Lane Kiffin: Deserving of Coach of the Year, Regardless of the Trophy

Lane Kiffin is doing exactly what he was brought on to do 23 months ago, after Mike Garrett swooped him out of Knoxville, Tennessee in the middle of the night. Kiffin came as an avid recruiter, an aggressive play caller and a man who knows how to throw names around. He’s done all of that so far in his short time as USC’s head coach, maturing into an elite coach seemingly overnight by doing what he said would do.

You can look no further than the personnel that the Trojans won with this season, as they fielded a team of four freshman All-Americans, all whom were brought in by Lane Kiffin. On Signing Day in February the talk of the town was the one who got away, DeAnthony Thomas, but it was the last minute signing of Marqise Lee that made the Trojans this season. Kiffin closed the deal on the Serra High athlete, and Lee promptly became the catalyst for the Trojans’ improbable run to the AP Poll’s Top 5.

Without Lee, the Trojans don’t beat Oregon, and probably end up 8-4, failing to establish a balanced offense as the “Barkley to Woods” connection would have been all Kiffin would have had offensively. Without Lee, Curtis McNeal would never have been effective. Without Lee, missing Dillon Baxter was a headline. But with Lee, USC was able to play the game they always thought they were capable of, playing the “Lane Kiffin Way”.

Kiffin’s prized catch found himself on the Freshman All-American list along with USC tackle Marcus Martin, linebacker Dion Bailey and kicker Andre Heidari. Add in the fact that Robert Woods and Nickell Robey were first team and honorable mention Freshman All-Americans last season, and it goes to show just how important Kiffin has been in restoring the faith in USC Football through means of recruiting.

Kiffin started a trio of freshmen linebackers, with Dion Bailey, Hayes Pullard and Lamar Dawson. Yet, somehow, someway, it worked. He looked at the time as if he was dropping the ball on the Dillon Baxter situation, but in the end, the running game was a key cog in the Trojans attack without the heavily touted running back.

Kiffin was blasted for going for two early on the season. Yet after the opener against Minnesota, he only went for it once when Barkley found Xavier Grimble in the back of the endzone against UCLA.

He was said to be arrogant and has been widely known to be the most hated coach in America, yet he learned from his mistakes, calling Brian Kelly to apologize for the comments of Chris Galippo, and immediately explaining to Rick Neuheisel why Matt Barkley threw a pass to his cousin, Robbie Boyer, with the Trojans up 50 points late in the fourth quarter. Lane Kiffin from 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010, wouldn’t have done that.

Kiffin’s not only grown up on the national stage literally as the son of a coaching legend, but in the past four months he’s done so right before our eyes, maturing into the coach he always said he would be become.

Looking back at Thursday night’s College Football Awards Show, it’s not surprising that Les Miles won the award for Coach of the Year. His team went 13-0, the only team in America to do so. But somewhere on the ballots of the powers that be, it’s a travesty that Lane Kiffin wasn’t even in the top 10 of those receiving votes. Had anyone else not named “Lane Kiffin” defied the odds, overcame sanctions, soundly beat Notre Dame in South Bend, bested Oregon in Eugene, and finished in the AP Top 5 despite never being considered as a threat, they would have won the award. Mark Mangino and Greg Schiano won it, and they never went 13-0.

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