Vols turn down invite to play Fighting Kiffins in '11

[Salt City Sooner]

Interesting....


In the latest round of the Lane Kiffin-Tennessee saga, the USC coach approached the Volunteers about meeting in the 2011 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

Tennessee, the program Kiffin abruptly left for USC early this year, declined the invitation.

Reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon, Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said, "We told [USC] we could play 'em in a few years but we can't make it work with our schedule next year."

Hamilton said he was initially approached about the potential match-up a few months ago by Gary Stokan, the Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO. Hamilton also said Kiffin had recently sent him some text messages about the proposal.

The Vols' tentative 2011 schedule as of now includes home games against Cincinnati, Georgia and LSU and road games at Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5361101

[badger]

I heard that the Vols are recruiting the junior/senior SC players that can transfer without penalty.... like a little revenge for crazy Coach O telling new Vol signees to not enroll so that they could join the coach defectors en route to SC too.

In any event, Los Angeles college football already had a mouth, so I wish Kiffie stayed at Rocky Top. He made the SEC a lot more fun off-field. Now Tennessee is just boring again till basketball season.

[oudavid1]

I dont blame em one bit

[Mad Dog Madsen]

Well Kiffin left them in bad shape. I wouldn't wanna play them next year either. Seems like their schedule is pretty much set anyways.

[Jacie]

I heard that the Vols are recruiting the junior/senior SC players that can transfer without penalty....

Apparently, they got one.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-usc-seantrelhenderson

from the article:
USC releases top recruit Henderson
Jul 6, 6:13 pm EDT

Defensive end Malik Jackson also announced he will transfer to Tennessee. The 6-foot-5, 245-pound junior from Los Angeles has two years of eligibility left. He appeared in 13 games last season and had 18 tackles and 3.5 sacks.

[yermom]

The Vols' tentative 2011 schedule as of now includes home games against Cincinnati, Georgia and LSU and road games at Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas.

if they are already playing NC, and Cincy, i can understand not playing USC

that already looks like a pretty tough schedule. adding the Trojans would be brutal

[Collier11]

Yes, UNC is about to be really good under Butch

[Sabanball]

Tenn had everything to gain and nothing to lose by accepting this invitation, IMO. And they could have built it up as a huge revenge game too. Yet another bad decision by Mike Hamilton, I think.

[yermom]

i think they'll be struggling to be bowl eligible as it is. no major teams that i'm aware of schedules 3 BCS teams out of conference