Was Al Davis Right About Lane Kiffin?

As we watched the Al Davis vs. Lane Kiffin saga unfold in Oakland over the past two seasons, it was difficult to not feel some sort sympathy for Kiffin.

After all, he was a young, up-and-coming head coach that seemed to be trapped in the firm grasp of Davis' lair, having little to no control over what was actually going on with the football team he was, supposedly, coaching.

At least that's the way it looked from my point of view. Now that Kiffin is out of Oakland, running his own football program at the University of Tennessee, it's becoming painfully obvious that Davis may not have been as crazy as we thought.

Lately, it's been easy to pile on Davis for the current struggles with the Raiders. The team hasn't exactly been a model of efficiency the past seven years, or lived up to the franchise's long-time motto of a "commitment to excellence."

That said, in the efforts of fairness, it's worth asking if Davis was right about Kiffin when he called him out during that bizarre press conference way back in September, and fired him after just 20 games.

A quick timeline of the events for Kiffin at Tennessee, where he's become a one-man train wreck.

December, 1, 2008: At his introductory press conference, Kiffin guarantees a win over the University of Florida next season.

December 3, 2008: South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier wonders if Kiffin is recruiting dirty.

February 5, 2009: Kiffin accuses Florida head coach Urban Meyer of cheating.

February 5, 2009: Florida, not amused by Kiffin's claim, accuses him of slander.

February 5, 2009: Kiffin apologizes for accusing Meyer of cheating when, in fact, he wasn't actually cheating, suggesting that Kiffin doesn't know the rules of the recruiting game.

February 9, 2009: Kiffin again has to apologize, this time for insulting a high school.

February 11, 2009: Tennessee notifies the NCAA and SEC that it committed "several secondary recruiting violations."

February 12, 2009: Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton says that Kiffin has not fired anybody, despite Kiffin's claims that he has.

Kiffin hasn't even coached a game at Tennessee yet and he's already managed to anger the rest of the SEC, while also accomplishing something that was once thought to be impossible: make Al Davis look like he's the sane one.

So, the question remains: was Al Davis right? Granted, Davis still made the mistake of hiring Kiffin in the first place, but he also quickly acted on his mistake and fired him.