Coach Newton, Football Physics 101

Newton's third law of motion states "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." 

Well that ain't the half of it.

The action begins with Jim Zorn screwing up as the main guy with the Seattle Seahawks.  Zorn gets canned, creating an opening.  Pete Carroll, the face of USC football, the coach who always covered, he apparently needs to get out of Los Angeles, as there seems to be this little matter of rules violations and impending sanctions.  So Petey dumps all his dirty laundry and will use the big bag to hold all the money that the Seahawks are going to throw his way. LA Pete heads up the coast to fill the void.

Action. Reaction.

USC becomes the epicenter of empty, but not for long.  For five years, from 2001 to 2006, Lane Kiffin was a receivers coach and O-coordinator at USC.  He left USC to coach in Oakland, to where the Raiders had retreated 14 years ago after spending 12 years in Los Angeles; that after spending the first 22 years of their existence in Oakland. 

Action. Reaction.

Kiffin's record as head pirate up in Oakland was 5-15, yar.  Action.

The Raiders threw him overboard, yar.  Reaction.

The University of Tennessee threw open its arms, and welcomed Kiffin in 2009 to direct the Volunteers forever or until a more attractive domicile of higher learning gave him a come hither look, whichever came first. Kiffin's Vols were 7-5, with a few arrests for robbing a gas station.  Perfect...for USC.  The opening demanded some filler, and Lane Kiffin is nothing if not filler.  He packs his bags and leaves an IOU on the nightstand as the strains of Rocky Top die and heads back west to USC.

As an aside, Kiffin is bringing the gang with him.  His dad, Monte Kiffin, is his D-coordinator.  His recruiting coordinator, Ed Orgeron, is coming with him, too.  Ed Orgeron, another former USC assistant, was the coach, you may recall, at Ole Miss during the season Bruce Feldman followed the program and crafted the terrific book "Meat Market, the Smashmouth World of College Football Recruting" that explained what it was like in the University of Mississippi football world (and it ain't pretty).  Orgeron got canned not long after the book was published, just in time for Mississippi to enlist the services of one Houston Nutt, who coincidentally had resigned his head coaching spot at Arkansas.

Action.  Reaction.

A few weeks ago, when the USB got tired of Charlie and launched him, Brian Kelly packed up his bags and went to SoBe, prompting Central Michigan coach Butch Jones to head for Cincinatti and an assistant at Spartyland to slide over into Butch's empty bunk.  When Mike Leach ran off the edge, Tommy Tuberville and Texas Tech (henceforth "T4") found each other. 

Action, reaction.

Isaac Newton, the Nostradamus of big time football.