Trouble on Rocky Top

Well, well, well.  It looks like Lane Kiffin has gotten himself into a wee bit of trouble down at Tennessee.  The New York Times is reporting that the N.C.A.A. has launched a wide ranging investigation into the recruiting practices of Kiffin's staff.  This doesn't seem to be your run-of-the-mill, toothless inquiry, either:

"N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February."

The fuss centers around Tennessee's improper use of "hostesses" in luring recruits to Knoxville.  The role of hostesses has become pretty commonplace in the world of SEC recruiting.  Basically, attractive female undergrads give the recruits campus tours and sit with them at the football games during official visits. Apparently Tennessee has expanded the duties of these hostesses to include some not so legal tasks -- namely, travelling hundreds of miles to cheer on recruits in their high school games.  The N.C.A.A. believes that these visits violate recruiting regulations. 

According to Marcus Lattimore, a five-star South Carolina prep running back who was interviewed by the Times, the hostesses achieve great results in their recruiting efforts.  Lattimore said that the hostesses played a significant role in the decisions that two of his high school teammates made to commit to Tennessee.  Lattimore explained, "You don't want to go to a college where they ain't pretty." Well said, Marcus.

If these allegations prove true, Kiffin really needs to work on his understanding of the N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.  Last February, the newly hired coach accused Urban Meyer of committing some recruiting violations of his own.  Kiffin claimed that Meyer continually called Nu'Keese Richardson during the four-star wide receiver and eventual Vol commit's official visit to Tennessee.  Kiffin boasted, "I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him."  There was one problem with this, though -- Meyer's phone call was not a recruiting violation.  At all.  After being reprimanded by the SEC, an embarrassed Kiffin apologized to Meyer and the conference. On a side note, Nu'Keese was arrested with two teammates in November for committing armed robbery with a pellet gun.  Kiffin, always the stickler for rules, kicked Nu'Keese off the team a few days later.

Kiffin's recruiting gaffes should not take anyone by surprise.  Most former Pete Carroll assistants seem to have problems keeping their teams out of trouble.  When he was the head coach at Ole Miss, Ed Orgeron had to put twenty players on probation for stealing things from hotel rooms.  Orgeron is now Kiffin's recruiting coordinator at Tennessee.  Steve Sarkisian, another Carroll protege, has run into problems of his own.  Sarkisian committed secondary recruiting violations just one month after being hired as the head coach at the University of Washington.

It makes you wonder that maybe Carroll's assistants just aren't being taught the rules of recruiting out at SC.  Or maybe they are taught to deliberately ignore the rules.  Perhaps Kiffin's recent transgessions will remind the N.C.A.A. that Pete's program has some issues of its own.  Whatever happened to that whole Reggie Bush investigation and the looming sanctions?  Maybe the investigators came to SC, and Carroll introduced them to some of his best hostesses.