A Grip on Sports: Everyone is being snowed under by college football coaching news and, considering the local weather, we decided to pile on

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Ya, when I looked outside this morning I uttered the “S” word. After all, there is about 2 inches of the stuff outside the house. Snow in early December? What a shock. Though what was shocking was how bad the roads were last night as I drove home from the North Side of Spokane. There were three or four times when I exclaimed “oh snow, oh snow” trying to stop.

•••••••

• What pairs well with snow? A nice chardonnay? Or football? Is basketball better, because it’s played indoors? Yes to all of them.

We’ll stay away from the wine, because this is a sports column, but we will whine a little. Why? Because this is a sports column.

And like just about everyone else in America’s sports cultural, our whine’s main ingredient is the most shocking incident of the week: Lane Kiffin leaving CFP-bound Ole Miss for conference rival, and governor-controlled, LSU in the interregnum between the regular season and playoffs. (We used a Latin-based word instead of, say, just typing “period” or “gap” because this is college athletics after all, so big words seem appropriate, even if we are talking about the SEC.)

Like Captain Renault in “Casablanca,” everyone seems shocked to find out Kiffin would do such a dastardly deed. But for those of us who have followed the nepo-coach’s career, it seemed right on point.

And for that, I blame Pat Haden. Remember, it was Haden, as USC athletic director, who fired Kiffin on the airport tarmac after a loss to Arizona State. It was an act of impatience, like many of such things, that lives forever. In unintended ways.

All Haden wanted to do was erase the mistake of hiring a too-egotistical, too-immature coach from a position he was, at the time, unqualified. What he did was teach Kiffin, and any college coach who was listening, it doesn’t pay to stay in one place too long. Unless there is Jimbo Fisher clause in your contract.

Get out of town before the sheriff and posse can force you out.

Al Davis’ lesson – he fired Kiffin after just 20 games as Raiders’ coach, 15 of which were losses – didn’t sink in completely, though Kiffin did bail on Tennessee for USC after one 7-6 season. But Haden’s lesson did. He bounced up off the tarmac after thanks to Nick Saban and Alabama – he was Saban’s offensive coordinator for three seasons before heading to Florida Atlantic as head coach. He won there – 26-13 – and jumped to Ole Miss. Where he won 55 games in six seasons. And had the Rebels on the cusp of a high CFP berth.

Then LSU opened. Opened its checkbook to the tune of about $11 million a year. Hello Baton Rouge. Lesson learned.

• Speaking of the CFP, it seems only appropriate, and consistent, for the selection committee to drop the Rebels from consideration due to Kiffin’s move.

Appropriate because the guiding principles the group works under states (emphasis mine) … 

“The committee will select the teams using a process that distinguishes among otherwise comparable teams by considering:

• Strength of schedule,

• Head-to-head competition,

• Comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory), and,

• Other relevant factors such as unavailability of key players and coaches that may have affected a team’s performance during the season or likely will affect its postseason performance.”

The consistent part comes from using the committee in 2023 invoking the last principle to exclude Florida State after quarterbacks Jordan Travis and Tate Rodemaker were injured during the Seminoles’ 13-0 season.

Back then, the field consisted of four schools. There are 12 now. Expect the committee to use the change to justify keeping an SEC school involved, though losing Kiffin and much of the offensive coaching staff is just as important, if not more so, for an offense-first program than losing quarterbacks.

College is all about learning lessons, right?

Kiffin learned his on a tarmac. Whichever school – BYU, Miami, James Madison – is excluded for a rudderless Mississippi will learn another. American college football, like the country as a whole, has different rules for the rich and powerful. That’s two boxes the SEC checks better than anyone else.

