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 The
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(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
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 September
29,
2006
- "I play not my eleven best, but
my best eleven." Knute Rockne-
-
It's with great pleasure and pride that I print
the following letter...
-
 Mr
Wyatt,-
- Thank you for the
honor of allowing K-State to represent one of
the finest awards in college or high school
football. We are committed to upholding the
standards that make the Black Lions an elite
organization and the legacy of "sacrifice to
team".
-
- As the son of a career
NCO, I am fully aware how significant this award
program will be to Kansas State Football. The
relationship between Ft Riley, The First
Infantry Division, the Black Lions and K-State
should stand the test of time. We are indeed
proud to be allied with this outstanding
award.
-
- Once again, thank you
for the kind words and encouragement. I really
appreciate it. Be assured, we will be relentless
in the pursuit of our goals and
standards.
-
- Ron Prince / Head
Football Coach / Kansas State University
-
- Thanks to the
efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Pat Frank,
Battalion Commander of the Black Lions,
headquartered at Fort Riley, Kansas, the Kansas
State Wildcats have been approved by the Black
Lion Award Board of Advisors as a Black Lion
Award team.
-
- Kansas State
becomes only the second college program (after
Army) to be designated a Black Lion Award team.
The proximity of Kansas State to Fort Riley and
the Black Lions, and the fact that new K-State
head coach Ron Prince is himself a native of
nearby Junction City, Kansas and the son of a
career Army man made KSU a natural
addition.
-
- FIND
OUT ABOUT THE BLACK LION AWARD / ENROLL
YOUR TEAM!
-
- *********** First it was the third-place
finish of our men's team in the World Basketball
Championships; then our Ryder Cup golf team got
blown away by the Europeans, our Davis Cup
tennis team was eliminated in the first round by
the Russians, and our women's basketball team
finished third in their world
championship.
-
- Now does the rest of the world like
us? Now is it okay to go back to
winning?
-
- *********** Bailey, Colorado is the home of
Platte Canyon High School, where a gunman took
some hostages yesterday.
-
- Platte Canyon High is a Black Lion Award
school, and we wish head football coach Mike
Schmidt all the best in helping his kids deal
with the crisis. I have no doubt that he is
providing them with great adult leadership.
-
- *********** Not so long ago, I asked you to
consider casting a vote for Bob Novogratz,
former Army wrestler and All-American football
player, who was nominated for the Lehigh Valley,
Pennsylvania all-time, all-star football team. I
mentioned a number of Bob's accomplishments, but
I neglected to mention that Bob is also quite a
family man. He and his wife, Barbara, are the
parents of seven and grandparents of many, and
they are justifiably proud of all of them.
-
- For example, daughter Jacqueline is
world-renowned as CEO of the Acumen Fund, a
major non-profit venture dedicated to fighting
world poverty.
-
- And then there is son Michael, whom I've
mentioned before for his efforts to revive
wrestling in New York City's schools. Michael, a
former championship wrestler from Princeton and
a successful New York businessman, has been
instrumental in an effort to combine
philanthropy and his love of wrestling to try to
help the city's young people.
-
- And now, as a result of his efforts, the
organization he heads, called "Beat the Streets
Wrestling," has just donated $1 million to New
York's public schools to triple the number of
schools now offering wrestling. It is the
largest private donation ever made to New York
public school athletics.
-
- Thanks to the grant, New York's public
schools will create 60 new middle school and 35
new high school wrestling programs over the next
three years. The New York Department of
Education has agreed to find an additional five
new programs to bring the total to 100. (At the
present time the city has 20 middle schools and
30 high schools with wrestling programs.)
-
- Beat the Streets Wrestling is not stupid -
the grant, which will be used to purchase mats,
uniforms and shoes, will be lent to the city on
the condition that the schools will continue
their programs.
-
- Said Michael, "Wrestling is a sport that
builds character, toughness and discipline -
characteristics that are important in sports as
well as life. I am confident our students will
take these valuable life skills with them."
-
- DECLARE
WAR ON CHEATS
TIRED OF
PLAYING OPPONENTS WHO KNOWINGLY
TEACH UNFAIR OR UNSAFE TACTICS...
WHO LAUGH ABOUT IT AFTERWARDS, AND
SAY, "SO?" WHEN YOU CONFRONT
THEM?
TIME TO
TAKE UP THE CUDGEL AGAINST THE
SELFISH CHEATS WHO THINK THEY'RE
BIGGER THAN OUR GAME. TIME TO GET
AFTER THEIR ASSES AND RUN THEM
OFF.
EVERY
FOOTBALL COACH IN AMERICA SHOULD BE
REQUIRED TO READ THIS AND SIGN OFF
ON IT BEFORE EVERY SEASON.
-
- COPY IT
AND SAVE IT. HAND A COPY TO A GUY
THE NEXT TIME HE CHEATS, AND SEND A
COPY TO HIS PRINCIPAL AND
AD.
-
- HOLD
NOTHING BACK. WHEN A GUY ADMITS THAT
HE TEACHES ILLEGAL TACTICS, AND
SNICKERS THAT "IT'S NOT ILLEGAL IF
YOU DON'T GET CAUGHT," EXPOSE HIM
FOR THE CHEATER THAT HE IS, AND USE
THE AFCA TO BACK UP YOUR
ARGUMENT.
- EXCERPTS FROM THE AMERICAN
FOOTBALL COACHES ASSOCIATION CODE
OF ETHICS
-
- EXCERPTED FROM THE
PREAMBLE
-
- Coaches unwilling or unable
to comply with the principles of
the Code of Ethics have no place
in the profession.
-
- EXCERPTED FROM ARTICLE ONE
- RESPONSIBILITIES TO
PLAYERS
-
- 2. In teaching the game of
football, the coach must realize
that there are certain rules
designed to protect the player
and provide common standards for
determining a winner and a loser.
Any attempts to circumvent these
rules, to take unfair advantage
of an opponent, or to teach
deliberate unsportsmanlike
conduct, have no place in the
game of football, nor has any
coach guilty of such teaching any
right to call himself a
coach.
-
- EXCERPTED FROM ARTICLE
THREE - RULES OF THE
GAME
-
- 1. The Football Code which
appears in the Official Football
Rule Book shall be considered an
integral part of this Code of
Ethics and should be carefully
read and observed.
-
- 2. Each coach should be
acquainted thoroughly with the
rules of the game. He is
responsible for having the rules
taught to, interpreted for, and
executed by his players.
-
- 3. Both the letter and the
spirit of the rules must be
adhered to by the coaches and
their players.
-
- 4. Coaches who seek to gain
any advantage by circumvention,
disregard, or unwillingness to
learn the rules of the game, are
unfit for this association. A
coach is responsible for the
adherence to the rules by all
parties directly involved with
the team. The integrity of the
game rests mainly on the
shoulders of the coach; there can
be no compromise.
-
When did we
begin to tolerate cheating? When did
people get the idea that they could
openly and brazenly cheat - and then
brag about it? In the Old West,
there was nothing more despised than a
cheat - poker cheats were killed or run
out of town. We can't continue to cut
these cheating bastards slack, and then
condemn executives who think that they
can loot corporations and rape
shareholders and screw employees and
creditors. If we don't have the guts to
take on the cheats in a kids' game,
what chance do we have as a society?
Drive them out of the business.
Football has enough enemies on the
outside without letting people destroy
it from within.
|
This can be found at
http://www.coachwyatt.com/afcaethics.htm-
- I wish I didn't have to print this, but
cheating is becoming so rampant in our game that
it is almost an act of hypocrisy for us to be
talking about character-building when what many
coaches are really doing is teaching their kids
that cheating is justified if it produces a
win.
