Raiders hire USC O-coord Kiffin

[BILLSROCK1212]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2739645


very interesting hire and if i am not mistaken he will be the youngest ever NFL head coach

[camelcowboy]

Well they just cemented their place in the top five of the draft for years to come.

[TigerJ]

It is convention to hirea college head coach or a pro assistant coach, usually a coordinator to be an NFL head coach. It is almost unprecedented to hire a college assistant coach to be an NFL head coach. At the very least, this means a significant learning curve for the guy. It will also be interesting to see whether Kiffin hires a bunch of young assistants a la Gregg Williams who seemed intimidated by assistant coaches who had experience. The end result was his staff was filled by incompetents.

[LtFinFan66]

"Kiffen will become the youngest NFL head coach in the modern era. Jon Gruden, Mike Shanahan and John Madden all succeeded as Raiders head coaches in their 30s, however, as did Davis."

[texasphinsfan]

the crazy thing is sarkisian turned them down for the head coaching gig... however it is being said that he will interview for the OC position.

initially, sarkisian said he didn't want to make the jump from college OC to NFL HC, but i guess he'll consider doing the OC - to - OC thing?

good luck to them. the raiders can't get much worse, they can only improve.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

It's a huge gamble on Al Davis' part--not that he is unused to taking big risks--it could pay off big, if Kiffin turns out to be a great HC, but, more likely, it could blow up in his face big-time and make the Raiders a laughing-stock of the league for several more years.

I think that Davis wants to have too much say over not just how the team is run, but how the team plays for any experienced HC or NFL coordinator to find the Oakland job attractive. Danny Snyder is a medding owner, but it seems like Davis still wants to coach the team.

A similar kind of situation could be developing down in Dallas now that Parcells has decided to step aside. Jerry Jones can offer a potential HC a lot more money than Al Davis can, but, if Parcells couldn't keep Jones from meddling in how the team is run, who can? And, that's a question that any candidate for that job is going to have to ask, along with asking whether any HC can truly be successful in that kind of situation now.

With the amount of turnover that there is nowadays with the NFL head coaching jobs, a lot of the top assistants who might be in line for a head coaching job have to figure that, rather than take a job with a meddling owner who is going to be questioning how they do things every day, it would be better to wait a year for a better situation to open up with a team whose owner won't be such a pain-in-the-neck.

[Night Train]

It's the job no one wants.

Al Davis is a loon and that franchise is now the laughing stock of the NFL.

[YardRat]

Maybe they should move back to LA.

[Forward_Lateral]

What happened to Lofton?

[DraftBoy]

I like the hire, esp if they can pull Sarks too to help out

[Earthquake Enyart]

People laughed when they hired Gruden.

[Carlton Bailey]

Norm Chow basically called Kiffin and Sarkisian bad coaches, according to Wikipedia. This is a terrible, desperate hire for a team nobody wants to coach. The Raiders are the biggest joke in sports right now, even worse than teams like the NY Knicks and Tampa Bay D-Rays.

[BillsFever21]

It is convention to hirea college head coach or a pro assistant coach, usually a coordinator to be an NFL head coach. It is almost unprecedented to hire a college assistant coach to be an NFL head coach. At the very least, this means a significant learning curve for the guy. It will also be interesting to see whether Kiffin hires a bunch of young assistants a la Gregg Williams who seemed intimidated by assistant coaches who had experience. The end result was his staff was filled by incompetents.

Was his staff really that bad when you look at it a few years later? One of his coaches was Steve Fairchild. He's now the OC for the Bills.

Another one of his coaches was Steve Kragthorpe. Got the Tulsa HC job and turned them into a respectable team and then was thought of enough for Louisville to give him their HC vacantcy.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Was his staff really that bad when you look at it a few years later? One of his coaches was Steve Fairchild. He's now the OC for the Bills.

Another one of his coaches was Steve Kragthorpe. Got the Tulsa HC job and turned them into a respectable team and then was thought of enough for Louisville to give him their HC vacantcy.
Yeah. Don't forget Jerry Gray or Gilbride. :down:

[jamze132]

The way I look at it is if Al Davis can keep his nose out Kiffin's business and let him do his thing, he can be succesful. They are in position to draft a possible franchise QB in Brady Quinn. If he does, he can possibly build the team around him. And who knows, maybe the Quinn/Moss connection will come to frutition.

[BILLSROCK1212]

The way I look at it is if Al Davis can keep his nose out Kiffin's business and let him do his thing, he can be succesful. They are in position to draft a possible franchise QB in Brady Quinn. If he does, he can possibly build the team around him. And who knows, maybe the Quinn/Moss connection will come to frutition.
you ment JaMarcus Russell or Mike Vick right?

[The_Philster]

What happened to Lofton?
He turned it down

[Ingtar33]

Raiders hire USC O-coord Kiffin

and cement the theory that norm chow is being discriminated against due to his race.

Kiffin can't carry Chow's water.

(btw: USC runs a version of the Pat's offense, similar to what Notre Dame runs... this pick i think solidifies the fact Quinn will be no.1 pick)

[TigerJ]

Was his staff really that bad when you look at it a few years later? One of his coaches was Steve Fairchild. He's now the OC for the Bills.

Another one of his coaches was Steve Kragthorpe. Got the Tulsa HC job and turned them into a respectable team and then was thought of enough for Louisville to give him their HC vacantcy.

I overstated it. There were several competent guys, but there were also guys who were out of place and didn't know what they were doing. I can't remember the offensive line coach's name, but he had never coached offensive line before and it showed. The special teams guy was not capable. The OC was out of his league. That was the biggest problem. Williams didn't know offence but seemed not to want an experienced OC. He got what he paid for. BTW, his first OC served in the same capacity on Jim Haslet's staff in NO before Haslet was canned. By then he had a little more seasoning though and joined a staff that had more experience in other areas. Fairchild and Kragthorpe were OK. Fairchild wouldn't have been ready to serve as OC at that point, but he was fine as RB coach. He has ample experience as OC now and was a good choice by Jauron.

[Vanilla Thunder]

meat for teh grinder. welcomje to the ****tiest job in the league.

[Kerr]

Raiders hire USC O-coord Kiffin

and cement the theory that norm chow is being discriminated against due to his race.

Kiffin can't carry Chow's water.

(btw: USC runs a version of the Pat's offense, similar to what Notre Dame runs... this pick i think solidifies the fact Quinn will be no.1 pick)

I was going to mention something about this. This hiring could change their approach to the draft. I think russell makes more sense because of randy moss, but bringing in a usc assistant who've worked with mostly pocket qb's, makes it imaginable that brady quinn will be the selection.