•••

WSU: Washington State is not going to the CFP this season. Three of its opponents, however, might just be. Unless a Florida State-like decision is invoked, Ole Miss should make it. Virginia is favored in the ACC title game over Duke and should get in too. And James Madison, whose coach is headed to UCLA but will stay through a playoff run, has a longshot chance to be the Group of Five’s highest-ranked school. That makes the Cougars’ 6-6 regular season look that much better. So does their run of nine bowl games in the last 10 non-Covid seasons. We linked Jon Wilner’s column about that yesterday when it was in the Mercury News. It is on the S-R website today, so we link it again. … Freshman Ace Glass, who averaged 27 points in three games, earned the WCC’s freshman of the week award. Greg Woods has more in this story. … Let’s build on the theme of WSU guards, present and past, with this story on Klay Thompson finding his groove for the Dallas Mavericks. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, just in case you are wondering, Kiffin told everyone in Baton Rouge yesterday there was no way he could have handled his exit from Oxford better. He actually was right. The college coaching carousel is broken these days, though it’s still possible to grab a gold ring while on it. … John Canzano covers Kiffin and lot more in his Monday mailbag. … He also has a column on JaMarcus Shepard’s journey, a journey that culminated in his introductory media blitz as Oregon State’s new head coach. There is a lot more coverage of that as well. And more coverage of Beaver football. … Washington’s loss to Oregon will color the entire offseason. Though the bad taste will be washed out some when the Huskies, along with every other school in America, tomorrow announce their “best-ever” early period signing class. … Oregon’s offensive coordinator Will Stein is moving on. And up. He’s accepted the position as “the next coach Kentucky will be firing” because it can’t compete with Alabama, Georgia and the rest of SEC’s power schools. … UCLA has settled on James Madison’s Bob Chesney to fill its vacancy. Moving from Harrisonburg, Virginia to Los Angeles will involve quite a bit of culture shock – and money. … Wilner returns with a look at Stanford’s new coach, who has WSU connections. … Wilner also has his Big Ten power rankings and those from the Big 12. … Colorado State has a coach that is actually thinking “playoffs?” And just by using one word, I got you thinking about Jim Mora’s dad. … Want to know who will be really touting its signing class? USC. As it should. But it will be involved in the portal as well. … Arizona has some time to concentrate on health and academics. … Boise State has a Mountain West title game to play. It will have quarterback Maddux Madsen back. … Coach Sean Lewis would rather be playing this weekend but San Diego State has filled the void. … It was a season of progress for Utah State.

• In basketball news, Fresno State’s men hosted Cal State Bakersfield in downtown Fresno’s Selland Arena last night. It was a nod to the Bulldogs’ glory days. And like that song, the subject was defeated. In this case, literally. … Oregon is really beat up heading into the Big Ten opener against USC tonight. Yes, conference play opens on Dec. 2. … The last time Colorado started 8-0, my dad was 24 and had just one child. It wasn’t me. … Utah State is working to be better before a tough road trip. … The Washington women played San Jose State at home last night and predictable blew out the overmanned Spartans. … Arizona has not played a tough nonconference schedule. … Finally, I sort of think there was a meeting in the NCAA offices a while back. And a plan hatched. Make everything associated with college sports so messed up, Congress will be forced to step in and hand the organization back the power it lost due to court rulings. Part of the plan? Allowing former G-League players to return to college.

Gonzaga: We mentioned the first NET rankings of the season yesterday. Jim Meehan looked into them and the polls and the Zags’ spots in other analytical systems. … Hey, another area college player excelling for the Dallas Mavericks. Ryan Nembhard just posted 28 points and 10 assists for the Mavs in a road win over Denver. … Considering Gonzaga’s history, this possible change in the tournament would be sad.

EWU: This seems like a good time to ask. And Dan Thompson does. Just where does Eastern football stand following another losing season? … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, third-seeded Montana is preparing for an FCS playoff battle when South Dakota State visits this weekend. … The No. 2 seed, Montana State, welcomes a less experienced visitor. The Ivy League finally let its teams participate this season and regular season champ Yale won in the first round. … In basketball news, the Southern Utah men actually found someone they could defeat, West Coast Baptist.

Preps: Mt. Spokane’s recent second-place finish in the State 3A volleyball tournament means a lot for the Wildcats. Madison McCord tells us how much and in what way.

Idaho: There is another theme today. Local athletes’ pro exploits. If you watched last night’s MNF game between New England and the New York Giants, you may have noticed Giants’ quarterback Jaxon Dart, who played for Kiffin at Mississippi, being just blasted as he tip-toed down the sidelines. That hit sparked something a little less than a brawl. The hitter? That would be Vandal alum Christian Elliss.

Chiefs: Could have put this in a Kraken section as well. But as it has to do with Spokane alum Berkly Catton, we’ll allow it here. He probably won’t be playing in the World Juniors this season.

Seahawks: Sunday’s results featured two Seattle wins. The one the Hawks earned at Lumen Field over the Vikings. And the loss the Rams suffered in North Carolina. The latter allowed Seattle to close the gap with Los Angeles. … The offense adjusted at halftime and handled Minnesota’s blitzes better. … It seems rookie defensive back Nick Emmanwori can do just about anything he’s asked. … When is Julian Love coming back?

•••       

• The college football coaching system has been trending toward chaos for some time. And will continue to fly down that road to Jumbled Mess without a speed limit. Anyone who tells you Kiffin is an outlier and his situation is unique is wrong. Until later …