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Lane Kiffin: “My Model Was Obama” In Dealing With Crisis

Lane Kiffin’s not a popular guy in Tennessee. This didn’t help, this didn’t either, and neither did this. And his latest comments, featured in a Men’s Journal profile, just might be the icing on the Tennessee hatred cake.

What did he say to raise the state’s ire this time? Here was his take on how he deals with controversy:

“I could sit here and say, ‘Why did [his failed stint with the] Oakland [Raiders] happen? Why did leaving Tennessee cause the trouble it did?’ Those things happened to prep me for this, to be a stable manager in a crisis. My model was Obama and his coolness under fire, the confidence he projects during disaster.”

Emphasis ours, because, well: Tennessee is one very red state. As that link shows, Republican presidential candidates carried the state with nearly the same (strong) majority in both 2004 and 2008, with John McCain carrying nearly every county in the state two years ago. How do you think fans who already hate Kiffin will like him saying he modeled himself after the man they roundly rejected?

Kiffin is such a brilliant provocateur that one has to wonder the tiniest bit if he said this just to get another rise out of Tennesseans. If it was (for the record, we doubt it), it worked, with comments on the linked GoVolsXTra post like:

“Just when I thought I couldn’t hate the guy any more, he uses Obama as his role model.”

“If I had no other reason to hate Lane Kiffin this would be enough!”

“Kiffin’s self-analogy to Obama is perfect, as far as their lack of “positive” accomplishments. But it is a back-handed analogy used solely to appeal to the black athletes. There I said what many of you know is true, but didn’t want to say. Kiffin, like Obama, is not stupid.”

“LOLOL using Obama as his model for coolness under pressure? What he sees is coolness is actually ignorance. What a boob.”

You get the idea. Plus, it’s worth noting that if Kiffin is using Obama as his model for dealing with crisis, and the biggest crisis Obama has faced is the Gulf oil spill, which wound up moving people to, fairly or unfairly, write things like this…well, hopefully Kiffin’s not preparing for a barrage of positive attention. Especially not from Tennessee.

H/T SPORTSbyBROOKS

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