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Ok.  So by now you’ve already experienced your mini-meltdown over the coaching changes.  If you’re anything like me, you probably went thermo-nuclear when you found out that not only is the NCAA “probing” (ha, I know) the situation with our hostesses, but that they’re contacting our recruits.  Fret not.  The rumor mill has produced the following information:

1.  Kiffin and staff were aware of this after the fact, but did not ask the hostesses to attend the game.

2.  The hostess at the center of the controversy is originally from South Carolina and went home with some of her friends for the weekend.  While there, they attended Lattimore’s game.  Apparently they’re facebook friends.

Irrespective of how this turns out, this is not a good development this late in the recruiting game.  Maybe I’m drinking the orange Kool-aid, but something about this isn’t right.  I get Wilson going to LSU and his comments recently should dismiss any notions of foul play there.  What I don’t like is that Gran left and the next day Luc commits to FSU, then Lattimore commits to SC and the NCAA comes knocking.  There are a lot of adjectives being thrown around the message boards to describe Gran, but I’m not sure what actually happened to him.  As far as I can tell, it was too hot in the kitchen for him. I’m ok with that.  I like the idea that our staff is too intense for some people.  Wes Rucker put it best in saying we have a great administration, a ton of money, and a hungry fan base.  Will be fine.

This thing with the hostesses, though, probably looks way worse than it really is.  Were the rules bent?  Maybe, maybe not.  Will there be another Kiffin rule passed in the offseason in response?  You bet.

Gate 21 has received information from a reliable source that Jay Graham, former Vol running back during the the Reign of Peyton is currently interviewing for the running backs coach position left vacant by Eddie Gran.  Graham is currently making around $110,000 at South Carolina as their running backs and special teams coach.  Speculation is leading some to think that should UT choose to bring home the Graham-man, Hamilton would give Kiffin a little more room to operate to pursue Kippy Brown or Rob Ianello.

I know we’ve been slacking on covering the recent drama, but let me say a few things about Assistant-Gate:

1)  If Gran had something to do with Luc going to FSU, so be it.  We’ve got Michael Taylor and that boy is going to be an Al Wilson-grade stud.

2) If you put a gun to my head and told me I had to make Gran go to another school, I would say Florida State before you could finish the sentence.  Him being there is good for us because they play Florida every year and hardly ever play us.  A competitive Florida State (and for that matter, Miami) is good for us.  Also, the last time we played them, we walked away with a crystal football, so we’re good in my book.

3)  It’s good to have coaches in demand.  If another school wants one of our coaches, it means they recognize we’re doing something right.  This will also help us on the backside in recruiting new coaches in that UT can be a launching point.  I know a constant revolving door isn’t good for continuity, but I can assure you that the core of this staff (Kiffin, Orgeron, Monte) aren’t going anywhere and if Graham comes, he’ll probably join that group.

4) Graham is also recruiting well for South Carolina right now.  In light of some calls for Trooper to come back, Graham could be a deal to make everyone happy.

At the end of the day, how can you say no to a guy who did THIS to Bama?

Selby who?  Bruce bounced back by getting the #3 PF, #7 player in the country to go with the #6, and #35 SGs in the country.  Billy Donovan’s day just got so much worse.

Wait.  Before you pop the champagne corks, let me flush this one out.

I only have one source have two sources saying that Urban is heading out.

Here are some things to consider, though.

1.  Urban Meyer’s buyout clause is only $500,000.  Notre Dame sneezes at that kind of money when it comes to buying championships coaches.

2.  Urban may have suggested, by implication, that Notre Dame is his dream job.  That comes from a guy who says “I’m not leaving X for anywhere” and actually means “The movers came last weekend and my house is empty.”  He wants that job.

3.  Urban Meyer>Bob Stoops.  Do you really want to debate this one?  Fine.  Talk to the Honorable Corrine Brown.

4.  $50,000,000 over 10 years or $25,000,000 over 5 years.  Yeah, that’s a five million a year base salary.  Plus, a Nike Contract, three “projects” (read: JUCO players), and $1.2 m for a national championship. Urban’s current base salary: $4m.   [Editor's note: states secrets privilege invoked, information redacted]

5.  The SEC is getting crowded.  Urban knows he can count on Kiffin, Richt, and Surrier every year and plays the odds on getting Saban, Nutt, or Miles every other year.  Kiffin is hellbent on crushing Meyer and he knows it.  There’s nothing quite as unsettling as knowing that someone has your number.

What does this mean? Well a few things.

1.  I will be in Neyland next year for the Florida game.  Florida – Tebow and Meyer= Ole Miss.  Year Two of the Reign of Kiffin at home against my generation’s most hated rival?  I’m bringing my Florida fans with me. I may even buy their tickets for this one.

2.  Bob Stoops is going to have some ‘splaining to do.  It’s like when you try to upgrade your dating profile at your fiancee’s expense.  You usually end up on the couch.  You may end up single.

3. Pete Carroll better have this year’s ND game edited and made into a commemorative DVD.

4. The Tennesse-Notre Dame rivalry is back.  With a vengeance.

5.  Or I am completely and totally wrong on all of these points and Brian Kelly will be the next head coach of Notre Dame.

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What’s up y’all, I’m VolAmbassador and I’m new to these parts. I’ve got a bio up over in the usher’s section, so I’ll dispense with the formalities. I’d like to give you my perspective of the state of the Volunteer nation.

