After being turned down by Mike Riley, Jack Del Rio and (maybe) Jeff Fisher, and with their head coach search beginning to look fairly comical, Troy brought back a former golden boy: Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin, USC’s old offensive coordinator. That in turn prompted laughs from many. Kiffin’s well-publicized spats with Al Davis and the entire SEC, along with a dubious record as a head coach in both the NFL and college, have prompted a none-too-flattering image. Which is all good, except it means nothing. Kiffin’s hiring is a tactical move.
Why? He’s bringing some serious backup. His father, Monte, his defensive coordinator at Tennessee, is assuming the same responsibilities at USC. Monte Kiffin is one of the preeminent defensive minds in the history of football. He literally created an entire scheme (the Tampa 2) and is compensated accordingly — he was the highest paid assistant at the college level last year. But that’s not all. Ed Orgeron, Kiffin’s associate head coach, will also be coming back to USC, where he previously served as the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. All three have head coaching experience at the collegiate level. And then there’s Norm Chow, one of the top offensive coaches in the country and a quarterback guru, who may leave UCLA to go back to USC — ESPN reported as much, but the Bruins have said that nothing is certain yet — where he will regain his old position of offensive coordinator.
Chow and Monte Kiffin are longtime members of football’s elite. So why is Orgeron such a pain? Because back in the Trojan glory days of the early and mid-2000s, Kiffin and Orgeron formed one of the most potent recruiting duos in all of college football — they put together the No. 1 rated class in 2003 and 2004. In their only season at Tennessee and after getting a late jump on recruiting, they scored the No. 8 class. What does this mean? In the short term, that USC is likely to hold onto the recruits that they were in danger of losing after Pete Carroll left — Kyle Prater, the No. 2 wide receiver in the country, was planning on enrolling early, but opened up his commitment after Carroll’s departure. Now? He’s back on board and will soon be starting classes at USC. In the long term, it indicates that Troy’s ability to attract five-star talent won’t be going anywhere. In fact, recruiting may actually improve from its recent, still-excellent level. And that No. 7 ranked class Kiffin was putting together at Tennessee this year? Expect it to be gutted by the Trojans.
The gamble is on Kiffin’s abilities as a coach, as he has not yet proven to be a great head man. But he was wildly successful as a coordinator and certainly has the potential to lead. Let’s also acknowledge that Oakland is where NFL futures go to die and Tennessee had a couple of stars but otherwise generally mediocre talent when Kiffin took over and he still got them to a bowl game and a winning record, despite playing in the ever-difficult SEC. That run included a near-victory over eventual champion Alabama in one of the Crimson Tide’s two toughest games of the season. Now, he is at home at USC with a plethora of talent to work with at a school that will do nearly anything to win. And it wasn’t too long ago that the Trojans brought in an NFL retread with a murky record to coach the program, who also happened to be their fourth choice.
The most curious aspect of the move is that ostensibly, USC would want a clean leader in light of the Athletics Department’s continued investigation at the hands of the NCAA. Kiffin, who has had his own battle with ethics complaints, does not fit that mold. All bets are off if USC is sanctioned. But if they aren’t and the program proceeds as usual, it should be fine — even if it takes Kiffin a while to pan out and mature. Or if he doesn’t at all, he has still assembled a staff that will keep USC afloat and prospering both on and off the field.
How does this hurt Stanford? On game day, they’re competing with Monte Kiffin, whose defenses could be flat-out scary with USC’s athletes. Chow, if he does go back to Troy, will have a nice little pet project in the uber-talented but underachieving Matt Barkley. Simply put, having Kiffin and Chow together as coordinators is just about as close to a dream team as possible.
In terms of recruiting, the Cardinal may not be hit as hard as other Pac-10 schools. Their talent pool is different, if only because of academic restrictions — Stanford can’t go after a lot of the players that USC can, although there are the occasional crossovers, like Tyler Gaffney in 2009 and Jordan Zumwalt in 2010. The issue is mainly with USC’s continued ability to be the best recruiters in the conference.
This all said, Stanford doesn’t inherently have anything to fear. Since Jim Harbaugh took over, they’re 2-1 against Pete Carroll coached Troy and no one would put Kiffin even close to his predecessor’s level, no matter his assistants. But for those who were hoping that USC’s coaching turmoil would prompt seasons of mediocrity from the program, let’s make it clear: that is not going to happen.

Wyndam Makowsky is just keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. Ask him what he really feels about USC at makowsky “at” stanford.edu.