Adams: Kiffin gets first win: perception

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New UT head coach, Lane Kiffin, talks about the plan for the offense. Watch »

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New UT head coach, Lane Kiffin, talks about his experience and growing up learning the game. Watch »

I learned the folly in evaluating coaches on a first impression a long time ago.

Thirty years ago, I covered football coach Steve Sloan's first press conference at Ole Miss. I combined what I saw and heard with his successes at Vanderbilt and Texas Tech and concluded he would return a mediocre program to its glory days.

His best record in five years at Ole Miss was 5-6.

In 1981, I covered the beginning of what was termed "the bold experiment." In an outburst of creativity rarely seen in college athletics, Notre Dame hired a high school coach to run its football program. Brilliant, huh?

But after watching Gerry Faust's first game at Notre Dame, my sarcasm gave way to the realization the Fighting Irish had uncovered the next Knute Rockne. Faust's team played with both passion and precision in handling a bewildered LSU team with ease.

It was a season opener. How would I know he was beating an eventual 3-7-1 team and outwitting a coach who would be fired even sooner than Faust?

The opener was as good as it got for Faust. He never won more than seven games in five seasons at Notre Dame.

Given those faulty predictions, I'm not about to nominate new Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin for the hall of fame after one press conference. But I am willing to predict without hesitation that if his offensive game plans are as spot-on as his press-conference responses, UT doesn't have to worry about its offense being ranked in the bottom five nationally on Kiffin's watch.

He hit all the right buttons Monday afternoon before he hit the recruiting trail.

He embraced UT's tradition. He appealed for the students' support and promised to give them something worth supporting. He honored his predecessor, coach Phillip Fulmer. He showed a sense of humor as well as sensitivity.

He said he thought about calling Fulmer for breakfast, then thought better of it. This wasn't the right time - just a couple of days after Fulmer's 17-year run as UT's head coach ended with a 28-10 victory over Kentucky.

Kiffin said that as he watched Fulmer being carried off the field by his players, he got "teary-eyed."

Just because Kiffin was an assistant coach at Southern California, don't assume this was a Hollywood performance. He's a football brat, having grown up the son of career coach Monte Kiffin, who's now the defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Bucs and could join his son at UT. The younger Kiffin might be only 33, but he was born into the game. So there's no reason to think he couldn't relate to any aspect of it, including a veteran coach's emotional farewell.

That's probably all you need to hear about Kiffin's sensitive side. He's here to win games. And that's not a sensitive venture.

To his credit, he didn't dance around the issue. He didn't talk about trying to be a father figure or even a big-brother figure to his players. He talked about winning games - some way, some how. That means assembling an outstanding coaching staff and recruiting big-time players from anywhere in the country. That also means working long hours.

When Kiffin was 24, he signed on with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a "quality control coach." Don't let the title fool you. The job is a grind, entailing endless hours of breaking down video of opponents. Moreover, it was done at the behest of head coach Tom Coughlin, then regarded as the NFL's most unforgiving taskmaster.

With a job like that and a boss like that, days can turn into nights and back into days.

"You sleep in the office, or you get fired," Kiffin said.

There's a message in that for his players: You perform, or you lose your job.

Kiffin emphasized that no player's job was secure, that everyone was starting over. All new coaches might say that, but there was an emotional attachment to Kiffin's words.

"There's going to be highly competitive practices," he said. "(The veterans have) got to show us what they're going to do in the spring. Because in the fall, the first shot . . . I'm going to give it to our newcomers. We've got to find out if the great players we go and recruit can help us out right away."

That sends another message: Performance will override seniority.

What else would you expect from a 33-year-old coach, who was two years younger when he was named head coach of the Oakland Raiders?

His age belies his experience. He has been an offensive coordinator, a recruiting coordinator and an NFL head coach. He has worked for someone as cool as Pete Carroll and as crazy as Al Davis. And he has grown up under the same roof as one of the game's most renowned defensive gurus.

"What I remember is not what most of you remember when you were little," he said. "I remember a green chalkboard, chalk on the ground and plays everywhere. I remember weekends sitting in on team meetings when my dad was a coach back in college. It has been an unbelievable advantage for me - to learn football at that age."

UT athletic director Mike Hamilton viewed both Kiffin's experience and age as advantages. He saw a coach who had experienced college football at its best and pro football at its worst. He saw a coach with the youthful energy to chase down recruits from coast to coast and with the thoroughness to cover the smallest details.

"He's about being prepared," Hamilton said.

Kiffin's preparation showed Monday. He didn't just wing it. He consulted with Hamilton in advance. He did his homework.

And he won the press conference.

That's nothing like winning in The Swamp. But it's a good start.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxknews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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