-
- Last Friday night, I went out to watch Hood
River (Oregon) High, coached by my former head
coach, Tracy Jackson, take on Gresham High. It
was Hood River's second week of running the
Double-Wing, after two games of running the
single wing, and I wanted to see how much
progress Tracy had made.
-
- The answer was - Tracy has made a lot of
progress. His kids are executing pretty doggone
well. They fell behind quickly because of a
defensive letdown, but they put on a couple of
very impressive drives, and midway through the
fourth quarter they trailed 34-28, by the margin
of a Hood River fumble in Gresham territory that
was returned for a touchdown. A final Gresham
score made it 42-28, but Hood River had its
chances.
-
- Cosmetically, to the average fan, it was a
pretty good game. But to Tracy, and to me, it
was anything but. Yes, Gresham won. They are
well-coached overall and their kids played well
enough to win. But the win was tainted by the
fact that, unless Gresham defenders somehow
figured out on their own that they could pile up
Hood River blockers by illegally attacking them
at the knees, it's hard to escape the conclusion
that they had been taught to cheat. Amazing what
an edge it gives you when you throw ethics to
the wind and decide to cheat. Offensive coaches
who teach their kids to hold are the most
prominent examples of this, but it does seem as
if the Double-Wing brings out the worst in some
some defensive coordinators.
-
- There were a total of three
illegal-block-below-the-waist penalties called
against Gresham. That's a lot more than you'll
normally see in one game, but Tracy had done
everything in his power to bring it to their
attention, and in truth there should have been a
lot more. The officials did call it twice on the
same drive, but even that did nothing to deter
the Gresham kids. Two plays after the last call,
they were right back at it. (There are those
coaches who figure that officials simply won't
call a penalty on every play, and their
calculation is that the few penalties they do
incur are a small price to pay for a license to
cheat.)
-
- Most enlightening to me was that the Gresham
head coach appeared quite indignant about being
penalized. Okay, maybe the first time was
understandable - if he didn't know what was
going on. But that being the case, if the kids
were simply acting on their own, or the DC was
doing something unbeknownst to him, wouldn't you
think that after the second such call, he would
have tried to find out WTF was going on out
there, and gotten it straightened out? I mean,
in another such case, if his kids had been
repeatedly picking up unsportsmanlike conduct
calls for swearing, I'm willing to bet he'd have
called a time out and done something to put an
end to it.
-
- But he did nothing of the sort, and the
illegal tactics continued unabated. I videotaped
the game, and I have been able to find at least
nine blatant instances clearly visible in the
replay. In one case, a Gresham defender throws
himself at the ankles of the Hood River QB, who
has actually pulled up, away from the play; in
another case, after throwing himself at the legs
of one Hood River player, the defender goes for
the daily double by leg-whipping another
opponent. (That would be "tripping," in case you
coach for Gresham.)
-
- After the game, Tracy confronted their
defensive coordinator, whose response was pretty
much to say "So?" and turn his back and walk
away.
-
- He then spoke to the head coach, who seemed
to feign ignorance of what the defensive
coordinator had "allegedly" done. Right.
-
- "A coach is responsible for the adherence
to the rules by all parties directly involved
with the team. The integrity of the game rests
mainly on the shoulders of the coach; there can
be no compromise."
-
- To any coach who contemplates cheating, I
can offer several good reasons not
to...
-
- It demeans the game itself, which depends
for its health far more on the ethical conduct
of coaches and their respect for the game's
integrity than it does on a handful of officials
to enforce the rules. When coaches decide
selectively which rules they respect, they have
no right to expect opponents not to do the same.
The result is anarchy.
-
- It is considered despicable conduct
unworthy of coaches by the American Football
Coaches Association, as is made clear in the
Association by-laws.
-
- In a climate in which our politicians are
for sale, and millions have suffered losses
because of corrupt business officials who
operated outside the rules, corrupt coaching -
teaching young people that winning justifies
cheating - simply can't be defended as a
legitimate use of taxpayers' educational
dollars.
-
- It does nothing to enhance your
reputation as a coach, because it proves nothing
about your ability to solve problems within the
rules.
-
- There are a few parents out there who are
going to be, uh, "upset" if your tactics injure
their kid. If a kid is injured and the
injury can be traced to your having taught
something illegal and dangerous, it could prove
disastrous to your career - and to your
financial health. I will gladly cooperate with
the plaintiff's attorneys. I would do so free,
but it be an even greater pleasure to take their
money as an expert witness's fee, knowing full
well whose pockets it would eventually be coming
out of.
-
- *********** Not sure what it is that Nike
was trying to sell - I seldom am - but you might
enjoy this Nike spot that didn't make it to air,
but somehow got out on the Internet (leakers are
a problem everywhere):
-
- http://clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=F96C1F61015A8AF8
-
- *********** Terrell Owens. What a jerk.
-
- He giveth and he taketh away.
-
- He provides us all with one of the greatest
opportunities ever to poke fun at him, but at
the same time he denies it to us.
-
- It's not unlike the old joke about your
mother-in-law driving off a cliff in your new
Cadillac,
-
- I mean, what a target - here's the biggest
jackass that ever inhabited professional sports,
but at the same time, the topic is suicide, not
exactly a popular choice as a humorous category.
Far too many people have suffered far too much
pain for comedians to mine that subject for
laughs.
-
- What I find suspicious is Owens' denial that
he was trying to harm himself.
-
- Remembering how he'd injured his finger a
couple of weeks ago, I wanted to ask him... if
you weren't trying to harm yourself, then why
else would you - the definition of a prima donna
- be blocking!
-
- (By the way, I was reading something
the other day, and the writer used the term
"pre-madonna." Clearly, this was an example of
someone who doesn't read, whose vocabulary
derives from listening - probably to Sports
Center. The term is "prima donna," and it is an
Italian phrase meaning the main female singer in
an opera . Now, more commonly, it describes an
arrogant person who acts as if he or she is
deserving of star treatment. Another example of
this literacy gap is the confusion over the
words "marquee" (mar-KEY), and "marquis," (also
(mark-KEY) as in "marquee player." The marquee
at a theatre is the awning or overhang, on which
appears the title of the show and the name(s) of
the star(s). Unless you are a star, your name
does not appear on the marquee. Therefore, a
"marquee player" is a star player, one whose
name can draw crowds. Although both words are
French in derivation and both sound the same,
"marquee" and "marquis" are vastly different in
meaning. A marquis is a nobleman.
HW)
-
- *********** Dear Coach: Do you recall anyone
saying something to the effect of "If I had a
foot (or a leg) like a club I could kick the
ball that far......" when Tom Dempsey kicked the
63 yard field goal for the New Orleans Saints
that beat the Detroit Lions in 1970, I believe
it was.
-
- I was 13 or 14 at the time, and only just
getting into football as I has just started high
school and going to football games.......
I heard this supposed quote many times
and heard it attributed to Tom
Landry. I have been searching the
web for two days now trying to find this quote,
if it does indeed exist........ can you
help?
-
- Lori Haines, Louisiana (I may have heard
someone say that publicly. I sure heard people I
knew say things to that effect.
-
- Somehow, though, it doesn't sound like
something Coach Landry would say. I have,
however, found a few quotes attributable to Tex
Schramm, Cowboys' president.
-
- He said, among other things, that the
"toe" of Dempsey's shoe was more like "the head
of a gold club with a sledgehammer
surface."
-
- He went on to say, "I have great
admiration for Dempsey in overcoming his
physical disability, but I believe he should use
the same surface to meet the ball that other
kickers use."
