The year 2010 is definitely one that will always stand out in the mind of Lane Kiffin.

He had just led the Tennessee Volunteers to a 7-6 record and the passionate fan base in Knoxville, initially hesitant, was finally starting to accept him.

He decided during the recruiting season of the same year to head out west to coach the USC Trojans and quickly went from the face of Tennessee football to the most hated man in the state.

In a recent interview with Athletes For God, Kiffin reflects on that time in his life and still seems confused as to why he was hated so much for leaving Tennessee after just one year.

“What I didn’t expect was a full riot to ensue on campus,” Kiffin said. “I think sometimes we embellish our memories, but that night there was literally a riot in Knoxville, with people running in the streets and lighting things on fire. It was confusing to me, because people change jobs every day. A guy goes from McDonalds to Burger King, or from BP to Exxon, or Delta to United, and this happens every day. In fact, the reporters who criticized me had changed networks themselves. But here I was in a police escort, trying to get safely out of town, asking myself why there was so much animosity towards me.”

While Kiffin does have a point, people do switch jobs sometimes often, they usually don’t do it with a one-minute announcement before bolting out of the city. People also don’t embarrass and jolt a program the way he did Tennessee by leaving in the middle of the recruiting season.

Kiffin was fired from USC in 2013 and then took a job as Alabama’s offensive coordinator under Nick Saban. He returned to head coaching at FAU in 2016.

At this point in his career, Kiffin would probably agree with you that leaving Tennessee was a bad decision, but it’s clear he still doesn’t understand why.