CLEMSON QUIETLY INTERVIEWED KIFFIN

Former Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin is a candidate for the head-coaching position at Clemson.The South Carolina newspaper The State reports that the interview quietly took place on Friday in Detroit. Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips flew to Detroit to see Kiffin and then flew to Tallahassee to watch Clemson play at Florida State. He and Kiffin succeeded in keeping the interview under wraps for five days before news of the meeting surfaced.Phillips is also known to have interviewed Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables.Clemson coach Tommy Bowden was fired after the team got off to a 3-3 start. Interim head coach Dabo Swinney, who is 1-2 in three games running the show, is not believed to be a strong candidate to be given the job on a permanent basis.Kiffin was fired as the Raiders’ coach on September 30. Before taking the Oakland job he was an assistant to Pete Carroll at USC, and he is likely to interview for several college jobs in the next month.