-
- Part of the controversy stemmed from the
fact that only the previous winter, in an
attempt to cut down on all the gimmicky things
kickers were doing with their shoes (most of
them were still "toe-punch" kickers), the league
had passed a rule stipulating that players
couldn't use any shoe in a game that wasn't
readily available in any sporting goods store.
Dempsey's shoe definitely did not comply with
the new rule. It was custom-made for what then
was an extremely high price of $200, had no toe
as such, but ended just past the ankle with a
large, flat surface about the size of a bar
coaster.
-
- Hope that helps you some.
-
- *********** "Army of One" is history. Gone
as an advertising slogan. Nobody will yet say
what its replacement will be, but almost
anything will be better. I suggest "Kill the
Bastards Before They Kill Us," but nobody at the
ad agency will answer my calls.
-
- The "Army of One" campaign was designed to
appeal to the independent-minded youngsters of
the so-called Y Generation, but it was soundly
razzed by most Army people, who questioned the
wisdom of selling the Army to youngsters on the
basis of individuality when on their first day
of basic training, they would start learning to
work together and not do anything to bring
themselves to the attention of the drill
sergeant.
-
- *********** Coach, For my birthday today, my
wife gave me Army-Navy tickets. The owner of the
company I work for (based outside of Philly)
called me as well...the Xmas party is always on
the same day as the Army-Navy game so I told him
I was going to both...turns out he goes every
year and now I get to tailgate with him and some
of his Naval Academy grad friends with about 100
of their closest friends. Ian will go to the
game with me, and Beth and Molly will come to
the tailgate. I can't wait. I'm a lucky guy.
Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts (That is
so cool! Happy Birthday - and Go Army! Ha, ha!
HW)
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, Just a quick note
about last night's game. The final score was
Riverside 27, Grovetown 8. We scored on the
first play from scrimmage going 52 yards on 88
super power. Our defense then picked up a loose
ball and ran it 40 yards for another score.
Another 3 and out by the defense forced a punt
that was partially blocked. We scored in about 2
minutes and the score was 21 &endash; 0 at the
end of the1st quarter. We fumbled the ball on
our next possession after a long gain on 3 trap
at 4. Our second team defense gave up some big
plays and they scored. In the second half we
again stopped them and scored to go up 27-8. We
are trying to coach up our back ups because they
are seeing quite a lot of action. They don't see
as much time during practice and it shows during
games. This is the one area I'd like to see us
get better at. We want all our players to become
good, not just the top dozen or so kids. We
finish the season next week. Hopefully with
another win. Best Wishes Dan King, Riverside
Middle School, Evans, Georgia (I appreciate
the effort you make to spread the success around
so that your backups get to play. The problem
with getting those backups more practice is that
if you don't sufficiently prepare your #1's in
practice, there may not be any playing time for
the #2's! HW)
-
- *********** Good
Morning Hugh, We are off to 3-1 start and
playing well. I did enjoy your comments to the
coach about the QB leading the play on Super
Power. It sure was classic Wyatt. When I read
the question I was certain what your answer was
going to be. We have always led with the QB on
Super Power and they would think something was
wrong if we didn't. Actually it has become a
point of pride for them and an act of leadership
plus all the other benefits of getting another
blocker through the hole. We spend a fair amount
of time working on his turn out block and it has
paid dividends. Over the years and occasionally
against an 8 man front team with a wide 9
Defensive end who is crashing we have had him
turn out on the end rather than through the hole
on Super Power. Anyway it was a great answer.
Say hi to Connie!!
-
- Jack Tourtillotte,
Boothbay Harbor, Maine
-
- *********** Along the same lines of Jack
Tourtillotte's letter above...
-
- The other day I heard from a player I hadn't
heard from in over 30 years. I have written
about him, though, because he was one heck of a
player, and he had quite an influence on my
career. His name is Phil Petry, and he came to
me as a guy who had been a legendary high school
player in our town - Hagerstown, Maryland - and
had gone to the University of Maryland, where he
started some games at quarterback in his
sophomore and junior years before his life got
off track for one reason or another. And now
here he was, a few years later, back in
Hagerstown with his act together, the local hero
ready to play for my team, the Hagerstown Bears.
An awful lot of people in town expected him to
play quarterback for us. To be honest, he really
was good, and I was getting a little pressure
from the team's owner, because unquestionably,
Phil at quarterback would be an attraction. The
problem was, I already had a quarterback.
Fortunately, as I wrote earlier, Phil
volunteered to move to tight end. In his letter,
though, Phil gently corrected me...
-
- Hugh, I found the article (on your site)
written about the Hagerstown Bears that my
friend told me about and I found out things
about myself I didn't know. I do remember that I
didn't volunteer to play tight end. You asked me
if I was a football player or just a
quarterback. We went from there, and what could
have been a power struggle turned into a mutual
respect based on our love and knowledge of the
game. I will spend some time reading your web
site and educating myself.
-
- Actually, Phil is correct. But it never
would have worked if he hadn't willingly gone
along with me, and I consider that as good as
volunteering. I told Phil that I remembered
proposing the switch to him, and this time I
told him the thinking that had gone into it
(although he was a very bright guy and probably
figured it out for himself, anyhow). First of
all, we already had a pretty good quarterback, a
kid named Chuck Reilly. The players believed in
him, and so did I. And there was the element of
gratitude on my part as well. The previous
season, he'd joined the team in mid-season (he
was from Peekskill, New York, but he was
stationed at a nearby Army base) and he was good
enough that I was able to bench the guy who'd
been playing QB for us, a 32-year-old named Hugh
Wyatt.
-
- I told Phil that I considered myself a loyal
person, and I was loyal to Chuck. There was also
the athletic factor. Phil was a really good
athlete who could play a number of positions -
if he were willing to. Chuck was a good QB, but
not as big, strong or athletic as Phil. And,
finally, I didn't know Phil. Chuck was a known
quantity. I could see that Phil has a great arm,
and I could tell that he knew the game, but I
really didn't know him well enough to know
whether we could work together. I felt that way
then and I haven't changed in the slightest, and
I think way too many coaches fail to take that
into account in deciding who their QB's going to
be.
-
- In any event, Phil agreed to my suggestion
without hesitation, and it made us a much better
team. We wound up going 11-4, at one point
winning eight straight, and made it to the
league championship game. So I don't mind saying
that Phil "volunteered," because there was no
coercion on my part. Persuasion, yes - but no
coercion.
-
- Actually, as things turned out, Phil not
only caught 28 passes for us and did a great job
of blocking, and would be named all-league tight
end, but just past the midway point of the
season, when Chuck Reilly was injured, he wound
up back at QB anyhow, and threw 178 times (58 in
one game - a minor league record at the time,
and still fifth-highest all-time), completing 89
for 1410 yards and 15 TDs. (My research shows
that the league's leading receiver that year was
a lightning-fast kid out of Wake Forest named
Jack Dolbin, who would go on to a five-year
career with the Denver Broncos.)
-
- I mentioned the influence that Phil Petry
had on my career. Phil's example is the reason
why I have never bought into the concept of the
lace-panty quarterback, who will play under
center or not at all. Phil agreed that he was a
football player and not just a quarterback, and
he is why I have no respect for coaches who
pamper their quarterbacks and spare them the
chore of blocking on super power.
-
- I thought the writing was very correct in
every way. I was flattered by the things you
said and I didn't know about the records against
Chambersburg. And you are right I wanted to play
football that year and I was intrigued about
playing another position. You had me working out
at halfback and I am truly glad you came up with
the tight end. I made all league that year at
TE. And led the league most of the year in
catches. I had to train Chuck to read the
backers the same as I did. He learned quickly
and it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I
remember we had a scrimmage in C'burg I think.
