Revisiting Twitter The Night Lane Kiffin Left Tennessee
By Zach Ragan
Sep 13, 2014; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin calls out to his players against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles during the second half at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama defeated the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 52-12. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
In just a few days, Lane Kiffin will coach in Neyland Stadium (this time as Alabama’s offensive coordinator) for the first time since he abruptly resigned as Tennessee’s head coach nearly five years ago.
Butch Jones and the rest of the Vols have remained adamant that the focus of Saturday’s game has nothing do with Kiffin’s return and everything to do with Alabama vs. Tennessee.
For Jones and the current players, that’s absolutely correct. Jones has never crossed paths with Kiffin and almost none of the players on the Vols’ roster were even recruited by Kiffin.
But for longtime fans of the Vols, whether they want to admit it or not, Kiffin returning to Neyland is a major subplot of the game this Saturday.
I won’t bore you with the details of why. You’re all very aware of what went down, why it down and the multitude of narratives surrounding Kiffin’s departure.
What I want to do is revisit the Twitter reactions from the night Kiffin resigned as the Vols’ head coach (this is of course inspired by Mark Nagi’s brilliant oral history of Kiffin leaving Tennessee).
Twitter was popular at the time, but not nearly as widespread as it is now. But there were still plenty of fantastic reactions from fans and members of the media.