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		Is this Kiffin's team or is Davis in his ear? By Jeremy Harness August 2, 2008

	ALAMEDA--Of course Al Davis who is General Managing Partner of the Raiders is going to put his two cents in whenever he can. More important than anything this year head coach Lane Kiffin is starting to put his foot down a little bit and start to say "look I'm the head coach of this team, let me do what I have to do in order for this team to get better." More than anything, Kiffin is starting to take control of the team because he needs to and Al Davis will let him. The Raiders have no choice because if Davis has another puppet on his hands it wouldn't look very good for Kiffin and the Raiders and it wouldn't give the coach a lot of credibility. More than anything Davis is starting to take over the reins and now more than anything this team can start to take off really a few years ago when they added this talent but nothing ever good surfaced from it. Davis' health has been declining over the last few years, a few years ago he started walking on a walker and Davis is 78 but Davis still shows up at training camp every year and he still is going to make his appearances so he's not going to stay away entirely. Davis is not getting any better and he's not getting younger. You can say that Davis is doing as well as he can for a 78 year old man. We know his physical vigor has diminished and with great respect for Davis but how sharp is he in terms of being in control of the team? Al Davis has always been pretty sharp and especially with football personal. Davis is aware of who his football players are and who the Raiders are getting and there has not been much of a question about his football I.Q. He's always been a pretty sharp man, especially in his young days growing up out of Brooklyn. His health maybe declining and he maybe getting older but he hasn't lost a step as far as his football I.Q. is concerned he's still sharp as a tack. It's just a matter of the head coach being able to control his team and for awhile Davis couldn't really grasp that. Now more than anything Davis is starting to realize Kiffin needs to just fly and spread his wings and go out there. Will Davis have more trust in Kiffin after considering leaving for a college team: Absolutely Davis should take the shackles off Lane Kiffin because he was offensive coordinator at USC on a very powerful SC offense and SC can compete with a lot of NFL offenses. Keeping mind the Trojans had at one time, Reggie Bush, Wayne Jarrett, Mike Williams, Matt Leinart, and Kiffin brought out the best in these guys and SC dominated college football as far as scoring points is concerned. The Raiders should give Kiffin a shot as far as expanding the offense because Kiffin is a brilliant mind and keep in mind that Kiffin is only 32 years old. So it kind of brings back the days of Jon Gruden when he was coming up and he was an offensive coordinator and Gruden worked with the offense in Green Bay and Philadelphia. So Gruden has a lot of bright ideas and when you offensive coordinator at USC your going to have a lot of bright ideas and you have lot of talent around you. Davis should just give Kiffin a shot and see what Kiffin can do with the offense. You kind of actually saw some that last year unfortunately Kiffin didn't have much talent as they do now. So this year more than anything is the time to bring all that stuff out because bear in mind you should use it and Kiffin is going to be an NFL coach for quite sometime if things go right. Will the Raiders defense improve? Not only did the Raiders sign Gibril Wilson who is going to be the Raiders starting strong safety but they also added DeAngelo Hall to compliment Nnamdi Asomugha for the left cornerback position. The Raiders have tried Fabian Washington there too, so things haven't really worked out the way envisioned when they drafted Fabian in the first round in 2005. So you have Hall whose been a little bit controversial at times, a little mouthy, a little bit of a drama queen at times, but let’s get one thing straight, the guy can play football; he's a pro bowl player. Fabian and Asomugha who should who have made the pro bowl last year with those two guys at cornerback and you have Wilson at strong safety that back field got that much better. As good as Stuart Schweigert was and he was a great corner, Fabian is one of the top picks in Oakland. As far as Wilson is concerned he's a huge upgrade with the physicality of his tackling and his ball skills are off the charts and I kind of compare Gibril Wilson with Adrian Wilson of the Arizona Cardinals. Gibril is that good. Also the Raiders added Greg Spires from the Jacksonville Jaguars and Kalimba Edwards from the Detroit Lions to add a little bit more depth in the defensive line. Jeremy Harness covers Raiders football with Jeremy Kahn and Stefani Rebekah Black for Sportstalk.