God bless, u Jerry. Thank you for sharing all of your memories of you and your pops..

Maybe, I’ll do the same 1 day…

but not today. Today is for your father…

LANE KIFFIN INTERVIEW:
6-18-08
Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin: Tomorrow we go more to a team format and try to have fun with the guys, divide them up and let them play a little bit. I feel good about where were at right now as a team. We have a lot of work to do, but we have added some new guys who have been really good out here and they’ve made it much more competitive at each position. We’ll continue to stress to our guys about how important the next month is for them, to come back in shape, and so we can have a great training camp. As far as Javon Walker, I spoke to Javon this morning. He sounds really well and he’s doing well. He’ll be on a flight this evening back here.

Q: What’s Jake Grove’s prognosis? I assume he had surgery after the season last year, is he still rehabbing from that?
Coach Kiffin: Yes he is. Jake is doing extremely well with what he can do as far as the weight room and rehab. We have a lot of expectations for Jake to come right into this thing and battle for the starting spot; we’ll always look to play our best guys. He’s going to have a good opportunity and I know he’s looking forward to it.

Q: Is he a little bigger this year?
Coach Kiffin: He’s really done a great job in the weight room and his upper body has gotten a lot stronger. He’s stronger than he’s ever been since he’s been here. So I’m excited about it.

Q: Is there anybody you’re worried won’t be ready for Napa at this point?
Coach Kiffin: We’ll monitor [Tommy Kelly] and look at his progress, as we get closer. It could possibly be a one-a-day thing, but we’ll be ready to rock and roll.

Q: We see Cooper back out there, it’s one thing to have him on the sidelines but on the field he seems to bring a little extra energy. Is it nice to have him back out there, just to hear him?
Coach Kiffin: Yeah, it’s good. We’re giving him a shot on defense. The last thing I want to do is to cut ourselves short of a guy that could help us somewhere else. He’s not here just to play special teams, we’re giving him the shot to play defense and see how far he can take it.

Q: In terms of the energy…will he pick up a little where Warren Sapp left off? He’s somebody out there who keeps things agitated.
Coach Kiffin: Well, they are different, everybody is different from Warren, but he does bring a lot of energy. He’s done it in the meetings this whole off-season. It’s good to have him back out there.

Q: Is he cleared to do everything?
Coach Kiffin: Yeah, pretty much. We’ve basically put him in just about everything; we just monitor how much we do with him. He could actually play this week, if we were playing.

Q: How does Marques Tuiasosopo look?
Coach Kiffin: Really good. He’s done a great job, especially in moving the ball around and getting it to the right people. It feels like he’s been here for a long time. After tomorrow’s practice were going to sit down and look at everything and see if there are some different spots in other areas, we may move some people around. We’re happy with their progress right now and were not trying to figure out the depth chart right now. We’re just letting them play ball. It’s been good and it’s been good for Andrew [Walter], too.

Q: After going through a full year as head coach at the NFL level, are you going to change anything, tweak anything for training camp?
Coach Kiffin: Well, I don’t think that you change very much, but you can’t be stubborn. You always have to evaluate at the end of the season and through the off-season of what we did last season and what we can do to get better. We’ll always be looking to change and we’re trying to find a competitive edge. There are not a lot of wholesale changes, by any means, that we’re going to do. There are little things, here and there that we’ll continue to improve on that will put us in the best position to win.

Q: With JaMarcus [Russell], are there specific things, improvements you can see compared to a couple months ago?
Coach Kiffin: It’s everything really. Right now he’s really working so hard off the field as well as on the field. He’s done a great job, just like a lot of our other players.

Q: Do you coaches have time off? Do you have vacation?
Coach Kiffin: Yes, there is about a month there where there is some time where they’re in and some time where they’re off. It’s good for them to get right, and then get ready to go.

JAVON WALKER:
Damn, they never learn.
Something like this happened previously in J-dub’s life and he still went out to make it rain in Vegas. Where was his security?
Eh, I’m sorry, kid. We as fans don’t know the entire situation…

but damn..

