I still think Kiffin has the potential to be a really great HC and I'm not sure exactly what happened the last few games
I know exactly what happened.
Go look at the opponents - they played one P5 opponent with a winning record (6-5 UK) and won by 3.
Then they played 4 of 5 games against teams with winning record and lost all four.
unless Lane let himself become too distracted by AUs efforts at throwing the bank at him.
But just to provide some context..
In 2017-2019 OM was 6-6, 5-7, and 4-8 under Matt Luke
Kiffin had a mess to clean up.
I can see Sexton right now: "Hey, Kiffin might have lost a red hawt wife and been sleeping with everything that moves, but he's NO MATT LUKE!!"
he beat 5-6 Kentucky, 2-8 SCAR, 0-9 Vandy, 4-7 MSU, and got a bowl game because of Covid (and avoided a losing record only because the aTm game was cancelled.
but last year was 10-3 with a Final ranking of 11
He improved, I'll give him that. But 21 Vols weren't as good as 20 Gators - and Harsin had replaced Gus in Auburn, too.
This year they were 8-1 with a chance to actually win the West and were ranked in the Top 10
Because all the good teams on their schedule were in the final month.
They fell apart at the finish I won't deny that and it is concerning how they went 1-4 in the last 5 with a couple of bad losses.
But I'm just saying to have them hovering around the Top 10 already shows some promise.
They got a boost from beating UK, who turned out to be not so good.
I'm still wondering if he would not take as many chances on Offense if he had a defense he trusted. He seems to take risks and chase points too early in games because he knows or thinks he doesn't have to horses to play other teams straight up.
I think he's another in the long line of Gus Malzahn-style coaches who can compile a light up the scoreboard and run razzle dazzle high school crap offenses but can't adjust to save his life.
His close loss last night was solely because Will Rogers never met a football he did like and fumbled the chance away.