Josh Heupel just made Lane Kiffin look foolish and recruits are going to notice
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel made Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin look foolish on Thursday at SEC Media Days and recruits are absolutely going to notice. Before Heupel spoke to reporters on Thursday, Kiffin took the podium in Nashville. And he proceeded to rail against the NCAA transfer portal and NIL deals. […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel made Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin look foolish on Thursday at SEC Media Days and recruits are absolutely going to notice.
Before Heupel spoke to reporters on Thursday, Kiffin took the podium in Nashville. And he proceeded to rail against the NCAA transfer portal and NIL deals.
"You just legalized cheating and you just told donors they can pay the players is what you did," said Kiffin. "And it’s supposed to be set up, well, really it’s for your name, image, likeness, for your marketing. Again, that’s not what happened. That’s not what’s happening. They are getting paid to go to school. So it’s pay-for-play."
"So the revenue sharing sounds really good, but then they are like, okay, well, we are going to revenue share and that’s all they get," continued Kiffin. "I say, okay, well, wait. But they are still going to have NIL, which really isn’t NIL for probably 99 percent of the kids, they are not really getting the money for their marketing rights. So then revenue sharing will be good, but then you’re still going to have this. So they say revenue sharing would make it an equal playing field, which is what the NCAA always wants to do, make things an equal playing field. Well, obviously what we described with no salary cap and everybody operating off different budgets, that’s not anywhere close."
"And you’ve got dynamics in locker rooms. Again, these players talk," added Kiffin. "They know what players get paid and you’ve got dynamics around the country of, oh, I’ve been here, I’d made these plays and that guy just got here and he’s going to make more money than me? Again, not a good setup."
Kiffin doesn't necessarily disagree with the concept of NIL deals and the portal, he just wants to see the system overhauled. But either way, he spent a lot of time talking about the problems with NIL and the transfer portal, which led to a litany of headlines like AL.com's "Lane Kiffin goes scorched earth on NIL: ‘You just told donors you could pay players" or Yahoo Sports' "Lane Kiffin bemoans NCAA transfer and NIL rules that are 'not in the best interest of college football".
A lot of folks are just going to read the headlines without actually seeing what Kiffin said, which is going to drive the narrative that Kiffin is anti-NIL. Fair or not, that's how it goes. And Kiffin, who pays close attention to what the media is saying at all times and the narratives that get tossed around, should know this as well as anyone.
Heupel, on the other hand, took a very different approach to talking about NIL deals. Heupel only touched on the positives during an appearance with Paul Finebaum on Thursday.
"It could be because I was a player and I would have liked to have partaken in [the NIL era]," said Heupel. "I'm gonna see if we can backdate that and go back in time. But I think there's positives to it and at the end of the day, I think it's the right thing for kids. How college football navigates that space the right way. I think everybody's trying to put their hands on. But at the end of the day, it's opportunities that I would have wanted, and I want for our players."
Kiffin isn't totally wrong. Some structure would help eliminate some of the craziness of the college football calendar and the uncertainty of managing a roster. But those comments are better reserved for behind closed doors. Nothing Kiffin or Heupel had to say on Thursday was going to imminently change college football, NIL rules, or the portal.
Heupel understood that. Kiffin didn't. And that's why the narrative that emerges from SEC Media Days will be that Heupel is pro-NIL while Kiffin is anti-NIL.
If you're a recruit, which coach are you going to gravitate toward? The coach who extolls the virtues of NIL deals on live television? Or the coach who goes on a diatribe about all that's wrong with NIL deals?
I think we all know the answer to that one.
Josh Heupel responds to question about ‘complicated’ relationship with Oklahoma
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel responded to a question about his ‘complicated’ relationship with Oklahoma
Featured image via Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
