Lane Kiffin’s single season at Tennessee is remembered less for the football and more for the pure, unadulterated chaos that followed it. He’s now at LSU after even more of a dramatic exit from Ole Miss, but some of the poor choices he made with the Vols head coach cap on followed him to Baton Rouge.
LSU legend Tyrann Mathieu could have been another iconic name Kiffin could have added to his resume had he not passed up on him during the 2009 recruiting camp at Knoxville.
A three-star, undersized cornerback out of St. Augustine High School in New Orleans traveled up to Knoxville for Kiffin’s elite summer camp. Mathieu didn’t have much national buzz, but he absolutely tore up the field. Kiffin, however, never extended an offer.
Just a few weeks after being passed on by Tennessee, Mathieu attended a similar 7-on-7 camp at LSU. The then-head coach, Les Miles, didn’t hesitate, recognizing the potential right away that Kiffin’s staff had overlooked and locked down Mathieu’s commitment for the 2010 class.
Years later, the same safety went on a Super Bowl run and was now hosting the same head coach on his own podcast In the Bayou.
Honey Badger Playfully Calls Out Lane Kiffin
GettyLSU legend Tyrann Mathieu calls out Lane Kiffin for passing on him during his recruiting camp at Tennessee.
Mathieu wasted absolutely no time grilling the new LSU head coach, immediately dragging Lane Kiffin for the monumental recruiting blunder he committed back at Tennessee.
Sitting right across from him, the Honey Badger forced Kiffin to answer for the infamous 2009 summer camp snub that cost the Vols a generational icon.
“How did you miss out on me, man, at Tennessee that year? I was the best player in that camp,” Mathieu asked.
True to form, Kiffin jokingly deflected the blame onto his former 2009 defensive assistants, Ed Orgeron and Frank Wilson. He noted how the defensive report he received claimed Mathieu “didn’t really run a good 40 time and wasn’t quite that tall,” cementing it as one of the ultimate evaluation whiffs in SEC history.
“I brought Orgeron down. He was supposed to stay for this question because he was the recruiting coordinator that day… He takes the blame for that,” Kiffin said.
“I was more with the offensive guys, and Coach O and Frank Wilson were there. So they kind of gave me the defensive report and they’re like man, he didn’t really run a good 40, like not quite that tall, so I’m blaming Frank and Orgeron for that.”
How the Tables Turned for Kiffin
GettyLSU legend Tyrann Mathieu demands answers from Lane Kiffin for passing on him as Tennessee head coach.
Kiffin actually improved the Vols’ record in the season that followed to 7–6, an upgrade from the previous season’s 5-7. But that was the only good part.
Everything bad followed shortly after when he ditched Tennessee 14 months into the job, in the middle of the night, to take the head coaching vacancy at USC.
The sudden exit triggered near-riots on campus, with furious students lighting mattresses on fire and blocking the athletic department complex—solidifying his exit as one of the most chaotic departures in SEC history.
Back in Baton Rouge, the undersized, three-star prospect was immediately making every program that passed on him pay. Mathieu exploded onto the scene as a true freshman, taking home Defensive MVP honors. His sophomore season was in a league of its own. Honey Badgher became a household name after he cemented himself as the most dangerous punt returner in the country, breaking open the SEC Championship game against Georgia with a legendary house-call.
Plus, took home the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defender, won SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and shattered the baseline mold by finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
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