Thread: FREAKING Al Davis is at it AGAIN!! Kiffin reportedly to be fired tomorrow!

This sounds like something George Steinbrenner would do. Too bad Billy Martin isn't still here to kick around.

Had a strange feeling that euphoric smile after a good win would NOT last long...


Kiffin on his way out, despite victory

Nancy Gay

Monday, September 15, 2008

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(09-15) 04:00 PDT Kansas City, Mo. -- Only the Raiders can bring you awkward situations like this: Moments after they drilled the hapless Chiefs 23-8 and stunned the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, coach Lane Kiffin discussed whether he would still have an NFL job by Week 3.

"Ah, that's not my decision," said Kiffin, sticking to the defiant "Al Davis does whatever he wants, don't blame me" mantra that got him into this purgatory. "So um ... I'm excited the way our staff and our players prepared this week.

"If I'm here, we'll do the same next week."

What NFL franchise would dump the head coach with a 1-1 record two weeks into a 17-week season?

This one.

Kiffin is finished in Oakland; it's now a matter of when.

His fate was sealed Wednesday, when Kiffin told the media that the 41-14 Monday night meltdown against the Broncos happened in large part because defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and the team's owner conspire to exclude him from defensive decisions.

With that, the NFL's youngest head coach was dead to Davis.

"We don't have a general manager; everything goes through the owner," Kiffin said Wednesday. "That sets up a difficult situation at times. Knowing who the owner is, you know from Day 1 there's no job security."

Davis then summoned Ryan into his office and told his loyal defensive coordinator to strike back.

Ryan's 18-minute, profanity laced clarification of his job responsibilities Thursday was not spontaneous. Multiple team sources confirmed Sunday that Ryan spoke publicly at the request of Davis.

Among Ryan's gems: "When I deal with Al Davis, guys, it's in the offseason. And here's the thing: Al Davis knows football. And I'll have four-hour conversations with him in the offseason about everything in this league. About offenses, about players, about scheme, about everything, but during the week, guys, I don't have time to talk to my wife, OK? If I'm going to make one phone call, it's going to be her, all right? That's the truth. I'm just telling you the truth."

Publicly, Ryan made himself the fall guy. Inside the Raiders' organization, he assumed the mantle of hero.

"Hell, somebody had to stand up and be a leader on this team," one Raiders source said proudly in the postgame locker room Sunday, praising Ryan's stance against Kiffin. "Rob acted like a leader. He stood up for this team and these players. He took responsibility. Unlike the head coach."

By doing so, Ryan probably assured himself of becoming the 17th head coach in Raiders history when Davis finally decides he's had enough of Kiffin.

Could that happen in the next few days, even though the Raiders just won, put up 300 rushing yards and held Kansas City to 190 total yards? Absolutely. Even though the team leaves Friday for a cross-country trip to face the Buffalo, the short week won't matter.

The Raiders' defensive staff has circled its wagons. That group has no loyalty, nor is there any respect, for a head coach who publicly second-guessed a defensive game plan against the Broncos that did not call for blitzes or press coverage.

Davis probably got an earful of this ugly coaching divide on the plane ride back to Oakland on Sunday night. By today, or midweek, he easily could tell Kiffin to turn in his keys and get the hell out of the building.

Meanwhile, the players seemed unaware of the Kiffin-is-doomed story that was national news Sunday morning.

"No, we didn't have a mission. I don't think anybody was too worried of it," cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said when asked if players were fighting for Kiffin's job. "That's mostly between the coach and the owner."

Asomugha was asked to assess the impact of a coaching change in Week 3.

"It would be crippling at this point in the season, yeah, since we've only played two games," the Raiders' franchise-tag player said. "I think it would hurt us a lot. We're just starting to gel and starting to do things well, so I think that would kind of mess things up. I hope that's not the talk. Is it?"

Here is where it will get ugly and complicated.

Davis will fire Kiffin, 33, and the owner will cite insubordination and lack of success (5-13) as the cause.

He'll make this clear for a reason.

Davis will tell Kiffin, who is in his second season, that he will not receive the remainder of his three-year, $6 million contract (specifically, two years plus a club option) because of the perceived insubordination - that is, Kiffin's brutal public honesty about his lack of control over coaching and personnel decisions since he was hired in January 2007.

The Raiders will claim breach of contract. Kiffin and his agent, Gary Uberstine, will file a grievance. Good luck with that.

Mike Shanahan, who was fired by Davis four games into the 1989 season, didn't get paid the remainder of his Raiders contract, about $275,000. He returned to the Broncos two weeks later as quarterbacks coach, became their head coach in 1995 and has made a habit of exacting payback against Davis ever since then.

Although there has been speculation that offensive assistants James Lofton or Tom Rathman could take over Kiffin's job, Ryan clearly moved to the head of the pack with last week's impression of a cornered junkyard dog.

"He's ready," another Raiders source said of Ryan as Kiffin's replacement.

He'd better be. Ryan would be the eighth coach Davis has hired since the franchise returned to Oakland in 1995. That doesn't make Ryan invincible. It simply means he's the next in line.



Kiffin on his way out, despite victory

Good article!

I wasn't aware of the internal strife with Raider coaches. Just based on this article, I'm not really a fan of Ryan or his ethics. Backstabbing the head coach anyone? How can an owner get away with not paying the remainder of a contract based on so-called "breach of contract"?

Originally Posted by webbydude

Good article!

I wasn't aware of the internal strife with Raider coaches. Just based on this article, I'm not really a fan of Ryan or his ethics. Backstabbing the head coach anyone? How can an owner get away with not paying the remainder of a contract based on so-called "breach of contract"?

