Ncaa Football – Kiffin Named New Head Coach for Tennessee
The University of Tennessee announced this Tuesday on a press conference that Lane Kiffin was selected as the new head coach for the Vols. He was hired to substitute Phillip Fulmer since his contract got to an end and this past Sunday it was the last game he coached; which was a victory against Kentucky, after 17 years of being Tennessee’s head coach.
Kiffin was former Oakland Raiders Head Coach, but was fired 2 months ago. He was the youngest coach at the age of 31 in NFL’s history when he was hired back in 2007.
He signed a six year contract deal for million with the chance of additional benefits. He was hired after the University of Tennessee made a national research for a head coach for the first time in their history and this way he becomes the 21st coach in Tennessee’s history and only the third coach in 32 years.
At his young age, Kiffin has already plenty of experience in the football world as he’s being involved in it since he was a child around his father, the NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, and he started his coaching career in football nine years ago, right after graduation. “The experience has been unbelievable and then to combine that with still being young enough to be able to relate to recruits and be able to manage them and handle them, I think is very valuable,” said Kiffin on Monday when he has presented as the Tennessee’s new coach.
Kiffin has also a lot of experience in recruiting players since he worked for the University of Southern California under the charge of Pete Carroll, and they both had then one of the best recruiting programs in the country. They used to recruit the top talented players and tried to keep them happy in the team, and that is one of Kiffin’s more important goals for Tennessee, he wants to give the top talented players playing at Tennessee a reason to stay and keep them from going to play anywhere else as he wants the top players to win championships for the University of Tennessee.
Kiffin also expressed that he has met with some returning players and they are all very excited to start a new program with plenty of opportunities, he also explained that the roster they had before him was pretty good but they can still improve it. According to him, spring is going to be very important for returning players, they will have very competitive practices and they will have to show what they can offer to the team. This will be combined with new talent that will come and will be set together for next season.
Former Coach Fulmer was criticized by the way he managed the recruiting of new players, since it was a little unstable, players came and went and some others that where on a list for recruiting had stated they rather go to any other school than Tennessee. Nevertheless, Kiffin said that he admired Coach Fulmer very much since he is a legend in NCAA football. He also added that Fulmer did a very good job during the 35 years that he spent with the franchise and that will not criticize the way coach Fulmer worked and by the contrary, he will keep doing some of the things the way he did them or will improve them.
All of the Tennessee hopes are now set on coach Kiffin, the fans and the players are waiting to see the results on this program, which apparently will be one of the best in the country.
