Kiffin on his way out, despite victory

Kiffin on his way out, despite victory
Nancy Gay
Monday, September 15, 2008

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.




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