Lane Kiffin is sharp as a bowling ball

You almost certainly already know the core details of Lane Kiffin's bizarre public attack on Urban Meyer yesterday, so I'm not going to recount them here. I have said from the beginning I believed the Kiffin hire was a poor decision by Tennessee, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the guy turning into the circus act he has in just two months on the job. Thursday he managed to:

1. inaccurately accuse another coach of cheating
2. get reprimanded by the SEC
3. brag about getting Nu'Keese Richardson to lie to lots of people
4. insinuate that Pahokee High staffers couldn't be trusted not to sabotage their player's attempt to sign with Tennessee
5. chuckle about sending fake text messages to Richardson's high school coach posing as the player
6. falsely claim Pahokee High has been a Gator hotbed for recruiting
7. insult Nick Saban's recruiting by asserting that new Vol staffer Lance Thompson got Alabama its highly rated class (with Thompson apparently vowing never to be beaten on a player by the Tide again)
8. Issued the least sincere sounding apology in the history of sports: "If I offended anyone at the University of Florida, including Mr. Foley and Urban Meyer, I sincerely apologize. That was not my intention." Well of course not - who could possibly have expected someone to take offense at being publically called a failed cheater?

That's quite a day. The strangest part of the whole thing to me is the decision to accuse Pahokee High's staff and coaches of being a bunch of untrustworthy Gator partisans when they've sent one kid to Gainesville this decade. Even if you think going after Meyer will fire your fans up, what's gained by deeply offending folks at one of the strongest schools for producing talent yearly in south Florida? College football commentators around the country used Kiffin as a pinata yesterday, with Andy Staples and Gene Wojciechowski doing two of the better jobs of it.

I ask the question again: what has Lane Kiffin done at any stop along the way during his career which indicates he is even a particularly good football coach? I can't find any evidence to support that contention. His work at USC was considered to be lesser quality compared to Norm Chow and he was perceived as being promoted by Pete Carroll as a favor to Monte. He was 5-15 with the Raiders as a head coach and showed no special play calling or strategic brilliance there. This is the biggest imbalance of achievement and attitude I have ever seen from a college football coach. By the way, Kiffin's 650 grand a year master recruiter Ed Orgeron managed to actually cost Tennessee star Memphis high school wide receiver Marlon Brown rather than successfully sealing the deal with him. No biggie though - the Vol coaches own Memphis now, just ask them.

That Bob Hayes fake sister promotes him for the Hall of Fame story from earlier in the week just gets worse. The "letter" Bob Hayes wrote his supposed sister to tout him for Canton, among many other inaccuracies, thanks Roger "Stauback". It's possible there could be some fraud involved here, yes. Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.