Wiedmer: Can anyone be nice about Kiffin?

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog
photo Alabama offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Lane Kiffin will be back Saturday night in Neyland Stadium, where he coached Tennessee in 2009.

KNOXVILLE -- We've correctly heard much praise the past couple of days for the late Voice of the Tennessee Valley -- our dear, sweet Luther Masingill -- never saying a bad word about anyone.

And as Channel 12's Chip Chapman noted early Monday morning, "He had his chances."

But as Saturday's Tennessee-Alabama football game fast approaches, any Volunteers fan might rightly wonder if Masingill ever met Lane Kiffin.

It's probably wrong even to mention the two men in the same newspaper article. After all, Luther quite possibly will be remembered for decades to come as the most beloved public figure in Chattanooga history. Then there's Kiffin, who just might win a Most Hated tag for his 408-day stay at Tennessee as the Vols' head football coach before bolting for Southern Cal.

While Luther rose to sainthood status by magically reuniting lost dogs with their distraught owners -- including, once upon a time, me and my golden retriever Richard -- Kiffin pretty much has long been regarded as a worthless dog (and not a Smokey dog) by most who've come in contact with him.

Or to borrow a line from the late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis upon his firing of Kiffin: "I think he conned me like he conned all you people," before adding, "(He's) a professional liar."

And now Kiffin is returning to Neyland Stadium for the first time since he's left -- as the Alabama offensive coordinator.

Even if he otherwise possessed Masingill's sky-high character and goodness, returning to Knoxville wrapped in Bama crimson would test any Volniac's ability to view Kiffin in a positive light. But we're nowhere close to that, three days from the 97th meeting between these two old and bitter rivals.

Instead, a Knoxville television station has discovered a barber who claims Kiffin still owes him $14 for a haircut before the momentary coach exited stage left. The station called it the great "Haircut Heist."

Then there's Tennessee State House Representative Gloria Johnson, a Democrat from District 13. Her Republican challenger, Eddie Smith, is running ads that proclaim: "Lane Kiffin and Gloria Johnson both made a lot of promises to the people of Tennessee ... and like Lane Kiffin, Gloria Johnson is all talk."

Seemingly determined to prove she hangs out with more popular former UT coaches than Kiffin, Johnson has received backing from Johnny Majors in recent days. No word yet if Smith has rejected similar support from Derek Dooley, but unless he can convince Phillip Fulmer to put in a few good words for him -- and with Majors backing Johnson, he just might -- one suspects that the political party more than the propaganda will carry the day.

Another reason to dislike Kiffin: Lacey Pearl Earps, once the captain of UT's former hostess group, Orange Pride. According to the LostLetterman website, when this newspaper's former UT beat writer, Andy Staples (now of Sports Illustrated), posted a picture of Earps and another Orange Pride member crossing state lines to recruit high school players for Kiffin, he called her the next day to tell her it would all blow over.

Instead, Kiffin never spoke to her again, though he presumably never asked her to return the $40 he gave her for gas money for the trip.

Still, attempting to find someone willing to say something nice about Kiffin is like discovering someone who'll say something bad about Masingill: They don't exist.

"Yeah, he recruited me," Vols senior linebacker A.J. Johnson said of Kiffin. "But I never played for him. We're preparing for Alabama, that's all."

Indeed, another Bama assistant -- Lance Thompson -- actually had to re-recruit Johnson to the Vols after Kiffin departed and the player decommitted. So at one time, Johnson clearly liked Kiffin. But if he still feels that way, he's keeping it to himself these days.

One Kiffin critic who's never kept his feelings to himself since the coach left in January of 2010 is Knoxville attorney Drew McElroy, who famously put up $262 of his own money that winter to file paperwork with the city to rename a city waste facility the "Lane Kiffin Sewage Center." Alas, the city already had sold the property and McElroy was repaid his filing fee in full.

But that hasn't stopped him from being asked about it over the years or continuing to discuss it, as he did with Knoxville television station WBIR this week.

"As far as I'm concerned, it had the perfect ending," he said. "I got my money back. And as long as there's an Internet, Lane Kiffin will be forever tied to a sewage center. And I think he's right where he should be. He is a truly offensive coordinator."

How offensive the UT fans will be Saturday night is anyone's guess. It would seem certain that should he coach from the sideline, as Kiffin has all season, the crowd's response might actually drown out those annoying Lil Jon videos, which could be a win-win for everyone but the Tide.

Not that UT offensive lineman Mack Crowder, a Bristol, Tenn., native, believes the team is the least bit focusing on that as it attempts to snap a seven-game losing streak to Bama.

"We keep it out," he said. "(If Kiffin wants to coach from the sideline), that's up to him. But we have a great fan base. I'm sure they'll be backing us up."

And unlike a certain political ad, that's one promise that figures to be anything but talk only.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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