Post goes poof, Talking Points returns

I think Holly’s on the case.

has the smarts to resign amongst controversy involving former players, John Calipari just has his daughter write nasty Facebook messages.

I was at a military conference on small unit excellence a few weeks ago (I am a consultant on leader development) and who was there? USC Coach Pete Carroll. Not as a guest speaker, but to participate. He was at the lectures and was in a working group (he co-briefed their results on the third and final day).

I was very impressed for a lot of reasons (my impression was already good because I had seen him working with LA Street gangs on 60 minutes), but I have also been impresed with his winning record (I look at the whole person). Despite his winning record and stardom, he was down to earth with everyone at the conference from sergeants to senior officers, and civilians. He was there to learn as well and how to continue to make his program better. He gave a great talk about leader philosophy (I lectured before him on the final day) as a lead in to his working group’s final results.

I talked to him briefly twice. In our first conversation, we talked about the Tennessee program when I told him I was an alumni and “fanatic”. He had good things to say about Phil Fulmer. But, he also said good things about Lane and Monte Kiffin (I would expect that anyway, but it was the way he said it and the words or adjectives he described them with that caught my attention). I will leave it at that given I want to keep his confidence.

On top of this I am an organizational consultant. Briefly, I can come in and tell you after observing your organization how it can improve and why it is not doing well. With that, I saw a lot of detail in his USC program after listening to him on the final day that told me his approach is mirrored with Lane Kiffin (with Coach Kiffin’s own personal touch).

After military history, my other hobby is Tennessee football as an outside way to test my leadership skills and organizational knowledge as applied to a non-military organization (see my web site at www.donvandergriff.com). I have been right about what is going to happen 9 out of 10 times, like last season, over the last four years.

Well what am I saying?

I loved your analysis of what will happen in the next three years in a recent post you had. I agree. I think what Lane is doing now is focused on drawing the attention of High School all stars-X Generation- how they respond and the decisions they will make soon. His focus will be pro style, both defense and offense; but he is also going to get more out of players (look at his coordinator record after Norm Chow, even better, as well as his record as recruiting coordinator-not taking anything away from Pete Carroll).

I believe we have done well to get Coach Kiffin, and the staff he brings. He did a great environment analyses, hired an all star coaching staff, and is speaking the the language young players and fans want to hear. Let the secondary violations continue, as long as there are no ethical or moral ones, Tennessee will again rise to prominence in a few years.

For now, it will be a great defense holding as the offense gets better over the next three years.

Prediction 2009 10-3
                    2010 9-4
                    2011 11-2

Nick Montana just committed to Washington Huskies.

He’s a good writer (and I’ve told him). I just wish he would write more.

Did the SBNation autosave not work for you or was it somewhere else when it went poof? I’d just like to know for peace of mind.