I actually LIKED his shake up and smack talkin ways, brought some new air and 'tude into the program.
Kiffin's smack talkin ways is what made the rest of the SEC see him for what he really was. Y'all were just too enamoured with him to notice.
It might have been different if he had been right with his smack talk, but he wasn't. He called Meyer a cheater for sending texts to recruits while they were on official visits to Ut...he was wrong. He claimed UT should have gotten a re-kick against Bama due to Cody taking his helmet off...wrong again.
Smack talk is a ticklish thing...it's ok if you know the rules, but you come off as a dipschitt if you talk a world of smack and you're wrong...which Kiffin was.
That kind of crap tends to begin rubbing off on your team...the attitude of "we have no regards for the rules here", and "we snub our noses at authority here". Players begin to get in trouble (check), and a sense of thuggery begins to surround your program. And, honestly, it was beginning to.
That said, I have zero love for Tennessee, and especially for Fulmer. Fulmer, Dickey, and certain UT boosters and brass (with Roy Kramer in their back pockets) engaged in a methodical and devious plan to bring the Alabama program to its knees. We all remember Fulmer's famous "Alabama will be out of business in two years" statement, as well as his cowardly "secret witness" crap for the NCAA. I'm not saying Logan Young didn't pay for Albert Means...far from it. I think we were guilty on that count. I'm just saying that all the other bs, which amounted to a "get out of jail free" for UT was a bunch of crap. Tee Martin received all kinds of benefits from Diane Sanford in Mobile, but UT never got so much as a slap on the wrist for it...a "reward" for getting Bama thrown in the slammer.
So...that said...maybe it's kharma...maybe it's just bad luck. But I ain't crying for UT. The chickens have come home to roost...and y'all did it to yourselves.