And at the half Chuck had not thrown a pass to
me and I asked him how many eligible receivers
we had and he said 5 and I then asked him to
name them. When he said TE I said really??? he
got the message and started to use me. And the
rest is history.
-
- *********** Writes
Pete Smolin, head coach at Cantwell Sacred Heart
of Mary HS in Montebello, California, "Our
football program is 9-0 - Varsity, JV and frosh
are all 3-0, undefeated. And have scored 249
points to 34 points against.
-
- Our varsity A Back
Joseph Loera has 54 carries for 420 yards 7.78
avg. 140 per game
-
- In building the CSHM
program, writes James Figueroa, "Inside SOCAL,"
Coach Smolin has employed an unusual off-season
program:
-
- "Besides football,
both players are active in Cantwell Sacred
Heart's rugby club, which Smolin started as a
way to keep his players active after football
season is over, sharpening the kids' physical
and mental skills thanks to rugby's lack of pads
and all-out style of play.
-
- "Cantwell now has the
only rugby team in the Los Angeles area that is
composed of players from a single high school,
and the team finished fifth in Southern
California last year, earning an invitation to
an international competition in
Fullerton.
-
- "'It's a lot of fun,'
said Smolin, who had experience playing rugby
for 20 years when he started the club at
Cantwell. 'It really took off and kept the team
going. Now, even the girls want to start a
team.'"
-
- *********** Whoa. For
some reason - maybe because they were one of the
first of the pass-first, run-season teams, I
always thought of BYU as being a little soft.
Whew. Not any more. Not after the way they
played against TCU last night.
-
- *********** Coach just
a little update on the versatility of the double
wing. We do summer workouts before the school
season starts and felt good about our team going
into the start of school. We had our team
captain jump ship on us and go to the new middle
school on the 2nd day of school. He was our
(stud A-back) who was being backed up by the
starting TE. At the C-back we were set with a
very good 7th grader and a solid 8th grader. The
2nd day of school we switched the 8th grader to
A back, leaving us with only 1 C-back(7th
grader). The day before the 1st game during
Wednesday's Light practice we are running
through plays. The C-back dives for a pass and
hurts his shoulder - he has been out for 2
weeks. So we move the Starting TE who is also
the 2nd string Qb to starting WB. I don't know
how often you have had to deal with kids playing
multiple position but I did not think it was
possible for a kid to play C-back, QB, and
TE.
-
- Any way we are 2-0
winning 42-0 and 32-0 in 6 years of the double
wing we are 39-2. Feel free to post this in your
news, but don't include my name, I don't want
some of the other coaches in our league to
figure out that we are not running the flex-bone
;) (Hope to see you at your 07 clinics)
(There's a lot of us who've been in that sort
of spot, and the fact that we run the Double
Wing has saved our bacon. Not too many offenses
would enable you to do that!)
-
- *********** Coach,
Brunswick Christian 70 Lake Dow Christian
50
-
- What a game!!!! I like
good defense as much as the next guy and despite
the scoring of 120 points, both sides had their
hands full on defense and actually played their
hearts out.
-
- Lake Dow had a
tailback the likes of which I have never seen. I
greatly respect the kids that stay in our 8 man
football programs instead of going to public
schools, but this kid may have been the best I
have ever seen at any level on any high school
field. I have a kid with legitimate 4.4 speed
and this kid ran away from him like he was
standing still. We ended up dedicating our
entire defense to stopping him and he still ran
for well over 400 yards (and this on a 80 yard
field). Fortunately for us, their coach had no
other offensive solution, although I cannot
figure out for the life of me why he didn't give
him the ball all night. He went to a passing
game and we picked off 3 out of 4 of their
attempts. Maybe his fans want to see passing as
well.
-
- OK, enough about
them!!!! We run nothing but 66 Super O (88 in
the 11 man of course) for the first 6 plays.
Then we ran the Rocket G sweep to the same side.
After that it got pretty easy. We would run
66/66/ then the Criss Cross and off we would go
for a TD. At some point they moved everyone
outside so we ran the middle a little bit, then
we went to our screen. Remember a few weeks ago
I told you that I needed a screen pass and you
said it would be easy to install. Easy wasn't
the word for it. The first rep in practice was
perfect and so were the next 10. We have yet to
miscue on this play in either practice or in the
game. We threw 3 for TD's and one more for over
40 yards. Over 200 yards passing (although it
was all yards after the catch). We had 4
different players score including both backs,
the QB, and the left TE. It is a good thing as
we had all we could handle for the first 3
quarters. I used my one extra player and swapped
kids all over the place on the line, from End to
End, something that can only be done in the DW.
Both backs rushed for well over 200 yards. Our
Wedge finally started working. It was great. The
adjustment to 8 man is harder than I thought,
but now with the screen we only need a Super O
each way, a Reach play each way, one good
counter (67XX) and the screen. We have the
traps, but seldom need them. We also keep 3 Base
ready. I have learned one thing. The Wedge needs
to be ran with both wings out and the QB under
center. I tried all year to run it with a FB,
but without the wings the wedge doesn't stay
together, just an 8 man quirk, at least for us.
We ran the Wedge for one TD and two
PAT's.
-
- We are still in the
hunt if we win our final 2. That would put us
tied at 2-1 for the #2 seed in our conference.
Today we are picking up a 6'3" 245 pound Senior
who just transferred from another school. Both
my guards play linebacker on defense, so this
will be a huge help.
-
- Well, time to get back
to work. BTW, I have about all the pro football,
or more specifically, pro football announcers,
that I can stand this year. My TIVO didn't
record the Navy game (I still have not looked up
the score because the game will be replayed on
Tuesday on CSTV), so I guess it is Monday Night
Football tonight. Reggie Bush has done a lot
more than I thought he would do in his first
season however, and Michael Vick is always
entertaining. Hi to Connie.
-
- Richard Cropp,
Brunswick, Georgia
-
- *********** I saw a
feature on TV recently about the U of Maine's
school of education, and the fact that it is in
danger of losing its accreditation because its
student body isn't diverse enough to suit
the national accrediting body! Are you sh---ing
me? Diverse? The state of Maine itself is
97 per cent white, for God's sake!
-
- They have been given
until October 1 to "submit a plan."
-
- Plan? Are they
supposed to start recruiting minorities from out
of state, luring them in-state tuition - with
scholarships even -while shutting the door on
white Maine kids? WTF! With all the other
problems facing American education, they narrow
their focus on a bogus issue like
"diversity."
-
- Writes my favorite
Maine guy Jack Tourtillotte, a long-time
principal and football coach and a life-long
Mainer, "Just can't stand the way education in
this country is headed. Today it seems more
important that we not offend anyone rather than
doing what we know is right and that applies to
parents, the government, and the kids. It is
enough to turn my hair gray -- oops it is
already is -- heck, I will have to turn to drink
instead."
-
- *********** You know
that football is becoming overly commercialized
when you hear a huckster - er, announcer - on
ESPN talk about a "Home Depot Coaching
Adjustment."
-
- *********** Gimme a
break, Madden.
-
- One of the receivers
on the Sunday night game - I can't tell you his
name, for reasons that will soon become apparent
- caught a ball for a touchdown and handed the
ball to the official. That was it. No dance, no
strut, no thumping of the chest or pointing at
the sky.
-
- Said Madden (I
paraphrase) " You know, it's nice to, I mean,
you know, see a receiver, you know, like that,
who, you know, just hands the ball to the
referee. I mean, there's no celebration or, you
know, anything like that."
