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Kiffin on fast track to success
By Jerry McDonald
LINK
Lane Kiffin doesn't waste time worrying about what could go wrong.
When it's fourth-and-one and the BCS national championship is on the line, you don't worry about coming up short.
When managing general partner Al Davis decides out of the blue you are his choice to become the head coach of the Raiders at age 31, you push aside negative thoughts and go with your gut.
Kiffin didn't get what he wanted as the USC co-offensive coordinator on Jan. 4, 2006, with the Trojans coming up short and providing Texas with an opportunity for a 41-38 win.
He fared better with Davis and became the 16th coach of the Raiders.
In both instances, his philosophy was the same.
John Reaves can relate.
A former All-America quarterback at Florida who played nine seasons in the NFL, Reaves is Kiffin's father-in-law. His daughter Layla met Lane, then a graduate assistant at Colorado State in 1999, while working for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the special events department.
Lane and Layla had been dating a relatively short period of time when Lane called and wanted to meet Reaves in his office. Reaves sells commercial real estate and wondered if Kiffin going to ask for a job.
"He said he wanted to ask for my daughter's hand in marriage," Reaves said. "I said, 'But you've only been dating three or four weeks.' He said, 'I don't care. I know what I want. She's what I want.'"
The youngest head coach in the NFL's modern era, it is Kiffin's job to resurrect a franchise with a league-worst 15-49 record over the past four seasons and has been above .500 just three times in 12 years.
Kiffin has never been a head coach, never been an offensive coordinator on his own. There are USC fans and alumni who will never forgive Kiffin for not having Reggie Bush on the field when LenDale White was stopped on fourth-and-one against the Longhorns.
Or for the Trojans' offensive struggles in a 13-9 loss to UCLA last Dec. 2, despite all the wins and productivity that came before and a 32-18 pummeling of Michigan in the Rose Bowl that followed.
The Raiders, 2-14 in 2006, have gone through seven head coaches in the last 12 seasons, and the new kid on the block looks like one of the New Kids on the Block.
Robin Kiffin, Lane's mother, has heard the talk but has also watched a son who started ascent to head coach the first time he climbed out of his crib.
Monte Kiffin, Lane's father and defensive coordinator of the Buccaneers, is one of the NFL's most highly regarded and highest-paid assistant coaches. Lane's future occupation was never in doubt.
"In Little League, the first coach he ever had said Lane wanted to come in and coach the team," Robin Kiffin said. "He' been around football forever."
While Robin Kiffin politely corrects Reaves' timeline regarding his son's engagement to Layla -- it was three months, not three or four weeks -- she admits her son shows no hesitation in pursuit of a goal.
"He is very decisive," she said. "He goes for it, where his father tends to go over it and over it."
David Watson, an assistant coach at USC who was a high school teammate and close friend who lived with the Kiffins for a time in Bloomington, Minn., said, "Lane has more strike to him -- a cobra mentality."
Football, training camps and practice schedules were a way of life at the Kiffin home in several different stops.
One of the favorite family stories was when Monte was the head coach at North Carolina State and had a weekly spot on a call-in radio show. Lane, 6, called the show and said if his dad could get a new contract, they could get a new blackboard for drawing plays.
Monte Kiffin said he remembers Lane watching him closely, drawing his own X's and O's, creating his own offenses and defenses.
"He loved challenges. puzzles, Legos, creating things," Robin Kiffin said.
Lane tagged along on practice fields and locker rooms with the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and Buccaneers.
Chris Kiffin, 24 and a graduate assistant at the University of Mississippi, followed suit.
"It was all football, all the time," Chris Kiffin said. "I felt bad for my sister (Heidi) and my mom sometimes, wondering if they felt left out because we were always talking football."
By the time Lane was in high school, he was fluent in a football language that his teammates were just beginning to learn. He was a point guard in basketball and also played baseball, but was way ahead of the game in football.
"It was like talking to a 25- or 30-year-old coach instead of a 17 or 18-year-old player," said Stan Skeij, his high school coach at Jefferson High School-Bloomington. "He not only understood what he was supposed to do, but what all 11 players were supposed to be doing on every play."
Lane would bring Jefferson teammates, including Watson and current Chicago Bears assistant Lloyd Lee, to sessions at the Vikings practice facility.
There, they would watch film, take the field and get coached by Monte Kiffin, then a Minnesota assistant under Jerry Burns.
