Arizona has not been especially kind to Lane Kiffin lately.
"The last time I was here, I got fired," Kiffin said on Saturday morning. "The time before that was for the (USC) NCAA hearing. So, yeah, good memories."
KIffin wasn't complaining, though. For most of a busy hour in which he was surrounded by an army of media, at least one platoon of which consisted of Los Angeles-based reporters who haven't gotten any face time with the former USC coach in over two years, he was jocular and positive. Phoenix, after all, represents rebirth, a city named after a mythical bird that destroys itself in flames, then rises again from its own ashes.