I’m not sure, but I think the folks over at UT are kinda mad at Lane Kiffin.  Not only did they riot and start fires in the streets, but now they’re rapping about it.  It’s cathartic, or something.  Some of my favorite lines brought to us by the stylings of Brabo Gator are:

“You made a bunch of promises/and then you left us/you screwed us so hard that your wife got jealous

“You didn’t screw us privately/You screwed us in the open/You screwed us so dirty I just hope you wore a Trojan

“You suck/plus your dad about a hundred years old”

I’m just going to go ahead and throw this out there…maybe the Kiffins shouldn’t ever go back to Tennessee ever.  Like, EVER.  Or it sounds like they’ll beat your ass.  Just sayin’.

–Thank you The Best Damn Sports Comedy for the tip!

There have been some fun ancillary reports coming out of Knoxville in the wake of Lane Kiffin’s departure for Southern Cal, mostly about students burning stuff and painting rocks and what have you, but the best for my pesos involves former Tennessee assistant coach Ed Orgeron’s efforts to bring his current crop of recruits with him to Los Angeles.

Former Tennessee recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron has contacted multiple UT mid-term enrollees and encouraged them not to attend class today so that they can easily leave UT and enroll at Southern California, multiple sources told the News Sentinel.

By attending class today, the nine mid-term enrollees, who have been at UT since Monday, would have to follow strict transfer rules, which include sitting out a year. –GoVolsXtra.

And confirmed reports had Orgeron making some of these calls while Kiffin was still giving his farewell speech to his old team. It’s kind of unreal that USC can hit the ground running like that in somebody else’s building. I don’t fault Kiffin for heading back to familiar territory. Who wouldn’t screech their tires to get out of Tennessee at the first possible chance?

Img from USC Trojans Blog.

Southern Cal has filled their football coaching vacancy. With Lane Kiffin. And the indignation coming out of the Volunteer State is eclipsed only by the desperation of what I thought was the best job in college football. Between the weather, the Pac-10 scheduling, and smatterings of California coeds, no program could sell itself as effortlessly as Southern California football.

Kiffin continues to fail upwards like some sort of entertainment executive at NBC, and doing so in a way that makes landing the top job in Los Angeles almost appropriate. With USC waiting under the NCAA’s hammer, it seems that a guy that spent his one year of experience in FBS racking up minor violations wouldn’t be their guy.

And that’s just the thing. Nobody wanted that job. Jeff Fisher? No thanks. Steve Marriucci? Rolled to voicemail. Hell, Jack Del Rio decided to stayin Jacksonville. Whatever the hell was going on in LA, everyone’s aversion to the job says a lot about the state of that program, and probably gives a clue to why Pete Carroll was so eager to get the hell out of there in the first place.

UPDATE: Del Rio apparently is staying in Jacksonville. Until he gets fired next year, at least…

The former Southern Cal linebacker has about 15 million reasons to scoff at Southern Cal’s head coaching vacancy. That’s the amount of the buyout (over three years) from his contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who finished 7-9 this year in a fairly competitive AFC South division. But the Turds In Teal only won lost five of their last six, and Del Rio was thought to be interviewing for his job this week, despite the hefty price tag. Turns out that he was–in LA.

Of course, Del Rio will deny everything until the ink on his deal with Southern Cal is dry, and that’s fine. Everyone can get all worked up about how dishonest it is to lie about taking a job when you already have one, but that’s the game. Because saying that you’re going to leave one job without having another one locked down is stupid. Do we really expect these guys–who earn their keep by outsmarting the opposition–to do anything less?

Now, why Del Rio would skip out on $15 million for a Pac-10 program that’s about to be fist-fugged by the NCAA is anyone’s guess. Yes, it’s his alma mater, and even if it came under sanctions, it’s easily one of the ten best jobs in college football. Just don’t expect him to spell out his intentions to anyone with a tape recorder. That’s not the way that this game is played.

In a time when the recession is being felt by most everyone in their pants…pocket (sorry if you’re feeling something else in your pants.  I was looking for my keys, I swear.  Awwkkkkwaaarrrdddd!); and the saying “another day another dollar” takes on a whole new value, it’s stories like these that really remind you that some people are good.  Of course it’s not anyone you know, or I know, but still.

In NCAA, players are given a per diem for hittin’ the road all by their lonesome.  Whatever they don’t spend they get to pocket.  However, there’s one team this holiday season that has opted to exchange cash for brotherhood: Bama’s Crimson Tide.

Naturally, Alabama partisans are proudly applauding their boys’ selflessness, leadership and sacrifice for the greater good of the Tide cause — in contrast to the heathen ‘Horns from Texas, who will break, accept the stipend and come together again in California as usual, the callous individualists. And if the NCAA accepts ‘Bama’s appeal to restore the travel money, anyway, it’s a smashing victory for team unity all the way around. (Even if it probably amounts to zip on the field.)–Yahoo.com via Dr. Saturday

Now that’s the Chrismakkah spirit, boys!  I just wonder if SoCal folks are beaming with the same sense of pride as they watch Joe McKnight roll by in his fancy schmancy Range Rover.  ALLEGEDLY. (Hey Joe, can you hook me up with a baby tee when those 4joemcknight.com royalties start rollin’ in? kthx!)

After losing to Oregon and then later getting blown out by Stanford, the Southern Cal football program was woefully short on hutzpah as they entered their next-to-last game of the season, hosting UCLA. And so it was Carroll calling for a long bomb in the fourth quarter when the Persons of Troy already had the game in hand, running up the score…all the way to 28 points. Way to put an exclamation point on that win, Pete.

The talking point from a 28-7 [win] over its crosstown rival will be the sequence that began with USC taking over at the UCLA 47 with 54 seconds left. USC quarterback Matt Barkley, protecting a 21-7 lead, took a knee, content to run out the clock.

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel called timeout.[..]

So, instead of taking a knee, Barkley dropped back and flicked a deep pass to Damian Williams for a 48-yard touchdown that touched off a wild celebration on the USC sideline and nearly brought the two teams to blows.

“It’s just the heart of a competitor, just battling,” Carroll said.

I wouldn’t even do that in Madden, let alone in real life. Anyway, if Oregon beats Oregon State on Thursday, it will be the first time since 2001 that Southern Cal will be denied all or part of a Pac 10 title. And that’s fine with me. Let someone else beat up on the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl for once.