Lane Kiffin leaves for USC

UPDATE: Norm Chow will not be joining Kiffin at USC. He will remain at UCLA. It's been said that he and Kiffin have a bit of a frosty relationship.

Fourteen months. Count 'em. Fourteen months was the amount of time Lane Kiffin spent as the head coach for the Tennessee Volunteer football program. Now, Kiffin leaves for the calling for the sunny skies and glitz and glamour of Southern California.

The surroundings will be all too familiar for Kiffin. He was an assistant at USC under Pete Carroll from '01-'06. Kiffin left USC to take the job as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. After being disposed by Al Davis, Kiffin landed on his feet in Knoxville in November, 2008. Now, in January, 2010, Kiffin returns to California.

They will be more familiarity at USC. Monte Kiffin, Lane's father and defensive coordinator, and Ed Orgeron, assistant head coach and recruiting director, will make the trek as well. There are also reports that current UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow could also travel across town to rejoin Kiffin and Orgeron. Chow also worked under Carroll fron '01-'04.

Kiffin was addressing his former team, and some of the players didn't bother to hang around to hear the whole "speech" Kiffin was delivering. They heard all they needed to hear first, Kiffin was leaving. And some reacted angrily. One was overheard calling the football staff "a bunch of traitors".

Sound familiar? Can you say Brian Kelly and Cincinnati? The timing of this whole cycle stinks and the NCAA seriously needs to address it. If it's all about the buck, then the NCAA itself has been delusioned like the rest of us.

Just like Pete Carroll "slithered" out of California,  Kiffin "slithered" out of Tennessee. His televised comments were on tape so that he wouldn't have to face an angry mob. A mob that set ablaze about a thousand T-shirts with his likeness.

But don't forget what lies ahead for Kiffin. Surely, USC's AD Mike Garrett (right) had to assure Kiffin that all is well with the NCAA investigation and that little, if anything, will come out of it. Surely, Kiffin wouldn't leave a nice gig in Knoxville if there are any lingering doubts about USC's status, would he? Just like Kiffin tries to sell kids on his program, you'd think that Garrett had to sell his program to Kiffin.

But this goes deeper. With National Signing Day only three weeks away, this puts the Tennessee program squarely behind in the recruiting battle. Some players have already decommitted to Tennessee and could most likely be following Kiffin and Co. to USC. Some may choose to attend other schools they were considering when they committed to Kiffin's sales job.

But what about the education of these kids? Isn't that supposed to be the primary goal of college athletics? I'm not naive enough to really think it is. It's all about the football, and college football, especially at USC, brings in major bucks. In other words, it's a business and these kids are getting dragged into the net of that business.

Judge this as you will, but Orgeron even contacted all of Tennessee's early enrollees and told them not to attend class today. That way, it would be easier for these kids to transfer, either to USC or some other school. It almost sounds like Orgeron is stating that the education of these kids is secondary to their football commitment. And to some of these kids, unfortunately, it is. The coaches know this. The kids are the ones being expoited the most and, in most cases, don't realize it because of their blind passion for the game.

The Tennessee position is an excellent post to have, and the program will survive, but it may take a year to recover. Possible candidates are former Tennessee assistant and current Duke head coach David Cutcliffe and Texas' defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. But Muschamp is the "coach-in-waiting", and will take the reigns in Austin when Mack Brown decides to leave.

Phillip Fulmer doesn't look so bad now.