Revisiting Lane Kiffin's "pumping gas" quip to South Carolina legend

Alshon Jeffery is a South Carolina football legend. The Palmetto State native spent three years in Columbia and became one of the best receivers in program history. With all due respect to Sterling Sharpe and a handful of others, the numbers suggest he might be the best.

What many Gamecock fans might not remember about Jeffery, though, is that South Carolina got embroiled in an intense recruiting battle just to get him on the team in the first place. The talented wideout was committed to Southern Cal for a while, and he had a never-ending list of suitors.

After his semi-public decommitment from “the other USC,” the Tennessee Volunteers were one of the teams who courted Jeffery. He visited Knoxville, and new Vol head coach Lane Kiffin came after him hard. Alabama and Florida tried to get involved, as well.

By the time February rolled around (remember when National Signing Day was in February??), the Gamecocks, Trojans, and Volunteers stood out above all the other teams vying for Jeffery’s services.

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The South Carolina coaching staff was confident they would keep the star pass-catcher home, and Jeffery confirmed those positive feelings early on National Signing Day by calling his lead recruiter with news of his final decision.

That call was to Shane Beamer, who now is in his fourth year as the South Carolina football program’s headman. Back then, he was in his first offseason as Steve Spurrier’s recruiting coordinator. In a full-circle way, Beamer was head coach in Columbia when Jeffery returned to have his jersey retired in 2023.

Even after talking with Beamer, the hours leading up to pen hitting paper on Signing Day were eventful. Beamer called Jeffery. Then, so did Southern Cal head coach Pete Carroll. And then there was Lane Kiffin.

The 33-year-old Tennessee coach spent a good chunk of the night working the phone in his recruitment efforts. According to a famous 2009 interview with ESPN’s Chris Low, Kiffin and other UT staffers pushed hard and didn’t take it well when Jeffery revealed he wanted to sign with South Carolina.

Low reported that Jeffery and his high school coach Walter Wilson (who listened in on the calls on speaker phone) told him that Kiffin declared Jeffery would “end up pumping gas” if he chose to go through with signing with the Gamecocks.

Kiffin’s comments were not the most effective recruiting tool.

Jeffery told Low that the gas-pumping comment woke him up a bit despite the late hour. Wilson called it a desperate “last resort.” The young head coach’s Hail Mary effort proved ineffective.

The jab also didn’t make any sense. South Carolina is not (and was not) a full-service state. Everyone pumps their own gas in the Palmetto State.

In a 2023 conversation with reporters ahead of his jersey retirement, Jeffery diplomatically suggested that someone else on the call might have made the comment instead of Kiffin, but both he and Wilson had been on record previously attributing the quote to Kiffin. Regardless, someone said it. No matter whose voice was behind those words, the story behind them lives on.

Jeffery proved the misguided prediction wrong, as well.

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By the time the NFL came calling (after just three years of Jeffery wearing garnet and black), the Calhoun County High School alum was the South Carolina football program’s all-time leader in receiving yards, was tied with Sidney Rice for the best mark in touchdown catches, and was second in total receptions behind Kenny McKinley.

Bryan Edwards eventually bested Jeffery’s totals in yardage and receptions, but Edwards had four years to meet those milestones. Jeffery and Rice are the only Gamecocks to average 1000 receiving yards, doing so in three and two seasons, respectively.

Jeffery’s 2010 effort is, without a doubt, the best wide receiver season any Gamecock has produced. Finishing the SEC East Championship year with 88 catches (a Carolina record), 1517 yards (another record), and nine touchdowns, he was an easy choice for first-team All-American honors.

After being the 45th overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, Jeffery became a Pro Bowler who posted two of the best receiver seasons in Chicago Bears history. Then, after moving on to the Philadelphia Eagles, he became a Super Bowl champion and scored in the Big Game. He’s one of just four Gamecock receivers (Robert Brooks, Marcus Robinson, Damiere Byrd) to play nine years in the NFL.

That’s a far cry from pumping gas.

On Saturday, Lane Kiffin will be in Williams-Brice Stadium for the first time since that 2009 season with the Vols. Now the head coach at Ole Miss, he will lead a top-12 Rebels team into a sold-out den of hostile Gamecock fans who surely haven’t forgotten what he may or may not have said about one of their heroes.

That, coupled with his celebratory clipboard toss to the moon during a 2020 defeat in Oxford, seems to have Carolina fans counting down the minutes until this Saturday’s matchup.

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Kiffin and wide receiver Juice Wells—a player who infamously transferred from USC to Ole Miss this offseason—could be on the receiving end of some of the loudest boos in Gamecock history this weekend.

The Rebels and Gamecocks will kick off at 3:30 on Saturday. ESPN will broadcast the game, and the ESPN app will make it available for streaming.

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