Tennessee Fans Want Lane Kiffin Back

Lane Kiffin was Tennessee's head football coach for one season back in 2009 and his departure for USC left Volunteers fans furious. Now, 11 years later, many of those same fans have taken to Twitter hoping and praying Kiffin is brought back to replace the recently-fired Jeremy Pruitt.

It's a crazy turnaround given how hated Kiffin was in Knoxville when he decided to bolt from UT for the left coast in January of 2010. During the 2009 season, Kiffin led the Volunteers to a 7-6 record and his tenure didn't come without controversy. He taunted the Florida Gators, publicly accused then-Florida coach Urban Meyer of recruiting violations and told receiver recruit Alshon Jeffery that if he signed with South Carolina he'd wind up pumping gas.

Kiffin's rapid departure from the job was truly shocking. It caused a near-student riot on campus after the news began to leak out. Police had to be called to quiet down the crowd and escort Kiffin off Tennessee property safely.

Things didn't work out at USC, as Kiffin was fired following three-plus largely disappointing seasons. He revived his career as Alabama's offensive coordinator, spent three years rebuilding FAU's program and just finished his first year at Ole Miss, going 5-5. Apparently that's enough for Vols fans to want him back.

Since Kiffin left, things at Tennessee have been a disaster. Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt have all failed to return the program to national prominence and the Vols have been to just five bowl games in the past 11 seasons.

Fans have now taken to Twitter en masse in an attempt to entice Kiffin away from Oxford and back to Knoxville. They're also begging new athletic director Danny White to go all-in on the Lane Train:

Hey, stranger things have happened.