Last offseason, satellite camps were a hot topic in the sports world. Those camps don’t figure to be as much of a hot button issue this offseason, but one specific camp is sure to catch the attention of Vol fans.
On June 5th, Florida Atlantic University will be hosting a camp that’s expected to bring in approximately 500 high school prospects. Tennessee is reportedly sending coaches to Boca Raton to attend the camp. This situation wouldn’t be very noteworthy normally, but recent events now make this a much more intriguing ordeal.
Former Tennessee head football coach Lane Kiffin was hired as FAU’s head football coach this offseason. And many fans still resent the one-time UT head coach for the way he left things at Tennessee.
Kiffin infamously bolted for the west coast to take the job as USC’s head coach after only coaching at Tennessee for one year. That one season saw the Vols go 7-6 and ended with an embarrassing loss to Virginia Tech in the Peach Bowl. Kiffin spoke a big game and hauled in a highly-rated recruiting class in his lone season. But ultimately Kiffin’s talk was just that: talk. And his recruiting class was a major flop, as the majority of the players in the class failed to finish out their careers at Tennessee.
Many Vol fans still haven’t forgiven Kiffin for what he did to Tennessee. But the past can’t hold teams back forever, and Tennessee isn’t about to let old bad blood stand in the way of recruiting.
Tennessee won’t be the only team sending coaches to the camp on June 5th, however. Michigan, Vanderbilt, Oregon, Illinois, and Arkansas are also expected to send coaches to the camp. But Tennessee is the only one of those schools with ties to the Owls’ new head coach, which makes them easily the most noteworthy of the group.
