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Lane Kiffin Isn’t Inside Anyone’s Head, Probably Including His Own

Sep 23, 2009, 9:00 PM UTC

Yeah, maybe The Sporting Blog talksâ†µ aboutâ†µLaneâ†µKiffin a lot. Lane Kiffin talks a lot, you see. No one talks aboutâ†µJim Tressel because it’s more interesting to interview dry white toast,â†µbut that hasn’t prevented him from pwning the Big Ten for years. Andâ†µbesides, KIFFINâ†µ= RATINGS for CBS and for a blogger looking out on a dry Wednesdayâ†µwhen his compatriots yoinked Les Miles admittingâ†µthe coaches’ poll is a sham and Kansas athletics devolvingâ†µinto West Side Story.â†µâ†µSo it’s completely natural to talk about a guy who’s constitutionallyâ†µincapable of shutting up:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“I don’t know. I guess we’ll wait and see, and if we’re notâ†µâ‡¥excited about our performance, we’ll tell you that everybody wasâ†µâ‡¥sick,” said Kiffin, responding to a question about whether the Volsâ†µâ‡¥had been hit with the flu.â†µâ†µâ†µThat’s old, and you’ve probably read it, and you’ve probably added itâ†µto the small portion of your brain dedicated to thinking Lane Kiffin isâ†µa prat who you’d like to see get run over by a lawnmower.â†µ

â†µâ†µTennessee fans, on the other hand, have engaged the ever-more complexâ†µflowchart which starts with “Lane Kiffin said something that makesâ†µhim sound like a child” and ends with “We’re gonna win!”â†µAnd not just the nutcases you can find floating around any message boardâ†µon the internet. â†µ

â†µ

â†µHere's Rocky Topâ†µTalk, the King Kong of Tennessee blogs, which takes the postgameâ†µhandshake between Urban Meyer and Kiffin, during which Meyer saidâ†µ"your guys played hard" and reachesâ†µthis conclusion: â†µ

â†µ

â†µâ‡¥
Lane Kiffin setting up shop in Urban Meyer's head
â†µâ‡¥... Based on all of the rest of the stuff [Meyer's] been sayingâ†µâ‡¥post-game, I now think it was a back-handed swipe at Kiffin somethingâ†µâ‡¥along the lines of "Your players played well [despite the fact thatâ†µâ‡¥you suck]." All of that is fine with me, by the way, because itâ†µâ‡¥re-ignited a war of words and suggests to me that Lane Kiffin is inâ†µâ‡¥Urban Meyer's head much the same way that Steve Spurrier was in the headâ†µâ‡¥of Phillip Fulmer for so many years.â†µ

â†µâ†µMeanwhile, Fanhouse’s Clay Travis, who’s a great writer and a vagueâ†µemail acquaintance, picksâ†µup the same theme:â†µ

â†µ

â†µâ‡¥
Is Kiffin Besting Meyer in Coaches' Spat?
â†µâ‡¥Kiffin's undisciplined off-field comments belie a team that isâ†µâ‡¥actually very disciplined and focused on game details. The upshot ofâ†µâ‡¥Kiffin's gameplan was that Tennessee controlled how Saturday's game wasâ†µâ‡¥played for the first time in five years. ... And ultimately all theâ†µâ‡¥continued media attention has a rattled Meyer embracing a desert islandâ†µâ‡¥fantasy.â†µ

â†µâ†µTravis continues to assert that Meyer is “flustered” and soâ†µforth and so on. Epic length, similar ideas. â†µ

â†µâ†µTennessee fans point to the close score and hug themselves, thinkingâ†µof a day in the future when Steve Spurrier is on their side andâ†µall opposing coaches can do is jump on their hat, Yosemite Sam-style.â†µThey’re so in love with this idea that they spin the words that areâ†µcoming out of Kiffin’s mouth to mean anything at all. They don’t.â†µThey’re blather. They’re fun blather, sure, and Lord knows I support anyâ†µcoach bold enough to snipe at another member of the coachingâ†µfraternity -- 120 Jim Tressels would be the death of college football. Butâ†µin the grander scheme of things it means zero. Urban Meyer is notâ†µ“flustered.” Lane Kiffin, whose team just racked up 210 yards ofâ†µoffense and was basically no threat to Florida in the second half, isâ†µnot “inside” anyone’s head. You don’t get inside someone’sâ†µhead by losing. â†µ

â†µâ†µSteve Spurrier got inside people’s heads by beating them relentlesslyâ†µand then mocking their corpse. Lane Kiffin just talks, and it has noâ†µbearing on his future success. Tennessee fans should stop attempting toâ†µspin it into anything other than evidence of their coach’s immaturity.â†µ

â†µ

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