ALAMEDA, Calif. — We can't say for sure what kind of job Tom Cable will do as head coach of the Raiders. But he's already an upgrade over Lane Kiffin in one respect:

He looks the part.

Hey, the last thing Kiffin needs is another footprint on the back of his pants. Raiders managing partner and chief letter writer Al Davis effectively kicked Kiffin out the door, two laps around the practice field, and on down the street Tuesday, in a press conference that lasted so long it had a halftime.

So we'll try to tread lightly here - at first glance, Kiffin doesn't look like a football guy. He's slender, almost skinny. He speaks in a high-pitched drawling mumble. It's difficult to picture him in a helmet and shoulder pads.

That's not necessarily a fatal flaw. Bill Walsh looked like a chemistry professor, and his voice was even higher pitched than Kiffin's. The difference was, Walsh earned his chops inside the locker room, with his superior knowledge of the game and his intuitive feel for people. Kiffin seemed forever distracted by issues and events beyond the playing field. Just ask Davis. (Helpful hint: pack a lunch.)

Cable is substantial, from his physical bearing to his attitude. He is clear and direct when he speaks. There seems no need to parse through his message for deeper meaning or hidden agendas.

This is important not just because it signals a departure from Kiffin, stylistic and otherwise. It's important because ever since the Raiders returned to Oakland, the great unanswered question has been: What if they ever forgot about the bull feathers swirling around them and just concentrated on football?

We may be about to find out.

"I'll still coach the offensive line," said Cable, who is in his second season with the Raiders. "That's what I do. There's a bond there that can't be broken. I'm going to bring that work, that bond, that commitment to the rest of the football team."

It would be easy to look at Cable as an accidental tourist. He's never been so much as a coordinator in the NFL. His only head coaching experience was at Idaho, where he went 11-35.

Again, not necessarily a fatal flaw. When George Seifert succeeded Bill Walsh with the 49ers, his only previous experience as head coach had been at Cornell — where he went 3-15. Dennis Green's first head coaching experience came at Northwestern — where he was 10-45. Both were far more successful at their second stops than at their first.

The most important thing about Cable is that he doesn't seem to consider himself unprepared or unqualified for his battlefield promotion. He acknowledged he learned on the job at Idaho.

"At the same time," he said, "not too many people move the ball the way I did in college. I'm very confident that way. I've had a lot of great teachers. I'm well prepared to be sitting where I'm sitting."

As he spoke, he happened to be sitting next to Davis. There's no getting around that elephant in the room. Davis has a gift for reducing head coaches to substitute-teacher status were authority is concerned. Now Cable is the sub for the sub.

It's an organizational schematic that has produced only three winning records in the past 13 seasons. Then there's the whole Kiffin thing, the former players and employees sniping at the organization thing, and...

"All that other stuff," Cable said with enough-already finality, "really doesn't have a place in the game."

Cable has one other attribute that virtually every good coach in every team sport has had - he's a get-to-know-you kind of guy.

"Understand, I coach the offensive line, but I don't live in that little world," he said. "I know who (the other players) are. I talk to them about life. I shake hands."

Add it all up, and what have you got? There's no telling. Cable is as big a reach as Kiffin was, working in the same environment with the same players.

And looking like he wants to be there. That's not just an upgrade. That's a miracle.