Life in the fast Lane not a grind for Kiffin

Inspiration can hit at any time.

For Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin, the latest jolt came as he walked from Stokely Athletic Center back to his office in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center on Friday morning.

Before returning to his office from a meeting with athletic director Mike Hamilton, UT's new coach dropped in on Ed Orgeron with a recruiting suggestion for his recruiting coordinator.

"There's a kid to call," Kiffin said. "There's one more idea that we forgot to talk to the kid about on Tuesday night. That may be what turns the kid."

In a nutshell, that's what Kiffin loves most about college football: Each day carries with it the chance to improve.

That's where the true joy of coaching rests for Kiffin, who grew up under the same roof as one of football's greatest minds, his father and new UT defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.

Lane Kiffin's passion rubbed off on James Cregg, who was on Kiffin's staff in Oakland before coming to UT last month and worked with him at Colorado State.

"When you grind at it, you can get whatever player you want," Cregg says. "That's the challenge to him. He's going to compete to get the best players in here. That's why he loves college football so much.

"If he competes at it, you can get first-round draft picks to come to the University of Tennessee."

Maybe that's why Kiffin picked up the phone and began dialing prospects a day before he was officially introduced as UT's coach Dec. 1.

That evening, he was on a plane to Memphis to begin recruiting.

Since then, he's hired a staff, traveled to California for the birth of his son, Knox, and done plenty more recruiting. So when Kiffin says he hasn't slept yet since taking the job, it only halfway comes off as hyperbole.

"This is his dream job," Cregg said. "I've known him for over 10 years, and he's always talked about coaching at a big-time college football setting.

"He finally got what he wanted. He's going to seize the opportunity and go to work and build this foundation that we need to get here and have some fun and win some ballgames."

That's the ultimate goal - and the ultimate yardstick - for any coach. But the angels are in the details for Kiffin.

The devils were in Oakland.

Kiffin left his job as offensive coordinator at Southern Cal to take over as head coach with the Raiders in 2007, becoming the youngest head coach in the NFL's modern era.

In 2008, eccentric owner Al Davis showed him the door before September was over.

But it all proved a learning experience.

"To have to deal with that situation of the NFL in general, being the youngest head coach in the history of the NFL and being at the Raiders with all the issues that are there, that's very helpful," Kiffin said. "Because you have to go through all those situations and you have to learn - I've used the term before, 'crisis management' - you got to figure it out. There's nobody to help you.

"You figure it out, and a lot of the things I go through now on a daily basis seem extremely easy compared to what I had to do there."

Cregg also experienced the challenges in Oakland first-hand as Kiffin's assistant offensive line coach.

"We had it going, you know, had (laid) the great foundation with the Raiders," said Cregg, who will coach tight ends and tackles at UT. "It's just a shame things happened the way it did. But you know what? In the end, Tennessee got a great football coach."

Kiffin also learned more about dealing with people, lessons he picked up from USC coach Pete Carroll.

Monte Kiffin has seen his son grow, too.

"It's kind of hard sometimes to talk about your son, because it sounds like you're being a boastful father," he said. "But I think Lane just sees the big picture. If you want to be a head coach, you've got to see the big picture. How to handle staff, how to handle people. It's offense, defense, make the right hires."

Lane Kiffin completed his staff barely more than a week ago, hiring four coaches in two days.

Now comes the finishing kick in recruiting, with only one more weekend of official visits left and 10 more days until Signing Day on Feb. 4.

The challenge, as always, is to make Tennessee better every day from now until then.

"There's not many jobs that every day you can improve the final product every single day," Kiffin said. "You can just flat out-work people. I enjoy the winning aspect of it. Winning in recruiting. Winning on the field. Those kids that you get to bring together - it's one of those rare jobs where you get to bring people from all around the country together - you've got to find a way to get 85 guys going in the right direction and getting them in the right mindset."

Hamilton, for one, likes Kiffin's mindset so far.

"He's got a tremendous amount of energy," Hamilton said. "Incredibly football-focused. I don't think he's going to be a guy that's going to be distracted by a lot of little things along that path."

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.