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Lane Kiffin says outrageous preseason comments were calculated

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To call Lane Kiffin’s desk just a desk would be grossly insufficient.

It is big and sleek, set on a platform so that visitors seated before him must crane their necks slightly as if gazing up at a shrine.

And Kiffin doesn’t like it much.

The new Tennessee football coach says this piece of furniture came with the office and he’d rather talk in a backroom where the mini-fridge is stocked with cold drinks and there are comfortable leather couches, one of which is strewn with blankets for late nights at work.

In this way, Kiffin doesn’t seem too different from his time as a young USC assistant, low-key in a T-shirt and shorts. Though he remains extremely self-confident, it is a quiet sort of bravado.

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Which makes his behavior over the last nine months all the more puzzling.

“Some of the stuff I had to do,” he says. “I didn’t like it.”

The moment he arrived in Knoxville last winter, the guy began shooting his mouth off in every conceivable direction, promising victories, taking shots at rival Southeastern Conference coaches and bragging about stealing top assistants from their staffs.

“I had to be aggressive. I had to attack,” he says.

Not that he is apologizing. Far from it. Still, there is a hint of remorse.

“People who don’t know me, they think that’s how I am,” he says. “They think that’s how I’ve always been.”

Now, after opening the season with a blowout victory over Western Kentucky, his team preparing to face UCLA at home on Saturday, Kiffin wants those people to understand.

Big words

It started with his first news conference in Knoxville, the coach announcing his plans to sing “Rocky Top” all night long after defeating Florida on Sept. 19.

That would be the same Florida currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.

If the comment raised eyebrows, well, Kiffin was just getting warmed up.

With a tall, gangly frame and soft features, he can seem downright languid until you hear him on the practice field or during games, the edge in his voice, flashes of intensity that burn hot.

In early February, after national signing day, he criticized Florida Coach Urban Meyer for calling a recruit’s cellphone while the player was visiting Tennessee. Receiver Nu’Keese Richardson ultimately signed with the Volunteers, prompting Kiffin to add: “I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn’t get him.”

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The SEC quickly issued a reprimand -- and Kiffin apologized -- because the call wasn’t a violation. About a week later, though, he addressed the talents of unsigned recruit Bryce Brown on the radio, which was a violation.

The following weeks brought a verbal jousting match with South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, who questioned whether Kiffin had taken the required coach’s test on NCAA rules. They also reportedly had a testy encounter on an elevator at the SEC’s spring meeting.

And Kiffin delivered a jab at Alabama’s Nick Saban, amid bragging about hiring away top recruiters from the Crimson Tide, South Carolina and Auburn.

One more thing: By the end of spring, the Volunteers had amassed a string of secondary violations. In one case, they used a fog machine as recruits emerged from a tunnel at Neyland Stadium, the same misdeed that Kiffin’s former USC colleague, Steve Sarkisian, committed at Washington.

Florida offensive lineman Matt Patchan was asked what he might say if he passed Kiffin on the street.

“I’ve got nothing to say to that guy,” Patchan told the Gainesville Sun. “He’s a bozo.”

The plan

Go back to 2001, a 26-year-old tight ends coach at USC, temperamental in practice. More than once, it seemed that Kiffin’s players might punch him.

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“One time, I was going to deck him,” former USC assistant Ed Orgeron said. “He was kind of cocky and brash.”

But the son of veteran NFL coordinator Monte Kiffin possessed a lifetime of football knowledge. He improved at controlling his emotions and, when Norm Chow left abruptly in 2005, was promoted to offensive coordinator, sharing duties with Sarkisian.

Then came an unexpected turn. In 2007, the 31-year-old became coach of the Oakland Raiders.

Given his youth and the dysfunctional nature of the Raiders organization, it is no surprise he lasted less than a season and a half, going 5-15 before owner Al Davis abruptly fired him, claiming insubordination.

Kiffin tries to put a positive spin on the situation: “The No. 1 thing people talk about with head coaches is experience. Well, you can’t have experience unless you’ve been a head coach.”

