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April-19th-2007, 10:30 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902802.html
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Little Choice but to Be Picky
Woeful Raiders Must Make NFL's No. 1 Draft Selection Count
By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 20, 2007; E01
PHOENIX -- As he sat down at a table for the AFC coaches' breakfast at the annual league meeting here last month, newly appointed San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turner looked toward an adjacent table. Reporters were surrounding Lane Kiffin, the 31-year-old head coach of the Oakland Raiders, the team that Turner had coached in 2004 and 2005 before being fired by owner Al Davis.
A person sitting with Turner remarked that Kiffin probably had no idea what he was facing. Turner tried to escape with a diplomatic answer about no first-time NFL head coach ever knowing what was in store for him, but was pressed for what he really thought about the once-proudly rebellious Raiders franchise that has become, in the estimation of many in the league, a model of disorder.
"They're unique," Turner said, "to say the least."
The Raiders have become unique for all the wrong reasons. They've also become irrelevant. Their chance to begin to fix that comes when they make the top overall selection in the NFL draft April 28 and they know they can't afford to get it wrong.
"It's huge, the number one pick, not just because of the player but also the pressure that goes with being that player," Kiffin said that day. "You have a lot of work that goes along with that. The number one pick, everyone is going to expect you to do something great every day. There will be a lot of work you'll have to do with the player that comes with that."
The swagger of the Raiders is long gone. Davis fired Art Shell in January after only one season in Shell's second go-around as the team's head coach. The Raiders were 2-14 last season, and Shell feuded with wide receiver Jerry Porter and, reportedly, with front office chief Mike Lombardi. Davis had brought back Shell to be his coach after firing Turner on the heels of two seasons in which the Raiders were 9-23.
The Raiders' next coaching target appeared to be Steve Sarkisian, the University of Southern California's 32-year-old quarterbacks coach. Kiffin, USC's offensive coordinator and the son of Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, was interviewed by the Raiders as, it was thought at the time, an offensive coordinator candidate. But talks with Sarkisian broke down, and Davis had Lane Kiffin flown to Oakland for a second interview just as USC was wrapping up a recruiting weekend. Kiffin met with Davis until late that Sunday night, then reconvened around 8 the next morning and by that Monday afternoon had convinced Davis that he was ready to be the NFL's youngest head coach.
Kiffin says that some associates tried to talk him out of taking the job, and his father counseled against accepting it merely for the sake of having an NFL head coaching job. Monte Kiffin wanted his son first to make sure that he would be put in a position to succeed.
"He was like, 'Make sure you have this, this and this in place. Don't take it just to take it.,' " Lane Kiffin said. "He thought he did that at N.C. State [where Monte Kiffin was the head coach between 1980 and '82], took it just to take it."
Kiffin reached a comfort level with Davis and the Raiders, and took the job, taking over a team that ranked third in the league in total defense last season but scored only 168 points, the fifth-fewest ever by an NFL team in a 16-game season.
Many people in the league seem to expect the Raiders to use the top pick on Louisiana State University quarterback JaMarcus Russell. The Raiders have only one quarterback on their roster who's thrown an NFL regular season pass -- Andrew Walter -- after releasing veteran Aaron Brooks following the season. There has been speculation about them trading wide receiver Randy Moss to the Green Bay Packers for quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a first-round draft choice in 2005.
The other viable options for the Raiders appear to be Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn and Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs recently described Russell and Johnson as the two closest things to an unflawed player that there are in this draft.
"I don't see a hole there," said Gibbs, whose club has the draft's sixth overall selection. "What is the hole? We can't find one. And that's kind of rare, you know. Most everyone else has got something you're kind of worried about. We went to the workout with Calvin. We didn't think we had to with [Russell]. I think everybody kind of knows what's going to happen there."
click link for full article
Little Choice but to Be Picky
Woeful Raiders Must Make NFL's No. 1 Draft Selection Count
By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 20, 2007; E01
PHOENIX -- As he sat down at a table for the AFC coaches' breakfast at the annual league meeting here last month, newly appointed San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turner looked toward an adjacent table. Reporters were surrounding Lane Kiffin, the 31-year-old head coach of the Oakland Raiders, the team that Turner had coached in 2004 and 2005 before being fired by owner Al Davis.
A person sitting with Turner remarked that Kiffin probably had no idea what he was facing. Turner tried to escape with a diplomatic answer about no first-time NFL head coach ever knowing what was in store for him, but was pressed for what he really thought about the once-proudly rebellious Raiders franchise that has become, in the estimation of many in the league, a model of disorder.
"They're unique," Turner said, "to say the least."
The Raiders have become unique for all the wrong reasons. They've also become irrelevant. Their chance to begin to fix that comes when they make the top overall selection in the NFL draft April 28 and they know they can't afford to get it wrong.
"It's huge, the number one pick, not just because of the player but also the pressure that goes with being that player," Kiffin said that day. "You have a lot of work that goes along with that. The number one pick, everyone is going to expect you to do something great every day. There will be a lot of work you'll have to do with the player that comes with that."
The swagger of the Raiders is long gone. Davis fired Art Shell in January after only one season in Shell's second go-around as the team's head coach. The Raiders were 2-14 last season, and Shell feuded with wide receiver Jerry Porter and, reportedly, with front office chief Mike Lombardi. Davis had brought back Shell to be his coach after firing Turner on the heels of two seasons in which the Raiders were 9-23.
The Raiders' next coaching target appeared to be Steve Sarkisian, the University of Southern California's 32-year-old quarterbacks coach. Kiffin, USC's offensive coordinator and the son of Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, was interviewed by the Raiders as, it was thought at the time, an offensive coordinator candidate. But talks with Sarkisian broke down, and Davis had Lane Kiffin flown to Oakland for a second interview just as USC was wrapping up a recruiting weekend. Kiffin met with Davis until late that Sunday night, then reconvened around 8 the next morning and by that Monday afternoon had convinced Davis that he was ready to be the NFL's youngest head coach.
Kiffin says that some associates tried to talk him out of taking the job, and his father counseled against accepting it merely for the sake of having an NFL head coaching job. Monte Kiffin wanted his son first to make sure that he would be put in a position to succeed.
"He was like, 'Make sure you have this, this and this in place. Don't take it just to take it.,' " Lane Kiffin said. "He thought he did that at N.C. State [where Monte Kiffin was the head coach between 1980 and '82], took it just to take it."
Kiffin reached a comfort level with Davis and the Raiders, and took the job, taking over a team that ranked third in the league in total defense last season but scored only 168 points, the fifth-fewest ever by an NFL team in a 16-game season.
Many people in the league seem to expect the Raiders to use the top pick on Louisiana State University quarterback JaMarcus Russell. The Raiders have only one quarterback on their roster who's thrown an NFL regular season pass -- Andrew Walter -- after releasing veteran Aaron Brooks following the season. There has been speculation about them trading wide receiver Randy Moss to the Green Bay Packers for quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a first-round draft choice in 2005.
The other viable options for the Raiders appear to be Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn and Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs recently described Russell and Johnson as the two closest things to an unflawed player that there are in this draft.
"I don't see a hole there," said Gibbs, whose club has the draft's sixth overall selection. "What is the hole? We can't find one. And that's kind of rare, you know. Most everyone else has got something you're kind of worried about. We went to the workout with Calvin. We didn't think we had to with [Russell]. I think everybody kind of knows what's going to happen there."