I thought about emailing Lane Kiffin this column to see if he approved (too soon for inside journalism jokes?), but he probably has more pressing things on his mind.

After all, Tennessee seems to be pretty good and Kiffin’s No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels travel to Knoxville to take on the Vols on Saturday night. UT has 2 blowout wins in the past 2 weeks and seems more than ready for Kiffin’s return as a head coach. The UT-Ole Miss game is sold out and will feature checkerboard stands for the occasion.

Face it. You may hate Kiffin, but he still is the only sure-fire sellout in Neyland Stadium over the past decade.

This week is a time to celebrate UT’s recent resurgence, but it’s also a time to remember the sensational story that Kiffin was when he became the head coach at Tennessee in 2009. Whether the Vols win or lose on Saturday, Tennessee football is exciting again. Kiffin has always been exciting whether it’s from coaching moves, success on the field or his activity on Twitter. The game Saturday is a sellout partly because of Kiffin, the coach who left Tennessee in the middle of the night to take the Southern California job. Would this game have been a sellout if former Ole Miss coach Matt Luke was still the head coach? Probably not.

It begs the question: What would Tennessee have been under Kiffin had he never left?

Kiffin certainly would not have had to deal with apathy, which has plagued the Vols since he left. Until this weekend. UT’s coaches since Kiffin created an atmosphere of apathy. That would have never happened under Kiffin — for better or for worse.

Kiffin’s potential success at UT would have depended largely on which Kiffin Tennessee would have had at the helm: young Kiffin or mature Kiffin.

If the Vols had young Kiffin, there’s no guarantee that the Vols would have been championship contenders. Young Kiffin wasn’t ready for the Tennessee job or any big-time job for that matter in 2009. There were always questions about off-field behavior among Kiffin’s coaching staff. Some revolved around potential NCAA issues. Some revolved about questionable personal choices.

Sure, they were mostly just rumors, but the hostess scandal certainly had some substance. Kiffin’s one signing class proved to be a monster flop, mostly because of questionable character among the signees. As the joke goes, there were more felons than All-Americans. The problems with that class could have been because those players were sold one thing and had to accept something far different when Kiffin left. Maybe the questionable characters in that class wouldn’t have been questionable at all had Kiffin hung around Knoxville.

In defense of Kiffin, he had to assemble a class as quickly as possible when he was hired following the 2008 season. It’s doubtful he was able to completely vet all of those prospects as much as he would like. Character was a huge question in that surprisingly highly-rated signing class. The 2009 class was fraught with scofflaws and busts. Let’s give Kiffin a break on that. It’s incredibly difficult to put together a class in just a couple of weeks. He did so and it was stellar on National Signing Day. Had Kiffin stayed, perhaps those players would have stayed in line. Remember, this is before transferring was so easy. There probably wouldn’t have been the mass exodus of players that happened when Kiffin left.

Had the Vols had a young Kiffin, I’m betting there would still have been some character issues among his signees, but he could have managed them. Would there have been more NCAA issues with young Kiffin? Yes. He was always willing to step into the grey area of NCAA rules and regulations. However, it’s those trials and tribulations that would have likely prompted Kiffin to mature. He’s done it since. Would he have done the same thing at UT? I believe he would have.

So if young Kiffin would have been able to weather the storm of that first signing class and an investigation into the way UT used hostesses, he would have had success at Tennessee, especially in the SEC East. The Vols would have been in contention for the division crown each year Kiffin was at the helm once he established a strong talent base, especially since Florida didn’t have a proven coach during the early 2010s and Georgia never quite lived up to its hype. Kiffin would have taken advantage and made the SEC Championship Game at least 2 or 3 times, probably more. Then, things would have ratcheted up a notch.

Kiffin would have been an interesting matchup against Alabama coach Nick Saban in the early 2010. It would have been an annual contrast in styles and personalities. With a fully stocked roster, Kiffin could have won his fair share against Saban. He would never have dominated the series, but he had an edge. Kiffin has always embraced a high-tempo, explosive offense and knows how to get receivers open. At that time, Alabama wasn’t the high-scoring team that it is now. Alabama had a stout defense that would have tested Kiffin’s offense, but he still would have been able to generate points with a roster that he built.

Saban, who is actually known for his offense nowadays, would have had mixed success against Kiffin. However, if the Vols could have just won a 1/3 of the games against Alabama, Kiffin would have been an incredible success. I believe he would have done that. Saban believed in Kiffin as well. That’s why he hired him as an offensive coordinator and changed the way Bama ran its offense.

All of that potential success is based on whether Kiffin would have matured in Knoxville. If he hadn’t, things would have gone awry quickly. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

Stability alone would have helped Tennessee’s football program had Kiffin stayed. The Vols made one bad hire after another as Kiffin was coaching at Southern California and eventually rebuilding his coaching career in Tuscaloosa and Florida Atlantic. There’s no questioning that Tennessee would have been better off with Kiffin as opposed to what UT went through after he left, but would he have won championships? I think he would have.

I believe that UT would have had at least a couple of SEC championships under Kiffin and possibly a national championship if (and I can’t stress this enough) he had matured as he has.

There’s no guaranteeing that would have happened. Kiffin’s travels and challenges have helped him become a better coach and a more mature person. That may have never happened had it not been for the embarrassing firing at USC. That got his attention. Suddenly, Kiffin wanted to be known as a great coach and not just a great character. From my experiences with Kiffin, something would have caused him to toe the line just a bit more than he did early in his UT tenure. Had that happened, the Vols would have had a couple of more trophies and banners on campus. Had it not, the Vols could have been under intense NCAA scrutiny. Kiffin would have determined that.

Could Kiffin have won multiple SEC championships and perhaps a national title at Tennessee? I believe so. Would he have had Saban-like success? We’ll never know because that would have depended on him. However, if I had to choose between Kiffin being average to good or ultimately great, I’d go with the latter. I think Kiffin would approve of that.

Cover photo: Lane Kiffin, just before he announced his resignation as Tennessee’s head coach on Jan. 12, 2010. — Knoxville News