🏈 Can Lane Kiffin be a Head Coach Again?

[bcracker]

Below the video of Kiffin's press conference is an SI article about a poll conducted with 11 athletic directors on whether or not they'd hire Kiffin as a head coach.

http://www.si.com/college-football/2014/12/29/lane-kiffin-alabama-crimson-tide-sugar-bowl

 

[TerryP]

There's a recurring theme here with the answers Thamel published:

AD 1: “In the right situation. He’s a talented coach and should get another head coaching opportunity at some point.”

AD 2: “As a head coach, he had mediocre success at brand name programs. (Truly only one good collegiate season). Too many integrity/character question marks.”

AD 3: “Not a chance. I suspect that he will still be a successful head coach, but the deficiencies and the record to date are real. A single year with Nick is not enough to convince me that he has figured it out. I would take the chance if I were a mid-major willing to rent him for a couple of years.”

AD 4: ““He’s hire-able. More so next year than this year. I think he needs to show one more year of maturity and a few more gray hairs. He will be a Big 5 conference coach when he re-brands himself.”

AD 5: “No, I wouldn’t at this time. Two items stand out for me -- [the] way he left Tennessee and lack of success at USC. While he had to deal with sanctions, he also had a great deal of talent.”
​

Nary a mention of the point USC was under heavy sanctions. Nary a mention the shape UT was in when he took over.

I don't consider him to be "ready" to take a HC job now either. However, if their reasoning for him not being a quality candidate is based on his record, is that a fair shake?

I'm not making excuses here—although I think that's a point that has to be weighed into the conversations.

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Lane Kiffin gives us more reasons to believe he could be Alabama's head coach one day- Scarbinsky



Lane Kiffin didn't hesitate. He didn't waffle or waver or drop his eyes down and to the left.

I asked Monday morning, at his much-anticipated Sugar Bowl media session, if he planned to be back at Alabama next season. He looked me right back in the eye and said: "Yes. Definitely."

He said a lot more about the challenge of replacing Blake Sims, Amari Cooper and T.J. Yeldon, maybe the most productive trio in Alabama history, "to see if we can do this again," but his affirmation sounded sincere.

It also fell right in line with something someone close to Kiffin told me not long ago. The job he's done this year, rising from the ashes after his dismissal at USC, likely hasn't ended his rehab period before getting another head coaching offer that would appeal to him - but it's no doubt reduced it.

Kiffin's return to Tuscaloosa would be the best coaching move for him and Alabama since Nick Saban overcame some doubters in his own building and a lot more on the outside to make the marriage happen in the first place.

All Kiffin's done is orchestrate the most prolific offense in school history and allow Sims and Cooper to enjoy the best seasons ever by an Alabama player at their positions. Another year of running the offense while watching how Saban runs the most efficient and effective organization in college football would do nothing but benefit both parties.

As Kiffin said of Saban, "I should pay him for this opportunity."

Kiffin looked and sounded like a head coach Monday. Unlike some coordinators at these media sessions, he wore a suit and tie instead of a sweatsuit. He looked every person who asked a question in the eye and came across as a more mature version of the always brash and often foolish head coach he'd been at Tennessee and USC.

He managed to be humble, funny and honest. Midway through Kiffin's 21 minutes with the print media, SI.com's Pete Thamel asked what he has to do to become a head coach again because "you're viewed as a divisive guy in the industry."

"Thanks, Pete," Kiffin said with a smile. "Divisive. God, this was going so well." And then he talked of worrying "only about what you can control."

In discussing his relationship with Saban, Kiffin reminded anyone who thinks of the boss as a coaching terminator that "he's funnier than you guys think."

"He made a joke one time about, 'How did I get higher on the most-hated list than he did?' He might've been mad about that."

On a more serious and relevant note, Kiffin made a point that people who know him and Saban understood from the start. The assumption that they're polar opposites "is very fair," he said, "but I don't think it's really accurate."

"We may not have the same personality, but we do have a lot of the same beliefs when it comes to coaching."

It's the reason they've worked so well together. It's also a reason to believe something that sounded outrageous when I suggested it in September after Alabama smoked Florida but doesn't seem so far-fetched now, three days before a national semifinal against Ohio State.

Kiffin is making a case to be a head coach again one day. Maybe, when Saban retires, it just might be at Alabama.


Continue reading...

 

[psychojoe]

A question in my mind is whether he would want another HC job anytime soon. Burned three times, after all. I don't hold the misadventure with the Raiders against him, as Al Davis was the definition of meddling ownership, and I recognize that USC had been severely depleted by probation while he was there. He can be an OC anywhere he wants now, doing what he does very well and being paid very well for it.

 

[UAgrad93]

He inherited a mess at UT and recruited pretty well in his only season there. If I recall correctly, he did have the guts to hold a presser and announce that he was leaving AFTER he had spoken with the team. As I recall, some asshole left UA without so much as a peep! He inherited USC with a TON of sanctions when no one else would take the job, a lot like Shula did here.
Like you said @TerryP, not making excuses but it seems like they are judging him on those two stints regardless of what he was left to work with.