Just Win, Baby

In a team meeting at the Oakland Raiders' training camp a couple of weeks ago, coach Lane Kiffin turned down the lights and showed a grainy piece of nighttime footage on the big screen. The clip opened with a shot panning five cars, their headlights dimly illuminating the team's summer practice field in Napa, Calif. The camera then shifted to two 300-pound men in shorts and T-shirts, doing football drills in the shadows. What, the players wondered, could this nonsense be? � Kiffin explained in full afterward: Two offensive linemen had been scheduled to arrive in Napa for tryouts earlier in the day, but their flights had been delayed, and they didn't get to the hotel until late in the evening. Because the Raiders were short a body on the O-line, they needed to sign one of the two prospects before practice the next morning. Kiffin and offensive line coach Tom Cable told the players upon their arrival, "We're going to work you out."

Now, they meant. At 11:15 p.m.

Because it takes more than a half hour for the lights on the field to reach full power--time Kiffin didn't have--he lined up the cars so that the coaches could see the players run through their paces. And when the workout was over, at around 11:30, Oakland agreed to terms with one of the night owls, center Jesse Boone, who played in NFL Europa this spring. Nine hours later he was back on the practice field with his new team.

"Remember the movie Invincible?" says veteran cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. "The scene in there of guys playing on the sandlot at night, with the cars lighting the field? When Coach showed us that [clip], it left an impression."

Kiffin has left a lot of impressions. Until camp opened, he was just the latest strange hire by owner Al Davis, having left USC, where he was offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll, to become the youngest head coach in modern history. As a 32-year-old first-time boss under the domineering Davis, Kiffin could easily end up overseeing a debacle in Oakland like Joe Bugel (4-12 in 1997), Norv Turner (9-23 in 2004 and '05) and Art Shell (2-14 in '06) did. But based on his performance in camp this summer, it's hard not to think Kiffin, who looks as if he started shaving two weeks ago, has a chance to be something special.

He has a chance, too, because Davis is giving him a chance. That's what a league-worst 15-49 record over the last four years--and one of the most anemic offensive seasons ever, a 12-touchdown, 46-turnover nightmare in 2006--will do to the owner of a three-time Super Bowl-winning franchise. After being hired last January, Kiffin wanted to overhaul the staff and replace some Raiders lifers, like receivers coach Fred Biletnikoff. Davis said yes. Twelve assistants were out, 14 new ones were in, and the average age of the Oakland coaches dropped from 48.7 years to 42.2. Of the 87 players in camp last week, 43 weren't on the team the day Kiffin was hired, with several longtime favorites axed by the new regime. "There are no more scholarship players here," Kiffin says.

There hasn't been this kind of energy around the franchise since February 2002, when another young, blond, precocious and loud coach-- Jon Gruden--left Oakland.

Hey, let's go to work, Doug!" Kiffin, in a long-sleeve white T-shirt and white cap, takes a football, twirls it, then whizzes a pass at receiver Doug Gabriel's feet during the prepractice stretch. He fires another through the hands of startled safety Hiram Eugene, then throws a behind-the-back pass to cornerback Chris Carr. And look out, quarterback Andrew Walter--pffft!--here comes a line drive right at your helmet.

"This is gonna be a good day!" Kiffin yells as the stretch ends, and he begins to jog downfield for punt-team work. He's not profane or sarcastic like Gruden, but the look, the volume, the energy all scream Chucky�Jr. "Sounds just like him," says left tackle Barry Sims, a Raider for three of Gruden's four seasons in Oakland. "Sometimes I have flashbacks."

But while Gruden was all offense, Kiffin dips into special teams and defensive drills. He learned the defensive side of the ball from hanging around his father, Monte, a 25th-year NFL assistant and now Gruden's defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay. And in six years under Carroll he learned that the head coach has to inject himself into every aspect of the team. Many of the Raiders assistants are NFL rookies with no significant ties to Kiffin, and while he gives them the freedom to coach, they feel his presence. He wanted coaches who were willing to teach and had the courage of their convictions; coaches who were hungry and had something to prove. Like offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, 44, blistered in the middle of a game by Terrell Owens during his time in San�Francisco and deemed a failure in Atlanta when Michael Vick's development stalled. Like receivers coach Charles Coe, 55, whose last job was head coach at Division�I-AA Alabama State.