With University of Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin accepting the same job at USC, it looks like the only memory that some local football players will have of the coach is a pending NCAA investigation. Though former Volunteer and Pahokee native Nu'keese Richardson says he isn't part of the investigation, another Pahokee player, Chris Dunkley, has been questioned.
We've mentioned Kiffin's ultra-aggressive South Florida recruiting tactics, like that billboard he put up near Oakland Park Boulevard, which said, cryptically, "It's time." Time to go, apparently.
For this current recruiting campaign, Kiffin had received verbal commitments from four South Florida players -- three from Miami and one from Fort Lauderdale, St. Thomas Aquinas kicker Michael Palardy, who committed to the program last July and was to sign his letter of intent in three weeks.
Now,
who knows? Last month, Palardy got an offer from the Florida Gators,
but with Urban Meyer's ambiguous status, that situation isn't any more
stable.
Last August, I listed the five players that were the likely targets of Kiffin's billboard campaign. He missed out on all of them.
The news of Kiffin's departure comes at the same time as Richardson has found a new home for himself. The troubled wide receiver is looking for redemption at Hampton University.
The hiring of Kiffin is ironic, given the rumors that USC coach Pete Carroll was leaving that university for fear of what would happen when the NCAA finished investigating that program.
