Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin says he was just joking

Lane Kiffin said he meant no harm to fellow SEC coaches with his shenanigans since taking over for Phil Fulmer as Tennessee football coach. He was merely trying to stoke the embers on Rocky Top and get people talking about his Volunteers. Okay Lane, the ploy worked—man, did it work.

At the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. on Tuesday, Kiffin even joked that he requested a joint room with Florida coach Urban Meyer.

Meyer was Kiffin's main focus when he accused Meyer of cheating in the recruitment of Pahokee standout Nu'Keese Richardson, a Tennessee signee. The SEC reprimanded Kiffin, who publicly apologized to the Florida athletics department.

When you become a head coach, you take a specific plan into that job. Each job is different," Kiffin told The Gainesville Sun. "As I looked at this one, we needed to have a spark immediately as far as national exposure."

"There aren't six-year plans anymore. We had to make an immediate impact and get players immediately. We couldn't sit back and take it easy and say we'll have a top 10 recruiting class next year. Do I love everything I had to do to get us to this point? No, I don't."

"But my job is not to love everything I do. My job is to do the best thing for our university and the best thing for our people, our fans, and our players."

Kiffin also told the Knoxville News Sentinel that Mark Smith, the strength and conditioning coach, is still on the Volunteers' staff.

"We have not parted ways," Kiffin told the News Sentinel. "There has been nothing done. I evaluate him like I would anyone else on our staff."

Smith has been rumored to be on his way out. Aaron Ausmus, a former Volunteer track star and the Mississippi strength and conditioning coach is the leading candidate to replace Smith.



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