Lane Kiffin is the son of NFL coach Monte Kiffin who currently serves as the DC at Tampa Bay. Kiffin is a 1994 graduate of Bloomington Jefferson HS in Minnesota and a 1998 graduate of Fresno State. He played backup QB for the Bulldogs and gave up his senior season to become a Student Assistant Coach at Fresno State University, Where his position coach was current University of California Head CoachJ eff Teford. He earned his bachelor degree from Fresno State in 1998.
Kiffin worked as a Graduate Assistant for one year at Colorado State. In 1999, working with the offensive line, the Rams played in the Liberty Ball that season. Kiffin's dad helped him secure a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a quality control assistant for one year. Lane was then hired by one of his father's former assistant coaches, Pete Carroll as a tight ends coach at USC.
Kiffin joined the USC staff in 2001 as a TEcoach and became the WR coach in 2002. In 2004, he added the duties of passing game coordinator and was promoted to OC in 2005. Kiffin also took the reins as recruiting coordinator that year, after offensive coordinator Norm Chow left USC for the same position with the NFL's Tennessee Titans. Along with these duties, Kiffin continued as the wide receivers coach.
Kiffin was hired by the Oakland Raiders as head coach in 2007 and it seems like Al Davis was trying to fire him from the first day he was hired. It is really hard to gauge Kiffin's mettle as a potential head coach after the year and a half stint with the Raiders. Kiffin had a 5-15 record with the Raiders when he was fired earlier this month by the Raiders.
Kiffin's name has come up because he has shown interest in the Washington job. That interest according to inside sources has not been returned as of yet. Washington seems to be focusing on experienced coaches who have succeeded in building winning football programs at the college level. Kiffin really doesn't fit that profile.
I think Kiffin is an interesting prospect for somebody out there but he needs to prove himself as a head coach. I think Washington would be taking an extreme gamble in hiring him and I am pretty sure that they won't go in that direction.
I personally don't think that Kiffin is even on the long list of candidates at this point but by popular demand I pumped this out for the Kiffin fans in the audience.
Do you think Lane Kiffin would be a good fit at Washington?