Thursday, May 7, 2009
Kotz / Media / Sports In Defense of Lane Kiffin Signing Daniel Hood
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, May 7, 2009 at 5:59 AM
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Sporting News writer Spencer Hall's views on Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin are clear: "I really hate Lane Kiffin." So it would seem worthy of special notice that Hall's defending the coach in the recruiting of Knoxville Catholic's Daniel Hood.
At age 13, Hood was involved in a rape. Which naturally makes him a scumbag, despite his tender age. But he did time in juvie and emerged to become a spotless student and all-around good kid -- with a very real sense of regret. Phil Fulmer, whose program often seemed like a halfway house for ex-cons, yanked a scholarship offer. But Kiffin reached out, despite knowing he'd take an ass-kicking in the press.
Even to a critic like Hall, the coach has earned some grudging respect for showing some testicular fortitude, a rare commodity in the higher ranks of collegiate football. Writes Hall:
The only clear element to this is that Lane Kiffin is doing the correct thing in one sense: if you're going to bring a player with a questionable past into the program, take every step you can to be completely transparent about it. Rather than fudge away at the details and demur, Kiffin is staking the very legitimacy of his program on his ability to judge the character of players as he sees them. When you go all-in, they make you turn your cards face-up for a reason. Lane Kiffin seems happy to do that, and for that he should be commended -- just as he'll take the loss if Hood snaps even once on the short leash Tennessee if offering him.
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