clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Raiders staff to coach North squad in Senior Bowl

New, comments

The Raiders may not have any more games this season but their coaching staff has one more squad to put on the field as Dennis Allen and the Raiders coaches will head up the North squad in the Senior Bowl.

Rob Carr

Currently the Raiders don't even have an offensive coordinator, special teams coach, offensive line coach, or linebackers coach. They were all fired a few days ago. But that didn't stop Dennis Allen and the Raiders coaching staff from accepting the duties of coaching in the Senior Bowl.

The opposing coaching staff will be Jim Schwartz and the Detroit Lions staff who will lead the South squad.

"The Senior Bowl is fortunate to have the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders as our coaching staffs this year," said Senior Bowl Executive Director Phil Savage. "Both organizations really wanted to be here and will do a great job of coaching both of our outstanding rosters."

This is Schwartz' second time as head coach in the Senior Bowl. He led the Lions the past four seasons, coached the North squad to a 31-13 victory in 2010. He also coached at the Senior Bowl in 2006, as the defensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans.

It will obviously be Dennis Allen's first time as head coach in the game. He has never coached in the Senior Bowl, even as an assistant. He is the NFL's youngest head coach -- more than six months younger than Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin -- but has 17 years of combined coaching experience at the collegiate and professional levels.

"It's a great opportunity for the Raiders," Allen said of coaching the Senior Bowl. "It gives us a chance to get a solid evaluation on these players. We get a better feel on them because we see them in meetings, we work with them in practice, and we can determine whether their personality would fit well in our locker room. It's an opportunity to get an in-depth feel on a lot of those guys."

The Raiders have coached three previous times at the Senior Bowl, going 0-3. Lane Kiffin led Oakland in its last trip to Mobile, coaching the North in a 17-16 loss in 2008.

The 2013 Senior Bowl is scheduled for 3pm (CT) on Saturday, January 26th in Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The game and all practices will be televised by NFL Network.