I guess sometimes all you can do is pray for a quick recovery and hope he doesn’t flex nuts in the near future…….(yet, again..)
The following was the latest reported by the associated press:
LAS VEGAS — Oakland Raiders wide receiver Javon Walker remained hospitalized with a concussion and a battered face Tuesday, one day after he was beaten, robbed and left unconscious on a Las Vegas street after a night of partying.
Police said a large amount of cash and some jewelry were taken from Walker, who suffered “a moderate concussion and significant injuries to his face.”
Police Lt. Clinton Nichols said detectives are retracing Walker’s activities in the hours before he was found injured Monday morning on a street off the Las Vegas Strip.
“We don’t believe this is a random act,” Nichols told the San Francisco Chronicle, adding that police believe Walker was alone at the time of the attack. “They knew who he was and [Walker] presented a target.
“We did get a surveillance [video] of a vehicle and suspects that may have been involved. We know there were suspects, possibly two [but] we haven’t identified anyone yet.”
According to the Chronicle, Walker told police he had about $3,000 in cash and $100,000 in jewelry stolen. The jewelry included a watch, a necklace and earrings.
According to reports published Tuesday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Walker visited a nightclub, Tryst, at the Wynn Las Vegas resort on Saturday night. He spent Sunday night at another club, Body English at the Hard Rock hotel-casino, before leaving about 3:30 a.m…

yawn, is it pre season, yet????!?!?!!??!
peace,
-DR

What’s going on, Nation!?!?!
Practice news and notes coming your way from the Lord of the Sith…
Wow, it looks like Higgins has growns up, Harris is getting blown up and I’ve just thrown up from another 5 mile run! It’s hard work staying in shape in the off season..WHEW! At least I know my Raiders know of the same kind of pain as I work for progression.. (God, knows the crap I’d hear if I entered into the Coliseum as fatass Darth)

Enough about my crappy exercise plan!
Without further a due..more interviews!!!

Huggie Bear jr:

Q: What is it like to come in this year and know your role when in the past years you have been behind another guy or you are waiting to see how it shapes out?
RB Justin Fargas: It feels good and just having the experience from last year under my belt and coming into the same offense and knowing the opportunities are going to be there, I’m just looking forward to taking advantage of it.

Q: How is the knee? Is it 100 percent? Do you even think about it?
Fargas: No, I’m not thinking about it. I feel good.. my body feels good. Participating in the off season program and I feel in great shape.

Q: How does it feel to get out here with the whole team and see what you guys have?
Fargas: It’s great, having all the guys out, especially in our room, having a solid core of guys, we can all rotate in there and we don’t miss a beat. I’m the veteran of the group, so I want to take advantage of the opportunity to be a leader in the room and just help us get better as a group.

Q: What can you accomplish in this offense?
Fargas: There is a whole lot more to accomplish, especially in the wins and losses column, just being in the second year in this system, it is the best group of coaches I have been around, the best coaching I have received, I feel like I have been improving as a player under this system and I think the team is as well, so we are going to continue to keep working to get better.

Q: How difficult is it going to be on a team when they have to gear up for you, Michael (Bush), Darren (McFadden)?
Fargas: It’s going to be hard to scheme for, our run game just in the scheme itself is hard to defend, when the guys block they way they do up front and you have the runners that we do its going to be tough on the defense.

Q: How do you feel catching the ball out of the backfield? How important is that all of you guys can catch the ball out of the backfield?
Fargas: Well, in this system it’s big, especially just in the check-down game when things aren’t there downfield, they’re going to come down to the running backs, we are pretty comfortable and it’s something we continue to work on. Darren (McFadden) looks really good doing that and I think we are going to use him a lot in that way, but it’s an important part of our offense for the backs to be able to catch out of the backfield.

Q: When you look at the group around you, that’s a pretty good group of running backs.
Fargas: It’s definitely a solid corps, you can take any one of our guys and they can carry the load, we all complement each other and I think it will show when we get in game situations.

Q: What was your first impression of D-Mac when you saw him?
Fargas: He is fast, real fast. He is a speedy guy, from what I have seen in college he is a tough player and he is a smart player, in the classroom he is on top of his stuff so he is going to improve fast and he is really going to help our team.

