Hue Jackson introduced as Oakland Raiders head coach
The Oakland Raiders introduced Hue Jackson as head coach on Tuesday, and Jackson displayed the same bravado, which made him popular in his one year run as the team’s offensive coordinator.
"We're going to build a bully here," Jackson said Tuesday. "This is the Raiders. We know exactly where we're headed and what we want to do. I think our players today are very excited about where they are going."
Jackson was introduced in a 100-minute news conference headed by owner Al Davis, exactly two weeks after the team announced that Tom Cable would not be returning as head coach. Although other topics were discussed in the press conference - such as why Cable
was let go, stadium issues, and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) - the main reason was to officially introduce Jackson as their head coach.
This search for a head coach was quite quick, considering the franchise’ past searches have gone on until February. Davis had talked to three candidates already for the head coaching job, but finally decided that the man for the job was already on the team.
"Everything pointed toward the guy on my right. Everything," Raiders Owner Al Davis said about Jackson. "I don't see anything from a character, personality, anything that would not, not let me raise his hand and say he should be the coach of the Raiders
and be the ambassador to the Raider Nation and the country and around the world."
Meanwhile, Jackson said that he hoped to take an already improving team and take them even further.
"My job is to do everything I can to take this team where we know we want to go, which is the Super Bowl," Jackson said. "Obviously this is a very talented and young football team here, as coach just talked about. We have some tremendous players on the offensive
side of the football."
Jackson will oversee all the plays of the team but will still go out and interview candidates for positions on both sides of the ball. Jackson said that Al Saunders is a forerunner for the offensive coordinator job. Saunders worked with Raiders quarterback
Jason Campbell for two years during his time with the Washington Redskins.
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