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Late Wednesday, former Tennessee and NFL receiver Donté Stallworth wrote:
Soooo...I can confirm reports of a Lane Kiffin head coach, Tee Martin as OC, Kevin Steele as DC package deal was turned down.
— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) November 30, 2017
What a shit show. And we’re gonna hire who? We may as well hire Kim Jong-un for real.
And early Thursday, FAU head coach Lane Kiffin replied:
We just heard back from @Lane_Kiffin and asked if this report is true: "Hell no. Tennessee AD has never contacted me. You can say I totally denied that and the AD still has never reached out." @dpshow @Vol_Football https://t.co/oBhwS1vYpB
— Paul Pabst (@PaulPabst) November 30, 2017
And if that wasn’t enough, Kiffin followed up:
Love u Donte but #samsonite #Iwaswayoff!!!!!@DonteStallworth @espn https://t.co/EfhHg42n3A
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) November 30, 2017
So not only is this not happening, but it was never happening, per Kiffin. At least it was never brought to the prospective head coach, which seems important.
The idea Stallworth floated and said was “turned down” by somebody is fun, for sure. Kiffin’s a wildly polarizing figure, a former Tennessee coach who bolted from Knoxville for USC after a 7-6 regular season in 2009. Kiffin’s reemerged a couple of jobs later as the coach of a Conference USA contender at FAU, where his offense is a blast and his Twitter trolling game is the most energetic in college football.
Martin is a former Vols quarterback, now the offensive coordinator at high-powered USC. Steele is the defensive coordinator at Auburn, on the verge of a Playoff berth in a crucial SEC Championship Game against Georgia on Saturday.
These kinds of “package deal” rumors come up often during coaching searches and recruit signing season. They’re usually not true. This one was probably based on Steele and Kiffin previously working together on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama, plus Martin having worked as Kiffin’s wide receivers coach at USC. It all makes enough sense if you want to think it’s happening, though Kiffin’s made clear that it never was.
Kiffin was a pariah at Tennessee after his ‘09 departure. But there’s now a vocal contingent of Tennessee fans begging for his (highly unlikely) return to town.