USC paid Lane Kiffin, Monte Kiffin combined $3.9M in 2010

The University of Southern California paid head football coach Lane Kiffin $2.4 million in 2010 and paid his father, assistant head coach Monte Kiffin, more than $1.5 million, according to the school’s new federal tax return.

The return, obtained Wednesday by USA TODAY Sports, means Monte Kiffin was — and likely remains — the nation’s highest-paid college football assistant coach

read more: usatoday.com

Tigers, Trojans, Tide exit spring practice atop Power Rankings

Other than deciding how to split the money, the most difficult task facing conference commissioners in the next few months is devising the system that will select the teams that play in the upcoming playoff. Do they keep the current BCS ranking system? Do they follow the model of the NCAA basketball and baseball tournaments and empanel a selection committee? Do they develop an entirely new ranking formula?

Read more: si.com

QB Max Browne commits to USC

Lane Kiffin and the USC program added a prize ESPNU 150 Watch List prospect to its class of 2013 on Wednesday when Sammamish (Wash.) Skyline quarterback Max Browne chose the Trojans over Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington at a news conference at his high school.

Browne is considered one of the nation’s top prep passers after completing 70 percent of his passes for 4,034 yards and 45 touchdowns as a junior.

The commitment doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Browne decided to announce his decision immediately after a three-day unofficial visit to USC, where he was able to spend time with the Trojans coaches as well as some one-on-one time with quarterback Matt Barkley.

Read more: espn.com

Lane Kiffin’s Trojans enter the spring looking to add depth for a national title run

USC’s absence from the elite was a short one. As in two years.

The Trojans’ run of seven consecutive 11-win seasons ended in 2009 with a 9-4 mark, and an 8-5 record followed in 2010. But the Trojans again won double-figure games last season, going 10-2, and this season is setting up as a potential title-winning campaign.

Third-year coach Lane Kiffin oversees a team returning 15 full-time starters, and the Trojans will have one of the most potent offenses in the nation thanks to the return of QB Matt Barkley and the nation’s best receiving duo (WRs Marqise Lee and Robert Woods). Four starting offensive linemen are back, as is starting TB Curtis McNeal.

Read more from YahooSports.com

3.6.12

Trojans hope small class doesn’t limit their potential

Quality over quantity. That was the catch phrase USCpreached to describe the even-smaller-than-expected recruiting class that football Coach Lane Kiffin announced after the Trojans’ first foray into three years of scholarship restrictions.

If targeted players went elsewhere, the Trojans stood pat. No need to reach and settle for second-tier talent, their theory went.

Given that the Trojans can ill afford to miss on prospects as they enter an era of NCAA-sanctioned scholarship limits, the rationale seemed appropriate. USC, limited to signing a maximum of 15 players for three years, still attracted talent that should help it weather the future and perhaps thrive.

Read more from LATimes.com

2.3.12

Can Kiffin coach? Maybe the answer is yes

If Lane Kiffin keeps this up, he’s in danger of becoming “coach Lane Kiffin,” not “Lane @#%$@ Kiffin” or “%&@# Kiffin” or just “@#$%@,” for short.

You say “Lane Kiffin” to a college football fan — a football fan, really — and you get many reactions. Most of the bad. Dude has some baggage. He’s best known for off-field controversies in large part because he’s not done much — good or even bad — on the field.

Read more from ESPN.com

11.23.11

In the last couple of weeks, word has leaked out of Knoxville that the NCAA is still digging into the Vol football program for possible violations that took place under Kiffin’s watch.

For several months, UT athletic director Mike Hamilton had passed along word to Vol fans — through the Knoxville media — that the football investigation was concluded.  Only small violations had been discovered, he claimed.

Not so, apparently.  First, the NCAA believes it has dirt proving that UT’s coaches were actively involved in a fall of 2009 recruiting trip taken by a pair of Vol hostesses to South Carolina.  That transgression made national news and sullied UT’s reputation.  If coaches were involved — like Kiffin’s own brother-in-law, former UT quarterbacks coach David Reaves — then the black eye could become a cancer.

Read more of “UT Still At Mercy Of Kiffin, Orgeron, Reaves” on MrSEC.com
2.15.11