Tennessee Signs a Recruit Who Helped Rape Someone. This May Not Be a Bad Thing.

I really hate Lane Kiffin. This wasn't his fault initially: as Tennessee's head coach, I am bound by fan contract to set small, throwable objects on fire and toss them at him whenever possible. Then he accused Urban Meyer of cheating, shot off his mouth in public a few times, and hit my mother with a car and backed over her just to make sure he'd finished the job, and voila -- instant person-specific hate. Clearly, he's something special, this young man sitting at the helm of one of college football's most venerable and tradition-bound programs at the tender age of 33.

He also tempts a quick, cheap, and ultimately unfair shot for recruiting and signing Daniel Hood, a Knoxville Catholic High prospect Kiffin bagged in this year's recruiting class. Hood will graduate with honors, carries glowing recommendations from his principal and teachers, and has letters of support defending his character. According to UT publicist Tiffany Carpenter, this includes one from the woman Hood helped a 17-year-old rape when he was 13 years old.

Carpenter said UT researched Hood's case extensively. Glowing references were provided on his behalf. Carpenter said even the rape victim had written a letter in support of Hood.

How a juvenile criminal case even became public in the first place presents a very good question: Joel at Rocky Top Talk points out this came about as a result of "attorney error," which is comparable to saying a plane hit the ground nosefirst at 350 miles an hour due to "pilot error." Juvenile cases are kept confidential to allow the juvenile justice system to rehab the offenders and hopefully turn them into responsible, non-criminal citizens who may start over and go on to live productive adult lives -- not to brand them as criminals for life. (The 17-year-old Hood "assisted" in the rape got 10 years in jail.)

This seems to have happened with Hood, who after the crime spent time in rehab and the juvenile justice system, and went on attend Catholic High, where he was a model student, athlete, and all-around citizen. Phil Fulmer revoked a scholarship offer once Hood's past became known, but after Fulmer's firing, Lane Kiffin stepped in and not only offered Hood a spot on the Vols, but went fully transparent in the process by openly discussing the case and having Hood meet with reporters to talk with them about his past. Hood's own words on the case:

"I have been on a short leash and at Tennessee I am on even a shorter leash," Hood said. "If I jaywalk, I will make the front page. I think that is one of the prices that you have to pay. I honestly don't think it's that big of a price, to be disciplined and do the right thing."

We shouldn't even really know about this in the first place -- but now that we do (thanks to a negligent lawyer), the only clear element to this is that Lane Kiffin is doing the correct thing in one sense: if you're going to bring a player with a questionable past into the program, take every step you can to be completely transparent about it. Rather than fudge away at the details and demur, Kiffin is staking the very legitimacy of his program on his ability to judge the character of players as he sees them. When you go all-in, they make you turn your cards face-up for a reason. Lane Kiffin seems happy to do that, and for that he should be commended -- just as he'll take the loss if Hood snaps even once on the short leash Tennessee if offering him.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.