Eric Mac Lain tells hilarious story about decommitting from Lane Kiffin, Tennessee

Long before Eric Mac Lain was an All-ACC offensive lineman at Clemson, he was committed to Tennessee to play tight end for Phillip Fulmer.

Fulmer was fired by the Vols after the 2008 season, but Mac Lain was still interested in playing at Tennessee, that is until he had a meeting with Lane Kiffin. The always entertaining Kiffin was in his early 30s at the time and had just been fired as the head coach of the Raiders.

Eric Mac Lain came to Knoxville for a recruiting visit with his father, and the two weren’t overly impressed with Kiffin. Mac Lain looked back on those times recently when speaking with Billy Embody of On3.

“So [Fulmer] gets fired, Lane Kiffin comes to town. … We’re in there, and this dude, man. I’m sure he’s grown up a little bit and would love to cover one day. But just not ready,” Eric Mac Lain said. “Not ready to be a head coach.”

One conversation in particular between Eric Mac Lain, his father and Lane Kiffin stands out.

“He’s sitting there and giving us the car salesman pitch and all these things. And he looks at my dad and says, ‘This must be a real dream come true for you,’” Eric Mac Lain recalled. “And if y’all know anything about my pops, he looked him dead in his eye and said, ‘No sir. If this was my dream, this would be Notre Dame and you’d be Charlie Weiss.’”

Not long after that talk, Mac Lain decommitted from Tennessee. It’s no surprise that he says Kiffin was very different from Phillip Fulmer. However, he has continued to follow Kiffin’s career and is impressed by what he has done.

“Safe to say we decommitted a couple of hours later and we were done,” Mac Lain said. “I mean you talk about Phil Fulmer to that. It was so drastic of a change. But again, he’s a genius. He’s an offensive genius Great coach. But just wasn’t ready. And he’s doing awesome now at Ole Miss.”

With Tennessee out of the picture, Mac Lain ended up at Clemson. It’s a move he is thankful he made. Mac Lain was named first-team All-ACC his senior season and helped the Tigers to the College Football Playoff. He is now an analyst for the ACC Network and thriving in that role. Everything worked out just fine with him and the Tigers after it looked at one point like he would be playing for the Vols.