Lane Kiffin does what he wants.

To whomever he wants.

Whenever he wants.

Basically, He’s Mr. Burns personified. (Bring hands toward each other, and taps fingertips together repeatedly. “I’ve harnessed the sun, so it only shines on South Central, Los Angeles. Excellent”.)

He claws at people. He backstabs. He stretches the truth. He burns bridges. He eats his own (as we will see in a few seconds). As the CEO of USC football (and that’s what a head coach is), you would think he would want to keep his USC relationships strong (not to mention pro coach relationships, playing in the pros is the end game for the blue-chip recruits).

You would be wrong.

He took a baseball bat to that logic when he went behind Titan coach Jeff Fisher’s back (a USC guy, through and through) to hire away an assistant coach. Jeff Fisher didn’t like the way that Lane conducted business. Not one bit. Now, the Titan’s are suing Lane Kiffin.

Since becoming a head coach, Kiffin has been busy making enemies. He has committed numerous recruiting violations, cried “witch” on fellow coaches, taken “school promotion” to a new level by sending pretty coeds away from campus to high school grounds, and now this.

That, plus the guy is just getting started-he’s only in his early 30’s.

Honestly, couldn’t you see him on a future “Bad Boy” CEO list?

Kiffin is capable of any of the activities that these CEO’s were:

-spending $1 million in company money on his wife’s birthday party

-having an affair with an “up and comer” of the company

-limiting shareholders to one question at a shareholder meeting

-bribery through voice mail

-lying in court about a rendezvous arranged by an escort service

Yes, he is capable of all that, plus much more.

Reggie Bush took money and benefits from a wannabe agent.

He’s not the first to do so.

He won’t be the last. (Even right now, the action of guys like Marvin Austin, Marcell Dareus and Maurkice Pouncey are being investigated.)

Shady agents are around. That’s the way it is.

I don’t know if they can be stopped. Andy Staples thinks that the only way to stop it it to get the police involved. Others think that you can stop the agents if you pay the players while in college. (It won’t. Not when the agent is doling out even more cash. More money is more money. People can never have enough money.)

Agents that will stop at nothing are part of the problem. So are coaches and athletic departments that institute a straight from the military “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. So are the players who only look out for #1.

Maybe the players should get paid (guys like Reggie Bush do bring schools a lot of money due to ticket sales, television ratings, merchandise, etc.) Maybe they shouldn’t. (Free education that they are welcome to use, future earnings due to being put on a platform to make it to the NFL.)

I’m not here to argue should or shouldn’t. I’m not here to give an answer to the agent problem.

However, I am here to say that any player that does take money under the current setup is channeling his inner Jay-Z toward his teammates and his school. They are the ones that will pay the price. And that can’t be right.

“Can I Get A F–K You?!”

Welcome to what will hopefully become a semi-regular column on the Blarney. It’s called 2 Minutes Of:, and it is a solution for those days when I have some random thoughts to spit out, but no particular topic that that requires a deeper look (Okay, when has this blog ever done that anyway?).

Up today, it’s 2 Minutes Of: Pre-season thoughts:

SEC media days this week. It’s time to start turning up the thermostat on the college football season, it’s not far away. There’s no better way to get things going than asking questions and visiting the hot topics of the baddest college football conference in the land. How fun would it be to go all Howard Stern on these sessions, and be that faux reporter to ask Urban Meyer or Nick Saban completely ridiculous questions?

Reporter: Hey Urban, when you were coaching at BGSU, were you ever afraid that you would get Herpes from a drinking fountain?

Urban Meyer: (A weird twitch in his facial expression appears-think state trooper Harland Williams in Dumb and Dumber. Before he can respond, his head explodes.)

Reporter: Coach Saban, how many of your starters do you think can pass the “Terry Bradshaw test”? That is, if you spotted them the “c”, and the “t”, how many do you think could spell “cat”?

Nick Saban: We’re just not very good right now. We lack focus. I keep tellin’ ‘em, last year doesn’t mean squat. You can’t let up-ever.

Reporter: Umm…Coach? That’s not what I… (Unidentified man in Alabama polo, an assistant coach possibly, snipes the reporter. Hey, they do have one of the largest support staffs in the country.

Anyway, there’s sure to be some good stuff coming out of these sessions. By the way folks, it is not a coincidence that the SEC is less academically restrictive than conferences such as the Big Ten, and Pac-10, while also being the better football conference. Yes, the SEC does offer “basket-weaving”. (Notre Dame fans should remember that assistant provost for admissions Dan Saracino said his university does not.) And football players love it.

Speaking of the SEC, many believe that Georgia’s A.J. Green is college football’s best receiver. Others that get mention are ‘Bama’s Julio Jones, Oklahoma’s Ryan Broyles, ND’s Michael Floyd, and Pitt’s Jonathan Baldwin. I think Floyd is #1 (he’s a blended version of Jones and Green), and will be watching closely this season to see who truly deserves to be dubbed as the nation’s best.

Will Jim Tressel fully unleash Terrelle Pryor, or continue onward his path of replacing Rush as the king conservative of America?

If Boise State makes it to the BCS Championship, do the Broncos overtake potatoes as the state’s most valued resource for a short time?