SEC Coaches Acting Their Age ... Or Not

It's been an eventful offseason for SEC football. The addition of Lane Kiffin to the coaching ranks gave the conference another huge name. Instead of taking his lumps at Tennessee after the disastrous end to the Phil Fulmer era, Kiffin came out swinging.

Not only did he and his staff work to sign a top-ten recruiting class, but Kiffin also managed to alienate virtually everyone outside of the Volunteers fan base.

Kiffin took a few shots at Florida's Urban Meyer, traded barbs with Steve Spurrier and his South Carolina program, and may have insulted kittens and puppies at some point.

The SEC is conducting their annual conference this week, meaning all 12 of the league's football coaches are together under one roof for the first time since Kiffin was hired.

Surely, Kiffin will use this opportunity to apologize for the horrific first impression he made on the rest of the league.

Right?

Nope.

Kiffin's story, and he's sticking to it, is that his actions were to create national attention for a struggling program. The result for a school coming off a 5-7 season is a top 10 recruiting class.

"Do I love everything I had to do to get us to this point?" Kiffin said Tuesday. "No, I don't. But we had to make an immediate impact. We couldn't have sat back in the weeds and hoped we signed a top 10 class in a couple of years.

"I don't think if we took a conservative approach there's no way we would have signed that class and the No. 1 player [running back Bryce Brown] in the country. Kids we're recruiting have responded to the confidence our staff has shown."

To make matters worse, Spurrier saw fit to confront Kiffin in line for an elevator.

"I didn't accuse you of cheating," said an animated Spurrier, motioning toward Kiffin, who stood there with his face reddening by the second.

"What I said was, 'Was it permissible to call recruits before you were announced head coach and had taken the [recruiting] test?' Now, you took the test online, and I didn't even know you could do that. I thought you had to take the test on campus ... and then start calling [recruits]."

Nothing like behaving like gossipy, teenage girls while in front of what was probably an entertained group of reporters. This is absolutely hilarious, as Spurrier comes across like a girl who is scorned across school for stealing the head cheerleader's boyfriend.

Perhaps Kiffin can take some advice from the bastion of professionalism in the coaching business, Nick Saban.

"Everybody has to have their own way of handling things and heavens knows I've made my share of mistakes with the media," Saban said. "But we try to represent our organization in a first-class way and do it with loyalty and integrity."

When you're Nick Saban, the master of the back-stab, it's tough to be taken seriously when you talk about loyalty and integrity. Obviously, Nick Saban's image of Nick Saban is a bit different than everyone else's, so he'll continue to speak irrationally about himself.

Meanwhile, by keeping his mouth shut, Meyer may have immeasurably helped his public image. Who knew that silence was so golden?