Kiffin leaves recruits, fans singing the blues

So Lane Kiffin has left Tennessee after one season because he's "putting the band back together" at Southern California.

If you're a Volunteers football fan or recent recruit, that must give you the blues, brother.

It's enough to make Matt "Guitar" Murphy and "Blue Lou" Marini want to keep their day jobs. It's enough to turn Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve "The Colonel" Cropper into UCLA fans.

It's enough to make every Tennessee fan from Memphis to Johnson City burn mattresses in protest, which is what the ones in Knoxville did last week when Kiffin took the money and ran.

This is how it works in college football. This is how it works in the NCAA. A coach can sing "Rawhide" and slide out the back door. His players are stuck where they are, even if it's 106 miles to Chicago. Even if they have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and they're wearing sunglasses.

And fans who burn mattresses? They get arrested for removing the tag under penalty of law.

THREE UP

• JUST ADD POPCORN: It cost $10 to watch UNLV play basketball against San Diego State or Utah last week. It cost $9.50 to watch John Travolta and Robin Williams lift their legs on an insipid attempt at family comedy called "Old Dogs" at Century 18 Sam's Town. If you are on the fence for the Air Force game Jan. 26, keep in mind "The Tooth Fairy" starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson opens that week and also will cost $9.50.

• MONEY FOR SOMETHING: That Greg Maddux is back in baseball -- he has been named an assistant to Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, proving one can't play golf every day and not get tired of it -- reminds me of a quote attributed to Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial about remaining on the St. Louis payroll after his playing days. "I have a darn good job with the Cardinals," Stan The Man famously said, "but please don't ask me what I do."

• STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: This new high school realignment proposal that could result in Southern Nevada's small-class schools combining leagues to save money on travel and substitute teachers during the regular season but returning to their current divisions for state tournament play seems like a perfect compromise. Which probably is why it stands no chance of being ratified.

THREE DOWN

• LIE LA LIE: In the clearing stands a boxing writer, an exaggerator by trade. A column on Yahoo! Sports said the canceled Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight would "compare with anything 2010 had to offer, Winter Olympics, Super Bowl, World Cup, World Series included." There was no mention of the Pro Bowl or cliff diving from Acapulco.

• NOT SO PRIVATE IDAHO: After being booted off the UNLV basketball team for various transgressions and transferring to Idaho, where he allegedly inflicted $1,600 worth of damage on an old BMW when a party got out of hand, Marcus Lawrence, a former Bishop Gorman star, has made it to the court in Moscow, where he is averaging 3.4 points off the bench. At least now the only place it says "Vandals" is on the front of his uniform.

• FOR THE DISLIKE OF PETE: Pete Sampras is upset that former tennis adversary Andre Agassi called him "dull" and "robotic" in his best-selling book. Those aren't necessarily bad traits. Just ask Tiger Woods.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.