Tenn AD talks about USC's punishments...

"I don't revel in anyone's failures or those kinds of things," Hamilton said Monday on the News Sentinel's radio show, The Sports Page. "But there's a rulebook and we have to follow the rules. When those schools don't, then there are repercussions for that.

"With the public nature of what was involved at SC. ... if the NCAA had not levied a pretty stiff penalty, I think it would have sent a wrong message to other schools around the country. So I think they had to do that."
Hamilton hired Kiffin in late 2008 to resurrect UT's fortunes, only to see Kiffin bail out after a 7-6 season when the USC job unexpectedly came open. Hamilton said the penalties Kiffin inherits will have repercussions for years - at Southern Cal and elsewhere.

"It was a gut check that we needed to have in the NCAA," he said. "Thirty scholarships over three years and a two-year postseason ban, those are serious implications."

Hamilton said he and Kiffin briefly discussed the possibility of USC's pending punishment when Kiffin called to say he was leaving to take over the Trojans. To Kiffin, the thought of such sanctions was barely a bump in the road.

"I think the reality is he wanted to leave, and I think the reality is he wanted to be at SC," Hamilton said. "I think he had made up his mind on that for sure, and was going to go there regardless.

"Now, I hope for his own sake he had asked some questions (about the ongoing NCAA investigation), and perhaps he did, but now he'll have to live with that a little bit."


Translation - He's giddy as hell Lane is suffering now.


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