Lane Train:
Q: First practice with everyone, what did you think?
Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin: I thought the guys had high energy out there and really came out, especially knowing that there was another practice coming this afternoon is not an easy thing to do, I thought our coaches did a good job of getting the players in the right mindset and the players responded and came out and didn’t approach it like it was a two-a-day. Watching it looked like it was a one-a-day practice, they gave everything in one practice. Now we will go back in and figure out a way to get them to do it again.

Q: How quickly has QB Marques Tuiasosopo picked things up?
Coach Kiffin: Last week was the players week off but he was in here every day with [quarterbacks coach John DeFilipo] learning the offense and catching up and was on the field conditioning. We didn’t give him very much today to be able to see him but it’s good to have him around, he has picked up the offense easily and the terminology is similar to offenses he has been in before.

Q: What’s the biggest difference for you going from year one to year two both as a head coach and also as a staff?
Coach Kiffin: Well, I think there are so many advantages that come with being in year two with your staff, for the most part we only made a few changes so we basically have the same staff back that we had last year. They have been able to work with each other on both sides of the ball and understand what they need to get from the other side, it’s very important those guys have a good relationship across the ball with each other, it allows them to get certain looks to help the defense and the other way around so I think it’s very positive.

Q: How about Darren McFadden making some nice moves out there, you had him lined up all over the place out there.
Coach Kiffin: Yeah, Darren is a tough thing to deal with in the sense that you don’t want to do to much with him but he is picking things up so fast and it’s coming so easy to him and sometimes you don’t know that, you research him so much but until you get him on the field, sometimes it takes guys longer to learn things, not just in the classroom but the way that their body picks it up and it is real easy for him right now, so I need to continue to monitor how much we are doing with him because we are doing a lot with him right now.

Q: Is your relationship with JaMarcus Russell important or does that get overplayed?
Coach Kiffin: Well, I think it’s important as a play-caller. I think there is some importance as a head coach but more as a play-caller so that when we are running plays out here today, in this environment when he has all of his guys, he understands this is why we just called this or in this instance right here you should have done this or this came up at Jacksonville, so I think it’s very important as a play-caller more than a head coach to have that relationship with the quarterback. You can always go back to the film but it is so much more powerful to do it right away.

Q: Has he given you any feedback on what he likes to do?
Coach Kiffin: A little bit, we’re really not in that phase yet, this is more of just throw everything at him get him to learn everything then go back to what does he want to do because he kind of doesn’t know yet, he knows what’s comfortable but until he gets more under his belt, and some preseason games he will have a better feel of personnel and the people around him and what he really wants to do but right now it is just more of putting everything on him and make him do everything.

Q: What’s his comfort level now?
Coach Kiffin: I think he is real comfortable right now, I think for guys that have been to a number of practices from last year to this year I would think that would be obvious, at least it is to me, he is a different physical person, the way he is physically, the way he can move around and his strength and his speed and he is different mentally because of his relationship with the players. Now he is the guy, there is no question mark, you are the starter and it’s your job to take this thing and run with it and he is doing fabulous right now.

Q: How far along are you with your training camp schedule? Are you still going to do the day/night practices like last year? Is there any difference this year since you don’t have NFL Europe exemptions? Are you going to hit less?
Coach Kiffin: We are not going to change the day/night format and [we won't have] two-a-days back to back, as we look at preseason, as we look at the beginning of the regular season there were not many injuries at all especially soft tissue injuries, so I think that really paid off a lot and I know our players felt fresh and we played well the first four games of the year. Basically seven Europe guys you aren’t going to have…I just think that changes the reps. I don’t think we are going to change practice.

Q: How about Greg Spires? He was really exploding out there
Coach Kiffin: Yeah, especially the last play, it came down to the last play of the series, best of five, the defense made a good comeback to make it 2-2 and he got off the ball and ran right by the right tackle, he looks very explosive and I’m glad for him that he has an opportunity. What he brings every day is valuable to us, the way he prepares, the way he practices, the way he understands the game.

stay sexy, Nation!
DR