NAPA -- Art Shell went to an unusual place to find his offensive coordinator.

He didn't raid a coach from the trendy college team or Super Bowl participant. He brought his old friend Tom Walsh back from a bed and breakfast in Idaho.

Walsh was out of the NFL for 11 seasons before Shell hired him to be the Oakland Raiders' new offensive coordinator in February.

Much has changed since Walsh was last in the NFL in 1994. The players are bigger and faster and new strategies like the zone blitz are now in vogue. But Walsh says the essence of the game is still the same.

"There's a couple few wrinkles that change ...," Walsh said. "It's like serving chicken. I mean, one day it's fried, one day it's grilled and the next day it's chicken marsala, and the next day it's something else. But it's still chicken. They still got 11 guys out there. It's just a matter of the philosophies of the coaches. You go from there."

Walsh was an assistant with the Raiders from 1982-94, coaching quarterbacks and receivers before becoming offensive coordinator under Shell. He was fired along with Shell following the 1994 season.

Since then, Walsh was head coach for two seasons at Idaho State and worked as director of operations and head coach of a minor league franchise in Mobile, Ala. He has been out of football since 1999.

Walsh, who also was the mayor in Swan Valley, Idaho, said he stayed close to the game through some announcing gigs and talking with college coaches who brought their staffs to the Hansen Guest Ranch.

"It's not a matter of reinventing yourself. Or reinventing anybody," Walsh said. "It's not like I ever went away. You know, I could be mayor, on the governor's board for tourism council in Idaho or whatever, that doesn't mean that my brain was erased. If you're out there bucking hay, you're still going to think about (football)."

Walsh and Shell kept in touch since being fired and Shell had promised his buddy that he would have a job as an NFL offensive coordinator again as soon as Shell got a second chance as head coach.

So soon after Shell was hired to replace Norv Turner in February, one of his first calls was to Walsh.

"Because he knows the system that I love," Shell said. "He knows this system, and he know show to implement it. ... We had been talking for the last few years about football, and if this came about, it was a natural for me."

Walsh says his system isn't fancy. It's an offense that dates back to Al Davis' days as an assistant to Sid Gillman with the Chargers more than four decades ago. It's about power running, deep-strike passing and being more physical than the opponent.

Instead of trying to outscheme the defense, Walsh wants to keep it simple and have his players impose their will on the other team.

"It allows us to play football," quarterback Aaron Brooks said. "We're not a joystick out there. We're not being controlled by a coach who says, 'I need you to do this, that and the third.' Every receiver out there is a primary target. As a quarterback, that's what you want because you have options."

The Raiders struggled offensively in two seasons with Turner, known as one of the sharper offensive tacticians in football. Despite having proven players like Randy Moss, Jerry Porter, LaMont Jordan and Kerry Collins, the Raiders scored just 51 points in the final five games of a 4-12 season in 2005.

Shell and Walsh have promised a return to the physical running style the Raiders during their glory days with Shell as a Hall of Fame blocker. Last season, Oakland was second-to-last in the NFL in carries and averaged just 3.8 yards per rush.

Jordan often complained about the team's lack of commitment to the running game under Turner, but is pleased with the approach of the new coaching staff.

"I think this offense is definitely geared more toward my running style," Jordan said. "Last year we did a lot more running sideways which I didn't like nor did the linemen like. This year you can tell Coach Shell's mentality is downhill power football. He's been successful doing that. Hopefully this year we can come out and get Raiders football back to where it should be and that's at the top of the division."