If Lane Kiffin ever decides to wake up and realize what damage he’s done to his reputation because of his rogue behavior, maybe he’ll take a look at himself in the mirror and see what a fool he’s made of himself. If and when he does that, though, who knows.

In my last blog article “Burning Bridges”, in closing I made the following comment: “It probably won’t be very much longer before we hear the next Kiffin gaffe.” It was only a matter of weeks until that actually happened, albeit not the spoken word that got Lane in trouble this time around, but instead an unscrupulous and tactless move on his part. Kiffin went and poached Tennessee Titans’ running back coach Kennedy Pola from Jeff Fisher’s staff to fill the vacancy left by Todd McNair, and named him the new offensive coordinator at USC without having followed the normal protocol of asking permission from the Titans to approach him about interviewing for the position beforehand – thus angering Fisher and causing the Titans to initiate a lawsuit against Kiffin and USC for “maliciously interfering” with Pola’s contract, as well as against Pola himself for breach of contract. It will be interesting, without a doubt, to see what transpires in this case.

Whether or not the Pac-10 Commissioner and/or new USC Athletic Director Pat Haden will issue any reprimands or penalties against Kiffin as a result of this latest transgression remains to be seen, but if Haden wants to do the right thing he should consider issuing a “zero-tolerance” policy against adverse behavior on him just as the late Myles Brand did against Bobby Knight back at Indiana University after his frequent episodes of misconduct. Eventually Knight was dismissed by then-President Brand, as many of us remember – but who knows what will ultimately happen to Kiffin.

Perhaps it may take something of this magnitude to force Kiffin to start doing things the right way if he wants to try and salvage what may be left of his coaching career, but I have my doubts as to whether or not he’ll govern himself accordingly should this lawsuit proceed in the courts and be ruled in favor of the plaintiff. Ever since he has assumed a head-coaching position, be it at the NFL level or in college football, Kiffin has done nothing more or less than demonstrate an obvious disregard for standard operating procedure and use of proper etiquette. It was tacitly implied by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive at last week’s SEC Media Days that he’s relieved to not be burdened by Kiffin or his antics anymore in his warm welcome of Derek Dooley (new Vols head coach) to the conference. Urban Meyer held his peace when asked about Kiffin during his turn at the podium, but if anybody pulled him off to the side and asked him how he felt off the record, I’m sure he would have expressed his relief in not having to deal with Lane’s nonsense anymore.

Kiffin may walk where angels fear to tread, but right now he’s treading on thin ice – and the more he continues to burn his bridges behind him, the ice is melting right underneath his feet.

For what it’s worth, the media doesn’t always come out with the right picks. The media correctly forecast Florida’s championships in 1994, 1995 and 2008 and LSU’s in 2007, but otherwise erred in its preseason prognostication each year since the SEC went to divisional play in 1992. On 11 of 18 occasions, the team picked to win the league didn’t even reach the championship game.

SEC predictions

(Predicted order of finish in preseason media poll, with first-place votes in parentheses).

East

1. Florida (153) 1,030
2. Georgia (15) 791
3. South Carolina (8) 790
4. Kentucky 462
5. Tennessee 450
6. Vanderbilt (1) 194

West

1. Alabama (157) 1,034
2. Arkansas (6) 726
3. Auburn (10) 691
4. LSU (1) 653
5. Mississippi State 320
6. Ole Miss (3) 293

Votes to win SEC Championship Game: Alabama 143, Florida 17, Auburn 7, Arkansas 3, Georgia 2, Ole Miss 2, Kentucky 1, LSU 1, South Carolina 1.

At first, I thought “Oh great! We’re going to get the USC treatment.” But after further investigation it seems like the worst thing that could happen to Florida is that we could be forced to forfeit the Sugar Bowl win over Cincinnati. USC got in big time trouble because it was proven that coaches/athletics depermant staff knew about what was going on. No one at Florida (Urban Meyer and Jeremy Foley) appear to have known about Pouncey accepting the money before the Sugar Bowl.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it’s confirmed that Pouncey took $100,000 from an agent before the game. I believe it happens all the time in college football. You have to wonder how these kids drive brand new Escalades and wear huge diamond stud earrings while they’re in college. No one I knew in college had those things!

It will sting a little if Florida has to give up their Sugar Bowl victory, but I doubt too many people would care. It’ll be some negative publicity for a week or so, and then we’ll move on when football season starts.

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore”

Those lyrics from the theme song of one of the all-time classic movies, “Kelly’s Heroes”, describe Lane Kiffin perfectly.

