FanHouse Lane Kiffin

Lane Kiffin's off-field comments have twice earned him reprimands from the Southeastern Conference this season. But now he's finally getting mad props -- assuming people still give mad props -- thanks to the rapper Lil Wayne. In Lil's newest track, Banned From TV, the Southern rapper includes this line, "Smoke weed, talk s--- like Lane Kiffin." Now Lane Kiffin has acknowledged the endorsement via Twitter, tweeting today, "looking forward to another great practice today and a huge game Saturday ... also a huge shout-out to Lil Wayne for boosting our street cred!"

Yep, two of the South's top gangsters are already in fine form. As for fans? Well, UT fans, are already talking about, wait for it, the recruiting benefits of Lil Wayne's lyrical endorsement. Wrote a reader, Alan, this morning in an e-mail to me, "Should help with recruiting. Especially in South Florida, Louisiana, Atlanta and Memphis."

But why stop with recruiting help? Now that he's been bound and gagged by the SEC, Lane Kiffin should hop on the gangster train and play this for all it's worth.

In the wake of Tennessee's 12-10 loss to Alabama, Lane Kiffin expressed displeasure over the penalty disparity -- Alabama received one penalty for 10 yards while Tennessee received eight for 68 -- the lack of a penalty on Terrance Cody on the game's final play, and even suggested that the referees were the reason he chose to kick the field goal from 44 yards rather than run another play to move closer.

"You run another play and you throw an interception or they throw another flag on us," Kiffin said Sunday. "I wasn't going to let the refs lose the game for us there and some magical flag appear."

The SEC fired back today, reprimanding the Tennessee coach.

Southern California, with one loss already this season, has allowed a combined 63 points the past two weeks in single-digit margin victories against unranked opponents. The Trojans are ranked No. 4 in this week's AP poll and are No. 5 in the BCS rankings. In the ranking that matters (the BCS poll) USC, whose loss came to a team with a sub-.500 record (Washington), is rated ahead of three undefeated teams and nine one-loss schools. Three of those one-loss programs (No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oregon and No. 12 Penn State) fell to teams that are currently undefeated (respectively, Florida, Boise State and Iowa).

Am I missing something?

Just when you thought Saturday's Florida-Tennessee game would end the Urban Meyer-Lane Kiffin feud for a few months, the coaches couldn't leave it well-enough alone.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- It pains me to say that Lane Kiffin, the rockhead of Rocky Top, won the grudge match. He and Tennessee may have lost the football game, 23-13, but by limiting Florida's freakishly potent offense to 323 yards and forcing two rare turnovers from The Perfect Human Being (Tim Tebow), Kiffin didn't suffer nearly as much as he should have after the punkish cheap shots and low-class accusations he directed at Urban Meyer and the country's pre-eminent college program.

He was supposed to be road kill Saturday, a coaching pinata. Instead, he was wielding the stick again, irritating and even scaring Florida folks who were left to half-heartedly sing at the end, "Rocky Top, you'll always be, second in the SEC.'' No, this was not the party music that anyone had in mind, and when it was over, Kiffin left town with his limbs intact and a content look on his boyish, Dennis the Menace face. He even received a brief post-game handshake at midfield from Meyer, which was more a reflection of his rival's professionalism and dignity than any respect he might have gained for Kiffin.

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Earlier this week, Tim Brando drew a parallel between Lane Kiffin and Sarah Palin. Brando's point was that Kiffin had energized the Tennessee fan base, just as Palin set Republican hearts aflutter, but that it remained to be seen how he'd translate to the nation at large. When the rubber met the road, would Kiffin prove he could withstand the rigors of the SEC? Or would he turn into football's version of Palin, an overhyped west-coaster who couldn't handle the heat of SEC football?

By halftime, Kiffin's Vols had their answer and Tennessee-Florida had its structural metaphor. Urban Meyer is the favored and proven candidate, but Lane Kiffin is the brash-talking insurgent who didn't need to win, he just needed to prove he could compete.

At some point Tuesday, the line for the Tennessee-Florida game passed 30. Think about that for a second. Thirty points!

That is the biggest underdog the Volunteers have been in any game in the modern era. The only teams playing football anywhere in the country that are bigger dogs than Tennessee this weekend are Rice and North Texas. They're playing at Oklahoma State and at Alabama. For Florida fans, the huge line is early payback for Lane Kiffin's brazen talk in the offseason, prelude to the time when he comes to understand what The Swamp is all about.

But for the nation at large, Kiffin's talked this game into his favor. How? Lose and it's expected. Merely cover the spread and he emerges as a victor of sorts, he's avoided the horrid beating so long predicted. When can you last remember that being the case? That Tennessee could lose to Florida, and so long as they do it in a respectable manner, the losing coach wins?

Welcome down the rabbit hole of college football expectations, where perception governs reality. Kiffin is Brer Rabbit and he lives in the briar patch.

Hold a cup to your ear and listen. What do you hear? Silence. Not a peep.

That is what's resonating from the University of Florida, at least Sunday. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow says he doesn't think there's going to be any trash talking from the top-ranked Gators this week as they prepare for Saturday's SEC opener against rival Tennessee. It's no secret that first-year Volunteers coach Lane Kiffin's recruiting accusations in February have UF players extremely eager for this game, to say the least.

Pac-10 teams begin their second week of play on Saturday, highlighted by No. 3 USC's trip to Columbus to play Ohio State. It means nothing but consensus leans heavily towards the Trojans despite it being a cover of darkness road game before what Eleven Warriors calls 105,000 of college football's best hooligans, despite starting a true freshman quarterback in Matt Barkley and despite Ohio State having the tiebreaker of all tiebreakers in Terrelle Pryor.

Yeah, USC's loaded. The rest of the conference lineup Saturday is a mixed bag filled with one big road trip to SEC country, a couple middling names and a handful of regional cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes. Wait, no, bad Pac-10. Time to bag some fresh game out of say, Knoxville? Hmmm, maybe not.

Here's the top lesson from Saturday: If you're a major program, never schedule a game you can lose as your season opener. Period. This should be a rule. Why? Because we fans sit around for nine months waiting for the college football season to return, and then, in one sixty minute game, the entire season is ruined. It's just not worth it. You roll out of bed the next morning and effectively the wildest dreams of the offseason, that your team could run the table and contend for a national championship, is over.

Ask Georgia fans what they feel like this morning. Ask Tennessee fans what the last two years prior to this season felt like losing the first game of the season in California. Losing the opening game counts as two losses, it makes you feel like complete crap. And don't even get me started with how good you feel if you win an opening game. You're a liar. You don't feel good, you just feel relieved. Nothing has changed about your season if you win a big opening game. You just get to dream for one week more. On to the ClayNation Starting 11.