His father offers a different take: “The Oakland thing crushed him. He knew what he was taking on, but he’s a very optimistic person and it didn’t work out like he hoped.”

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Either way, Kiffin jumped at the next challenge, taking over a Tennessee program that had slipped into mediocrity.

If nothing else, the Oakland experience taught him there is no time for five-year rebuilding plans, especially at a school where the former coach, Phillip Fulmer, won 74% of his games and still was fired after a 5-7 season. With signing day fast approaching, he needed to jump-start the Volunteers’ recruiting.

After luring his father from the NFL to serve as defensive coordinator, Kiffin hired a few of those rival assistants who had ties throughout the South. He also went after an old friend.

Orgeron had spent three seasons as the coach at Mississippi before taking an assistant’s job with the New Orleans Saints. He had little interest in returning to college until Kiffin flew down with a contract in hand.

Together, they hoped to re-create their halcyon days at USC, where they had combined to lure blue-chip players to what was then a similarly struggling program.

But this time, there were complications.

With very little home-grown talent, Tennessee has always needed to raid other schools’ backyards. And, coming off a disappointing season, the Volunteers had slipped off the national radar screen.

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As Kiffin put it: “We had to find a way to get attention.”

No backing down

Thus began a campaign based on the notion that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Once, while at USC, Kiffin had called out star receiver Dwayne Jarrett for lack of production. Otherwise, he had always been fairly cautious with his public comments.

Now, he spouted one headline-grabbing quote after another, popping up everywhere from Sports Illustrated to ESPN’s “SportsCenter” to USA Today.

The media suggested he was either cunning or, more often, an idiot. Even some friends wondered if he had temporarily lost his mind.

“I know that to a lot of people on the outside, it probably looked kind of weird, kind of bad,” Tennessee safety Eric Berry said.

To players who had just suffered through a disappointing season and a coaching change, who felt cast adrift, the new guy sounded just right.

“We felt like he had a lot of confidence in us and that he had our back,” Berry said. “What player wouldn’t want to play for a coach like that?”

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More to the point, over the next few months Tennessee began to score on the recruiting trail.

There was plenty of hard work to match the talk. Monte Kiffin recalls his reintroduction to the college game, leaving Knoxville predawn, traveling to three cities to meet recruits.

“All in one day,” the 69-year-old said. “It felt like I’d been on the road for a month.”

Not shy about going after players who had committed elsewhere, the Volunteers signed a top-10 class by stealing receiver Richardson from Florida, running back Brown from Miami and cornerback Janzen Jackson from Louisiana State.

Outlandish statements apparently play well on the high school scene.

“I love Coach Kiffin,” said Brown, who was among the nation’s top-rated prep rushers. “Coach Kiffin doesn’t back down.”

It’s time

Billboards all over the city -- and a few in nearby states -- show Kiffin at practice with the message: “It’s Time.”

Time to get down to winning football games.

It remains to be seen whether an influx of young talent can help a team that lacks depth and must rely on a quarterback, Jonathan Crompton, who had more interceptions than touchdown passes last season.

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Though Crompton had a big day against overmatched Western Kentucky, and the Berry-led defense dominated in a 63-7 victory, Tennessee is still expected to finish behind Florida and Georgia in the SEC East.

This much seems certain: The Volunteers won’t lack for enemies. Recall that Meyer and the Gators exacted revenge on Georgia last season by building a 39-point lead, then calling two timeouts to prolong the game’s final minute.

Regardless, Kiffin believes his recruiting success justifies any debatable behavior. He also points out that his controversy quotient has dropped since training camp began.

Calling it “a definite relief” not to be making headlines, he adds: “I think you always revert back to who you really are.”

His critics might interpret this comment differently, but that’s an argument for another day.

Right now, Kiffin jumps off the couch and hurries away, rushing past that extravagant desk, headed for a coaches meeting. He has no more time to talk.

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david.wharton@latimes.com

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