Vols setting disturbing precedent with salary spree for assistants
While recruiting junkies anxiously wait to see which team — LSU? USC? Alabama? Florida? — winds up winning the 2009 recruiting wars, we can already pencil in the No. 1 team for 2010.
Congratulations, Tennessee.
How can we sit here, with only a smattering of commitments on the board, and predict which team will sign the best class in the country more than a year in advance? It’s simple. Tennessee has spent more than $11 million to make sure it comes out on top.
After spending $6 million to buy out longtime head coach Phillip Fulmer last fall and another $2 million to hire his replacement, Lane Kiffin, Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton gave Kiffin a seemingly bottomless checkbook to assemble what is arguably the most accomplished (and definitely the highest paid) set of assistant coaches in the country. And nearly every one is known for his recruiting prowess.
si.com
1/29/09