If you look at it from the outside.....you can see BOTH sides. Kiffin, side is simple. His argument has always been that he REALLY and TRULY has no complete control of the coaching of the team. As far as he sees it, the team is divided into a defensive team and an offesive team. That Fat-Tub-Of-Goo, was called out to the world by the head coach....which to me, is a no-no. You don't air-out to the world, your dirty laundry. So the ONLY person that has been actually loyal to Ryan has been ole Man Davis. Go figure....

I was a Raiders fan for a great many years. However, since I am not tied to the team by birth, I decided it was time drop-kick my support for the team when Al lost his mind 10 years ago.

Originally Posted by riffjim4069

I was a Raiders fan for a great many years. However, since I am not tied to the team by birth, I decided it was time drop-kick my support for the team when Al lost his mind 10 years ago.

Sorry you had to do that, but you do what ya gotta do, I guess.

THIS article has convinced me WITHOUT a shadow of a doubt that Kiffin is THE BEST coach for the job...and realize that becaue of that, he will be gone by mid-season.....

...sad....


Raiders coach Kiffin is playing well in strange game with Davis
By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Columnist
Article Launched: 09/15/2008 10:37:10 PM PDT

Lane Kiffin, unlikely Zen warrior and non-violent civil disobeyer, has found a mystical, tranquil place deep within the heart of purest Raiders chaos.

Kiffin won't beg for his job amid the near certainty of imminent firing, but he won't quit it, either.

He won't genuflect toward Al Davis, and he will delight in poking at him here and there, but Kiffin won't do anything obvious that insults the Raiders' don of dons.

Kiffin won't stop coaching — including Sunday's victory in Kansas City — but he won't be sad if he's fired.

Basically, Kiffin knows he's a very-short-timer here, so why spend his last days (or day, or hours) being miserable about it and fighting the inevitable Davis termination?

"He has a decision to make," Kiffin said when asked if Davis was about to fire him. "It does me no good to worry about it right now."

Added bonus: Kiffin's stiff-upper-lip strategy probably irritates Davis all the more.

Double-added bonus: If he's accurate about the main problems infecting the Raiders, Kiffin is revealing important things and also being deadly painful to Davis and Davis' closest cohorts.

Triple-added bonus: By not stressing out about his Raiders future, Kiffin prevents Davis from holding it over his head. Yes, he's taking all the fun out of it for Al.

Lane, did you wake up Monday thinking you would be fired?

"Not necessarily," Kiffin said coyly.

Kiffin had a few more direct hits on the Raiders Mystique on Monday — but they were only fully understood if you know the place well. Aggressive passiveness.

Asked if he has had any conversations with Davis, Kiffin said: "We don't sit next to each other on the plane. Al's not around as much as he used to be." Wham!

Well, what about defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's monumental news conference last week that seemed to blast Kiffin and line up with Davis?

"I took it as Rob had to do what Rob had to do," Kiffin said. "Rob told me that morning that that was going to happen." Whomp! An acknowledgement that Ryan was ordered to do that by Davis.

Now, you can question the inherent cynicism of Kiffin's tactics and you can say that even a put-upon Raiders coach shouldn't act with clear petulance toward someone as accomplished as Davis.

Art Shell didn't do this. Norv Turner, Bill Callahan, Joe Bugel or Mike White, either. (Of course, they all lost and all got fired, too.)

However, you can't say that Kiffin is absolutely wrong or lying or that he alone is screwing up this franchise. I would argue vehemently against all three things, actually.

And he's still scoring points on Davis.

That's how good Kiffin already is at this game; amazingly, he started here last year as an unproven college assistant who probably was the 400th most qualified man for the job.

Al had better dispatch him now before Kiffin really gets going.

I asked him: Lane, do you even still want to be here anymore?

"I want to be here," Kiffin said. "I think we have a real good group of players, and there are so many things going in the right direction with a bunch of young guys. "... It would be exciting to see this thing grow the right way and be able to do it."

The right way "... yeah, that would include providing a stable environment for JaMarcus Russell and Darren McFadden, among others. That means trying to avoid chaos.

Yet chaos is the Raiders way. Kiffin is doing it a different way, which means he will be gone soon.

"I don't have any regrets at all," Kiffin said. "I think it's been a great experience so far for me "... And with this team, to be able to hold the team together, if we can continue to play like we did last week and hold the team together, we can stay together in this thing. A pretty good story."

A weird story, at least. With the final chapter coming soon.

You know, for the first year of his Raiders career, I was sure that Kiffin was coaching for his next job. Right now, I think he is practically already interviewing for it.


Kawakami: Raiders coach Kiffin is playing well in strange game with Davis - San Jose Mercury News

Originally Posted by salsadancer7

...
You know, for the first year of his Raiders career, I was sure that Kiffin was coaching for his next job. Right now, I think he is practically already interviewing for it.


Kawakami: Raiders coach Kiffin is playing well in strange game with Davis - San Jose Mercury News

You're right, he's a sharp cookie. I suggested he should be interviewing now, and he's a step ahead already.

So who's gonna be the Raiders' coach after Rob Ryan gets canned next year? I know - Art Shell again! If Crazy Al was smart, he'd pony up the big bucks and hire The Tuna for a couple years, and then step back and let him run things. Yeah, like that could ever happen.

Originally Posted by mdonnelly

You're right, he's a sharp cookie. I suggested he should be interviewing now, and he's a step ahead already.

So who's gonna be the Raiders' coach after Rob Ryan gets canned next year? I know - Art Shell again! If Crazy Al was smart, he'd pony up the big bucks and hire The Tuna for a couple years, and then step back and let him run things. Yeah, like that could ever happen.

Believe me...tuna will never coach again.