http://www.collegefootballtalk.com/2009/01/17/kiffin-gloats-over-recruiter-coups/
As if the blood isn’t bad enough in the Southeastern Conference, 33-year-old newcomer Lane Kiffin is giving the old guard reason for the plasma to boil a little bit more through both deeds and — now — words.
After traveling the country, as the Herald-Citizen put it, “like an Arab trader combing for the best wares“, Kiffin has assembled a Who’s Who of Southeast recruiting titans.
Since being named head coach on Dec. 1, 2008, Kiffin has snagged four of the best recruiters in the SEC from his new rivals, including brother-in-law David Reaves from South Carolina and — one of the biggest catches in the SEC recruiting pond — Lance Thompson from Alabama.
Add to that Ed Orgeron — one of the top recruiters in the country going back to his Southern Cal days — and Kiffin has put together a recruiting core that rivals that of anyone in the conference.
And Kiffin knows it.
“It was imperative to not only find great recruiters but great recruiters that knew the conference,” Kiffin said in a statement posted on the Birmingham News website. “To be able to take South Carolina’s recruiting coordinator, Mississippi State’s recruiting coordinator, Alabama’s best recruiter and Auburn’s best recruiter over the past 10 years was a great accomplishment for us.”
Great accomplishment? Yes.
Added incentive for the rest of the SEC to kick (what some have called) his “carpet-bagging” ass on the recruiting trail? Absolutely.
It will be interesting, though, to see if the New York Yankees of the SEC will solve all of their woes by throwing money at the problems the program faces.
What the hell, though. It worked for Steinbrenner. For awhile.
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