Clemson & Tennessee Hire New Coaches

December 2, 2008 | by Carron J. PhillipscloseAuthor: Carron J. Phillips Name: Carron Phillips
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About: Carron is a Graduate of Morehouse College (2006), and is originally from Saginaw, MI. Sports Writing is Carron's passion and love. Drop Carron an email to get in touch with him.See Authors Posts (276)   | Filed under athletes, football

In recent weeks TMR reported on the firings of Tommy Bowden at the University of Clemson and Phil Fulmer at Tennessee. Well it seems that during this holiday season both programs have received early Christmas gifts.

The interim sticker was recently ripped of Dabo Swinney’s back when Clemson gave him a 5 year deal as their new head ball coach. The former 39 year old wide receivers coach had no previous experience until he was given the interim keys on October 13th when Bowden left the ranch.

As the interim coach, Swinney took over the play calling, fired the offensive coordinator, and reinstituted some pre-game rituals. Swinney made changes and wanted to get the student body involved in the program, something his predecessor didn’t take advantage of. But Swinney’s results are what ultimately led to him landing his new gig. After losing his first game to Georgia Tech, he won four of his last five and now the Tigers sit at 7-5 and will be “bowling” during the holiday season.

The new confident head coach that got his name because his brother couldn’t pronounce “that boy” believes he is the best man for the job: “I’ve never failed at anything in my life. It’s not arrogance, I’m confident in my abilities. I don’t think it’s a gamble at all, I think it’s a good investment”.

After the Fulmer incident occurred in Knoxville the Volunteers went out and play uninspired football as they lost to Wyoming during Homecoming. But they ended the season with optimism as they closed out their schedule with wins over Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

And on the Monday the good news kept on coming.

Lane Kiffin was introduced as the new Head Football Coach in Rocky Top. The man that was run out of Oakland just months ago will become the nations youngest head coach at the age of 33. The 21st man to lead the Volunteers signed a 6 year deal that may be worth as much as $2 million in 2009. With a coaching background at USC that included recruiting and coordinating, Kiffin may be the answer the Tennessee faithful are looking for. The enthusiastic youngster even got a head start recruiting which may have some other SEC coaches upset. Allegedly Steve Spurrier is keeping an eye on Kiffin because he supposedly contacted some recruits before he was introduced at the press conference. However, that’s something the NCAA will have the final say on.

But in the mean time, Kiffin hopes his darker days are behind him as he looks to put his imprint on Tennessee; “I’m not promising how many wins we’re going to have, how many championships. I can’t do that, there’s too many variables in all that. But I can tell you this right now, no one’s going to outwork us, no one’s going to outwork me as a head coach, and no one’s going to outwork our staff that we put together”.