Under admittedly unpredictable circumstances, Rich Bisaccia is now officially a head coach in the NFL.
And that's something that after 38 years of coaching, he does not take for granted.
It was visible on Wednesday how much the opportunity means to Bisaccia in his first press conference as interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
"This is certainly an exciting moment," Bisaccia said. "It's an incredible opportunity, certainly, not only for me, but for all of the other coaches that are here to see what we can do in this adversity; see what we can do with this challenge; see what we can do with the next day, and the same thing for our players.
"Am I excited? I'm certainly excited. ... I've been doing a lot of different things in this football world for a long time, so with the help of all of those other assistants that are up there, we're going to do the best job we can."
The Raiders interim head coach brings an immense amount of experience to the table going into his head coaching debut against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, and that was something GM Mike Mayock stressed Wednesday as well.
"I've known this guy for a lot of years, and I hope you get to meet him a little bit and see what a special person he is," Mayock said in his opening statement. "Since he's a special teams coach, he's involved with more players on the team than any other coach in our building. He's involved with the offensive guys. He's involved with the defensive guys. The irony is I've endorsed him for a lot of head coaching jobs over the years, both in college and the NFL, back when I had a different job.
"He's got as much respect in the locker room, in our locker room, as any coach I've ever seen in my life and the reason he does – is he a great coach? Hell yeah. But he's an even better man and what I've always told people when I endorse him is that he's the most natural leader of men that I have ever been around."
That leadership will be important with 12 weeks of football left to play.
"We have a good team," Bisaccia said. "We have high expectations, we have high standards. We were 3-0 at one time, we've lost two games. So there's a bump in the road; it's not the end of the road. And we're just going to put our heads together and put the players in the best position they can to win the game and we'll see what happens on Sunday."
Raiders star edge rusher Maxx Crosby said he believes there are few better men to help them get through the adversity they're currently dealing with.
"I've had a special relationship with him since I've gotten here. He's one of the greatest men I know," Crosby said. "He's a great leader, guys love being around him. The dude has been nothing but a positive influence in my life. ... Rich has been awesome ever since I've been here, and that's somebody who I trust. I'm really looking forward to having him as the leader of this team."
The man that noted that he was working at an egg factory while he was an assistant coach at Wayne State will now be tasked to lead a Raiders team that has showcased potential to do great things this season.
"To have an opportunity to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, wow," Bisaccia said. "Really, that's the only thing I'm going to get choked up about."
