Interesting comment from Skippy in Dennis Dodd's latest....whatever you want to call it.
[...] Neuheisel quickly got in line, accusing his rival of recruiting shenanigans. He is not the first, considering Kiffin piled up a half-dozen secondary violations at Tennessee.
"I know there were a number of kids that had opportunities because there were limousines sent to their homes by SC to come visit," Neuheisel said. "A number of kids that we ended up signing were on the phone saying, 'I don't want to get in this car. Tell the driver to leave.'"
That would be another juicy, controversial addition to Kiffin's NCAA resume if they, in fact, were limos. Neuheisel quickly corrected himself saying the vehicles were "town cars," which are allowed by the NCAA.
Kiffin's on-the-record response? "Tradition in the distant past does not help your recruiting. Because of what's happened in the last nine years at USC, it's refreshing to concentrate on coaching and recruiting and not have to gather outside attention."
I could just imagine his off the record response.
What makes this laughable is obvious, lets see...half a dozen secondary violations vs. a letter of censure from the NCAA for 50 plus recruiting violations. I guess I should stay consistent...he should know, right? That Slick Rick would try to call out Kiffin by throwing out that comment and then quickly correcting it is an old lawyer trick.
The guy just can't get USC out of his head. Pete Carroll is right...the guy is a sham, he is wasting the talents of one of the greatest OC's in CFB history on a gimmicky offense.
Dodd also seems to forget that Kiffin was a head coach in the NFL before he was one in college. Skippy was an also ran in Baltimore...he basically carried Billick's clipboard. With JaMarcus Russell pretty much a failure in Oakland it looks like Kiffin was right and that senile old fool Al Davis was dead wrong on Russell.
I chuckled at this quote from earlier in the article...
"I don't think there is a program in the country that can go from a major school to an elite school faster than UCLA because of all the things we have," Neuheisel said.
Yeah...let me know when you actually arrive at that destination...
You'll just be arriving trying to park your car as we are paying for the check.
Skippy has to figure it out THIS year so that he can finally turn it around next year. The schedule and the O line he has in front of him will make that very difficult. If he doesn't doesn't contend for a Pac-10 title in 2011 he is toast...by then all the players on the roster will be his and we have seen how he has fared in the past when its just his kids on the roster...even if he beats SC just once that still might not be enough to save him if he doesn't contend for the conference title.
Instead of worrying about Kiffin, Skippy should worry about protecting his quarterback...