Ravens coach Brian Billick is waiting to add the talent to run a true West Coast scheme.

The Giants' Jim Fassel once guaranteed his team a place in the playoffs. Oakland's Jon Gruden would gnaw through his own leg before doing something like that.

And so perhaps it comes as something of a mild surprise that these four coaches, the four left standing in the race to the Super Bowl championship, are actually spun out of the self-same system. But there you go again, underestimating the amazing reach -- and the absolute stranglehold on the top levels of football -- of the West Coast offense.

This isn't a family, it's a tribe. It's becoming almost impossible to go through the coaching ranks anymore without being significantly affected at some point by the West Coast system or its adherents.

And regardless of how each of these men coaches his current team, make no mistake: The seedlings of a West Coast system are still growing.

	Getting It Done
	While the conference championship games feature four coaches rooted in the West Coast tradition, each has put his own spin on the system. Taking advantage of big backs, asking a quarterback to make adjustments and playing to the strengths of the team have gotten these teams to the same place in different ways. Here's how the numbers of the four remaining Super Bowl contenders compare.
		Total YPG	YPG allowed	TO margin
	Giants	351.2	301.6	+7
	Raiders	368.8	345.4	+17
	Ravens	331.3	259.1	+23
	Vikings	384.2	369.7	-10
	--Rico Longoria, ESPN.com

Gruden? He worked in San Francisco for Walsh's eventual successor, George Seifert, and then went to Green Bay as part of the offensive brain trust that helped Mike Holmgren (49ers pedigree) turn the Packers into Super Bowl champions behind Brett Favre and that short-drop, multiple-receiver, options-aplenty offensive set.

Green? All he did was coach for the 49ers and then for Stanford. The man stands as one of the absolute books of knowledge on the West Coast sets and their intricacies.

And Billick? Well, besides being a former public-relations assistant in San Francisco (his name is on a book as a co-author with Bill Walsh), he spent time both at Stanford and with the NFL's Vikings working for Green. Guess what system they were running on offense?

Billick serves as a great example of the adapability of these West Coast descendants, and you only have to look at how the Ravens are winning to know that's true. Baltimore on offense is about as exciting as a mud flow, but that is Billick's sober response to the talent he has on hand. As he said recently, "The purists want more statistics ... But this is who we are."

And let's not get carried away with the stereotype: Beyond the swooning over the quality of Baltimore's defense, this is a team that produced a running back (Jamal Lewis) with 1,364 yards for the season and a team that averaged a not-hideous 313 yards in total offense per game. It doesn't exactly conjure memories of Montana to Rice, but most people who know Billick believe he's just marking time until he can install the offensive system he truly wants.

Of the four teams remaining in play, only Green's Vikings look like a pure West Coast operation: A great all-purpose back (Robert Smith), absurdly dangerous receivers (Randy Moss and Cris Carter) and a quarterback (Daunte Culpepper, still learning on the job) who can quickly assess his options and decide where he wants to place the ball. In the Vikings' 34-16 victory over the Saints last weekend, Culpepper needed only 31 pass attempts to gain 302 yards.

Gruden also understands what the West Coast mindset demands, which is why he was willing to part with Jeff George a couple of seasons ago in favor of Rich Gannon at quarterback. George has the stronger arm and the downfield capability, but that's generally not what makes the West Coast go. The things that make the West Coast go are good decision-making and a fair amount of escapability, and those are qualities that Gannon possesses in spades.

	“	Billick serves as a great example of the adapability of these West Coast descendants, and you only have to look at how the Ravens are winning to know that's true. Baltimore on offense is about as exciting as a mud flow. ”

It's striking how these coaches have adjusted their backgrounds to suit their present needs. Gruden has gone to a big back in Tyrone Wheatley because he felt the Raiders were out of balance without one. Fassel had great success this year basically by asking Kerry Collins and the offense not to try to do too much, even though it had to gnaw at the coach's sense of how the system should run. Billick smothered his offensive jones long enough to let Baltimore's wonderful defense carry it to the conference title game, and Green took a big, strong quarterback (i.e. not Montana) and still made the universe spin around him.

Still, the apples don't fall far from the tree. These are men of offensive orientation and impressive lineage, and they know whereof they speak. The West Coast system: Tanned, rested, and ready once again to be toasted at the big table during the party.

Mark Kreidler is a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, which has a web site at http://www.sacbee.com/.