UF v. UT, The Feud Continues

If UT ever beats Florida again, this Kiffin-Meyer rivalry is going to be fantastic. 

The latest comes in the wake of Ut’s recent loss to the Gators, their 4th in a row bye the bye, when was asked whether he was worried about the flu hitting Tennessee, he said: “I don’t know. I guess we’ll wait and after we’re not excited about a performance, we’ll tell you everybody was sick.”  This thinly veiled barb is Kiffin’s crack-back against Meyer for saying that UT wasn’t trying to win the game on Saturday, which they weren’t, and that Florida’s conservative play was partially spawned by UT’s evident offensive impotence, and partially due to some key players having the flu. 

Kiffin wasn’t done either, telling the same reporter that “he wished he could play Florida again,” and “[n]ext time they [Florida] will be without Tebow.” 

The more conciliatory of the Gators have attempted to mitigate Kiffin’s comments by recalling the brash OBC, who coined such memorables as “Free Shoes University” and “[y]ou can’t spell Citrus without UT.”  True, we Gators lapped it up while the rest of the league fumed.  More discerning minds, however, might point out a small difference between the OBC and Kiffin:  Florida was winning games before the OBC wnet public, a lot of them. 

Until now, SNL has staunchly defended Baby Kiffin’s right to poke at Urban on grounds that Kiffin’s comments were the only thing that spawned any interest in this game outside of Gainesville and Knoxville.  This latest round, however, has cast Kiffin in a new light, making him seem petulant rather than precocious, boastful rathern than brave, pouty rather than competitive.  There is now enough evidence to believe that Kiffin is little more than spoiled brat who has had doors opened for him by his legendary father.  Kiffin’s track record certainly bolsters this assertion, he is now 7-17 as a head coach and UT’s appearance in a bowl game in 2009 is tenuous at best.  For comparative purposes, Kiffin’s former colleague, Sarkisian, has 2-1 record with a narrow defeat to a top-10 team and an upset win over a top-5 team, but has yet to take a shot at any of the PAC-10 coaches. 

Kiffin’s Vols did some good things against UF, but they did more mediocre and bad and all but the most partisan would agree that UT was never a threat to win against the Gators.  And yet, the mouthing-off continues.  The UT faithful will continue to drink the Kiffin-punch, for awhile.  But the time will come when losing to UF and Alabama year in and year out, no motter how fine the margin, will be unacceptable.  Until then, Kiffin’s barbs will rightfully be construed by the rest of us as the tantrums of a boy playing in a conference for men. 

-So Sayeth the Shepherd