-
- Yeah John, thanks for
recognizing the good guys. Meantime, on Madden
2007, where a**holes get their recognition,
there isn't much room for the good guys, is
there?
-
- *********** Not to say
that they play in a tough section, but Coach
Chris Davis of Slayton, Minnesota, noted that
five of its schools - Red Rock Central, Adrian,
Minneota, Springfield, and his school, Murray
County Central - were ranked in last week's Top
10.
-
- *********** We see all
sorts of variations of the 5-3, often with DT
head up on our OT, and I'm embarrassed to say
that I don't have the trap in yet. I asked the
kids which one they would rather run and they
all said trap, so trap it is. They've run it
before, so we can install it and run it this
Saturday.
-
- So, on a 3T2 I'm
trapping the DT. Should both the TE and OT
release inside on the MLB? I don't block the DE,
but then should I have the playside wing got
OLB? The way it usually plays out is that the
OLB is flying to the wings movement, so the wing
kind of continues to help him to the outside and
the FB runs in that channel between the MLB and
OLB. I haven't been that successful with the
trap in the past, probably for a couple of
reasons....not a good enough push from C-G
double team vs an odd front, and FB not kind of
angling to the right a bit (on 3T2) after the
handoff, in the past, he had just plowed
straight ahead into the double team(s). I have
had kids wrap up the FB, then let him go
thinking that the wing had the ball.
-
- I think that the
motion and the QB's fake should hold the DE, and
may also get the OLB moving
outside.
-
- That means you get
a double-team on the nose and if your tackle can
release inside onto the MLB he does so - but the
key is that me must not so much as graze the DT.
You don;'t want him to release outside or he
will get in the way of the TE, who is also going
after the MLB, increasing the likelihood that
neither will get him.
-
- If he can't release
inside, even after taking a slight split, I
would have him sucker the DT by either pulling
outside and blocking the DE or - and this is
really cool - setting up as if to pass block the
DT.
-
- In any case, the TE
also comes down onto the MLB, so you may get two
guys on him.
-
- Tip- take your
B-Back and stand him behind the offense with
you, and run the play (without him) and let him
see where the blocking is. Then walk everyone
through it until everyone is sure - then rep it.
This could be a killer!
-
- *********** Coach,
Just wanted to update you on our progress.
We are 1-1 (10,11 yr olds). We lost
our first game 12-0. We moved the ball
well between the 20's but couldn't punch it in.
We were hampered by 2 penalties that
brought back runs of 25 yds and 35 yds.
We did break one for 70yds but our
back was caught at the 5 &endash; next play we
fumbled.
-
- The game was 6-0 well
into the 2nd half when we gave up a long run for
a TD. We were struggling with the 88 and
99's. Our wings continued to try to get
outside with it instead of cutting into the hole
(the time we did cut in gave us the 70 yd run).
One of the hardest things to teach young
kids is to recognize the seam/hole and run into
it.
-
- For the 1st game we
had the 88,99 power, 3 base, and 3 trap @ 2.
The trap plays proved hard to
execute. We also had a "keeper" play on
the powers (naked bootleg).
-
- Our second game was
much more successful. This time we won
12-0. The score was the same but the
game was completely different. We
thoroughly dominated.
-
- One of my challenges
is getting all my kids playing time ( I have 30
boys on my team ). I have split them into
4 "sub-teams" that play offense and defense
together. I essentially have to teach and
coach plays four times. I was
surprised how my "lower talent" squads moved the
ball. What they lacked in talent they made
up in execution. In fact, they scored the
first TD on a 99 power. We had two weeks
to prep for this game &endash; we used the 88
and 99 power, the super powers (for 2 of the 4
groups), 3 base, the trap plays, and the Wedge.
Looking back, I should have
installed the wedge before the trap. The
Wedge game me 4-6 yds every time I ran it.
I ran the wedge mostly as a keeper (QB carries
right behind the center) &endash; it wasn't as
successful with the BB carrying it ( I have to
do a better job of coaching that, my BB tends to
stand up at the snap). We did a bit better
at running the 88 power and super power in
hitting the right hole. That set up our
second TD on a 47-C that went for about 40
yards. We did all of this against a
defense that was putting 8 and 9 players on the
line. The one bleak spot &endash; we still
couldn't execute the trap plays
properly.
-
- Our next game is
Saturday afternoon. I've put in the 6-G
which was much easier to coach than the
trap. The kids really like running that
play ( along w/ the wedge ). I am about to
scrap the trap plays but wanted to ask you if
you ever ran those plays with the wings making
the block ( ie; 9 trap @ 4 ) by putting them in
motion right down the line and snap the ball
when the wing gets past the tackle? Also
&endash; just to clarify &endash; are you still
running the 88,99's with motion or
without?
-
- Thanks again for you
help and your excellent system. CD,
Pennsylvania
-
- Glad to hear that
things are progressing. That is quite a
challenge, getting four teams to run the offense
- not to intrude, but in terms of playing time,
it does sound as if it might be time to split
into two teams. No matter, your approach seems
to be a good one.
-
- To be honest, I
have never given any thought to having a
wingback make the trap block, because most
defensive linemen we encounter would blow up
most backs who tried to block them. I don't
think that the trap block is the problem. I'd be
willing to wager that the problem is that the
playside offensive linemen aren't athletic
enough to avoid touching defensive linemen, and
that the B-Back doesn't really know where to
run. But this is not to say that you couldn't
trap with that wingback, if for some reason
everybody else is doing their job and the guard
isn't.
-
- We seldom use any
motion in running super powers. This takes away
a lot of the defense's initiative, since they
have no motion to cue them, and at the same time
it makes it easier for the running back to get
into the hole (rather than bouncing
outside).
-
- *********** Don't know
about your neighborhood, but... Watched a
replay of a HS game from upstate New York -
Corcoran HS vs Syracuse Christian Brothers
Academy. The announcers happened to mention very
offhandedly that the brother of one of the
Corcoran players had been involved last year in
a "neighborhood skirmish," and "gunfire ensued,"
and he was still in a coma as a result of a
gunshot to the head.
-
- *********** In that
same game, a player from Christian Brothers
Academy tackled a Corcoran player in front of
the Corcoran bench, and as he held on, he
appeared to be flung to the ground by the
Corcoran ball carrier. And when the CBA kid got
up, he found himself surrounded by angry
Corcoran players (by this point, the score was
at least 35-0 against them), and some angry
shoving took place. A bit of a melee ensued,
mostly one-sided, and a few Corcoran fans jumped
down out of the stands. Although one CBA player
came to his teammate's "rescue," the CBA staff
did a good job of keeping their kids away from
the fray. The CBA player who was the original
object of the Corcoran players' wrath did not
respond, merely continuing to try to leave the
pack. He simply kept walking, with the Corcoran
players hot on his tail. It reminded me of my
"walkaway drill," something I've done for years,
in which I have one player antagonize another
player, who must simply turn and walk away.
(When it's done enough, I've found it an amazing
way to train your kids to avoid getting drawn
into scraps.) To his great credit, one Corcoran
assistant placed himself between his own players
and the kid from CBA, preventing real problems.
Finally, things calmed down, and at least three
Corcoran players were ejected. One of them kept
running off at the mouth as he left the stadium.
Meantime, in the grand tradition of American
educators that when there is a fight both
parties are equally to blame, the officials
threw out a CBA player - the same kid who had
shown such great restraint and self discipline
in simply walking away from trouble.
-
- *********** It's been
years, but I still remember when Jack Ryan
retired. Jack was a Philadelphia institution. He
covered high school sports for years for the
Philadelphia Bulletin, and remembered every
player he had ever seen play.
