Antonio Pierce says Luke Getsy caught his eye in Bears’ win over Raiders
New Raiders coach Antonio Pierce was nearly sprinting as he made his way across one end of radio row to the next at the Super Bowl media center at Mandalay Bay on Tuesday.
It’s pretty much been a sprint for Pierce from the moment owner Mark Davis lifted the interim tag from his title and named him the team’s full-time coach Jan. 19.
“Fast, fast and fast, man,” is how Pierce described the pace.
It hasn’t come without some hiccups, as the roller-coaster ride the Raiders went on with prospective offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury late last week proved. After agreeing to join the Raiders on Thursday, Kingsbury abruptly backed out Saturday over a contractual snafu.
The Raiders immediately moved forward, hiring former Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to run their offense. Pierce made that abundantly clear when asked if he could shed any light on what happened with Kingsbury.
“I don’t talk about guys that’s not Raiders,” he said.
But Pierce did talk about Getsy, who was fired by the Bears after the regular season. Pierce said the Bears’ 30-12 win over the Raiders in October played a role in Getsy becoming a candidate for the position.
At the time, Pierce was the Raiders’ linebackers coach, and he came away impressed with the scheme Getsy devised to put undrafted free-agent quarterback Tyler Bagent in a position to punish the Raiders.
“Luke kicked our ass when we played the Bears, didn’t he? Yeah, that was pretty impressive,” Pierce said. “But I went back to that game. He was one of the few gentlemen that we brought in that we played against that I thought we knew pretty well, and I thought he did a good job scheme-wise.”
It also helped that the Bears ran 38 times for 173 yards in the game. Pierce has said he wants the Raiders to be a power-based run team, first and foremost.
“Obviously the running game shows up,” he said.
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.