Move to Oxnard Camp May Be Just the First of Several Raider Changes

Raider training will enter a new era today when the team, having won enough court decisions to implement the move south begun four years ago, moves its drills to Oxnard, its first Southern California practice site.

For the 22 years before this one, including their first three seasons in Los Angeles, the Raiders trained in Santa Rosa. They were one of three National Football League teams to quarter their players, not in college dorms, but in a motel, the El Rancho Tropicana, billed as the largest motel complex in Sonoma County.

Al LoCasale, Raider executive assistant, said they searched “every inch of the five-county area, including San Diego County.” They looked at geodesic maps, weather surveys and data from the Air Quality Management Board.

“We were looking for something hot but not unbearable,” LoCasale said. “Something an hour or an hour-fifteen from Los Angeles International.

“And something that was not a college dorm. We have a pretty good football team. We don’t want them to be dropping in class. Many of those dorms are cinder-block buildings with small rooms and small beds. Many of them don’t have carpeting. You have to install telephones and TVs. We wanted something civilized. We didn’t want to put them out where there was nowhere to go to eat and drink and have fun in their time off.”

The Raider squad to be billeted in the comparative luxury of the Oxnard Hilton is similar to the one that was being hailed as a dynasty a year ago, when it was coming off its 38-9 rout of the Redskins in the ’84 Super Bowl. Accolades continued through the first half of the season, when they went 7-1, but faded when most of the offensive line and all the quarterbacks got hurt. The Raiders went 4-4 in the second half and were knocked out of the playoffs in Seattle.

If they’re still a rough, tough little troupe not to be messed with, there are questions being raised about their future.

How long is 37-year-old Jim Plunkett going to be at quarterback? Is Marc Wilson the man to replace him? Why did they acquire Rich Campbell? How interested are they in the USFL phenom, Bobby Hebert?

Will the offensive line be OK? What do Jessie Hester of Florida State and the rest of those burners they drafted at wide receiver mean for Cliff Branch, who is going to be 37 and didn’t catch a touchdown pass when he was 36?

Today, when the rookies who have been signed--Hester, among others, has not--report, the Raiders will start finding answers. The rookies will scrimmage the Dallas Cowboy rookies from nearby Thousand Oaks Sunday. The Raider veterans will arrive next week.

“We were a little frustrated at the end of the season,” Coach Tom Flores said. “We couldn’t do the things we normally do, which we’d done the year before.

“The year before, we got to the end of the season, we clinched the division title with one game to go, we got the home-field advantage. Everything was kind of going our way. The offense was scoring points, the defense was getting the ball back. In the playoffs, you’re talking about a dominating team. We averaged 35 points a game and our opponents 11, and that was against the top clubs.

“But when you expect that and you don’t have it, it’s really disappointing. When you lose in the playoffs, it’s devastating. (In Seattle) we didn’t have a healthy quarterback. Our offensive line was patched up. The defense played well but as a team, if it takes 3-0 to win a game, then you’ve got to win, 3-0.

“It was a tough year for us, mainly because we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do. We just fell short of our goals. We didn’t fall that much short, but we did fall short.”

This season they hope to fall longer. Here is Flores on some Raider concerns:

--On the wide receivers and Branch: “He’s a remarkable guy. He’s been counted out before. He was counted out in ’81 and ’82 and he came back. . . . Cliff has lost a step. Of course, losing a step for Cliff Branch still means he’s faster than most guys. At his peak, speed-wise, he was a blur. But there’s no question it’s going to be a tough camp for him. Some other veterans, too. There are going to be some young people going for their jobs. . . . Cliff has had a tremendous career. Look at all the things he’s done since ’72. He’s been on three Super Bowl championship teams and all those playoffs. You couldn’t ask for a more illustrious career. I really don’t know if he’s gotten all the accolades that a guy should get who’s done what he did.”

--On the quarterbacks: “Plunkett is No. 1, Marc (Wilson) is No. 2 and we’ll go from there.”

--On Hebert, the Oakland Invader quarterback, variously rumored to be Raider-bound, or already Raider-signed, or coveted by Al Davis, or being readied for delivery by Invader Coach and ex-Raider assistant Charlie Sumner: “We have studied him. Now it’s time to evaluate him. I said something about him once and it kind of got out of proportion. There were headlines in the papers up there.

“We’ve watched him closely. He is a free agent coming out. We’ve watched the other guys who are free agents. We’ll make that decision pretty soon.”

--On Rich Campbell, the quarterback just acquired from the Green Bay Packers: “The only thing you can go back to was when he was coming out of college. He didn’t get much of a chance at Green Bay. He only played in one game last year. We had him highly rated at one time.

“Sometimes a change of atmosphere helps. You take a California kid--he went to high school in San Jose and to college up the road at Cal--sometimes they’re not used to those cold winters. We feel with a new atmosphere, if there’s some talent, if he still has it, we’re a team that can bring it out. We’ve done it before. We did it with Plunkett and Jim was more than 30 years old.”

--On the offensive line: “Last year, Bruce Davis went into the season hurting. He had little bone fragments in one knee and they just couldn’t do the surgery during the season. Dave Dalby missed the first game with a groin pull. As the season progressed, Charley Hannah pulled a groin muscle and we replaced him. Don Mosebar hurt his back in practice. Shelby Jordan got hurt the same week, in the game against Seattle. But they’re all healthy now.

“We’ve moved Mosebar to center. We really don’t have a backup center and Dave Dalby is 35 years old. Sooner or later, we’ve got to get somebody ready to play there. This team has only had two centers (Dalby and Jim Otto) in 25 years.”

--On the long transition from Northern California to the Southland: “It was tough. As an organization, I think we adjusted very well. As individuals, I think it took quite a while. I lived in a hotel for 14 months (Flores, his wife and daughter now live in an apartment in the South Bay and are building a home). When we first moved down here, I think we had 11 players who lived here, and they were people like Lyle Alzado and Marcus Allen who were already here. Now we have over 20 and eventually we’ll have even more. Plus getting our staff settled. It lets us get on with our lives.”

Raider Notes The collective-bargaining agreement allows unsigned rookies to participate in mini-camps, but not in regular drills. The Raiders don’t announce signings, though they say they expect No. 2 pick Tim Moffett of Mississippi to be in Oxnard, but not, at this point, Jessie Hester. The latest unofficial count was that 7 of the 16 Raider draftees were unsigned. . . . Hester’s agents, Mike Blatt and Frank Bauer, met with Raider executive Steve Ortmayer today. Hester attended both rookie mini-camps and is in Los Angeles, ready to depart for camp when he signs.