Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is as known for his social media presence almost as much as his coaching prowess. Well, his latest post may have struck a little bit close to the heart for him, his family and everyone that believed he would resurrect the Vols with flash and pizazz back eons ago.
Kiffin didn’t accidentally send out a picture on ‘X’ of his young family when he was the coach for one season at Tennessee. He meant to either keep the ties alive with Tennessee football fans or just poke them a bit with an old fluff piece about a crew of Kiffins; one of which was named “Knox” while his father, Lane, lived in East Tennessee as the head coach of the Vols.
The picture is proof to me that Kiffin regrets leaving Knoxville and always will. He was proud to be Tennessee’s coach. It took his “home” school, Southern California, to pull him away. This will be the 15th season of the Vols still trying to climb from the aftermath Kiffin left.
Kiffin was also (now don’t laugh) dedicated to the Vols and Knoxville. Remember the name “Knox” mentioned earlier? Lane played that off as if it were some hip, cool name, even though it sounded as if it were straight off a law drama. As a person well involved with Kiffin at Tennessee at the time told me, “C’mon.” Kiffin, “That’s a pretty big coincidence.”
I don’t believe Kiffin coincidentally name his son after the city in which he lived in when the younger Kiffin was born, which is the home of the school that gave him another shot at coaching after things imploded in the NFL. Lane gets excited and sometimes thinks before he acts and it still is a cool name.
However, it would sound pretty neat now if Kiffin had never left Tennessee, led the Vols to a championship or two and had his son coming up through the ranks to take over. For the record, Knox Kiffin is currently a rising middle schooler that will play at Ole Miss – or wherever his father might be coaching at the time.
The post that Kiffin sent out was a reminder of how much he opened up his family and his program to media and fans that were ready to accept some sort of significant change after former coach Phillip Fulmer was fired in 2008. Kiffin was about as different as one can get.
Kiffin has posted plenty of things from his Tennessee past and poked at UT fans frequently on social media. However, this one was different. Who looks at their ex-wife with your three little children and doesn’t harken for the past? Well, that past was in Tennessee where plenty of emotions still reside despite such a short stopover.
Things have worked out for Tennessee and Kiffin, but both had some hard times since they were last lock and step together. Tennessee fans can take Kiffin’s latest post as a shot at the Vol faithful or just a flippant click of the button. That’s difficult for me to believe, especially if I’m still hearing about the school that should have been forgotten by Kiffin over a decade ago. That’s the problem. Kiffin can’t forget that decision, probably because he can’t take it back.
