In an interview with ESPN's Shelley Smith, USC coach Lane Kiffin talked some about leaving Tennessee.

Of note, Kiffin said there were death threats the night it was announced he was leaving for USC. He said his wife, Layla, was home alone when the threatening messages started coming in and that three police officers had to be stationed outside the house. Kiffin said Layla's cell phone and their home address was posted on the Internet.

"I'm OK, you know. It doesn't bother me, but that was kinda tough," Kiffin said.

When Kiffin took the Tennessee job, he praised the passion of the Tennessee football fans as one of the things that appealed to him and even bragged to his father, Monte, about that passion.

He sounded a little bit different tune during the interview Tuesday and made light of the angry, riotous reaction of the fans when he left.

"Yeah, it's different," Kiffin said. "They'd ask me all the time down there about it, coming from here. It is more passionate. It's followed 365 days a year. So I think that had a lot to do with the reaction down there, where I think people here understand there's a lot more going on. They weren't burning couches when coach (Pete) Carroll left, and he won two national championships. I joke sometimes that imagine if we'd actually won some championships down there what they would have done."