Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis fired Lane Kiffin yesterday (Tuesday, Sept. 30). In a one-paragraph release, the team said, “Lane Kiffin has been released as head coach of the Oakland Raiders for cause. “
According to ESPN.com, sources say that Kiffin was fired via the telephone and without pay.
Raiders offensive line coach Tom Cable has accepted the head-coaching job. Cable was introduced at a news conference later Tuesday. Cable was among three coaches interviewed by Davis on Monday night; the others were offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and special consultant Paul Hackett.
Cable is regarded as one of the top offensive line coaches in the game, and he worked with successful units in Atlanta and Oakland. He spent four years as a college head coach at Idaho and was also an assistant at UCLA, California and Colorado.
Unlike the St. Louis Rams, who fired coach Scott Linehan on Monday, the Raiders and Davis did not deliver the news in a face-to-face meeting. Kiffin was notified by a team executive Tuesday morning that Davis would call him at 9:15 a.m. PT to relieve the coach of his duties.
The news did not blindside Kiffin, who was informed by a team executive that he would be fired after the Raiders’ 24-23 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 3. Even though Davis didn’t act a week ago, as Kiffin was told, many team insiders expected the Oakland owner to fire the coach during this bye week.
The Raiders are 1-3, having blown leads in the fourth quarter to the Bills and the San Diego Chargers. During Kiffin’s 20-game tenure, in which the team was 5-15, the Raiders took leads into the fourth quarter of 11 games.
Davis hired Kiffin, who was USC’s offensive coordinator at the time, as the NFL’s youngest coach (at 31 years old) in February 2007. Even though many observers questioned the hiring, Kiffin ultimately gained respect around the league for fielding a significantly more competitive team than the Raiders had displayed before he was hired.
While Oakland was competitive in most of its games, Kiffin and Davis had a falling out on several fronts, starting when Davis believed Kiffin expressed private interest in the head coaching position at the University of Arkansas during the 2007 season.
Information from ESPN.com contributed to this report.