Lying Lane strikes again

Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin is a liar. This is once again not a matter of opinion, it is proven fact. The latest example comes courtesy of Nyshier Oliver, a freshman defensive back who was busted for shoplifting the day of the Vols game with Memphis. Four days later, Kiffin touted on the SEC teleconference that his team had not had any arrests since his arrival. Since Tennessee says punishment occurred the day of the incident, Kiffin clearly was aware of Oliver's brush with the law when he bragged about his program's supposed sterling record. Kiffin refused to talk after practice Tuesday when his latest lie had been exposed, but some Vol fans are trying the spin that it wasn't completely untrue because Oliver wasn't physically taken to a jail cell. That's preposterous, and they should be ashamed to even begin the effort of selling it. Beyond that, if Lane doesn't think shoplifting busts count as arrests then who knows how many other similar incidents may have occurred in those eleven months he was bragging about?

The Notre Dame job appears to be close to opening up, which means it's once again time for Florida Today columnist Peter Kerasotis to claim Urban Meyer's likely to take it. Kerasotis, who bashed Meyer every step of the way for the first four years of his UF tenure, first trotted out this "Urban's leaving any day now" routine last year. UF's coach plays his cards extremely close to the vest, which is one reason I believe Kerasotis has as much insight into Meyer's thinking as he does my dog Mader's. If and when you hear Pat Dooley or Kirk Herbstreit talk seriously about Urban considering Notre Dame, pay attention. Otherwise, it's just nonsense.

I've mentioned before my belief that it is virtually always a bad idea for family members or close friends of players or coaches to go public in their defense. They may be well intentioned, but all it leads to is people questioning the athlete even more about their remarks and whether he/she agrees with them. Looks like Rex Grossman will be getting asked those questions soon, as his dad teed off on the Chicago Bears for their poor job of handling quarterbacks. Some of his thoughts are on target - it's ridiculous the way Bears fans and media reacted toward Grossman - and others are not. None of them will really be considered though, because the story will be all about the fact Rex's dad spoke out and not what he actually said.

There's a truly strange story developing at Kansas. The school's AD met with Jayhawk players and has acknowledged an internal investigation of coach Mark Mangino. The coach is accused of poking one of his players in the chest, which doesn't seem too outrageous even though it's been known for years that Mangino is a grumpy and unpleasant guy. It seems like the school is looking for an excuse to fire him, which is hard to believe less than two years after Mangino took them to the Orange Bowl and won. On the other hand, his players have had major issues with the basketball team this year, and you know who's going to win that battle in Lawrence. Kansas is playing at Texas this week, by the way. That should be a terrific game after they spend the week dealing with this.

Has anyone in sports ever gotten more attention out of few accomplishments for longer than Jerry Glanville? He had a video game, even a spot in MC Hammer's awesomely bad 2 Legit 2 Quit video (at the 9:55 mark, if you really don't want to watch 11 minutes of unintentionally hilarious stuff). The former Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons coach, who also spent considerable time in broadcasting thanks to his "cowboy" image, has been dumped as head coach at Portland State after leading them to their worst record in 27 years. The cowboy, who's from the great western outpost of Detroit, talked a better game than he coached. What a surprise from a guy who was ten games under .500 in his NFL career and never came close to any kind of championship. But hey, he leaves tickets for Elvis - that's kooky!