FanPost

Kiffin to coach Tennessee

Lane Kiffin has been named coach at Tennessee, per Foxsports.  I was watching the end of the Colorado Nebraska game on ABC when I noticed the news crawl at the bottom of the screen announce it.  The Fox report says the terms of Kiffin's contract were not available, but the ABC/ESPN newscrawl says Kiffin will be paid more than the Raiders were paying him.  I, as well as many others in Raiders Nation, think this is what Kiffin was angling for all along, a plum college head coaching position.  I was neither a detractor nor supporter of Kiffin when he was fired by the Raiders.  Given that Monte Kiffin is his dad, and Jon Gruden was available to advise him prior to taking the Raiders job, I'm sure Kiffin knew what he was getting himself into.  On the other hand, Al Davis hired someone who had no business being an NFL head coach, though Kiffin is certainly bright enough. It was also clear, to me at least, that Kiffin was trying to get himself fired this year, so that he would at least have a claim on his remaining contract salary.  Everybody here will agree that Al Davis has got to make a wiser choice of head coach after this season.  But I wonder if the fallout of both Gruden's and Kiffin's departures from the Raiders makes this position so undesirable that the pool of candidates will once again consist of failed head coaches desperately looking for another chance to coach a team (Hello, Jim Fassel!) or somebody else we've never heard of.  Oh, well, I had a great Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to this Sunday's game against the Chiefs.  I'm going, but since the game is a sell out, I'll also get to record it.  I'm hoping it's a keeper recording, like last week's Bronco game.