It’s a bit ironic that the person who has emerged as Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin‘s fiercest critic is also the media member who most closely resembles Kiffin in personality and conduct.
I’m talking CBS Sportsline’s Gregg Doyel, who performs the rather difficult task of turning Kiffin into a sympathetic figure with this typically over-the-top column about the Volunteer coach’s recent miscues.
Doyel rips Kiffin for, among other things, not getting his facts straight. Yet it’s Doyel who thinks he’s the first to write about the pending Kiffin disaster. However, as HP readers surely know, this blog was the first to sound that warning and I’ve kept it up in subsequent posts.
I’m no fan of Kiffin, but at least I’ve met the guy. I even acknowledge that he’s a good talent evaluator and a decent position coach. I doubt Doyel has spent any time with him *. But, then, that is his modus operandi. He comes to his conclusion first and then works his way backwards, not unlike the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (‘first the sentence, then the trial!).
Incredibly, Doyel is already claiming he is right before Kiffin has even coached a game at Tennessee. I think Kiffin will ultimately fail, but it is a bit presumptuous to say he has already failed. Just like it was a bit presumptuous for Doyel to claim that Florida would be torched in the BCS title game and that the fix was in for a guaranteed Tebow Heisman.
I’ve seen Kiffin operate and I’ve seen Doyel operate and it is altogether fitting that they share the subject line at the top of this post.
*–I realize now that it would violate the laws of physics for Kiffin and Doyel to be in the same room together as they are basically the same person and the resulting space-time anomaly would cause the universe to explode…Maybe it could happen in a ‘Back to the Future’ universe, but not this one.
Related Articles
Share
About Author
(9) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
Recent HP media mentions: ESPN College Game Day (12/3) ... VS./NBC CFB Talk (12/5) ... SJ Mercury News (12/5) ... Seattle Times (12/5) ... Idaho Statesman (12/5) ... Associated Press (12/6) ... Huntsville Times (12/6)
Recent Radio and Podcast Appearances...
Interview with WJOX Birmingham (11/30)
Interview with ESPN Radio in Waco (12/2)
The Mandel Initiative (podcast), Stew Mandel, (Listen)
THE HP HEISMAN WATCH
Vince Gagliano
You know you screwed up in a hire when you make Al Davis look like Albert Einstein after the fact.
AUman76
I second that thought Vince.
Pingback: Kiffin watch: pundit cat fight! « Get The Picture
Big D
Did Lane Kiffin spit in your oatmeal when you guys met or something? I understand you think he’ll be a bad coach but you seem like you have a legitimate hatred towards of him.
Roby
Man, HP calling out a fellow columnist. Seems hardly necessary. In HP’s defense, Doyel is a bit of a doucher.
Vince Gagliano
It’s not so much that Kiffin spat in HP’s oatmeal anymore.
These days, Kiffin in spitting in breakfasts everywhere he goes.
He openly stopped short of calling the people in a goldmine of high school talent hicks in response to the Nu’Keese Richardson signing.
He tried to call Urban Meyer out for a fictitious recruiting violation before being caught for two of his own.
One of his top recruiters opened verbal fire on Nick Saban (Nick Saban!)
And Kiffin fired a barb back at Steve Spurrier in response to an NCAA recruiting test.
All of that, and he hasn’t even coached a college game yet. He’s either going to blow everybody’s socks off in coaching or become the biggest jerk in the league, to put it mildly.
David
I can understand Doyel for his positions in the Oklahoma over Florida article. It looks to me like CBS told him the position that he needed to take and he did his job. Otherwise I completely agree with HP. In general Doyel couldn’t write a readable article to save his life. This fact makes me especially sad because Doyel and I share an alma mater. (Making his pick against Florida in the NCG particularly weired.) Florida is supposed to have a very good journalism school but you could never tell by reading Doyel’s dribble. Then again I think that CBS has employed several very questionable writers. If I want good writers I generally stick to SI.
roby13
You want good writing from UF? Carl Hiaasen. Go Gators.
Ton
Vince – probably both!