Al Davis Spices Up Raider's Staff Every Two Years

A study of the Oakland Raiders' coaching heritage might give us more insight into the trends and patterns of the the team's coaching experiences.

This article focuses on just one aspect of the coaches' tenures—the number of years, and the number of games are listed.

Everyone knows that Al Davis' input and decisions can truncate a Raider coach's career. The cuts or terminations certainly spice things up, and burn the tongue of those men who failed to deliver victories in Oakland.

This is Part Two of an article that was published a few days ago. One of the B/R members posted a comment which inspired this piece.

His research revealed that Mike Shanahan coached only three games in 1989. As a follow-up, this writer discovered that Shanahan coached four games. The reference for this data is the Pro Football Encyclopedia .

More data has been added to the chart. The updated chart shows the total number of games each coach presided over.

Years           Period             Name

2                1960-1961    Erdelatz

2                1961-1962    Feldman

1                1962             Conkright

3                1963-1965    Davis

3                1966-1968    Rauch

10              1969-1978    Madden

9                1979-1987    Flores

2                1988-1989   Shanahan: 16 games in 1988; 4 games in 1989

6                1989-1994   Shell: 92 games from 1989 to 1994

2                1995-1996   White: 32 games from 1995 to 1996

1                1997             Bugel: 16 games in 1997

4                1998-2001   Gruden: 64 games from 1998 to 2001

2                2002-2003   Callahan: 32 games from 2002 to 2003

2                2004-2005   Turner: 32 games from 2004 to 2005

1                2006             Shell: 16 games in 2006

2                2007-2008   Kiffin: 16 games in 2007; 4 games in 2008

2                2008-present Cable: 28 games from 2008 to present

The focus of this chart spans from 1988 to the present. This decision was made since the tenure for an Oakland Raiders' coach has never exceeded six years since the Art Shell era from 1989 to 1994.

For readers who missed Part One of this series, the article has been posted at the end of Part Two.

Let the facts speak loudly, and let those facts characterize the consistency or instability of the Oakland Raiders coaching staff.

Might the coaching situations affect the team's overall performance? You bet.

That's why we're taking a microscopic look at every aspect and layer of the Oakland Raiders' franchise.

Do Davis' decisions inflict a hot situation, somewhat like cayenne peppers? The answer is yes. And, to your surprise, those decisions promote healing.

So when those decisions burn our "taste for football," just consider this: A healing is taking place in the Oakland Raiders' complex situation. 

Part One

In the movie "Facing the Giants," there's powerful scene depicting a coach shouting, "Keep going, don't quit." That line was poignant to me. It inspired this writer to research the heritage of the Oakland Raiders' coaching staff.

In some ways, the Raiders have been facing "giants" over the past seven years.

Now, it's time to shout out. and embrace a "keep going, don't quit" attitude in the coaching staff and the team.

First, let's look at the list of coaches. This should be enlightening, especially to some of the fans. Here's the list, and duration, of each Raider coach's tenure.

Years          Period            Name

2                1960-1961    Erdelatz

2                1961-1962    Feldman

1                1962            Conkright

3                1963-1965    Davis

3                1966-1968    Rauch

10              1969-1978    Madden

9                1979-1987    Flores

2                1988-1989    Shanahan

6                1989-1994    Shell

2                1995-1996    White

1                1997            Bugel

4                1998-2001    Gruden

2                2002-2003    Callahan

2                2004-2005    Turner

1                2006            Shell

2                2007-2008    Kiffin

2                2008-present Cable

Several observations can be made about the team's coaching heritage.

Al Davis coached the team for three years. That was longer than the previous three coaches' tenures.

Eddie Erdelatz coached two years, Marty Feldman coached two years, and Red Conkright coached only one year.

Davis started coaching in 1963. He was followed by John Rauch, who also coached for three years.

John Madden had the team's longest coaching run at 10 years. Tom Flores followed Madden with a nine-year stint.

Art Shell had the third longest tenure. He coached a total of seven years, but his career was broken into two parts: from 1989 to 1994, and again for one year in 2006.

The average tenure lenght for all 16 head coaches is 3.18 years. Since 1960 there have been 17 coaching intervals, with 16 different head coaches. Art Shell was head coach on two seperate occassions.

Since Art Shell, the length of tenure for a head coach has a mode of two years, and a maximum of four years. Gruden coached from 1998 to 2001, and was able to hold the job for four years.

After Gruden, four head coaches held the job for two years, each. Shell interrupted the flow with his one year in 2006.

The average length of tenure for an Oakland Raiders head coach is two years. Eight coaches during the history of the team have held the head coach job for two years each.

If Tom Cable survives the challenges of coaching Oakland, he will break a pattern that has been set in place over the past nine years.

Callahan, Turner, Shell, and Kiffin preceded Tom Cable.

Cable can change the pattern in 2010. He has a very talented team.

So the powerful phrase in the movie, "Facing the Giants" is telling. That phrase should resound in the minds of Tom Cable and the Oakland Raiders, and it should ring out:

"Keep going, don't quit. Keep going, don't quit!"

Most folks in the Raider Nation can attest that Al Davis' theme is aligned with the powerful phrase, "Keep going, don't quit." Davis' persona has dominated the Oakland Raider franchise for many years.

He has added the salt and pepper (and other spices) to the Oakland Raiders, giving it a flavor that has attracted one of the most vocal group of fans in the world.

Our motto, "Just win, baby!" sounds out a message, "Keep going, don't quit!"

Go Raiders!