[gatortalk] RE: [gatornews] More on Kiffin

[keith]

Let's bring up this same conversation with Kiffin after the Florida game ....

 

 

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [gatornews] More on Kiffin
From: "Oliver Barry" <oba...@haloprop.com>
Date: Thu, February 12, 2009 4:56 pm
To: <gatorn...@googlegroups.com>

Lane Kiffin: I was just kidding around

UT coach to watch his words, but calls incidents overblown

By Bryan Mullen • THE TENNESSEAN • February 12, 2009

·                                  

KNOXVILLE — Lane Kiffin conceded Thursday that he's learned an important lesson in the 2½ months since becoming Tennessee's head football coach.

"We'll make sure we're aware of how sensitive people are around here," he told a crowd of UT supporters Wednesday at the Big Orange Tip-Off Club.

After a week when the new coach stirred up controversy in the media and on the recruiting front, Kiffin suggested he's just having a good time, that minor remarks are being blown out of proportion and that he has thicker skin than some of his opponents.

He cited as an example a December exchange with South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, who had speculated that Kiffin hadn't taken the NCAA-mandated recruiting test before he began calling recruits. Kiffin responded during a news conference that he had indeed taken the test and got 39 out of 40 correct, then questioned how well Spurrier did.

"I like to have fun with some things," Kiffin said Wednesday. "The example I can give you is that Steve Spurrier came out the first day I was here and accused me of recruiting without having passed the test. I didn't call the (Southeastern Conference) commissioner whining about it.

"I just shot back at him, joking around with him."

Kiffin's public comments Wednesday were his first since receiving a letter of admonishment this week from the university for two minor recruiting violations. UT officials self-reported the secondary violations after learning that a fog machine was used as a recruit ran onto the Neyland Stadium field during a visit last month, and that several recruits took part in a mock press conference at the football facility.

NCAA rules prohibit schools from simulating game experiences for recruits on official visits.

On Feb. 5, Kiffin was publicly reprimanded by the SEC after telling a group of supporters in Knoxville that Florida Coach Urban Meyer cheated by calling a player on his UT visit. Kiffin later acknowledged the calls weren't a violation and apologized.

During his remarks Wednesday, Kiffin said he thinks his brash approach to the job is having the desired effect where it matters most.

"Here's the point of it: This is about our players," he told the crowd. "We're not going to win any games without them. If it took that stuff to get that done, it's working. If it took that stuff to get our players motivated at 5:30 in the morning, it's working.

"I like the way it's going."

Reach Bryan Mullen at 865-712-4090 or bmul...@tennessean.com.

 

 

Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI

Real Estate Broker

Halo Realty, LLC

700 E. Main St.

Hendersonville TN 37075

oba...@haloprop.com

office: 615-822-3509

fax: 615-822-7741

mobile: 615-972-4239

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