USC Football: Lane Kiffin Seizing an Opportunity With Silas Redd

If you have an issue with Lane Kiffin’s pursuit of Penn State running back Silas Redd, take a seat in front of the world’s smallest violin and start playing. If music isn’t your forte maybe you would like some wine to go with that cheese?

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

It’s not surprising that Kiffin’s push to secure Redd has been a hot topic of conversation in recent days. If the coach does so much as sneeze, it usually garners national attention. What is difficult to wrap my head around is the amount of criticism he is taking for it.

The notion that he is unfairly taking advantage of the situation doesn’t have a leg to stand on. How is it not fair? Any college coach in the country can go after Redd provided they notify Penn State of their intentions to do so. It’s not as if Kiffin is the only one who can speak with him.

Those who complain that it’s another example of the rich getting richer, all you have to do is take a quick glance at the running back depth chart to see that the Trojans are anything but loaded in the backfield. Curtis McNeal, who ran for 1005 yards and 6 TD’s a year ago, is a solid number one back. However, once you get beyond him, four of the remaining six backs on the roster have yet to carry the ball in a college game. The addition of Redd (1241 yards, seven TD’s in 2011) would undoubtedly fill the teams’ most pressing need.

Some head coaches, including Penn State’s Bill O’Brien, have indicated that if the situations were reversed and they were in USC’s position, they would not recruit another school’s players. I don’t believe that for one second. You can’t go more than a day or two anymore without hearing about the latest recruiting violations at a major college university. Coaches are always looking for an edge, a loophole, any advantage possible in order to get the top talent on their campus, even in some cases if it means using illegal tactics to do so. Who’s to say if given the chance to luck talented players away from another university legally, as is the case in this instance, they wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to do so?

Kiffin is always going to be a lightning rod for criticism, his every moved analyzed under a microscope. Skeptics will emphasize the negatives and ignore the one thing that matters most. He’s doing what other coach in his position would do; his job. For Trojan fans everywhere that means one thing: continued success.