In case you've been living under a rock this past week, Lane Kiffin put his foot in his mouth again this offseason.
I know, try to contain your shock.
Kiffin sat down with Vanity Fair at the beginning of the month to discuss a whole grab bag of topics, but the most sensational headlines came from his comments regarding his former employer, Ole Miss.
In a nutshell, Kiffin blamed the university's lack of diversity for losing out on some recruits while he was the head coach there, and added that parents of recruits liked LSU's campus because "It feels like there's no segregation."
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The next day, Kiffin backtracked, saying that he didn't mean any ill will towards Ole Miss and that these were just "factual" statements and not shots at the university.
One man who isn't buying Lane's act of contrition is Tim Brando.
The legendary college football commentator and Louisiana native sat down with OutKick's Dan Dakich to hash out the comments made by Kiffin.
"I'm up to here with it, Dan," Brando said when asked his thoughts about the situation. "He chose to go to a wider, and far more liberal audience, to do this interview. And they're going to run with it and use it, and stereotype with it the way they always do."
Brando's point is well taken, and it disproves Kiffin's claims that he never meant to cause any harm to his former team.
Kiffin knew damn well what he was doing when he made those comments as well as who he made the comments to; everything he does is calculated.
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"For those of us that were alive when John F. Kennedy was killed, and Martin Luther King was killed, and understand what the Jim Crow South was about," Brando continued, "I'm a part of it, we don't need to be reminded of it, we lived through it. Where the hell was Lane?"
"You're touching a pilot light that's been way low, and you're igniting it again when you go down this route, and it's wrong."
Brando also touched on his experiences with both schools, having a daughter enrolled at LSU as well as one at Ole Miss, and reminded everyone that this rhetoric could cause "trouble down the road."
"When you start talking about these kinds of issues, you can't expect all of the fans to perceive it the way he (Kiffin) wants them to perceive it."
It's a good reminder that Kiffin's comments aren't victimless. In this day and age of heightened scrutiny with regard to racial tensions, his words could have dangerous consequences, be they unintended or otherwise.
The only thing worse than the comments, in Brando's eyes, was the apology.
"And that God-awful apology he tried to submit to On3 yesterday... was a pathetic response," Brando said.
"It's offensive period. Don't go there."
If there's one word to describe Kiffin's comments, and his offseason tour in general, it's "narcissism," according to Brando.
"His own narcissism would not allow him to get through that interview with, once again, not trying to justify abandoning a team that he was coaching that was on the precipice of playing for and maybe even winning a national championship."
"You got the job. You got the $91 million. Shut up! We've heard enough."
I don't think I could have said it better myself.
I warned everyone very early on in the offseason that Kiffin would make some poor choices and some questionable comments, but I must admit, I didn't even see this coming.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Expect the unexpected when dealing with Lane Kiffin.
There is a good chance he wins a national title while in Baton Rouge. As a matter of fact, I would bet good money on that.
The football marriage between a coach as good as Kiffin and a program as resource- and tradition-laden as LSU will be a fruitful one indeed, but the Vanity Fair interview (along with other offseason comments) represents the downside to having the Lane Train pull into your station.
The winning will just have to be enough to offset that cost.
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