So.....Carroll...and Kiffen

We haven't discussed it here, but Pac-10 football has had a VERY interesting week. First, Pete Carroll bolts (one step ahead of probation?) for the Seahawks. The other Pac-10 teams circled like vultures looking to snag the Trojan blue-chip recruits. Then USC grabs Lane Kiffen fresh of his first year at Tennessee. The reactions of the various fans is craziness. At Bruinsnation.com, they have gone from euphoria watching their rival implode to dismay at reports Kiffen may be taking their OC. In Tennessee, they are pissed that Kiffen turned out to be the sleaze everybody told them he was, but they didn't want to believe when he was their sleaze. At UW, they were nervous that U$C would come for their coach when OS(U) decided they could never do better than a coach who loses 4 games every year and gave Mike Riley a lifetime contract. Even pro teams the Titans and Jaguars felt the waves from the Carroll tsunami when their coaches' names surfaced as possible candidates. It has been great fun following the twists and turns on this story.

That doesn't even touch the issue of the Seachickens firing their coach after one year, when he bettered the previous year's record even though they were decimated by injuries.

Well in Kiffen's case, I suppose players getting houses and range rover's is easy compared with players having guns and committing robberies....
But yeah, I can't imagine Lane is going to want to head to the south any time soon.

As for the Mora firing, for a guy who has mediocre NFL success at best? I'm skeptical... Not to mention, when was the last time an NFL "players coach" actually won anything?? No... seriously?

Update, UT students are rioting, and the police had to escort Kiffen off the campus. Great stuff!

Beginning of the semester and nothing to do in the football crazy south... Not a good time to quietly slip out in the night i guess...

Yeah, nobody could have won with Mora's team from last year. That offensive line was a mess. All the same, it wasn't a smart move for him to bring in an offensive coordinator from Oakland (Knapp). Why? Any coach who just gets one year to prove himself in the NFL is in trouble though...

Mike Riley got a 3 year deal; that's not exactly a lifetime contract. He probably deserved it for his loyalty to the school. They were one win away from a Rose Bowl and lost to a more talented team. Most OSU alumni who I know (including my Dad) wanted him back.

I'm not a Tennessee fan, but, Lane Kiffen is annoying. I'm just not into career-minded coaches who leave without making a committment, but, I guess it's part of the coaching game...especially when schools don't always make strong commitments to coaches either. All the same, guys like Lane Kiffen or Dennis Erickson annoy me...even if I'm not fans of their teams.

As I hear it, Riley had a six year deal before, and three years were added to make it nine years. Plus, every time he makes a bowl game, a year gets added. So he'd have to miss bowl games for nine years before his deal runs out. Since they missed bowls for 28 years in a row, I guess it isn't really 'lifetime', but it's still a pretty secure contract.

And the plot thickens http://content.usatoday.com/communities/christinebrennan/post/2010/06/ncaa-throws-the-book-at-usc/1

Looks like USC will lose 20 scholarships and get a 2 year ban on post season play.

I have to believe that Pete knew this was coming and wanted out before it happened. I can't believe that Kiffen either couldn't see it coming, or apparently wanted the job anyway.

How does losing 20 scholarships work? Obviously it has to be for future years, not current players. Is it spread out over several years, say 5 a year for four years?

without looking it up, I'm pretty sure you don't get more than 10% taken away at any one time, so USC would lose 8 players per year, 9 if they round up.

Per ESPN.com, USC is losing 10 scholarships for each of the next three years! That is huge, as schools only have 85 total, they will be down to 55 scholarship athletes in three years, and two more years to build up after that.

And the folks laughing the most about this, other than Bruins, has to be the Tennessee fans.

Hmm....

That's 30 scholys, not the 20 prviousky reported.

Per BruinsNation*

UPDATE III(M): Page 58, Paragraph 9 of the Report states:

Limit of 15 initial grants-in-aid and 75 total grants in football for each of the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.

If I am reading this correctly, this means that U$C can only offer a maximum of 15 football scholarships during each of the next three recruiting seasons. The ones he just offered apparently are not affected, but the ones he makes during the next three recruiting runs are. Also, the team cannot have more than 75 players on scholarship during from Fall 2011 through Spring 2014. In other words, Blame Kitten's overall team number is reduced by 10 for the next three years, so he can't use scholies for 2012-13 to make up for his reductions in 2011-12, etc.

* a totally unbiased source