CURIOUS INDEX, 6/8/09
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I did that on purpose, too. Let’s all walk out on a very charitable limb together this morning. It has to suck to be Lane Kiffin in one sense: he has to learn his job on-the-job in front of millions of people. Please note that we’re not assuming stupidity here. We’ll just assume he’s young, which he is for his profession, for being a CEO, for being in charge of a multimillion dollar enterprise, for being responsible for so many people’s salaries, talent development, and career trajectory. We will also assume he is human, and thus subject to doubt. (He says he’s not, but whatever: you breathe, or you doubt, or you really are so unfathomably stupid that you may invalidate the typed words preceding this as a mere academic exercise. If true: he’s beyond hope.) So what do you do when you’re insecure and simmering in the boiling broth of your own uncertainty? You lean hard on certainty, on planning, on how this is all part of the plan . In fact, you overexaggerate your sphere of control to include even your mistakes. In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus has a phrase for this: “A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Hey, look! Another portal to discovery!
Go watch the gaffe in question here. The point of Stephen Dedalus saying things like this is that he’s bluffing, and only has bluster and bluffing to cover up his insecurity, doubt, and his being completely full of shit and devoid of experience. So is Lane Kiffin at this point. (And now we crawl back from our exposed position on a limb, and resume assuming that he is [NAME REDACTED] with Tourette’s.) HE SPEAKS. About non-BCS things for precisely 24 minutes among other topics: Phil Steele and 40 solid minutes of rapid data download on the In the Bleachers podcast. Ty Willingham thinks you are a rank amateur. He is not collecting two paychecks for nothing, and is therefore behind Willingham, but Ron Turner will still collect $235,000 from Illinois five years after he was fired. The payment is the last installment in the settlement reached when he was fired, and is 83% as shameless as Jeff Bowden’s balls-out brazen theft from Florida State in 2006. Metaphor! Get it! We’re building things by building things by building things by building things! Slut for exclamation points! Obvious metaphors! Camping: it’s like being homeless, but fun and temporary. June is for recruitniks, meaning you should just go to the beach, crack out the highlighter on your Phil Steele, and listen for the faint hissing sound of Tom Lemming inflating Notre Dame’s recruiting class rank as you watch a lovely seaside sunset. We disargee completly. A truly brilliant comment on college football failing its student-athletes from Philly.com. (First comment by reader “stank.”) How many college football players can’t not read or write at a ‘high school’ level? Listen to their intervues, they can not even communicate well in english! |
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1
jd says:
i’m from philly.
that’s perfectly cromulent grammer.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:03 am
2
Rich says:
I also can’t not read well. Which way to the Stradium?
June 8th, 2009 at 8:27 am
3
King Harvest says:
“No, there’s no way that I said that,” Kiffin said. “I wouldn’t say anything like that. First of all, if you look at, I don’t think that anybody pumps gas because everything is self-serve nowadays. There’s no full-serve stations, so I’m smart enough to not have said it because of that, number one. But number two, we don’t negative recruit.” – Lane Kiffin
How in the hell was this missed. This had to be added as a joke, right? Vol fans, you have not even entered REM stage of your nightmare!
June 8th, 2009 at 8:31 am
4
Grady says:
Phil Steele? Oh yes, aka “Summer Santa Claus.” Mr. Steele’s hard efforts are ensconced on my toilet tank for perusal during “office” time. My apologies, sir, but I committed some adulterous affairs with the floozy duo of Lindy and Athlon this weekend. But know well, they are not toilet tank worthy! I am presently working on a graphical curve for illustrating fiber intake vs. football I.Q. Developing….
June 8th, 2009 at 8:34 am
5
CincySooner says:
anyone else notice that the young Vol-to-be is greeting His Lane-ness with a Highlights magazine in one hand?
June 8th, 2009 at 8:57 am
6
gold man says:
“Pain killers, alcohol, weed, fast food and sex attract these athletes to the big school”
From what I’ve heard, Urban Meyer’s pitch to potential recruits centers around Gainesville’s newest What-a-burger. They are typically quite disappointed to learn, however, that the infamous Guthrie’s on Archer ceased operation quite a few years ago.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:16 am
7
Big Jon says:
O-
Any chance of a one night reunion between you and Senor Bean for the annual Phil Steele interview/football lobotomy on EDSBS Live!?
