USC Commits 13 Year Old Quarterback

Every once in a while you hear stories as ridiculous as this story about the 13 year old kid, David Sills of Delaware, committing to USC to play Quarterback. I can rant forever about why this is dumb, un-newsworthy, and pretty much a disgrace to recruiting rules past and present, but let's take a step back from everything and take a look at who is behind this disasterpiece.

That would be Lane Kiffin.

You know Lane, the guy who couldn't cut it in the NFL but get a top tier job at Tennessee, and could barely cut it there so he got an elite tier job at USC. Yeah, that guy. The one who has gotten three sweet gigs while accomplishing nothing in his life. Besides being the son of a Super Bowl winning defensive coordinator I suppose. And Lane was a successful assistant under Pete Carroll at USC, but c'mon folks, what assistant wasn't successful under Pete Carroll at USC.

Anyway, one of the reasons that this story is un-newsworthy is because the kid is still in 7th grade. Between now and the time he hits his senior season in High School a number of things could happen; his body may not develop the way a successful quarterbacks body is supposed to, a number of quarterbacks may pass him by, many of whom probably won't put on pads until they get to 9th grade, and finally, this 13 year old kid now has an "X" on his back in every game he plays in between now and the time he puts on the Trojans colors.

Do you really think that undersized but downright nasty defensive end that lines up against Sills is really going to take it easy on the kid? Because I don't.

Perhaps what Kiffin is doing is setting the Trojans up for success for a few years down the road. You know, when their NCAA punishment is lifted. I don't project their punishment to be "SMU death penalty" status, but I expect it to be pretty harsh. Harsh enough to give Kiffin an excuse to fail at least.

So I guess I'll make it clear before we never talk about this kid again, David Sills will never make it to USC as their quarterback, chances are he won't even make it to the FBS, and Lane Kiffin will not be USC's head coach by the time Sills is a senior in High School.

Trust me, I'm not Nostradamus, but this is common sense.

Lane Kiffin to USC: The Best Thing to Happen to Tennessee Since Peyton Manning

USC have finally settled down on their head coach, landing (now former) Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin.

For USC it seems like a little bit of rushed decision. It seems like they couldn't land Harbaugh, or Del Rio, or any other major candidate and instead landed themselves what they didn't want; an unproven, thus far unsuccessful head coach.

Of course Kiffin comes fully equipped with his defensive coordinator father, but overall the decision looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Kiffin's antics in the SEC were a disgrace this past year, magnify them in Los Angeles and you're looking at something pretty awful brewing at SC.

As for Tennessee, once the storm clears the skies will be a lot more clear on Rocky Top. Kiffin was never going to out-recruit Saban or Meyer. Kiffin could recruit well nationally, but that's not hard to do when you coach at Tennessee, one of the premiere SEC schools.

USC will be fine, it's one of the top five programs in America. Recruiting will recover, and they'll win a bunch of games these next two years because of Pete Carroll's recruits. It's in the long term that we'll see the results.

Tennessee will land a great coach; As good of a job that USC is for "high profile" coaches, Tennessee is for "real ball" coaches. Kiffin was never going to develop into an SEC level coach. He was never going to be Phillip Fulmer. The program learned from their mistake of hiring Kiffin, and now they're going to find themselves a real coach.

So USC got what they think they wanted, and Tennessee will get what they really wanted. We won't be able to really judge this situation until 2013 though.