The NFL's youngest head coach takes over a pitiful team with a meddling owner. But at 32, Lane Kiffin might actually be up to rebuilding the Raiders

Kiffin (above) has played to good early reviews, but Russell, has yet to take the main stage. John W. McDonough/SI

In a team meeting at the Oakland Raiders' training camp a couple of weeks ago, coach Lane Kiffin turned down the lights and showed a grainy piece of nighttime footage on the big screen. The clip opened with a shot panning five cars, their headlights dimly illuminating the team's summer practice field in Napa, Calif. The camera then shifted to two 300-pound men in shorts and T-shirts, doing football drills in the shadows. What , the players wondered, could this nonsense be?

Kiffin explained in full afterward: Two offensive linemen had been scheduled to arrive in Napa for tryouts earlier in the day, but their flights had been delayed, and they didn't get to the hotel until late in the evening. Because the Raiders were short a body on the O-line, they needed to sign one of the two prospects before practice the next morning. Kiffin and offensive line coach Tom Cable told the players upon their arrival, "We're going to work you out."

Now, they meant. At 11:15 p.m.

Because it takes more than a half hour for the lights on the field to reach full power -- time Kiffin didn't have -- he lined up the cars so that the coaches could see the players run through their paces. And when the workout was over, at around 11:30, Oakland agreed to terms with one of the night owls, center Jesse Boone, who played in NFL Europa this spring. Nine hours later he was back on the practice field with his new team.

"Remember the movie Invincible?" says veteran cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. "The scene in there of guys playing on the sandlot at night, with the cars lighting the field? When Coach showed us that [clip], it left an impression."

Kiffin has left a lot of impressions. Until camp opened, he was just the latest strange hire by owner Al Davis, having left USC, where he was offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll, to become the youngest head coach in modern history. As a 32?year-old first-time boss under the domineering Davis, Kiffin could easily end up overseeing a debacle in Oakland like Joe Bugel (4-12 in 1997), Norv Turner (9-23 in 2004 and '05) and Art Shell (2-14 in '06) did. But based on his performance in camp this summer, it's hard not to think Kiffin, who looks as if he started shaving two weeks ago, has a chance to be something special.

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