Judging by the latest happenings at USC, it looks as though the scourge of Lane Kiffin won’t be disappearing anytime soon from the world of college football – and the burning bridges are still falling behind him.

It’s obvious that no matter where Kiffin seems to go, trouble follows; although when he took the reins of the Trojan football program over from Pete Carroll after he returned to the NFL he walked back into a mess that was already under investigation by the NCAA (in case anybody doesn’t know, Kiffin was part of Carroll’s staff when the incidents involving Reggie Bush took place). Even though his tenure at Tennessee lasted all of one year, it wouldn’t surprise me to see any possible wrongdoings on his part that could be uncovered by the NCAA during the 2009 season eventually disclosed to the public.

To my readers from Gator Nation, pardon me if I’m preaching to the choir a little bit when I say that Kiffin had an agenda practically from day one when he took the Vols job over from Phil Fulmer last year, as evident by that “singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida” crack in his opening speech that would eventually backfire on him, as well as that gaffe he spewed wrongly accusing Urban Meyer of cheating while contacting a recruit during authorized time. Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban and Mark Richt weren’t immune from his baiting, either. As irritating as it was to see Kiffin send the SEC into an uproar last season, I’m glad he was made to look ridiculous when he was defeated by Florida and Alabama; as the cliche goes, what goes around comes around. Twice he was publicly reprimanded by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive for conduct unbecoming of his position as a head coach. Even more immature and unsportsmanlike was Kiffin’s refusal to graciously concede defeat to Frank Beamer and Virginia Tech following Tennessee’s loss in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl this past winter.

As much as the USC athletic department may deny it, I’m in agreement with Gator Country’s Buddy Martin in that this latest episode involving incoming Trojan freshman Dillon Baxter reeks of Lane Kiffin shenanigans, as per a recent article he wrote. Given the schools allegedly accused of illegally contacting Baxter, in dissecting the matter and the list of schools cited Buddy’s right – I’ve already mentioned Kiffin’s beef with Meyer and Saban in the previous paragraph, I also detect a hint of jealousy towards Oregon in their having gone to the Rose Bowl last January, an attempt to start stirring the pot with now-Washington head coach and former USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, and a grudge against his alma mater Fresno State for a lack of success on the football field while he was playing there. Reading between the lines, it’s as plain as the nose on one’s face that Lane Kiffin instigated the trouble and used Baxter as a pawn – and don’t try and convince me otherwise. Though USC’s athletic director Mike Garrett was obliged to write letters of contrition to each of the athletic directors of the wrongly accused schools, in my honest opinion it’s a lame gesture on his part – KIFFIN should be the one personally apologizing to Urban Meyer et al, along with providing an explanation for why he chose to once again behave as inappropriately as he did.

Already the backlash from the Reggie Bush scandal and the subsequent probation with sanctions handed down by the NCAA is taking its toll on USC; recently top-ranked recruit Seantrel Henderson was released from his letter of intent and has now committed to the Miami Hurricanes, also, other players currently on the roster have transferred or are considering transferring out in light of the penalties levied against the program, with the NCAA waiving the one-year waiting period for eligibility in the cases of juniors and seniors who do. If it seems that the fickle finger of fate is being pointed at Lane Kiffin right now so be it, but it’ll take a lot more for him to cease the immaturity and buffoonery that has already ruined his reputation. Once he realizes that he has made a total fool out of himself with all the gaffes and silly stunts, and that he has burned way too many bridges behind him, it’ll be too late. It probably won’t be very much longer before we hear the next Kiffin gaffe.

Too bad Lane, even your daddy Monte won’t be able to bail you out.
Indeed, burning bridges lost forevermore.

Since that day in December 2004 when his hiring was made official to replace the fired Ron Zook, I felt that Coach Meyer’s coming to Gainesville was the best choice for Florida football – and I’m glad Jeremy Foley won him over from the competition coming from that school up north on the southern coast of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana with the infamous golden dome. My first thought was “We’re gonna win championships”, and I wasn’t disappointed. I still like to think that it was kismet – fate – that brought Urban to the Gators. He had somewhat of a daunting task in taking over a program that lost its swagger, had no sense of strong leadership or direction, and basically had no order – and managed to restore what was lost by breaking the team he had inherited down and building them back up again during his first season back in 2005. Not only that, Urban has raised the bar at Florida: he rose to the challenge of getting the program headed back in the right direction, brought back the prestige from days of yore that had been missing under three years of the Zooker, and has taken our football program a step further. He’s carving out his own niche in the college football world, and what better place for him to do so than in Gainesville.

