Play Football For Lane Kiffin Or Suffer The Minimum Wage Consequences

Tennessee's spring football practices begin today, but it's really hard to imagine how Lane Kiffin's tenure as head coach could get any more entertaining than it's been so far. (Fingers crossed!)

The guy has already stuffed a career's worth of crazy into just one offseason—and these are just things we know about. The tales of Tennessee's recruiting adventures continue to trickle in and they really say something about Kiffin's knack for diplomacy. Take his Signing Day conversation with Alshon Jeffrey, a highly-prized wide receiver from South Carolina, who chose his home state Gamecocks after a long battle involving Southern California and the Vols.

Coaches from all three schools were working Jeffery's phone lines well into the early morning hours trying to woo a last minute commitment, when things suddenly took a turn for the ugly.

But when it was obvious that Jeffrey wasn't going to Tennessee, Kiffin took off the gloves.

According to Jeffrey and Wilson, Kiffin told Jeffrey that if he chose the Gamecocks, he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who had gone to South Carolina.

Jeffrey was doing his best to stay awake at that point, but that comment from Kiffin woke him up. He clearly hasn't forgotten it, either. "He said it, but it's not worth talking about," Jeffrey said.

Zing! Is anyone starting to get the feeling that Al Davis may have been the reasonable one in that relationship? At least Kiffin was able to steal another Carolina recruit who was not interested in the service station arts and who now holds a grudge against the Gamecocks. By the way, Spurrier and Friends visit Knoxville this year on Halloween.

A peek into recruiting with South Carolina's Jeffrey [ESPN] Stone Mountain LB tells what happened with South Carolina [Atlanta Journal Constitution] [Photo via UT Sports]