Raiders Have Long Road Ahead of Them : Pro football: But at least the distractions of the off-season have been replaced by optimism under new coach.

If the road to the Super Bowl were based on actual miles traveled, the Raiders would be a lock to represent the AFC next January in Tempe, Ariz.

Starting today with their official kickoff of training camp in Oxnard, the Raiders will begin a five-month “season on the road.” They will be in Austin, Tex.; Dallas, Oxnard, Oakland, Minneapolis and El Segundo in the next six weeks, all before the regular season.

Once the season starts, the Raiders will continue to work during the week at their El Segundo practice site and travel to Oakland for their home games, giving the team a 16-road-game season.

Too bad airline travel points don’t count in the NFL.

None of that, though, means anything to Mike White, the new Raider coach.

“It’s time for us to focus on playing football,” he said at the conclusion of the team’s three-day mini-camp earlier this week in El Segundo that focused primarily on classroom work.

“We wanted to get the players geared towards the game. We wanted them thinking football without doing wind sprints or having some coach yell at them.”

It’s understandable if White and his coaching staff worry about the players’ concentration, considering what has happened since a dismal Christmas Eve loss to the Kansas City Chiefs knocked the Raiders out of the playoffs.

Not a month passed without the Raiders being in the news.

In February, Art Shell was fired and replaced by White, who already had Joe Bugel as his assistant head coach and then quickly added several new assistants.

In March, rumors had the Raiders moving to Baltimore, Oakland. . . .

In April, the NFL announced that the league wanted the Raiders to stay in the Los Angeles area.

In May, the NFL offered them a deal to stay in Southern California with a proposed Hollywood Park Stadium.

But in June, the Raiders decided to move back to Oakland after 13 years in Los Angeles, owner Al Davis citing lack of fan support and allegedly broken promises by the Coliseum Commission.

Now the only sure thing the players can count on is a lot of flying.

“It doesn’t bother me at all to have to travel every week,” tight end Andrew Glover said. “It’s worth it when you consider the fan support we’ll have in Oakland. With that kind of support, we’ll be able to overcome any obstacle.”

Instead of worrying about their travel schedule, most players are more concerned about adjusting to White and his new coaching staff.

A year ago, the Raiders opened training camp with the cockiness of a team that was picked by many as a favorite to reach the Super Bowl.

This year, overconfidence has been replaced with uncertain excitement. Even White, who has brought a new look to the offense, is not sure about the team’s direction.

Although he was an assistant with the team for four years, White says that he’ll need time in training camp to figure out the Raiders’ strengths and weaknesses.

“Don’t anticipate what I’m going to do offensively because I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to be doing, either,” he said. “You got to find out who does what. You’ll find out that the system is going to be a reflection of what you have.

“We’re going to maintain and stress Raider tradition, which is the vertical passing game with a power running game. But times change. When you don’t have [offensive linemen] Shell and [Gene] Upshaw, the emphasis is in a different way.”

For players like wide receiver Tim Brown, an outspoken critic of the team’s offense in the past, White brings optimism.

“I feel we finally came from the ‘60s and made a quantum leap to the ‘90s,” Brown said about the Raiders’ new playbook. “This offense is no different than what you see the San Francisco 49ers or the Cowboys are running. All the teams with good offenses run this type of timing offense. It’s a matter of going out and duplicating what the great teams of the ‘90s have done.”