Posts Tagged ‘lane kiffin’

As recently as a few months ago, USC head coach Lane Kiffin has been criticized for what many have called a lack of maturity. The criticizm came to a head following his now-infamous 29 second press briefing in September.

However, none of that person was present during Kiffin's press conference Saturday night following the Trojans' 62-51 loss to Oregon. 

When asked how much blame the coaching staff deserves for USC's fall from preseason No. 1 to a three-loss team, Kiffin had this to say.

"All of it," Kiffin said. "That's what you do as coaches. For us to have the penalties that we've had, the turnovers, (it's a big part of) the three losses. The first two, we were ahead in those games. We should have closed those games out."

Perfect answer.

Kiffin continued, offering an assessment of his performance against the Ducks.

"There's things I could have done better," Kiffin said. "There were situations where I could have called better plays. You've always got to look at yourself. I could have put us in a better situation at the end of the half."

Obviously, offense wasn't the reason USC lost to Arizona and it wasn't why Oregon beat the Trojans. USC allowed a school-record 730 yards to Oregon, one week after allowing Arizona to compile 588 yards.

"If you have back-to-back games where you're giving up 600 yards, we've got to look at what we're doing," explained Kiffin. "That's not real sound and that's not where we want to be. I don't have an answer right now or else I would have tried to fix it during the game."

The Trojans defense dropped 32 spots in the NCAA rush defense statistic after Oregon posted 426 yards on Saturday night. 

With dates against No. 17 UCLA and No. 2 Oregon still ahead, here's hoping for Kiffin's sake he doesn't have to show off his mature side any more this season. 

Every college head coach has their own way of dealing with commitments from recruits. Some coaches allow recruits (who have already committed to them) to still go on their other official visits, while many other programs have a no visit policy in effect after a commitment is made.

A recent Rivals.com article explored the different approaches from three different programs around the country, specifically USC, Oregon, and Arizona.

Lane Kiffin is one of the coaches who still allow commits to visit other schools.

"I don't discourage it at all. I have a rare stance on it. I just think some of these kids never have an opportunity like that. To fly around the country and visit different places and meet new people whether it's other recruits or other coaches." Kiffin explained.

"I let our kids go visit all over the place, our commits. I know that's rare nowadays. I don't think it's my job, I don't think I'm in a position to be limiting kids' abilities to take free trips around the country and see different parts of the country and meet new people."

Chip Kelly on the other hand, views a commitment in a very different light. 

"We talk to our guys about what a commitment is. We're going to make a commitment to you it's the same thing as us not pulling a scholarship when you make a commitment to us" Kelly said. "There's got to be a two-way street. I think our players understand what being committed means here."

Although their views are polar opposites, both coaches and their staffs manage to bring in some of the top talent in the country on a consistent basis. There's no doubt it helps to have a clear and consistent message from top to bottom.

For Rich Rodriguez, recognizing the difference between interest and commitment is something that him and his staff have recently zeroed in on.

"When a guy wants to commit to us we make sure that he understands what that means. If you have a guy who's committed to you but he's making a bunch of visits to other places you wonder if he's truly committed or just interested. That's the key for us."

"If a guy is taking it to have fun and he tells you that up front that's one thing but if they're taking the visit they must have some kind of interest in another school and that puts you in a tough situation because you may have dropped some other guys or moved off some other guys and then all of a sudden you lose this guy in the end."

At Arizona, the staff understands that if a recruit is going to continue to take his visits, don't be surprised if he de-commits. It all goes back to recognizing that difference between interest and commitment.

"If a guy is committed to you and he's visiting other places and all of a sudden he changes his commitment or something like that, I don't know why a coach would be surprised because he's visiting other schools so there aren't as many surprises as you'd think."

We understand that every level of college recruiting is very different. But each of those coaches (Lane Kiffin, Chip Kelly, and Rich Rodriguez) have helped sign a top ten recruiting class at some point in the coaching careers, and have all done it with very different approaches. The lesson is to find something specific to your level of football, and making it something that you all can buy into as a staff. At the end of the day you'll start to see the results of a consistent message.