You can’t say Lane Kiffin lacks confidence

I’ve been so busy trying to save Rick Neuheisel’s job over at UCLA, I haven’t had time to check on Lane Kiffin or ask him what he really thought of Al Davis.

So we sat down Tuesday, the sound of construction on USC’s new football building in the background, and how many people thought Kiffin would be here long enough to consider moving inside?

“I still haven’t gone inside to see how they’re doing because I don’t want to jinx it,” he says, self-deprecating humor still intact.

Contrary to most expectations when he was hired, he has stayed out of trouble. He also has gotten a free pass, NCAA probation of all things doing him a favor, keeping USC out of a bowl game and thereby limiting comparisons with Pete Carroll.

“I think the majority of the country would say we failed last year, and we did fail going 8-5,” Kiffin says. “But people closer to the program understand what happened.”

That will change next year. A loss, like this year’s to Pac-12 South Division foe Arizona State, will be considered far more damaging.

“You’re probably right,” says Kiffin, “but let me tell you, we didn’t feel any better about this year’s loss.”

But unlike this season, which everyone knows will end seven games from now in a game against UCLA, next year spoiled Trojans fans will be demanding Carroll-like results.

Kiffin is 12-6 so far but quick to note, “Five games into his second year, Pete Carroll was 9-8.”

Carroll was 10-8 after his first 18, and 78-7 the next 6 1/2 dominating seasons — as Kiffin says, “arguably the greatest run in the history of college football.”

So how close can a team come to replicating such a thing?

“We’re going to do it again,” Kiffin says without hesitation, “and it’s going to be more special.

“It’s going to be more special because we’re going to go through all this probation and sanction stuff with everybody writing USC is over and almost getting the death penalty and we’re going to do it again.”

I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly with all the construction noise.

Do you really think you can do something like win six of seven BCS bowl games and nearly three national titles in a row?

“Sure, we can,” he says. “We were here before. We saw exactly how it was done from A to Z.”

I hope that doesn’t include an H, or a house for the parents of the USC’s next great running back.

“There is no doubt in my mind we can do this,” Kiffin says. “The only thing that has changed is the day the NCAA delivered those papers, and now we’ve gotten through that.”

So you’re going to be just as successful as Pete?

“Yes,” he says.

Now as preposterous as that might sound after 18 games, this is coming from someone who has coached the Raiders, the University of Tennessee and USC — only 13 years removed from graduation at Fresno State.

“Why can’t we do it again here?” he says.

I mentioned his father, his Achilles’ heel, knowing Lane said a year ago he’d never fire Monte Kiffin because he’s his father first.

USC can’t be as dominant as the Trojans were under Carroll if the defense doesn’t improve.

“I hear you,” Lane says, “but I think we can play better once we get all the pieces in place.”

The pieces are the next wave of recruits, the roster already loaded with contributing freshmen and sophomores despite smaller numbers the last two seasons because of transfers.

“Now it gets easier,” Kiffin says. “When we’re on the phone talking to recruits, we’re talking about the bowl game they will be playing next year. This is the way it used to be around here when we had all the good players.

“And it will be again,” he says, his commitment to excellence, I guess you could say.

The Raiders hired Kiffin as head coach and fired him less than two years later.

“I’m very glad I had the chance to go there,” he says. “There’s no part of me that says I wouldn’t have taken that job knowing everything I do now. As painful as it was, it was such a learning experience.

“I went in so confident, thinking it was going to be just like USC — everyone working together. But then people would tell me, ‘This is the player we should be drafting, but Mr. Davis won’t like that, so I’m not going to bring it up.’ That’s when I thought, ‘Oh boy.’ ”

Like so many coaches before him, Kiffin found himself at odds with Davis, only sooner than most.

Davis called Kiffin a “flat-out liar” in a news conference, and told folks he “tried to destroy the Raiders.”

“That was to the public,” Kiffin says with a laugh. “What do you think was being said without the public hearing?

“I’ll say this about Mr. Davis, his players loved him. It was his strength and very motivating. But that’s why there were so many horrible head coaching stories. He always sided with the players; he’d tell them what they wanted to hear.

“To him, players were more important than coaches; that’s why he fired so many. He had an infatuation with great players whether they were done or not. I’d be sitting with him, we’d need a guy and he’d bring up a name and want to bring him in.

“I’d be like, he retired five years ago and he’s 44 years old. But it was the kind of guy who was still a great player to Mr. Davis.

“No question in looking back, it was quite the experience.”

You would think someday it would have to end better at USC for Kiffin.

But have you ever been around Trojans fans when things aren’t going well?

t.j.simers@latimes.com