Youthful Kiffin could have trouble in SEC

By David Moorman  |   Tuesday, December 02, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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History certainly isn’t on the side of Tennessee in its hiring of 33-year-old Lane Kiffin as its next head coach.

Kiffin is the Southeastern Conference’s youngest head coach since Georgia hired Ray Goff at the same age before the 1989 season. Goff lasted six years as the replacement to the legendary Vince Dooley, which was actually longer than expected after Goff won a combined total of 10 games his first two seasons.

Mike Archer was 34, the youngest head coach in Division I-A, when LSU tabbed him to replace Bill Arnsparger before the 1987 season. Archer, as the Tigers’ former defensive coordinator, began well for LSU, finishing fifth in the country in 1987 and tying Auburn for the 1988 SEC championship. Poor recruiting and lack of discipline proved Archer’s undoing, as he resigned after two losing seasons that began a school-record streak of six consecutive losing years.

Kiffin replaces Phillip Fulmer, who is no Dooley, but Fulmer did guide Tennessee to the 1998 national championship. Fulmer’s departure leaves the SEC with four head coaches who have won national titles -- Florida’s Urban Meyer, Alabama’s Nick Saban while at LSU, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier while at Florida and LSU’s Les Miles.

Therein lies Kiffin’s problem. He doesn’t have the experience to prosper quickly among such venerable company.

At his tender age, Kiffin already has been the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and offensive coordinator at the University of Southern California. The unpredictable Al Davis fired Kiffin in Oakland, and having worked at USC is no guarantee of success in the SEC. Ed Orgeron, the Trojans’ former defensive line coach, didn’t win an SEC game in the last of his three seasons at Ole Miss.

Kiffin must reestablish Tennessee’s recruiting base; it's national in scope when you consider the limited supply of quality high school players within its state. Fulmer once did a good job of raiding regional states, with quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tee Martin having come from Louisiana and Alabama, respectively.

Saban closed the Louisiana borders upon taking over at LSU in 2000, and Miles has continued that practice for the last four years. Saban is now doing the same thing at Alabama. Spurrier has made it hard to get into South Carolina, and Meyer is one of a number of coaches within Florida who routinely get the Sunshine State’s best players.

Tennessee seemed in a rush to hire Kiffin rather than give consideration to Texas Tech’s Mike Leach and North Carolina’s Butch Davis, among others.

Of course, it can’t be any worse than what LSU did in hiring Archer. In doing so, LSU passed over such applicants as Spurrier, current Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan and former Cleveland Browns coach Sam Rutigliano.

EXTRA POINTS: Mississippi State has indicated it might take a month to find a replacement for Sylvester Croom, who resigned after five seasons. Whoever is chosen, it won’t make the same headlines as the appointment of Croom, who became the SEC’s first African-American head football coach….There have been rumblings that LSU might hire Orgeron to shore up a defense that fell apart after it helped the Tigers win the 2007 BCS national championship. Orgeron is a Louisiana native and played at South Lafourche High School in Galliano and Northwestern State in Natchitoches. Of course, as the New Orleans Saints' first-year defensive line coach, Orgeron has yet to make a profound impact.
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About David Moorman

Dave Moormann is an award-winning journalist, who has covered LSU athletics since 1980. He began his coverage with the Baton Rouge Advocate, where he was a writer and editor from 1980-98. In 1996, he authored a book on the history of LSU football entitled, "Fighting Tigers Handbook: Stories, Stats ...
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