USC football: Lane Kiffin meets with team for first time

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USC players just emerged from their first team meeting with new Coach Lane Kiffin and assistants Ed Orgeron and Monte Kiffin.

Lane Kiffin was a USC assistant under Pete Carroll for six seasons before head-coaching stints with the Oakland Raiders and the University of Tennessee.

“It went great,” Kiffin said of the 20-minute meeting. “This is the third time I’ve done a first meeting, but it was different because you knew so many people and so many things have been established here.

“We just need to continue on and improve in certain areas as well.”

Players said the emphasis was on following team rules and starting with a clean slate.

“It was nice to get that out of the way, to hear his perspective finally without it being a conference on TV,” quarterback Mitch Mustain said.

Senior fullback Stanley Havili, who was a freshman in 2006 during Kiffin’s final season, said there was new excitement, especially with Orgeron in the mix.

“We’ve been doing the same thing for a long time,” Havili said. “Even though [Kiffin] was under coach Carroll, I feel like with Coach O back it’s a whole different mentality.”

I’ll have more later at latimes.com/sports

-- Gary Klein