Kiffin is like a 17 year old himself. Goofing around with kids phones, telling them to lie to people, lying himself in his press conferences and taunting the other coaches in the SEC (all of whom have a better head coaching record than 5-15). A coach like that is going to have some serious disciplinary problems. How can he expect his kids to behave any better than he does?
As to losing kids to other schools at the last minute, it really doesn't worry me. For every blue chip recruit that turns out to be a star, there are two that are a disappointment. These kids are stars in their high schools because they're more athletically gifted than the others around them, but when they get to college, they're on a team where everyone was the star in high school and being special isn't automatic any more. No one knows how any kid will react to that until they get there. Some will have the mental toughness to compete at the new level and will once again become stars, but lots of them just coast and never really become big contributors. The thing that really strikes me about Richardson is his lack of character. He was supposed to have developed a relationship with the Florida coaches. Otherwise, why would he have verbally committed to them? So what does it say about his character that 1) he would actively participate in a lie by continuing to tell them he was coming once he knew he wasn't, just so it would mess up their ability to recruit someone else, and 2) that he would say to the papers when asked about Kiffin's accusation about Myer, that he 'likes Kiffin's style'. Contrast this with the stories we read about other recruits. Those that are making a hard decision between two schools usually find it really difficult to tell the coaches at the school that almost got them that they're not coming. They develop real relationships with more than one set of coaches and they genuinely feel bad about saying no to someone. (Tebow says he still stays in touch with Mike Shula.) But this kid didn't feel the slightest bit bad about lying to the coaches he had committed to, or about changing his commitment at the last minute. He told the papers that the whole thing was funny. A kid like that wasn't going to be a team player even if he had come here. He'll fit in better with Kiffin. Rob From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jerry Belloit Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 6:23 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [gatortalk] How long will the SEC and Tennessee put up with Lane Kiffin? It is hard to imagine someone so incredibly dumb and unethical as Lane Kiffin has turned out to be. Not only has he slandered Urban Meyer and been found guilty of violating SEC rules, he has set terrible examples for his players. Many of his other actions have also been unethical such as faking who he was visiting, impersonating a player when dealing with the player's high school coach, coercing a player to lie to gain a recruiting advantage, etc. I can appreciate the enthusiasm a new coach needs and must have, but such blatantly sneaky and unethical behavior is NOT the message of integrity and honesty that should be given our young people. I hope that someone at Tennessee will sit him down and compel him to clean up his act. By the way, I don't particularly mind loosing Richardson. I don't think the kid will likely stay out of trouble. It is clear that he does not have the ethical standards that we need at the University of Florida. In his brief courtship of Florida, he has misrepresented his high school achievement in his attempt to graduate and enroll early and lied to several people about his intentions about going to Florida after he had decided to go to Tennessee. Jerry --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