-
- I still remember his
retirement, because his words have stuck with
me. He said that the thing he was proudest of
was that in all his years of covering high
school sports, he'd never blamed a
kid.
-
- He never named the kid
who fumbled, or missed a pass in the end zone,
or missed a tackle. Ever since, I have kept a
careful eye on sports reporters, and I have
noticed that the good ones followed Jack Ryan's
guideline.
-
- I will also add that
as a coach I took Jack Ryan's word to heart and
never mentioned a kid's screwing up in any
interview or game summary.
-
- Unfortunately, as the
pro influence trickles down on the playing
field, it also affects reporting, and I have
noticed in recent years that the eager young
guys who now cover high school sports are less
sensitive to the feelings of high school kids,
and have no qualms about writing the name of the
kid whose mistake cost his team the
game.
-
- And so there I was
watching a high school game on TV, and a kid
from one team snapped the ball over his punter's
head. And I'll be damned if he didn't do the
same thing the next time his team punted. So
here's a 16- or 17-year-old kid, on national TV,
nervous as hell (you try making a nice accurate
deep snap in front of a big crowd and on
national TV!), and those peckerheads on TV, the
lowest of the low on the announcing totem pole,
made sure we all knew who the perpetrator was,
as the TV cameras followed the poor kid all the
way to his sideline.
-
- Think carefully about
this, those of you who think that high school
football on national TV is such a wonderful
thing. Someday that could be one of your kids.
-
- *********** Coach,
Well we improved to 1-1 last week with a 38-26
victory over our biggest rival school,
Rockledge. Many of Viera's students either
attended Rockledge as Freshmen or would have
attended Rockledge prior to the building of
VHS. Many of my players were playing
against their former teammates.
-
- A lot of trash talking
from RHS occurred in the week or so leading up
to the game but, the game was clean and hard
fought. No smack talk, just good tough
football. We started off a bit shaky on
Offense, they had a big varsity kid down playing
DT and my X end was a bit intimidated at first
but, I got him straightened out and from then
on, we rolled. We did not punt the entire
game and after our first series (4 and out), we
were never stopped. We traded TDs in the
first half and ended up down 18-16 at the
half. We did not get to practice Defense
last week (we got lightninged out). We
made some adjustments on the defensive side of
the ball at halftime and our D pretty much shut
them down in the 2nd half until late in the 4th
when they got another TD. Unfortunately, I
don't have stats for the O, we haven't found
anyone willing to do it for us yet. I do
know that all 4 members of my backfield scored
TDs though. I will try to pull them off
the tape but, that is being done by TV
Production Students. It is getting better
though. Ahhh, growing pains.
-
- We played much better
on both sides of the ball than we did against
Melbourne the week before and the kids are
learning more and more each week and are also
gaining a lot of confidence in the offensive and
defensive schemes. That is one of the
great things about getting these kids as 9th and
10th graders, they are getting good solid
coaching right from the start from the Varsity
staff. Plus, they don't have any
preconceived ideas about they way things should
be. Donnie Hayes, Viera HS, Viera, Florida
-
- That is really
great news. It has to be wonderful for the
student body and the team because it really
gives them their own identity.
-
- It must be
frustrating having to deal with poor video,
because it is such a useful teaching tool and
you had such good video at Belleview. The worst
video I ever had was when students did it. That
went on for about half a season until I raised
hell and finally the AV teacher wound up doing
it himself.
-
- As for stats - for
the longest while, until she because my
videographer, my wife did my stats. She found
that it was a lot less nerve-wracking than
sitting up in the stands, and a lot less
annoying than having to answer stupid questions
("why do you suppose he called
that?")
-
- *********** If you are
a college football junkie, you can't beat ESPNU,
which every Tuesday, from 9 AM until about 12:30
(Pacific) shows clips from the weekly media
conferences of the top 10 or 20 major college
teams.
-
- *********** Bill
Clinton says one thing, Condoleezza Rice says
another. He said, she said, right? Golly - Who
to believe?
-
- Hmmm. Lemme think.
One's a chronic liar and an admitted perjurer...
Gee, that's really tough.
-
- *********** Coach,
Just wanted to drop a note to see how things
were going, and to let you in on a humorous
conversation I had last Saturday. One of the
dads who has a son on our mite (little guys)
team, also is an assistant football coach at the
HS in the next town. I knew that he had played
Wareham, a DW team, the night before. Here is
the conversation:
-
- Me: Hey coach, how did
you make out last night?
-
- Coach: We played
Wareham, and they run that fu$%*@#$g stupid
offense where they pull their guards and tackles
and just pitch to their wing, it's
idiotic...
-
- Me: So, how did you
do?
-
- Coach: We got our
asses kicked (wouldn't tell me the score but it
was 40-14), but we stopped their power....but
the QB was good and threw a lot of passes
(checked the game summary, Wareham scored on 1
passing TD, and a couple of longer
runs).
-
- Me: Yeah, the offense
can be tough to stop....
-
- We've had a good start
this season, my FB has scored 1 TD, 3 TDs, and 2
TDs, wedges and base leads, killer play that
base lead. We're 2-0-1 and have beat teams this
year that I haven't beaten in the past (same
kids, same coach). Rick Davis, Duxbury,
Massachusetts
-
- *********** This week
in college football history - Rewritten from
information furnished by the National Football
Foundation
Sept. 25, 1982: Grambling
coach Eddie Robinson won his 300th game with a
43-21 victory over Florida A&M.
Sept. 25, 1987: Hall of
Fame coach Duffy Daugherty of Michigan State
died.
Sept. 27, 2003: After wins
over Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State, Northern
Illinois moved to 4-0.
Sept. 28, 1940: College
Hall of Fame member Tom Harmon of Michigan ran for
touchdowns of 94, 86, 70, and seven yards against
California in a 41-0 win over the Bears in Ann
Arbor. A fan ran onto the field and tried to tackle
Harmon but- like the rest of the Cal team - he
missed. (Tom Harmon would be featured in a
Hollywood film "Harmon of Michigan." He was also a
WW II hero, and went on be become a famous sports
announcer. His son, Mark, was a great wishbone
quarterback at UCLA and is now a well-known
actor.)
Sept. 29, 1894: Yale
downed Trinity 42-0 and went on to set a collegiate
record with a 16-0 overall mark, the most games
ever won by a college team in one season, Yale
outscored opponents 497-16.
Sept. 30, 1939: First
football telecast in history - Fordham vs.
Waynesburg, Bill Stern doing the play-by-play, with
a young announcer from Alabama named Mel Allen
doing pre-game interviews. Most of the people who
watched the telecast did so at the New York World's
Fair.
Oct. 1, 1983: College Hall
of Famer Jerry Rice, of Mississippi Valley State,
caught an NCAA Division I-AA record 24 passes
against Southern.
- *********** One cool
thing about living in a city like Portland is
that there is no home team. Yes, there is an NBA
franchise, but the Trail Blazers' main function
now is to serve as a sort of pro sports coyote,
smuggling lowlife millionaire thugs into a city
which otherwise wouldn't have any.
-
- And there have been
attempts by various TV networks to foist some
other city's NFL team on us as "ours." You know
how it goes - "You people live on the West
Coast, so we know you'd rather watch a West
Coast team than somebody from back East - like
the Steelers." First it was the 49ers, but come
on. We know what happened to them. Then it was
the Raiders. Aaargh. Now, unfortunately, it's
the Seahawks. Seattle's less than 200 miles
away, and the Seahawks are finally pretty good,
so I guess we're stuck with them.
-
- But in pro football
terms, Portland is an open city.