June 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am
8
Doug says:
Just got word from the News-Sentinel that Lane Kiffin has hired “stank” as his publicist.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:22 am
9
King Cockfight says:
Yes, when I need unintentionally ironic, myopic sports commentary from places other than al.com, I read “stank”.
BAMMER!!!
June 8th, 2009 at 9:24 am
10
baconboy says:
For me the highlight of that video was the Raiders statement against Kiffin. Not exactly your typical statement released by the PR department. If I was Jeremy Foley I’d be calling Al Davis up and asking him for a donation to the UF program. And I’d offer him a free ticket for Sept. 19.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:53 am
11
etsuVol says:
I’ve never believed the “ESPN is out to get UT” paranoia, but watching Bob Ley smirk, “Oh by the way they weren’t allowed to let ESPN do that,” was bizarre. Why the fuck did you do it then?
Wendy Nix, fairest of the fair, I’m gonna punch you in the ovary, that’s what I’m gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am
12
jd4au says:
The ASF has been open at its Montgomery campus and bringing culture and the arts (no, really) to central Alabama since I was in high school in the early 80s. I think we bussed up to the Gump early one morning to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream in ‘86.
And then there’s this:
“Bear Country premiered at ASF’s Octagon Stage in Montgomery last January and was a major hit, becoming the venue’s highest grossing play ever during its six week run.”
June 8th, 2009 at 9:57 am
13
Karl Hungus says:
“Bear Country premiered at ASF’s Octagon Stage in Montgomery last January and was a major hit, becoming the venue’s highest grossing play ever during its six week run.”
Jesus, that is sad.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:02 am
14
vegas_buckeye says:
While that article was loaded with tender bits with which to snipe, this comment by stank was so choice, it’s like the Kobe Beef of tender snipey bits:
“Pain killers, alcohol, weed, fast food and sex attract these athletes to the big school and the NCAA looks the other way”
Troy Smith, your In ‘n Out Double-Double Animal Style is ready.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am
15
Mr Dizzle says:
How many college football players can’t not read or write at a ‘high school’ level? Listen to their intervues, they can not even communicate well in english!
So let me get this straight, stank. You drop a double negative and misspell “interviews” and “cannot,” but you choose the correct, adverbial form of “well” over “good”? Touche, stank. Touche.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
16
Nick Black says:
That quote is from Ulysses, yo. Scylla and Charybdis episode (shakespeare argument). Know your role.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am
17
Orson Swindle says:
We stand corrected.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:23 am
18
JD says:
Newspaper article comments are always terrifying. Reminds you just how many people are in your community who didn’t make it through junior high school and/or have some major racial-based hangups.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:27 am
19
yoyofutbawl says:
JD-
It doesn’t matter what educational level, supposedly “college educated” non-student athletes fare little better. If you want to see the future, there’s a real scary book called “The Dumbest Generation”. It’s written by a NEA consultant and is no right wing diatribe, just facts.
“Stank” pigeonholes nicely into that group, I’d hazard.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:36 am
20
JD says:
I made a conscious decision not to read that book. I was afraid that I be so depressed by that book that I would reach a good stopping point, then go to my kitchen and start eating the packets you pour down the trash compactor to clean it.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:47 am
21
JD says:
Did I say trash compactor? I meant garbage disposal.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:47 am
22
yoyofutbawl says:
JD-
The author was on Geroge Noory the other week. Honey Pie was out of town and I listened for the whole show. Bought the book, and she read it herself.
She teaches severely handicapped 6-9 yr olds and joked that her students get a better quality of education, as some learn decent English via phonics (regular classes aren’t), behave better, and want to learn how to do simple math.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
23
Brizzle says:
I can’t not beleive that yall are makin fun of that guy. He talks good and everything. Everybody know that fast food and weed are major recruteing tools.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:06 pm