The National Championship win in 2006 indicated the shape of things to come. We had talent on our roster that was untapped, not developed to its fullest potential during the Zook years and a bit “soft”, as Urban alluded to former punter Eric Wilbur during a pre-season practice back in 2005 – but Coach Meyer and his staff elevated them to a higher level once they coaxed our players out of their “comfort zone”, made “4 to 6 seconds of relentless effort” a new mantra, and brought about a more competitive attitude in the locker room. Losing was no longer acceptable at the University of Florida, as he made clear to his team. The resistance to Meyer’s way of doing things during that first season pretty much ended that day in November 2005 on an airport tarmac following a loss to South Carolina when he read his players the riot act. Although we had a bit of a falling-off in 2007 due to the large exodus of players to graduation and early entry into the NFL, Tim Tebow won the Heisman that year having been the first sophomore to do so – then we reloaded and won another crystal football in 2008. As heartbreaking as the loss to Alabama in the 2009 SEC title game was after going undefeated during the regular season, we capped it off with a BCS bowl win and a consensus #3 national ranking – and brought in yet another #1-ranked recruiting class just as we did following the 2005 season. Four out of the five years of his past tenure, Meyer’s Gators have won a “triple crown” in defeating archrivals Tennessee, Georgia and that school out west during a single season. As I see it, that’s a hell of a lot to have accomplished in a short span of five years’ time.

Part of the reason why Urban Meyer’s so successful is the fact that he’s innovative; he’s developed his own style after having served under and being mentored by some of the best in the business, and he also adapts his particular scheme around the talent level of the players on his rosters which showcases their strengths; case in point was with Chris Leak during the 2005 and 2006 seasons in forming a more “hybrid” version of his spread offense that he could successfully operate. In spite of the pundits stating that the spread offense wouldn’t work in the SEC and that faction of Gator Nation persistent on wanting to see a “pro-style” offense, Meyer has found a way to make the spread and its variations an effective weapon on offense – as well as a way to win under difficult conditions – by effectively planning for gameday, preparing his players for 60 solid minutes of football and using his ingenuity to remain a step ahead of the competition. Another reason for his success is his ability to recruit not just the best players out there, but the right players for the Gator football program. Statistically, his all-time winning percentage ranking is in the top 10 among active college coaches. Academically, we’ve taken a huge step forward from the Zook years in seeing an increase of the overall team GPA and graduation rate. In spite of the number of episodes of player misconduct and ridiculous media distractions, he’s always managed to made the best of a bad situation. In a nutshell, what Urban’s doing for Florida football is right, and is in the best overall interest of our program.

As heartbreaking as it was to have heard of his sudden resignation around the Christmas holiday, it was a relief to hear of his decision to retract that resignation following some thought the next day and after watching a very spirited practice before the Sugar Bowl this past winter. As far as I’m concerned, Coach Meyer made the right decision in retracting that resignation; for him to have seen everything he’s accomplished during his tenure as Florida’s head coach start to unravel and deteriorate in the wrong hands would have been emotionally upsetting to him. Just that retraction alone told me that Urban’s totally and genuinely dedicated to the Gator football program and its continued success. Still, his health scare following the SEC Championship loss to Alabama was a wake-up call telling him that he can’t afford to forsake his health or take anything for granted – and he took steps to rectify things by addressing his health issues and taking quality time off to spend with his family. There have been some concerns raised as to whether or not he will be able to maintain the same intensity as he has done in the past now that he’s delegated some of the responsibilities to his assistants, but I honestly don’t see that happening; based on what I’ve seen him do since he’s been with the Gators he will find a way to balance faith, family and football with no adverse consequences to our program.

Once Urban officially signs his contract extension through 2014, the icing will be on the cake. Before he decides to call it a career, I’d love to see another National Championship or two come Florida’s way as well as other honors to further cement his legacy. Based on the results of this past National Signing Day and a successful spring practice, the future still looks promising as Urban enters his sixth season with the Gators. You know, “Urban Meyer Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium” has a nice ring to it – well, at least to me it does.

Happy Birthday, Coach Meyer – and many more!

Florida was clearly the best team in the country, and it would take a win over #11 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game if the Gators were going to get a rematch against FSU in the title game. Well, the Gators did just that with a 45-30 win in Atlanta.

Not everyone wanted a rematch between Florida and FSU, but they were the two best teams in the country and were already intense rivals. Playing on a neutral field would help even things out. Led by Danny Wuerffel, Fred Taylor and Ike Hilliard the Florida Gators put up 52 points on offense compared to FSU’s 20 bringing home the Gators first National Championship in their history.

