In 1987, the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship was established to give men such as Fargas an opportunity to get into coaching in their post-playing career. The fellowship’s objective is to increase the number of full-time NFL minority coaches across the league.
The only requirements is that each applicant is either a former NFL player or has previous coaching experience at either the high school, college, and/or other football leagues level (i.e. CFL, UFL).
This seemed like a grand opportunity for Fargas to become reconnected with the Raiders – and a staff he’s already quite familiar with.
Fargas played two seasons in college at Michigan, where he was teammates with general manager John Spytek. He then transferred to USC as the program was being taken over by Pete Carroll. In Fargas’ one season under Carroll, he rushed for 715 yards and seven touchdowns as the team went 11-2 and won the Orange Bowl.
According to Fargas, it was his former college coach who suggested he apply for the coaching fellowship.
“I’ve been wanting to contribute, wanting to help, but just waiting for the right circumstance and the right time,” Fargas said. “Sometimes you just can’t fight the universe, you have to go with it and I’ve looked at it like that. It’s been a dream of mine, a goal of mine as far as helping and contributing to this organization and helping us get the success we’ve been yearning for.
“I looked at it as if there’s no time better than now. If I’m going to do it, now is the time. I couldn’t hesitate, had to put my foot down and just jump into it.”