Saturday, February 7, 2009

Lane Kiffin Proving Al Davis Right

By Rick Richardson

Al Davis must feel somewhat vindicated, as the true nature of Lane Kiffin is slowly mutating before a national audience.

Lane’s second foray onto the national scene as University of Tennessee head football coach has him looking as arrogant and immature as his first. Kiffin earned a maelstrom of reprimands from the University of Florida and SEC commissioner Mike Slive for his erroneous and serious accusation of recruiting violations at a breakfast celebrating the 2009 Tennessee recruiting class.

Kiffin claimed that one of his prospective recruits was called by Florida head coach Urban Myer during a visit to the Tennessee campus. Kiffin mistakenly thought that Myer was cheating and had committed a recruiting violation.

While Kiffin was trying to swallow his entire foot, someone in the Tennessee athletic department had to be letting out a gasp. The media storm that followed led Kiffin to release the following:

“I’ve been made aware by the Southeastern Conference that my comments this morning at a breakfast with our donors violated a conference policy,” he said. “In my enthusiasm for our recruiting class, I made some statements that were meant solely to excite those at the breakfast.

“I apologize to Commissioner Mike Slive and the SEC, including Florida AD Jeremy Foley and coach Urban Meyer. My comments were not intended to offend anyone at the University of Florida.”

Lane Kiffin’s apology, or more aptly described justification of his comments seemed to state “I‘m sorry for not really being sorry.”

Lane Kiffin looked promising in the early going of his Raider stint, but quickly appeared immature and green. During the Oakland Raider news conference announcing his hiring, he displayed a lack of communication skills with his robotic, rehearsed coaching cliché’s. He came off as not only green, but Kermit the Frog green.

Kiffin did have some minor successes, but it is hard to define in retrospect whether that was a product of his assistants, and player leadership rather than his own prowess.

Regardless, Kiffin won the lottery when he made that fateful trip to Oakland to interview along with then lead candidate USC assistant Steve Sarkisian. Kiffin was interviewing for offensive coordinator while Sarkisian was interviewing for the vacant head coaching position. Sarkisian headed back to USC without the job, but Kiffin remained and became Oakland’s 16th Head coach in franchise history.

That lottery ticket just kept on paying when his feud and subsequent termination by the Raider’s owner Al Davis led him to a $2 million contract to become head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.

It hasn’t taken long for Lane to make Al Davis’s scorching critique of Kiffin’s character look a little more plausible. Davis called Kiffin a “professional liar” in the infamous over head projector point list of reasons for letting Kiffin go for “cause.” By terminating the contract for “cause”, Al has refused to pay Kiffin the remaining balance of his salary.

It was widely reported that Kiffin stormed through Raider headquarters cursing and slamming doors when he received word that the Arkansas football vacancy had been filled in 2007. His refusal to wear anything emblazoned with the Raiders logo during the Senior Bowl made many question whether the wonder boy realized how amazing the opportunity given by the Raiders truly was.

With Kiffin’s latest shenanigans that humming sound you hear just might be Tennessee athletic director, Mike Hamilton’s, overhead projector warming up.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is impossible. Whatever kind of knave Lane Kiffin might be, Al Davis is worse.

February 8, 2009 at 2:50 AM  
Blogger Rick Richardson said...

I'll agree, Al Davis had made some head scratching decisions as of late. Although I would have to side with an aging NFL legend who is slipping over Little Laney Kiffin every day of the week. Especially with the spoiled attitude that Kiffin has displayed.

Thanks for commenting!

February 8, 2009 at 10:54 PM  
Blogger Raider Karma said...

Yeah, I'm glad that the world is seeing Kiffin for the douche he is. But it does bug me that Davis wasn't able to smell the massengill on Kiffin when he walked in the door.

One thing is for sure, Cable is no Kiffin! I like Cable and hope that this thing works out.

February 9, 2009 at 7:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice article. So glad to see that Kiffin is getting what he deserves. Here's to drafting Maclin with the number 7 pick of the NFL draft. If it wasn't for Al Davis, Kiffin would still be a no -name, before it's all over he could very well be a blip in the football world.

Later Raider

February 15, 2009 at 8:03 PM  
Blogger Rick Richardson said...

Hey Chris,

What is going on my Raider brother! Thanks for the comment.

We are in agreement on Mac. A lot of people don't agree, and there are a few good players to be had at the 7 slot, but I still think they will be changing their minds early and often if they get a load of his game changing skills. He really creates problems for opponents. He could contribute right away in so many ways.

Later,
Rick

February 18, 2009 at 10:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anybody interested in winning autographed footballs by two football legends: Herschel Walker and Tim Brown? Check out http://www.theolist.com/ and all you have to do is sign up to win.

March 10, 2009 at 1:09 PM  
Anonymous generic cialis said...

Hello, I do not agree with the previous commentator - not so simple

November 24, 2010 at 3:46 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home