also doing a lot of terrific things for UT football right now (just ask the players).

without rehashing the details, let me just point out that “secondary” violations include even the tiniest nitpicks of the NCAA rules. The vast majority are self-reported and incur no consequences. All schools experience them (most have several a year), as the NCAA regs are about as easy to figure out as the IRS tax code. The difference is that the Knoxville News-Sentinel is remarkably active about reporting them, while many local media outlets (local to other teams, that is) don’t get too worked up about it unless the NCAA actually acts.

I’m neither excusing him nor convicting him on them; that’s a different discussion. But, like everything else in college football right now, the lack of actual events makes the minutae appear much bigger than it is.

Feel free to hate the guy all you want (as if you needed my permission, but you understand). His mouth does tend to overrun his brain when he gets excited, and he’s probably been a little more forthright about his tenure in Oakland than he should have. Just understand that the reporters in the South are going stir-crazy right now; if Tebow had a hangnail, they’d probably report it as potentially career-threatening.

Talk about something else. Boring old Raiders til I die conversations.

are you guys kidding? we LOVE kiffin in the SEC. i mean, who else could inspire off-season columns like this epic effort on the part of Third Saturday in Blogtober. (full disclosure: i am a bama fan)