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'Lane Kiffin' (born May 9, 1975) is the head coach of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the offensive coordinator for the University of Southern California Trojans football team.^[1] 31 years old at the time of his hiring (32 when he coached his first game), Kiffin will be the youngest head coach in the NFL, surpassing the New York Jets' Eric Mangini and the Pittsburgh Steelers' recently-hired Mike Tomlin, and the youngest head coach since the AFL-NFL Merger.

Contents

Background

University of Southern California

Oakland Raiders

External links

References

Background

Kiffin is a 1994 graduate of Bloomington Jefferson High School in Minnesota and a 1998 graduate of Fresno State University. He played quarterback for the Bulldogs and immediately moved into coaching at Fresno State following graduation. Kiffin also worked for two years as an assistant at Colorado State University. He is the son of Monte Kiffin, defensive coordinator of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

University of Southern California

Kiffin joined the USC staff in 2001 as the tight ends coach and became the wide receivers coach in 2002. In 2004, he added the duties of passing game coordinator and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005. Kiffin also took the reigns as recruiting coordinator that year after Norm Chow left to become the offensive coordinator of the NFL's Tennessee Titans. Along with these duties, Kiffin also continued his role as the wide receivers coach.
During Kiffin’s tenure with USC he was instrumental in the development of several wide receivers and tight ends in the program. During his coaching tenure USC has produced noted talents such as NFL draftees Mike Williams, Keary Colbert, Kareem Kelly, Alex Holmes and Dominique Byrd. In addition, Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett of the 2006 USC Trojans football team were both selected in the second round of the 2007 NFL draft by the Carolina Panthers and the New York Giants, respectively. Patrick Turner, Fred Davis and several other young new recruits such Vidal Hazelton, Travon Patterson and Jamere Holland seem likely to continue the trend of excellence at this position. Notably, Lane Kiffin also acted as USC’s overall recruiting coordinator for the past several years and during this time has helped amass the number one recruiting class the past several years in the nation from as evaluated by organizations such as Scout.com and Rivals.com.
In 2005 Lane Kiffin took over offensive coordinator responsibilities from Norm Chow who departed for the Tennessee Titans and the NFL. Despite being new to the role Lane Kiffin helped guide USC to a 23 win and 3 loss record during his tenure in this capacity for an 88% win percentage. During the previous four years under Norm Chow’s play calling the Trojans achieved 41 wins and 9 losses for an 82% margin. Under Kiffin in 2005 the USC offense produced school records in virtually every dimension averaging 49.1 points and 579 yards per game. USC’s potent offense that season became the first in NCAA history to have a 3,000 yard passer, two 1,000 yard rushers, and a 1,000 yard receiver with Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White, and Dwayne Jarrett. Steve Smith fell a few yards short of also surpassing 1,000 yards in receiving. With an all new offensive cast at the skill positions and in what was generally viewed as a rebuilding year for USC the offensive totals fell off to 30.5 point, and 391 yards per game, and 11 wins overall. Injuries affected the team all year as three fullbacks went down to major injury by the third game of the year, several freshman running backs rotated as starting tailback, and wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett missed parts of the mid-season due to injury. Despite these losses and key injuries the team produced top 20 statistics in most NCAA offensive categories and concluded with an impressive 32-18 win over what was the consensus #2 ranked team the University of Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
Despite all the teams achievements Lane Kiffin's work with the USC Trojans over his two year period as offensive coordinator is sometimes harshly judged for what it did not accomplish – win national championships – as compared to the previous two seasons in 2003 and 2004. Furthermore offensive play calling responsibilities for USC were shared during this period with QB coach Steve Sarkisian having on the field approval for Kiffin’s suggestions and head coach Pete Carroll maintaining veto power. Lack of clarity and final say over play calling responsibility has left some controversy over how much decision making power Kiffin wielded versus Sarkisian and Carroll during his two year tenure as offensive coordinator.
After an upset loss to the UCLA Bruins to close the 2006 season eliminating USC from the 2006 BCS title game, there were reports in the news media that previous coordinator Norm Chow publicly criticized the young coordinator along with quarterbacks coach Steve Sarkisian. He was interviewed by the ''Orange County Register''.
Other sources however point out that Chow's comments were taken out of context in this regard and did not reflect his intended meaning. These reports indicate the following conversation ensued over the airwaves.
The contents of the interview are available for download at KLAC 570AM radio's website^[2]

Oakland Raiders

Raiders' owner Al Davis hired Kiffin on January 23, 2007, making him the youngest head coach in Raiders history, and the youngest head coach since the formation of the modern NFL. [2] Davis has been known to select young, up-and-coming coaches in their thirties; those hires who fared well include Tom Flores, John Madden, Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden. All have won Super Bowls, though Madden and Flores are the only ones to win a championship with the Raiders.
On August 12th, 2007, in his NFL Head Coaching debut, Kiffin and the Raiders won their preseason opener 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals.
The next day, August 13th, Kiffin was hospitalized with a viral infection, which doctors believe is mononucleosis.

External links

★ Official USC Bio

★ Official Raiders Bio

References

1. USC O-coordinator Kiffin to be named Raiders coach
2. [1]