Here are two highlight videos, one for the SECCG and one for the National Championship.

Here are the Gators rankings according to each magazine.

Athlon: 1. Alabama; 2. Ohio State; 3. Southern California; 4. Boise State; 5. Oklahoma; 6. Florida; 7. Nebraska; 8. Texas; 9. Oregon; 10. Virginia Tech.

Lindy’s: 1. Alabama; 2. Boise State; 3. Ohio State; 4. Texas; 5. Florida; 6. Wisconsin; 7. Texas Christian; 8. Virginia Tech; 9. Oklahoma; 10. Iowa.

The Sporting News: 1. Alabama; 2. Ohio State; 3. Boise State; 4. Miami, Fla.; 5. Florida; 6. Texas Christian; 7. Nebraska; 8. Wisconsin; 9. Texas; 10. Oklahoma.

Phil Steele: 1. Oklahoma; 2. Ohio State; 3. Alabama; 4. Texas Christian; 5. Nebraska; 6. Boise State; 7. Florida; 8. Southern California; 9. Miami, Fla.; 10. Oregon.

So you can see we are in the No. 5-7 range. The Alabama Crimson Tide are rightfully No. 1 in most polls… coming off a BCS Championship. The Gators get to play Alabama during the regular season this year, so we will have our shot at revenge and upsetting the favorite to win it all.

What do you think of the Top 10 rankings? Are the Gators about where you’d expect them? Are they too high? Too low? Post a comment and let me know your thoughts.

What inspired this latest TOTT offering was some random lurking around; usually before I begin a topic I have some handwritten notes taken down but after reading Pat Dooley’s latest Gainesville Sun article today I was also moved to write this entry.

Now that all this banter about college football conference realignment has simmered down for the time being, we can all relax a bit. That, and as Mr. Dooley also noted, we aren’t being forced to deal with all that insipid Meyer-to-Notre Dame nonsense anymore from the rumor-mongers (funny thing, I’ve noticed that the Birmingham Blowhard, a/k/a Paul Finebaum, has been unusually quiet lately – perhaps that huge piece of humble pie he was forced to eat after Brian Kelly was hired at the Golden Dome to replace Charlie Weis was a little too overwhelming?) and, aside from Frankie Hammond’s recent act of stupidity things have been rather quiet around Gator football for once during this off-season. Aside from that one distraction, some more quiet time off can only do Coach Meyer good before the start of fall practice – that, and still finding quality time to spend with his family.

Speaking of Coach Meyer, I’m with the consensus that he raised the bar at Utah and helped pave the way for the Utes to hit the big-time in college football in making that giant step to a major conference (Pac-10). They’ve proved that they can win against some of the heavy-hitters, have two BCS bowl wins to their credit, and now with the move to a BCS conference their recruiting should vastly improve. Not to mention that Urban Meyer’s coaching tree has a success story to-date with Kyle Whittingham having done a good job so far in taking over the Utes’ program after Urban left to come to Gainesville.

So how am I spending the time during this “intermission”? Well, for one thing there’s Wimbledon going on right now – and once again history was made with one of the longest matches on record having had to stretch to a second day to complete; congrats to John Isner of the USA for having finally won that one over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. I still remember watching last year’s men’s final with Roger Federer and Andy Roddick that stretched out in the final set for a tie-breaker, with Federer having won and breaking a record for Grand Slam wins. Will be interesting to see how this year’s tournament winds up, but since I got burned on guessing who would win the French Open I’m not making any predictions on this one. I’m not an aficionado of soccer, but I am following Team USA’s progress in the World Cup; we were hosed out of what should have been a winning goal against Slovenia but came through against Algeria to stay alive in the tournament. Next up for the Americans is a match against Ghana.

Glad to see Tim Tebow is still progressing well with the Denver Broncos and is getting some positive reviews so far; seems that his new teammates think highly of him and are impressed with his eagerness to learn as well as his strong work ethic. I couldn’t be happier for Timmy; the more he can prove naysayers like ESPN’s Todd McShay and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wrong the better for him.

Anyway, enjoy this latest installment of “Talk of the Town”. July arrives next week, but September 4’s coming!

1. Jordan Reed – TE/QB
Jordan Reed was a quarterback in high school but has since been converted to TE during his time at UF. Reed is a big guy at 6′3″, 240 lbs — very similar to Tim Tebow. With Aaron Hernandez leaving for the NFL, Reed will compete for the starting job and could see plenty of action.

