Did Petrino slip in while Kiffin was sleeping?
Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin was fired yesterday, prompting a revealing press conference by the Raiders’ owner, Al Davis, yesterday afternoon.
While calling Kiffin a “flat-out liar” and stirrer of propaganda, Davis let out a few other tidbits yesterday. One, for example, was the fact that Kiffin wanted the Arkansas job last December after the resignation of Houston Nutt.
Kiffin, as you may remember, had been reported as a candidate for the UA job in December.
Here’s more from the San Francisco Chronicle:
According to Davis, both sides agreed Kiffin would be free to leave after the Raiders’ season ended. He even had a resignation letter drafted for Kiffin to sign.
However, Bobby Petrino left the Falcons during the NFL season to take the Arkansas job, leaving Davis and Kiffin stuck together. Their relationship was never the same.
Here’s further clarification from ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas:
Davis said he told Arkansas officials they could pursue Kiffin after Oakland’s season was over. … Davis implied Petrino stepped up his interest in the Arkansas job to get ahead of Kiffin and that’s why he left the Falcons with four games remaining in the 2007 season.
The hits don’t stop there, folks. Davis even read part of a three-page letter he said he sent to Kiffin on Sept. 12. As the Los Angeles Times put it, it was “the most surreal moment” of the Tuesday press conference. Davis even put the letter on a projector for the media to read.
Here’s more from the LA Times:
“I realized when I hired you that you were young and inexperienced and that there would be a learning process for you,” he read. “Your mistakes on player personnel and coaches were overlooked, based on our patience with you. But I never dreamt that you would be untruthful . . . in statements in the press and as well as so many other issues.
“Your actions are those of a coach looking to make excuses for not winning, rather than a coach focused on winning.”
Davis accussed Kiffin of leaking the existence of the letter to ESPN.
And here comes another Arkansas connection. Davis then labeled ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen as a “professional liar,” according to the LA Times.
Mortensen is the father of Arkansas backup quarterback, Alex Mortensen.
Former Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden can’t be liking all this. The former Hog has been battling a toe injury the last two weeks after dazzling the NFL with his 164-yard performance with the Raiders against Kansas City on Sept. 14.
And now this.
So how close was Kiffin to being the Razorbacks’ choice? Probably not too close. Arkansas was set on hiring someone by mid-December. Because of the regular season schedule, Kiffin wouldn’t have been available until late December.
Well, he could have resigned before the end of the season.
But Petrino got there first.
Interesting stuff.
Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press on Jan. 23, 2007
– Brandon Marcello
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2 Responses to “Did Petrino slip in while Kiffin was sleeping?”
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Is this really news? Better yet, does anyone expect anything less in lower class crap out of Al Davis’ mouth?
No wonder the Raiders can’t put it together. No one with an ounce of sense would touch that coaching job after seeing this display. Its not humiliating enough for Lane Kiffin to be shown the door this early in the season. His former boss has to grind it in instead of wishing him well elsewhere like someone with any form of character would.
McFadden has to be feeling uncomfortalbe and not just physically.
[...] even by Davis’ own circusy standards. It seems that their relationship began to sour when Kiffin privately expressed interested in the Arkansas job last December (only to be outdone by Bobby Petrino, who famously had no qualms about leaving his [...]