AL DAVIS IS again looking for a new coach for his Raiders. Just as he will be a year from now, or two years, tops.

The cycle isn't changing. Not as long as Davis remains in control and can feed his addiction to coaching roulette each winter.

So much for hiring a general manager to conduct a coaching search. Might work for other franchises. Not here, where Davis summons candidates each year and picks their brains about the sport and the franchise he loves.

So much for giving a vote of confidence to the interim coach who's won over the locker room. Worked for the 49ers. Not the Raiders.

Tom Cable's contract doesn't expire until Jan. 13, so Davis can string him out longer.

Cable wants the coaching carousel to stop. He thinks his 12 games as interim coach have done a lot to weed out the negative culture. He doesn't know what Davis thinks of him, however.

In a telling sign, Cable hadn't heard from Davis in the 24 hours since the Raiders ended their season with a second straight win. There was no congratulatory call to Cable for rallying in the fourth quarter to crush the playoff hopes of Jon Gruden, Bruce Allen and the host Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Players lobbied on Cable's behalf after Sunday's win and again Monday while clearing out their lockers. Al, meanwhile, is likely lobbying other candidates to come in for a chat.

"The whole journey with him has been very good," Cable said. "It's been great in terms of communication. I have not backed away from that or shied away from it. I felt that was the most important thing to do, to communicate with him.

"We've had agreements, disagreements, everything in between, which I think is normal. That's the way it should be to get something the way you want it to be. I've enjoyed that."

Now that the 5-11 season is done, Davis likely wants to communicate with others down at the NFL coaching pub. So line 'em up, bartender.

Start with New York Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. Is he so desperate to be a head coach again that he'd come to Davis' aid? Gilbride's been blinking fast on Davis' radar the past month, and ESPN's Chris Mortensen (dubbed a "professional liar" by Davis) reports the Raiders will ask the Giants for permission to court Gilbride.

The defending champion Giants (remember, Al loves Super Bowl rings) have dominated with three quality running backs. After Sunday's showing by Michael Bush, Al knows he also has three quality running backs in Bush, Darren McFadden and Justin Fargas.

But neither Gilbride nor Cable will satisfy the league's minority-hiring guidelines the Rooney Rule and so the search will continue.

Davis might comply with the rule by beckoning Baltimore Ravens quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson, who is mentoring rookie Joe Flacco into this season's playoffs. Before leaping to the NFL in 2001, Jackson was USC's offensive coordinator hey, that's where Lyin' Lane Kiffin came from two years ago (as well as Al, many decades ago).

Steve Mariucci? He'd be better off not to entertain the notion of joining the Raiders for what would be his third and final NFL head-coaching opportunity. (Mooch, take that St. Louis Rams job and pray they move back to Los Angeles in 2010. Maybe the Raiders will be your cross-town rivals by then.)

Will Davis call on in-house candidate Paul Hackett? Or will he take up Jim Fassel on his offer to coach a franchise that's coming off its sixth straight season of double-digit losses.

As for the three NFL coaches fired Monday Romeo Crennel (Browns), Eric Mangini (Jets) and Rod Marinelli (Lions) they have defensive backgrounds. That doesn't fit Davis' profile for his head coaches, though it hasn't stopped him from interviewing defensive gurus, as he did 10 years ago with Bill Belichick.

"It was a pretty interesting interview to be talking X's and O's with an owner," Belichick recalled earlier this month. ... We talked about a lot of organizational things putting a staff together, putting a team together, different ways of doing things, how to organize it and how to build an organization."

Gruden beat out Belichick for the Raiders job back then. What ever happened to that Belichick fella, anyhow?

Contact Cam Inman at cinman@bayareanewsgroup.com