Much has been made about Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden's intensity, but Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Rich Bisaccia gives him a run for his money. The two have had the opportunity to work together, and build a relationship off the field, for years now, and working alongside one another once again is a blessing in Bisaccia's eyes. After practice, Bisaccia took the podium to touch on his relationship with Gruden, and the progress he's seeing from his unit.
Here are his quick hits:
Bisaccia commented on the current battle between kickers Giorgio Tavecchio and Eddy Piñeiro.
"Right now it's just going to be an ongoing process. We've been rotating days throughout the majority of the camp and then we've actually kicked them on the same day once before and we were going to do that a little tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. But it's been a good competition."
Having players like fellow former Dallas Cowboys Keith Smith and Kyle Wilber here in Oakland has helped set the example of the attitude he wants.
"Yeah, I think it's a big help. The magic word you just said for me is attitude. We have conversations about that constantly in our room. I think attitude is really the main thing for any player, certainly for guys that want to be involved with special teams. You mentioned two guys that have been in my system before or our system before along with Dwayne [Harris] and [Ryan] Switzer] and [Marcus] Gilchrist and Shareece Wright as well."
Bisaccia is pleased with the effort he's seen from punter Johnny Townsend.
"Johnny has been outstanding holding for both. I've never really had that before. I haven't had a lefty and a righty before in a camp, so he's been outstanding. When I went to work him out, I asked him to do both. It was pretty natural for him. He's been a catcher his whole life in baseball, so I think he has a little naturalness to him about getting in that kind of awkward position of putting himself in a holder's stance. He's really worked hard at it."
He's also happy to have wide receiver/return specialist Ryan Switzer in the mix.
"Love Ryan. My voice isn't very loud, it just goes to the right person or I should say the right two people. We're excited to have Ryan. He's in competition at receiver as well as the return game. He had a good rookie year. He's had some snaps, but he knows he's in a competition both at receiver and the return game. We'll see how it plays out."
Bisaccia talked about the similarities he shares with Head Coach Jon Gruden.
"The best part about him is he's football 24/7. That's one of the main reasons I want to be around the guy. I think we're the same when it comes to…we're husbands, we're fathers and then we're football coaches. We really don't have much of anything else."