-
- So many people have
come to the Portland area from so many other
places in the last 20 years that on any given
Sunday you can find clusters of fans of every
NFL team, if you know where to look. The best
place is a bar. Cactus Jack's in Beaverton is
where Bears' fans gather; the local "Eagles'
Nest" meets at JB O'Brien's in Tigard; Vikings'
fans meet at Claudia's, in Southeast Portland,
and Raiders' fans gather at Dingo's, a short
distance away; the Steelers' hangout is A &
L Sports Pub in Northeast Portland, and so
forth.
-
- And then there's JAX,
downtown at 826 SW 2nd, home of the PUBS -
Portland United Bills Supporters. Every time the
Bills play, JAX is packed with 80 or more
displaced Buffalonians, ready to cheer on the
Bills. There are wings, of course, first made
famous at Buffalo's Anchor Tavern, and naturally
there is beer, including a Western New York
favorite, Genesee Cream Ale. When the Bills
score, it's pandemonium. Fans jump up and down,
wave Bills' flags, and sing the "Shout!" song
that anybody who's ever watched a Bills' game on
TV has surely heard.
-
- And it's barely past
10 on a Sunday morning. This is the West Coast,
after all, and most Bills' games are played in
the East, so a 1 PM Eastern kickoff translates
into10 AM Pacific.
-
- No matter. As Karla
Starr writes in Willamette Week, "to anyone
who's ever been in Buffalo during football
season and seen the glut of wings, jerseys, beer
and super-fandom, this is what we call
'Sunday.'"
-
- Said Sonya Murrett,
who moved to Portland from Buffalo two and a
half years ago with her husband, Mac, "When I
joined 24-Hour Fitness, the guy who signed me up
was a huge Bills fan. That seems to happen all
the time&emdash;there are a lot of people from
Western New York here,"
-
- This past January,
Mac's sister, Betsy, made the same move. "It's
great here, isn't it?" she asked Starr.
-
- As with Pittsburghers,
who thanks to the collapse of its region's
steel-based economy are scattered everywhere, so
are there Buffalonians everywhere. Buffalo's
population has declined by 22,000 people since
2000, and a lot of those people have moved west.
(In 2004, Oregon alone - the eighth
fastest-growing state in the nation - added
almost 150,000 residents from other
states.)
-
- Possibly because the
Bills are one of only two major sports
franchises in their area, they seem to have a
unique pull on Buffalo people - wherever they
happen to live.
-
- "If the team ever
moved," one Portland/Buffalonian told Starr,
"I'd be done. It's home. It's the one connection
to where I was born and raised."
-
-
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-
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-
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
The
Saints Were Not the Only "Road
Team!"
(See"NEWS")
|
|
The
Old All-Star Ballot Bugaboo!
(See"NEWS")
|
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
- September
26,
2006
- "I don't like popular people. I
like tough, honest people." Woody Hayes
-
- *********** Monday
Night game --- That National Anthem, sung by
Irma Thomas, accompanied by Allan Toussaint...
Fantastic. Man, that woman can sing. The
NFL should hire her for all big games and send
all the Grammy-Award-winning wannabes and
pretenders packing.
-
- *********** The o'l
"double" reverse! I KNEW they would call
it that! ;-) (I'm just assuming you
are watching the NO/ATL game…) Scott
Barnes, Rockwall, Texas
-
- Hahahahahaha! I
just said to my wife, "Watch them call it a
'double reverse!'"
*********** It was nice
to see New Orleans with a football team again,
but one of the guys in the Monday Night booth
said that no team had been forced to go through
what the Saints had had to go through, with no
home field to play on. Those guys - or their
producers - really should brush up on their NFL
history (yes, there was an NFL, even
before these guys were born), because the idea
of a homeless team was not without precedent.
This from my "History of Pro
Football"...
-
- (1926)
A ninth team, the Los
Angeles Wildcats, was designated a "road
team," representing Los Angeles in name only.
In those days, before coast-to-coast travel
was feasible for sports teams, the Wildcats
remained on the road and played only away
games. (The NFL itself actually fielded two
such road teams that same year, the other one
nominally representing
Louisville.)
-
- (1952) Then, following
the 1951 season, the New York Yankees'
franchise was returned to the league, then
sold to a group from Dallas. But after just
four 1952 home games, all of them
disappointments at the gate, the Dallas group
also turned the franchise back to the League.
-
- Rather than let the team
die in mid-schedule, though, thereby
depriving other league teams of scheduled
games, the NFL kept it on life-support as a
"floating franchise." Reminiscent of the
1920's "road teams," the Dallas Texans were
consigned to play out their schedule on the
road, wandering homelessly for the remainder
of the season. Before the 1953 season, the
orphan team was given a new home - in
Baltimore, where this time it was lovingly
and enthusiastically welcomed, and grew into
one of the NFL's strongest
franchises.
*********** I heard
from a rookie Double-Wing coach who has only
been running power but now intends to run Super
Power and wonders whether he will meet
resistance from his QB, especially in view of
Chris Simms' injury.
-
- I believe most of you
could have guessed my answer, which I don't
think he cared for. He said he could sense my
"indignation."
-
- I wrote
back...
-
- It is not
indignation that you sense. You might call it
impatience, though, with what sounds a bit like
some trepidation about asking a football player
to do something for the good of the team,
something which is a basic part of our system.
The impatience derives from a possible failure
to read the playbook thoroughly, because this is
really something that should have been
understood by the coach and the QB from Day One.
(Page 4 of the Playbook, under
"QB")
-
- Sorry if this
sounds harsh, but there is a reason for
everything in the playbook. It is in there
because I have had to learn many of those things
the hard way, and I am trying to save other
coaches the trouble of having to learn it the
same way. Having to deal at this point with a QB
who might not want to block for Super Power
falls into the latter category.
-
- As for Super Power,
I don't know about the opposition that you refer
to, but initially, some double-wing coaches have
to overcome their own "conventional thinking."
(NFL QB's don't block, therefore I can't ask my
QB's to block.) But the blocking requirements
are not exactly severe: the QB leads through the
hole and blocks out on the cornerback. I have
had 140-pound QB's who could do so quite
effectively. Rarely is it rough contact. If it
is, it means that the corner is way too
aggressive and he needs to have a pass or two
thrown behind him.
-
- I'm still not sure
how the Chris Simms injury might affect your
QB's willingness to block, because as I said,
Carson Palmer (to pick one) was injured standing
in the pocket, and I don't see QB's refusing to
drop back or people asking their QB's not to
drop back.
-
- Actually, though,
knowing what I do about the mentality of most
"conventional" QB's, I don't think a QB's
resistance to blocking is rooted so much in fear
of getting hurt as it is in the sense that it is
beneath his dignity to have to
block.
-
- I know that
coaching is a lonely job, and it is made even
lonelier when you choose to go down an
unorthodox path. It can be very difficult for
you to stay on course without benefit of
reinforcement from at least one other person on
your staff. It sounds as if you are fighting a
lonely battle, so, especially in your case, "It
takes a set."
-
- *********** MIke
Foristiere of Boise, Idaho heard recently from a
former player who'd served in Iraq:
-
- "Iraq was a little
harsh on us. I ended up getting hit by two
grenades. You always said we never had an
abundance of speed. Guess you were right.
hahaha."
-
- *********** Last night
I witnessed 2 cars drag racing on my residential
street. They were actually passing each other
and I would estimate they were going in excess
of 60 mph. It is a 25 mph zone and there are
about 25 kids under the age of 10 who live on
it. 2 of those being my boys.
