college football

Everyone's a winner on college football's signing day, except the recruiting services that provide the rankings.

After the prospects become actual college players, the star rankings will be dissected, and when another Aaron Curry or Mark Ingram falls through the system, it will be Miller Safrit's fault, or one of his colleagues at Scout.com or its competitor, Rivals.com.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee's 2010 recruiting class won't rank as its best. But it might be remembered as the Volunteers' most reassuring class.

The program has lost at least six games in three of the last five seasons and has had three different head coaches in 15 months. Yet it hasn't lost its allure to recruits from all over the country.

When new University of Tennessee football assistant Terry Joseph showed up just across the Mississippi border this week to visit highly touted Olive Branch High offensive linemen Shon Coleman and Damien Robinson, he had to take a deep breath.

Football is violent. Strong men, some of the meanest and fastest, clash on Saturdays and Sundays in the fall. Their bones break. Their bodies hurt. And in the end, half of them are smiling.

LOS ANGELES - Some new coaches get a greeting.

Lane Kiffin got a grilling, instead.

Which only shows Kiffin may yet live up to his Wednesday vow to assemble the best coaching staff in America -- but there's justifiable skepticism that the weak link isn't at the top.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Former University of Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer says is not seeking the Tennessee coaching job.

Fulmer made the statement Thursday morning in a release from CBS Sports for whom Fulmer has worked as a football commentator since his firing from UT following the 2008 season.

As Lane Kiffin left town for the Oakland Raiders three years ago, the last thing I remember hearing from my loose consortium of friends who love USC football, was: good riddance.

I can't wait to hear what they think now as Young Kiffin returns a conquering hero, ready to run the whole show.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The consensus opinion on Tennessee's hiring of young football coach Lane Kiffin was that he would be a boom or bust. But no one expected to have the answer a year after he was hired.

Turns out he was both. He accomplished enough in one year at Tennessee to land the head-coaching job at Southern California.

He succeeded. But he failed the Vols.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - An estimated crowd of 1,000 Tennessee fans gathered on campus Tuesday night to protest Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin's sudden resignation.

Fans burned Lane Kiffin T-shirts, a mattress and chanted obscenities, blocking Kiffin's path from the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex as he and his father, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, stayed in their offices.

LOS ANGELES - As soon as outgoing football coach Pete Carroll's last "Thanks for the memories" echoed off the Heritage Hall walls Monday afternoon, a gaggle of reporters followed Southern California athletic director Mike Garrett from the room.

"It's Pete's day," said Garrett several times as he walked away and didn't stop. "I'm not talking."