Tony Sparano gets chance to make his case as Raiders head coach

A week ago when Raiders interim head coach Tony Sparano gave his season ending press conference, he said he was told he would get a formal sitdown interview for the Raiders head coach position just like any other head coaching candidates. According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, that interview happens today.

"All I want to do right now is be the head coach of the Raiders," Sparano said. "So how badly? Very, very badly. This is my team. I left my team today and I'm looking forward to starting over again with them. Those decisions will be made down the road. As far as anything else with me goes, I only have one concern right now. It's being the head coach of the Oakland Raiders."

"I can't speak for Mark, but I'm confident. I'm confident and I know the direction this is headed. I've done this before, not quite like this, but there has been a lot of work done here, right now, and by God I want that work to be for me, for this organization."

The former Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Line Coach took over the Head Coaching job after the team went 0-4 this season under Dennis Allen.

He lost his first six games and finished out the season going 3-3 over the final six for a 3-9 record as head coach and a 3-13 record as a team. All three of his wins came at home and the three losses down the stretch were blowouts in which the team was outscored 130-27.

Sparano is hoping the way the team rallied late in the season shows he is the right man for the job.

The Raiders have been busy interviewing candidates over the past week. So far, there have been four coaches reported to have actually interviewed for the job with a couple more the Raiders had requested to interview.

The decision as to who will be the Raiders head coach could happen soon. Whether there is an announcement made will depend on the coach they choose as some of their options are coaching on teams still in the playoffs.

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