Dennis Allen gets a second chance to make his best impression.

It is hard to know which phase the Oakland Raiders are currently entering in the on going coaching search. With reports of Dennis Allen getting a second interview this week it would seem as if Reggie McKenzie is narrowing his list of candidates. Of course learning that Winston Moss had already interviewed over a week ago without any word leaking out it stands to reason that we have no idea what the thought process currently is.

That’s just fine. Nothing new for the Oakland Raiders to be more secretive than Russian diplomats at a White House fundraiser. That has been the standard for years now. Why should it change with McKenzie and Mark Davis running the show?

With Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy taking himself out of the running for the job after assuming he would be calling the shots in Miami, Denver’s defensive boss is now assumed to be the Oakland frontrunner. Again, how anyone can speculate who is the top candidate for the Raiders is beyond me.

Dennis Allen’s second interview means he’s at least got one leg up on Marty Mornhinweg…hopefully. Prior to the news of Allen’s second sit down there were those that saw Moron-weg as the top choice.
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McCoy prefers South Beach to the East Bay.

So much for the Raiders running the Timmy Cat offense with Terrelle Pryor playing the role of East Bay Tebow. Yesterday Reggie McKenzie was in Denver to meet with a couple of potential head coaching candidates. However instead of sitting with current Broncos’ coordinators Mike McCoy and Dennis Allen, McKenzie only got to get half of the Denver staffers in front of him.

McCoy, apparently convinced that he’s the front runner for the Miami Dolphins’ job, chose to take himself out of the running to be Oakland’s next ex-coach. He ditched his meet and greet with McKenzie to fly out for a second interview for the Miami gig.

McCoy has become a popular figure in coaching circles for his mid-season rebuild of Denver’s offense once the clock struck Tebow Time. Proving success can come even when you have a quarterback incapable of completing at a higher rate than JaMarcus Russell, McCoy made a real name for himself. Unfortunately as far as McKenzie is concerned that name is now mud.

Without being able to officially confirm all the speculation, McKenzie still has a pretty long list of candidates most of which are sure to underwhelm Raider Nation. Thus far the coaching search has unearthed a collection of names more uninspired than Terrell Owens playing for a semi-pro football league.

Call it whatever you will but Jackson’s efforts resulted in a minor miracle of sorts. That is precisely why McKenzie is said to be looking in all places possible to find the next ex-coach of the Oakland Raiders. That even includes trying to tap fellow AFC West rivals for potential candidates.

According to reports the Raiders are interested in both the defensive and offensive coordinators of the Denver Broncos. Both Mike McCoy and Dennis Allen have popped up on Oakland’s radar. The two men were responsible for coaching up the offense and defense respectively of the defending AFC West champs.

McCoy gets props for reinventing the Donkey offense on the fly when Touchdown Jesus ascended to the throne in Denver. Of course none of the success achieved by God’s Son would have been possible this year without Allen’s work with the Denver defense.

Perhaps just looking to pick the brains of a few rivals, McKenzie can’t possibly be considering installing an offense similar to the high school scheme the Broncos ran this year. However there is no reason why the silver and black wouldn’t be better served with a defensive mind installing a modern defensive scheme. At this point about anything would be better than Al Davis’ outdated, draw-it-up-in-the-dirt defense (with all due respect to what those defensive philosophies meant to the progression of the game).

Beyond the rival Donkeys, the Raiders are also said to be pursuing one of the hotter coaching commodities in the NFL.

New Orleans offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael is expected to interview now that his team is out of the playoffs. Not that he needs much selling but Carmichael has been working with Sean Payton in designing one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses. Safe to say the thought of a great offensive mind getting his hands on Darren McFadden has got to be very tempting. That is if Run DMC can remain healthy.
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