Is Talk Actually Cheap?

Rivalries in college football have always featured some form of trash-talking. Most of the time, however, such talk goes on between opposing players, not opposing coaches. Most rivalries aren’t Tennessee and Florida, whose coaches, Urban Meyer & Lane Kiffin have taken the rivalry to a new level in the past eight months, at least from a media perspective.

It all started on December 1, 2008, when the new Tennessee coach told reporters he was looking forward to “singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida.” Obviously, Kiffin’s comments were in jest. He couldn’t have actually thought he inherited a group of players capable of knocking off the best team in the nation.

It didn’t stop there, however, as just 4 weeks later, Kiffin told Tennessee boosters about a recruit the Vols lured away from Florida. Kiffin explained that he loved the fact that “Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him. ” Once again, Kiffin was simply being Kiffin. He probably knew word was going to get out. That might not have been a bad thing. After all, no press is bad press.

In case you thought those two zingers were enough, they weren’t. In the aftermath of last week’s semi-competitive game between the Vols and the Gators (in which Florida was a 30 point favorite), Meyer told a local television affiliate he felt Tennessee “wasn’t going for the win” by handing the ball off late in the heated contest. Meyer also stated that the flu had played a role in his team’s performance. He spoke of a “panic level of proportion I've never seen before” in regards to the flu concern in his locker roon. Kiffin wouldn’t be outdone, telling reporters that “we'll wait and after we're not excited about a performance, we'll tell you everybody was sick.”

A little talk never hurt anyone, but at the end of the day, results are what people really remember. Urban Meyer drew first blood in the latest chapter of one of the SEC’s most visible rivalries. Lane Kiffin has an entire year to get ready for Florida’s trip to Neyland Stadium in Knoxville next September. The smart thing to do would be to spend the coming year recruiting, scheming, and coaching to even up the playing field with the Gators.

If there’s one thing Coach Kiffin has shown in his brief career as a college football head coach it’s that he likes the spotlight. The spotlight doesn’t mesh as well with a quiet soul as much as it does with someone who likes to stir the pot.

For Tennessee’s sake, the play on the field needs to match the coach’s talk, otherwise Kiffin may have a much shorter leash.