-
- I got in my car and
drove around the corner and there one of the
cars sat talking to 3 girls. I got the tag
number and drove up and rolled down my window.
At 1st the kid tried to act like a bad ass. But,
when he realized I was taking no sh-- off him he
turned into a little boy.
-
- I told him there were
many little kids in this area and he should
refrain from speeding on my street. He said "yes
sir".
-
- I asked him where he
went to school. He told me. I asked if he played
football. He did. I know the coach.
-
- He is 16 and just got
his license. I am tired of reading about kids
getting killed in car wrecks. I called the
Police.
-
- When he arrived I gave
him the tag number and the facts. He asked what
I wanted to do and I told him to call his
parents and scare the sh-- out of him. I know
that when my boys start driving I pray someone
will have the balls to let me know when they are
acting like idiots.
-
- As I was talking to
the cop the girls came over and explained that
there had been a big misunderstanding. You see,
the boys were only driving so fast because one
of the girls is afraid of cats and screamed when
she saw one cross the road. The boys were simply
coming back to see if she was o.k. ( at 60 mph
and with one of them hanging out of the sun roof
).
-
- I told her I didn't
care why he did it, he was driving like an idiot
and needed to be stopped before he killed
somebody. I reprimanded her for lying and told
her that when she got her license I would call
the cops on her too if she tore through my
neighborhood like he did. She cried.
-
- Girl's mother comes
back later and cusses me out. Tells me her
daughter is a straight 'A' student. Then she
says she is going to call the police whenever
she has to slow down when my "brats" run out in
front of her. I told her I read about those
straight 'A' students in the obits quite
often.
-
- I asked if she knew
the facts, but she would have none of it. All
she knew was that her angel was
crying.
-
- I know the coach.
Should I call him? NAME WITHHELD
-
- I'll be honest with
you--- Although I am pissed off just reading
your note, I tend not to take the hardass
approach that I once would have, for two reasons
- first, there is no guarantee that the coach
will do anything thing about it, and second,
although St. Hillary says it takes a village to
raise a child, from the sound of that bitch of a
mother she's not interested in your help, and
considering the quality of kids you're dealing
with, there could very easily be some nasty
retribution should this go further. Any high
school coach can tell you what people like that
are capable of when somebody else dares to
discipline their kids.
-
- I'm not happy
putting it this way, but this is a society that
worships "children," one in which "kids" can do
no wrong, and right or wrong, I'm afraid that
you will be portrayed as the bad guy. Not even
the police feel totally safe when they have to
deal with kids like these.
-
- *********** I think
you have a future in speech writing. Excellent.
If only W would deliver such a speech. And I
couldn't tell if your reader/correspondent Derek
Wade was serious in lamenting that the Coast
Guard Academy doesn't play football, or maybe he
doesn't think Division 3 is real football.
However, the CGA Bears play in the New England
Football Conference. I have attended several
games at their stadium on the banks of the
Thames River, which was across the street from
my alma mater, Connecticut College. It's the
type of game day atmosphere you would expect to
see at West Point or Annapolis, only on a
smaller scale. In fact, my younger brother
Chuck, who was an all-state quarterback at
Fitch, was "recruited" by the Coast Guard
Academy. Their Athletic Director at the time
(1975) was none other than Otto Graham, who sat
in my parents' living room in an effort to get
Chuck interested in the Academy. Much to my
parents disappointment, neither of us were
interested in pursuing military careers. Chuck
ended up at Northeastern. The following is from
the web site www.ottograham.net:
-
- In 1959, thanks
to long time pal George Steinbrenner's
recommendation, Otto accepted the Athletic
Director and football coaching position at
the United States Coast Guard Academy in New
London, Conn. Appointed a reserve Commander
by President Kennedy, and later Captain by
LBJ, Otto led the academically selected Bears
to an undefeated season in '63, culminating
in a Tangerine Bowl loss to Western
Kentucky.
-
- Here is a link to CGA
football:
http://www.cgasports.com/teams/fall/fbl/fblhome.htm
-
- Alan Goodwin, Warwick,
Rhode Island
-
- *********** I do have
a question about nominating kids for all
league. My C back now has about 550 yards
in our 3 league games so far, while my A back
has about 300. Now personally we feel that
our A back is much better, but the reason he
does not get the yards the C back does is
because my C back fairly stinks as a
blocker. So who do you believe deserves to
be nominated and promoted? There are too
many other good backs in the league to think we
could get 2 all-league backs.
-
- Coach, I don't
ordinarily like to shrink from a job, but I
don't care for all-star teams anyhow, and one of
the reasons is that it can be a political
minefield for a coach. In this case, although
you have every reason for nominating only one of
them, the other kid's father will likely throw
his son's stats in your face.
-
- You can cover
yourself by having the players vote. But then,
is it possible that one belong to one clique,
the other to another?
-
- You can cover
yourself by nominating both of them, although
that way they could wind up stealing votes from
each other.
-
- But in the latter
case, you can sit down with the two guys and
explain that you intend to nominated both,
because you think that they both are worthy, but
that it would be better for their chances of
making the all-star team if only one were
nominated. And then, if one happens to be a
senior, and the other a junior, they might
suggest that.
-
- Mainly, though, I
suggest you deal with this as a highly-charged
issue that isn't worth the headache or the
potential loss of your job, and live to fight
another day.
-
- *********** Coach,
Pleasant Plains' spread shocked us early,
scoring 21 in the first quarter. Our defensive
line decided to play their own games (spin
moves, pinching instead of containing) and our
db's kept thinking the kid with the cannon was
going to throw the 5 yard out instead of the
chair. It was 21-8 at the end of the half. We
gave a 1-3 team a chance to believe in
themselves, and that scared me.
-
- Halftime speech
consisted of the defense getting their butt
chewed. It also consisted of me telling the
o-line that the game was in their hands,
especially since we would be getting the ball to
start the second half. They responded. We ran 88
Super Power seven consecutive times to start the
half, going 65 yards and scoring the 2 point
conversion. The rest of the game was more of the
same, with the occasional 99 Super Power to stop
them from stacking the right side. We scored
three times and made all of our 2 point
conversions, all on Super Powers. Ended up with
400+ yards rushing. Our kids said their players
were audibly gasping for air between plays.
-
- We play 0-5 Athens for
Homecoming this week. A win gets us to .500
(3-3) with the stretch run ahead of
us.
-
- Bad news from the
game: On a qb roll out I got hit when our kids
tackled him on the sideline. Tore an ACL. I
thought my football injury days were over. BE
CAREFUL OUT THERE (wasn't that what the guy on
Hill Street Blues use to say?). I'll be coaching
from the booth this week (I think I'll like the
view).
-
- Good luck, Todd
Hollis, Head Football Coach, Elmwood-Brimfield
Coop, Elmwood, Illinois
-
- *********** Back on
the right track. Tolland 40 Vinal
Tech/Coginchaug 0. A back had 170 on 10 carries
(God I wish we had him week 1). Special teams
was a killer as we returned the opening kick off
for an 83 yard TD. Also returned punts deep into
scoring territory.
-
- Big line on the night
was our D allowed 4 yards of offense (-18
rushing).
-
- Big one this Friday.
They have speed to burn and can put up a lot of
points in a hurry. But we are really starting to
click. Have an excellent back up full back (I
would argue we lose very little when he steps
in...blocks like a mean son of a gun). Plan on
adding stack 88/99 as an additional weapon to
take advantage of his talents as a blocker. I
have a feeling the DW is going to show its'
teeth this weekend.
-
- Take care, Patrick
Cox, Tolland High School, Tolland,
Connecticut
-
- *********** ILLINOIS -
Ridgeview 39, