My trip to the Raiders

I have been making a lot of trips to the NFL teams the last two weeks and wanted to catch the Yard up with my visits.

I had a great visit with the Raiders last week. It was my first trip and I had a great time. I got in Monday night and went to dinner with the offensive coordinator, Greg Knapp, and the running backs coach, Tom Rathman. Coach Rathman picked me up the next morning for breakfast. He gave me a tour of the facility and then we watched some film. We watched two of my games - one against Alabama and the Arkansas-LSU game. Coach Rathman seemed to like what he was watching. He said he likes tough running backs. In the LSU game we ran a dash right, a sprint out pass to the right. When the defensive end came charging in I hit him real good and knocked him backwards. Coach Rathman liked that play a whole lot. He is a coach I would love to play for. He is the type of coach who can take me to the next level and I'm a player who is looking and willing to work to get to that next level. I think we'd be a great combination.

I also got a chance to meet Al Davis. I was really excited about that. I'm just a guy from little ol' Arkansas meeting a legend like him. That was great. He had a lot of energy and he knows so much about the game and all the players in the draft. We spent about 10 minutes together and I enjoyed it very much.

I'll fill you in on my New England trip next.

Darren