Don't be surprised to see TN on sanctions in the next 5 years.
"It never stops for Tennessee's Lane Kiffin. His mouth - or his missteps. This sounds like a minor one, except it's part of a pattern of not understanding the rules. A recruiting intern made a trip this fall with Kiffin to St. Thomas Aquinas. That evidently was a no-no by NCAA rules.
Kiffin said he wasn't sure if Tennessee committed a violation, according to the Tennesseean newspaper. Tennessee Athletics Director Mike Hamilton said Saturday he does not believe one was committed. It sems from intern Steve Rubio's recent trip to Fort Lauderdale with Kiffin to recruit at St. Thomas.
No doubt a half-dozen other recruiters were at the school, too. And no doubt one of them made a point of calling Tennessee on this. When you make enemies everywhere, you can't make a mis-step anywhere, as Kiffin is finding out.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports/columnists/hyde/blog/2009/12/_tennessee_athletics_director.htmlA commenter explains the rule:By rule, only active UT coaches and assistant coaches were allowed to recruit during Kiffin's visit to St Thomas. That's the most basic rule of recruiting, one which every school follows religiously.
But what Kiffin did was: take a non-coaching-staff intern (Rubio) who just so happened to be a former St Thomas football player, bring him along on the trip as a "personal administrative assistant", then once they got onto St Thomas campus he let Rubio loose to talk to players, teachers, and coaches about how great UT and Kiffin are.
If teams were allowed to do that, Randy Shannon could just call on Michael Irvin as a "personal assistant" and he would CLEAN UP at St Thomas. Or FSU could send Boldin to Pahokee as a "personal assistant" and he would CLEAN UP there.
Dave, you keep focusing on Kiffin getting in trouble because he has enemies. But he's getting in trouble because he's outright breaking rules left and right, then playing dumb about it when he gets caught.