29 NOV - 2008

1) Kiffin Backlash

The sentiment supporting Kiffin is minimal, but the sentiment keen to bash his appointment is numerous around the Vols community and the media in general. Kiffin was considered good enough to be OC at a big time school like USC, Head Coach (albeit under Al Davis) at the Oakland Raiders, but now people are suggesting that he is not good enough for Tennessee??? Kiffin is a good recruiter, a good X and O guy and surely now able to put together a strong staff to get Tennessee on the road back to SEC strength. For my thoughts it is the early timing that is very important to try and salvage some of the Volunteer recruits. Kiffin will be busy getting some of these young recruits to recommit.

2) BCS Changeup

Well, it wasn't the changeup that I expected, but Oregon has played spoiler, it appears knocking Oregon State out of the Rose Bowl. With a win over UCLA next week, the Trojans of USC will now likely take the Pac10 and the automatic Rose Bowl berth to take on Big 10 champs Penn State. That could open the door for the likes of Boise State to get back in the mix as an at large team. Given that either Florida or Alabama will play the Title Game and the other in the Sugar Bowl. If we consider that one Big12 team will play in the title game and one in the Fiesta Bowl, The winner of Va Tech and BC will play in the Orange Bowl, then that leaves a number of at large opportunities. Utah will take one - going to either the Fiesta, Orange or Sugar Bowl. Cincinatti will also wrap one up, leaving space for one more. With the rule about no conference providing more than 2 teams to the BCS, it would appear Boise and Ohio State would be likely contenders. Ohio State would bring another great game to the table in any of the bowls, Boise State would bring an undefeated team and a strong fan base. We shall see...

3) SEC Coach Wanted

With the resignation of Sylvester Croom at Miss State, an opening now exists for a coach to get into the SEC ranks. The pros of this are the strong recruiting base, outstanding level of competition, but the cons are the tough schedule, competition for recruits etc. With the Clemson job, Washington job still unfilled, it will be interesting to see how the cards fall!