He bought a dog and tweets with hashtags.
Jesus Christ.
Lane Kiffin will be on his boat somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the day tomorrow. Guaranteed. He’s a lazy recruiter. End of story. I don’t give a **** how many retweets he has or how many hashtags he comes up with. He isn’t a dog on the trail like many of his peers. And it’s the reason he never wins as a HC.
For the record, ppl wonder where the “Kiffin Can’t Recruit” narrative came from, & it came from his time at SC.
Kiffin’s name was a hot commodity as an OC at SC. Hence, he went from CFB OC to the NFL as a HC (it also helped he was the son of a well-respected NFL DC). We know he epically failed w/ The Raiders, but he was given a pass at the collegiate level b/c of his time at SC & let’s be frank, he’s polarizing.
At UTenn, in a transition class, he got the #8 class. His first two yrs at SC, he brought in back to back #3 classes. Then something weird happened, & no, it had chit to do w/ sanctions, b/c he was bringing in the #3 classes during this time. The SC class in yr 3 dipped a bit to #8, after the sanctions, & in his final half yr, bottomed to #13.
Now why do I use the term “bottomed” out? Here were SC’s class rankings after Pete got them rolling:
2002 - 8
2003 - 2
2004 - 2
2005 - 2
2006 - 1
2007 - 2
2008 - 4
2009 - 2
SC under Carroll was a recruiting machine, & Kiffin took full advantage of that momentum those first 2 yrs & carried on that recruiting prowess, & then yr 3 that momentum went away. It’s b/c Kiffin relied upon SC’s brand vs. actually recruiting. I can unequivocally tell u he had layups at SC feeder schools & refused to contact or follow up. SC fans, til this day hate him.
When Kiffin is under someone as a #2, he can recruit b/c he has no choice. When he’s the #1, he’s inconsistent. That’s y The Portal is great for him; minimal work, convince guys who want PT who r bouncing around to come in vs. having to deal w/ a high profiled player from HS who’s impressionable & indecisive.