An Incoherent Rant About Lane Kiffin (Profanity Included!)

Recruiting is a dirty business.  One of the reasons I don't like it is because it really is a sleazy enterprise.  And it's hard to tell exactly where the line of ethical behavior is in the whole affair.  Essentially, everyone comes out a little dirty.  Bitching about someone's recruiting tactics is usually just petulant whining.

And I agree that a verbal isn't worth the paper it's printed on.  There's nothing wrong with continuing to recruit someone who is a verbal somewhere else until he puts his name on a LOI.  For example, I don't have an ounce of antipathy for Kenny Bell for switching to Bama on Signing Day (or Saban, before you ask).  He gave the indications he was a soft commit, Saban swooped in and used that to his advantage, and PRESTO!  He's a Tide.  Or whatever the singular of Crimson Tide is.

That said, Jenzen Jackson's switch has really stuck in my craw.  It's not that he switched commitments, it's the way he did it.  He was a solid verbal for a year, even reaffirmed his solid verbal on Tuesday, but then signs with Tennessee today.  Look, if you want to waver, fine.  But tell the coaches and be honest about it so they can either make another pitch to you or sign someone else.  The fact Jackson has come out and said he made his decision weeks ago just pisses me off.

But honestly, he's a kid.  Whatever.  I don't have that much invective for him, but I do for Lane Kiffin.  Now, we can't be sure that Kiffin orchestrated this whole thing, but considering he bragged about sand-bagging Florida on one of their recruits, it's not a huge logical leap to assume he did the same thing to us.  And for that, he can suck a dick. 

The guy has the fucking gall to stand up and publicly accuse Florida of recruiting violations?   Which, it turns out, weren't violations at all, and Mike Silve made him apologize.  Like I said, recruiting is a dirty game, but Kiffin is taking it to another level right now.  If he's telling recruits to lie to the other schools for Signing Day surprises like this, he's a complete friggin' scumbag.  It's one thing for a recruit to delay his announcement, it's quite another to brazenly lie to the other school.  And if Kiffin was in any way part of the lie that Jackson wasn't signing yesterday because he was waiting for his mom, I hope he gets run over by a runaway bus.

LSU fans were already outraged by the way Kiffin talked about Jackson yesterday on ESPNU.  Sure, he didn't mention Jackson's name, but it was clear from context the only person he could have been talking about was Jackson.  That falls under the acceptably sleazy tactics of a coach, but today Kiffin dropped the hammer on the rest of the SEC.  He went out of his way to screw over LSU and picked a fight with Florida.  Then he dropped some derogatory comments on Alabama for good measure. 

Well, lesson learned.  Kiffin has done the impossible: he has gotten Alabama, Florida, and LSU fans to agree on something: Kiffin is a fucking scumbag.  Let's curb stomp that motherfucker.