Vols 'fans' No. 1 on considerable list of losers in Kiffin saga

Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for Southern California, and the weirdest thing happened: Everybody lost.

USC lost for hiring such an unaccomplished little weasel. Tennessee lost for having invested so much of its credibility in the little weasel, then lost some more for spastically trying to replace him before someone named Derek Dooley finally said yes. And Kiffin lost by leaving Tennessee after one season and showing that he's just like notorious coach-skank Bobby Petrino ... minus the achievement. Which means he's Petrino Lite. Until now, who knew such a pitiable species existed?

In all that losing, though, I fear one group has been overlooked. And that makes me sad. Everyone deserves credit when they have accomplished something -- and so today, I want to give credit where credit is due. I want to recognize a remarkable accomplishment.

How angry would Vols fans be if the departing Kiffin had actually accomplished something? (Getty Images)

Let's give it up for the football fans at the University of Tennessee ...

The biggest losers in this whole story.

That's hard to say, I know. Biggest losers? Tennessee's fans? How can this be, you may be wondering, in a story that involves an arrogant little twerp like Kiffy, and incompetent USC athletics director Mike Garrett, and inept Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton. There are lots of losers here, and I've not even gotten to Kiffin assistant coach Ed Orgeron, who redefined the word "sleaze" on the night USC hired Kiffy by calling a handful of Tennessee recruits -- the ones who had graduated early from high school and were scheduled to start class at UT the next morning -- and asking them to hold off ... and to please join Kiffy and Co. in Troy.

Losers to the left of me. Losers to the right. But the biggest loser is the Tennessee fan base which -- before this whole mess -- had been a winner. Biggest home crowds in college football? At Tennessee. Biggest home crowds in women's basketball? Also at Tennessee. Men's basketball hasn't gone without attention, either. Tennessee was fifth in the country last season in attendance, one of a handful of schools to increase attendance amid the country's economic spiral. Very impressive, this Tennessee fan base.

Until now.

Now? Losers. Sorry, Tennessee fans, but you are what you are. And if you've calmed down yet, you know I'm right. Because what you did -- what Tennessee's fans did -- after Kiffin resigned went way beyond "disgraceful" and ventured deep into the heart of "frightening."

Tennessee fans, and in this case that primarily means Tennessee students, turned the loss of a football coach into a mob scene. They gathered outside the building where Kiffin was saying goodbye to his players and announcing his resignation to the media, and they chanted obscenities and tore Kiffin T-shirts into pieces, with one student stomping on the shreds. Other students burned mattresses. About a dozen students made their way into the building, where they were led back outside by police officers.

And this was for Lane Kiffin. Like he's good or something. Regardless ... that stuff never happens. Ever. Coaches come and go, but students don't do what Tennessee's students did the night Kiffin resigned.

And it gets worse.

The mob of students couldn't be sure which car was taking Kiffin home, so they loomed around any vehicle leaving the area, shouting obscenities at each one -- just in case Kiffin was inside. The crowd should have been on the lookout for a police cruiser, because that's who took Kiffin home that night. More cops were on patrol outside Kiffin's house, where Layla Kiffin had called 911 to report suspicious cars near their home. Paranoid? Probably not. Tennessee fans already had posted the Kiffins' address, and Layla's cell phone number, on multiple fan message boards.

Police also were sent to Neyland Stadium, where a crowd was sent away before it could get inside. Because the story of Kiffin's departure broke during a shift change, double the normal number of city and campus officers was available. And still, UT Police Department Capt. Keith Lambert told the Knoxville News-Sentinel, "They probably had us outnumbered 50 to 1."

"They" were all over the place, these Tennessee fans, angry like army ants -- and not discernibly smarter. One UT fan urinated on a Kiffin T-shirt, burned it for good measure, then posted the video on YouTube. Others painted the famous Rock on campus with various obscenities, including a homosexual slur that Kiffin was a f----t. Fans also compared Kiffin to Satan and Hitler. "Heil Kiffin," read one riff of spray. Way to keep it in perspective, Tennessee.

A few years ago, when Arkansas fans were angry with football coach Houston Nutt, they delved into his personal business by using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain his school phone records. I thought that was horrendous, and I wrote as much.

But that was nothing. Not compared to this.

What happened at Tennessee was deranged. And guess what, Tennessee fans?

It'll stick to you for years.