Lane Kiffin replaces Pete Carroll as head coach at USC. (Creative Commons licensed)

This article was originally posted at The Sports Union. 

I was only joking yesterday when I said Mike Garrett compiled a coaching wish list, then skipped right to No. 5 for good luck. But it turns out that may have been exactly what Garrett did.

On Tuesday night USC announced that University of Tennessee head coach, and former USC offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin had been hired as the heir to the Trojan throne.

My first thought: Garrett is trying to screw over USC before he gets fired in August, when the new president takes over.

Really? You bring in a guy who went 5-15 with the Oakland Raiders and 7-6 at Tennessee as the heir apparent to Pete Carroll, the greatest coach in university history?

Is this one just one big comedy act? Has the school just given up because it knows it can't replicate Carroll's performance and feels the heat of sanctions from the NCAA, which just finished its investigation probe this week?

The biggest problem with hiring Kiffin is not the fact that, of every potential coach mentioned in conjunction with the USC coaching vacancy, he had the least experience. It's not that he alienated whack-job owner Al Davis in Oakland, although few rushed to Kiffin's aid when he was cast aside. And it's not that he spent one mediocre season as head coach at Tennessee.

The biggest problem with hiring Kiffin right now  - this week, this year - is that USC is in the middle of a storm of alleged NCAA violations. So why bring in a loudmouth hothead who's already been scrutinized by the NCAA at every turn in his first year at Tennessee?

It makes no sense.

I'm not sure this wasn't a big middle finger to the NCAA; Garrett's way of saying, "Probe me. See if I care."

Normally in these situations a university will go out of its way to hire someone with an impeccable record, someone who wasn't embroiled in scandalous actions - whether those actions were proved true or not - and whom the NCAA will look at in a positive light.

That's not Lane Kiffin.

At Tennessee, Kiffin was being investigated by the NCAA and the SEC for his recruiting practices and at least six secondary NCAA violations. He also blabbed recently about how it was kosher to have "hostesses" travel 200 miles to use their female body parts to woo future players, all while three of his players were arrested and charged with armed robbery.

You know the hiring is a bad one when you hear an elder USC professor proclaim, "Well, maybe they just want somebody who is okay with bending the rules."

Then again, the hire isn't all bad, right?

Kiffin is bringing his father Monte, a defensive guru (which USC badly needs), and recruiting wiz Ed Orgeron with him. Even better, Kiffin may be able to steal former USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow away from UCLA.

But the best thing about hiring Kiffin? The potential verbal battles between him and Rick Neuheisel that could start within the next 24 hours.

I pray they headline the next WWE match in L.A. with Lane "The Walking Sanction" Kiffin and Rick "Monopoly Buster" Neuheisel.