By Jerry McDonald
LINK
Lane Kiffin doesn't waste time worrying about what could go wrong.
When it's fourth-and-one and the BCS national championship is on the line, you don't worry about coming up short.
When managing general partner Al Davis decides out of the blue you are his choice to become the head coach of the Raiders at age 31, you push aside negative thoughts and go with your gut.
Kiffin didn't get what he wanted as the USC co-offensive coordinator on Jan. 4, 2006, with the Trojans coming up short and providing Texas with an opportunity for a 41-38 win.
He fared better with Davis and became the 16th coach of the Raiders.
In both instances, his philosophy was the same.
John Reaves can relate.
A former All-America quarterback at Florida who played nine seasons in the NFL, Reaves is Kiffin's father-in-law. His daughter Layla met Lane, then a graduate assistant at Colorado State in 1999, while working for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the special events department.
Lane and Layla had been dating a relatively short period of time when Lane called and wanted to meet Reaves in his office. Reaves sells commercial real estate and wondered if Kiffin going to ask for a job.
"He said he wanted to ask for my daughter's hand in marriage," Reaves said. "I said, 'But you've only been dating three or four weeks.' He said, 'I don't care. I know what I want. She's what I want.'"
The youngest head coach in the NFL's modern era, it is Kiffin's job to resurrect a franchise with a league-worst 15-49 record over the past four seasons and has been above .500 just three times in 12 years.
Kiffin has never been a head coach, never been an offensive coordinator on his own. There are USC fans and alumni who will never forgive Kiffin for not having Reggie Bush on the field when LenDale White was stopped on fourth-and-one against the Longhorns.
Or for the Trojans' offensive struggles in a 13-9 loss to UCLA last Dec. 2, despite all the wins and productivity that came before and a 32-18 pummeling of Michigan in the Rose Bowl that followed.
The Raiders, 2-14 in 2006, have gone through seven head coaches in the last 12 seasons, and the new kid on the block looks like one of the New Kids on the Block.
Robin Kiffin, Lane's mother, has heard the talk but has also watched a son who started ascent to head coach the first time he climbed out of his crib.
Monte Kiffin, Lane's father and defensive coordinator of the Buccaneers, is one of the NFL's most highly regarded and highest-paid assistant coaches. Lane's future occupation was never in doubt.
"In Little League, the first coach he ever had said Lane wanted to come in and coach the team," Robin Kiffin said. "He' been around football forever."
While Robin Kiffin politely corrects Reaves' timeline regarding his son's engagement to Layla -- it was three months, not three or four weeks -- she admits her son shows no hesitation in pursuit of a goal.
"He is very decisive," she said. "He goes for it, where his father tends to go over it and over it."
David Watson, an assistant coach at USC who was a high school teammate and close friend who lived with the Kiffins for a time in Bloomington, Minn., said, "Lane has more strike to him -- a cobra mentality."
Football, training camps and practice schedules were a way of life at the Kiffin home in several different stops.
One of the favorite family stories was when Monte was the head coach at North Carolina State and had a weekly spot on a call-in radio show. Lane, 6, called the show and said if his dad could get a new contract, they could get a new blackboard for drawing plays.
Monte Kiffin said he remembers Lane watching him closely, drawing his own X's and O's, creating his own offenses and defenses.
"He loved challenges. puzzles, Legos, creating things," Robin Kiffin said.
Lane tagged along on practice fields and locker rooms with the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and Buccaneers.
Chris Kiffin, 24 and a graduate assistant at the University of Mississippi, followed suit.
"It was all football, all the time," Chris Kiffin said. "I felt bad for my sister (Heidi) and my mom sometimes, wondering if they felt left out because we were always talking football."
By the time Lane was in high school, he was fluent in a football language that his teammates were just beginning to learn. He was a point guard in basketball and also played baseball, but was way ahead of the game in football.
"It was like talking to a 25- or 30-year-old coach instead of a 17 or 18-year-old player," said Stan Skeij, his high school coach at Jefferson High School-Bloomington. "He not only understood what he was supposed to do, but what all 11 players were supposed to be doing on every play."
Lane would bring Jefferson teammates, including Watson and current Chicago Bears assistant Lloyd Lee, to sessions at the Vikings practice facility.
There, they would watch film, take the field and get coached by Monte Kiffin, then a Minnesota assistant under Jerry Burns.
