Editing Al Davis (section)

===Scouting and return to college coaching===
After his military service, Davis married his [[Engagement|fiancée]], Carol Sagal, in a Brooklyn synagogue; the couple established a first home in Atlantic Beach, near Al Davis's parents. Davis worked for a year as a freelance scout for the [[History of the Baltimore Colts|Baltimore Colts]] of the NFL. He had considerable knowledge of the players he had had on his roster or coached against, and advised the Colts which players to offer contracts to or [[NFL Draft|draft]] as they returned to civilian life.  Davis cultivated the Colts' head coach, [[Weeb Ewbank]], hoping Ewbank's connections would lead to a coaching job for Davis, and these efforts paid off in January 1955, when Davis was hired by [[The Citadel Bulldogs football|The Citadel]] in [[South Carolina]] as an assistant to first-year head coach [[John Sauer]].  In contrast to the glory won by its alumni in war, the South Carolina military academy's football team had lost every game the previous season, and previous head coach [[John D. McMillan|John McMillan]] was dismissed after two seasons. Davis stated, in his interview, that he would be able to persuade small-town boys from the Northeast to attend The Citadel, which often had difficulty in recruiting star players because of its regimented lifestyle. He was successful in his recruiting, although not all remained past the first training camp, at [[Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island|Parris Island]] [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] base.{{sfn|Ribowsky|1991|pp=58–64}}

During games, Davis was stationed in the [[press box]], calling plays which were generally run by Sauer without modification. The Citadel unexpectedly began the season by winning five of its first six games, although it lost the next three to end the season 5–4. Davis received much credit for his role in The Citadel's success, although losing Sauer's regard through too-aggressive self-promotion. The 1956 season was less successful, as the team finished 3–5–1. Sauer resigned at the end of the season; Davis unsuccessfully sought the head coaching position and then resigned; Ribowsky records that there were allegations of payments and other benefits to players in violation of [[NCAA]] rules; he also states that Davis pressured professors to change grades to keep student-athletes eligible to play football. By the time he left The Citadel, Davis had already arranged his next job, at the [[USC Trojans football|University of Southern California]] (USC) in Los Angeles.{{sfn|Ribowsky|1991|pp=65–76}}

Davis was an effective recruiter as a USC assistant coach, bringing one prospect, [[Angelo Coia]] to the [[Los Angeles Coliseum]] at night, and as the lights were slowly turned off, asked the student to imagine himself playing there before 100,000 people. Coia played for USC and later worked for the Raider front office.{{sfn|Dickey|p=4}} When Davis arrived, USC was on NCAA probation for allowing alumni to surreptitiously give money to players, and had not been permitted to play in a bowl game after the 1956 season; these sanctions hampered Davis's first two seasons at USC, 1957 and 1958, during which the team posted a combined 5-14-1 record. The head coach, [[Don Clark (American football)|Don Clark]], came to rely heavily on Davis. Clark and Davis hoped that 1959 would bring a conference championship and the chance to play in the [[Rose Bowl (game)|Rose Bowl]], but in April 1959 USC was sanctioned by the NCAA again, this time for inducing recruits signed by other schools into breaking their letters of intent.  Not allowed to play on television, USC won its first eight games before losing to [[UCLA Bruins football|UCLA]] and [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish football|Notre Dame]]. Despite the defeats, the team was [[Pacific Coast Conference]] champions, but because of the sanctions could not play in the Rose Bowl. Clark resigned after the season; although Davis put in for the position, it went to another assistant, [[John McKay (American football)|John McKay]], who did not keep Davis on his staff.{{sfn|Ribowsky|1991|pp=76–92}}