2. Jelani Jenkins – LB
The Gators are pretty thin at linebacker – we lost Brandon Spikes, Ryan Stamper and Dustin Doe. Competition will be fierce for the starting LB spots and you have to think Jelani Jenkins will have a good shot at one of them. He’s 6′0″, 200 lbs and dressed for all 14 games in 2009. If he doesn’t start, he shold still see plenty of action vs. Miami (OH), USF, and ASU.

3. Andre Debose – WR
Nagging injuries kept Andre Debose out of action in the 2009 season. He is a five star guy and one of the top WRs coming out of high school. The Gators have high hopes for Debose – who could be like a Percy Harvin / Brandon James combo. He’s 5′11″, 183 lbs and lightning fast. The Gators have been lacking at WR lately, so expect Debose to see a lot of balls come his way.

4. Kedric Johnson – DE
Defensive end is another position that the Gators are a little weak at – we lost Carlos Dunlap and Jermaine Cunningham to the NFL. Someone will need to step up on the other side of Justin Trattou. Kedric Johnson, who is 6′3″, 252 lbs, could be the guy. He dressed for seven games in 2009, including the Sugar Bowl, but did not see any action.

5. Jon Halapio – OL
For the most part the Gators offensive line will be set – they only lost one guy (Maurkice Pouncy). But I wanted to throw an offensive lineman out there that might push some of the backups and get some playing time against the weaker opponents. Halapio is 6′3″, 305 lbs and was referred to “an immovable object on the line” by the St. Petersburg Times.

Are there any redshirt freshman that you think will push for a starting job or serious playing time? Post a comment and let me know.

For those pining for some Gator news in the offseason, there was no shortage of such this past weekend. First off, HUGE congrats to one of my favorite current Gators, Jeff Demps, for his 100-meter men’s outdoor track title as well as for his being part of the winning men’s 4×100 relay team (kudos to Chris Rainey as well for being a part of that same quartet). Kudos to Mariam Kevkhishvili for winning the women’s shot put title at the NCAA outdoor meet, and congrats to the entire Florida men’s track team for their second-place finish at the NCAA meet!

It’s great to see our Gator baseball team back at the College World Series after a five-year absence by taking the Super Regional series against the Hurricanes on our home field in Gainesville. A combination of a complete-game win by Alex “Johnny Pants” Panteliodis in Game 1, great defense out in the field, effective hitting and seven errors by Miami in Game 2 got us back to Omaha this coming weekend to face UCLA in the first round. Best of luck guys, and represent Gator Nation well!

A bit of unsettling news offset all of the above when redshirt sophomore WR Frankie Hammond was arrested early Sunday morning on charges of DUI and open bottle. Nothing short of an act of total stupidity on his part, but it also meant that Coach Meyer is, beginning this season, enforcing a stronger zero-tolerance policy toward player misconduct. As much as I don’t fancy the idea of the innocent suffering on account of the guilty the emphasis on team unity, adherence to team rules and teammates being asked to watch out for each other is being made clear; given the number of player arrests in the past few years being at an unacceptable level, this new policy is being implemented with the entire team sharing in the guilt of the transgressor as a deterrent to any further violation of the law or team policy. Sure, drinking adult beverages is a part of college life and won’t go away anytime soon on our campuses, but then again there’s no excuse for students who are legally considered adults under the law to not conduct themselves in a rational manner where the consumption of alcohol is concerned. Though some of our fanbase is already playing the “judge-jury-executioner” role in suggesting he be removed from the team, I honestly don’t see Hammond’s punishment being that drastic – but then again I don’t anticipate Urban being as lenient as he was with Carlos Dunlap, who was guilty of the same thing last season prior to the SECCG and wound up being suspended from that one game. I expect Coach Meyer to see how Hammond’s case will be adjudicated in the courts and review any mitigating circumstances that may exist before he makes a final decision on Hammond’s penalty.

For all the media hype and rumor-mongering taking place in the past few months about conference expansion, the number of teams changing alliances hasn’t been as drastic as was anticipated. Looks as though the Big 12 will remain intact for the time being, albeit minus two of their members (Colorado to the Pac-10; Nebraska to the Big Ten). Personally I think all this is a bit ridiculous, but the bottom line is that the Almighty Dollar is the driving force behind all these moves as opposed to trying to maintain the integrity of college football. Whether or not these moves will result in the Big Ten and Pac-10 implementing conference championship games, respectively, and eventually facilitating a playoff to replace the current BCS system remains to be seen, but if this re-alignment will ultimately compel a post-season playoff, then there’s one thing constructive to all this.

Counting down the days until the start of the season on September 4……….