I’m a huge UT fan. Diehard. Like so bad, my roommate threatened to stage an intervention over my “UT addiction.”  My Pops is from Chatty and played HS ball against Reggie White. (Yeah, my dad got destroyed by Reggie White on an 48 Sweep, who’d your dad get tackled by?) Later on, he joined the Army and took the fam to Germany with him. From there we were in Virginia, so I never actually got to live in the great state of Tennessee. As a result, I’ve always been a Vol fan in exile. I know what you’re going to say:  it’s not that harsh being a Vol fan in ACC country. This was the 90s, though, and everyone hated us for Peyton. I remember how crushed I was when Nebraska owned us in the ’98 Orange Bowl and how much it sucked to deal with all the bandwagon Michigan fans the next week.

In 1998, though, I got make my pilgrimage to the Big Orange Mecca. My grandmother came into the possession of three tickets on the 50 yard-line, 20 rows back for the Kentucky game. I can still remember Shawn Bryson ripping off that 57- yard touchdown on a fullback dive. I had never seen a guy that big run that fast. That year took my fanhood to another level. From that day on, I have lived for Tennessee football.

My time at Tennessee, though, corresponded with Fulmer’s backslide. I was there when Wilhoit broke the Gators’ hearts, but I was also there when Vandy ended the streak. Fortunately, I wasn’t there for Wyoming, but at a law school that has a significant Florida population, it sucked all the same. That brings us to this year. Actually, that brings us to the circus that was the off-season.

When Fulmer got up in front of that mic, it hurt. I felt like I was Mike Hamilton and I had just told the most successful coach since the General that we didn’t want him anymore. After that, I joined every other Vol in American obsessing about who the new coach would be. My hope was that we’d get Kelly or Leach. I loved the idea of high powered offenses blowing the SEC away. It was during this time that I found the guys over at 3SiB and the fantastic preview of coaches. I saw for the first time something about the guy that Al Davis had sacked for trying to kick field goals from his own end zone. I also discovered that he could bring some yahoo named Orgeron with him. I was intrigued.

I lost sleep over the coaching change like a kid loses sleep thinking about presents under the tree. Would it be an offensive minded coach who would bring an explosive running and passing tandem? Would it be a defensive minded coach who would have players bring the rain? Would it be pro-style? Would it be spread? Would it be gimmick? Then the text came. My buddy was at his grandfather’s house and they had just gotten a call from a big booster buddy who told them it was going to be Lane. It was the only inside information I had ever received and it came 20 minutes before Chris Low broke the story.

Lane came in with guns blazing. He called out Meyer, Saban, and Richt like he didn’t care. I know there has been a lot of hoopla about the “cheating” fiasco, but accusing Meyer of cheating was one of the most significant things Kiffin will be remembered for doing. Anyone who has seen a TV show or movie involving a trial knows that dirty trick where a lawyer asks a damaging question that has nothing to do with the trial. Opposing counsel jumps up and screams objection, the judge affirms, and tells the jury to disregard the comments. It doesn’t matter, though. The jury knows the witness is dirty and trifling and they don’t listen to another word. Kiffin pulled the college football equivalent of this move. He destroyed the aura of reverence around the Keeper of the Tebow.  He called out the one man in the country who had proven he could make a game a full sixty minutes of shame. The best part is, though, he didn’t give a $*&@.

The next six months saw more media exposure for a coach who loved the limelight. We pulled a monster class that was ranked ridiculously high before we got two of the best recruits in the country in Brown and Oku. Then we went through a bland spring game that should have tempered some of those 9-3 and 10-2 predictions out there. It didn’t and the WKU game would prove to be just one more vat of Orange Kool-Aid.

If this season could get scripted and played out on Friday Night Lights, it would take that show to new heights.  I loved Phil, but I hated what Phil did. He was boring, he was dull, he was a punching bag for goodness sake! Kiffster is anything but. That guy could make a seminar on the administrative law of widget copyrights exciting.   Add Orgeron to the equation and you can understand why they have the ears of the nation’s best recruits.

This season has had some serious low points (see, last weekend), but we’ve had some great highs. Ten years from now, when we’re staring back on a few SEC Championships and a crystal football or two, we’ll only remember a few things about this season. First, we’ll remember the baller Jonathan Crompton became and how he did it in the face of death threats. Second, we’ll remember it as Bryce Brown’s first year and how he either boomed or busted from there. Third, we’ll remember the look on Spurrier’s face when he realized he had become the past and Kiffin was the future. Finally, we’ll remember the Second Battle of the Alamo the Florida game in the Swamp and the hit.

Someone once told me that the trick to getting what you want is to stop expecting it to look how you imagined it to be. Well Vol fans, I think we got everything we wanted. We have a dynamic, exciting, young head coach who’s committed to the program for the long-run and won’t take anything from anyone. We have a killer recruiting staff that has those boys at Scout and Rivals working overtime. We have an explosive offense and a monster D. We have national attention that is quickly remembering to respect us. We’re on our way to having everything we did under Fulmer, only this time we have a coach who is generous enough to tell Florida and Alabama how we feel about them.

I couldn’t be more excited as a Vol fan right now. UCLA and Ole Miss be damned. The next few years are going to be a helluva lot of fun.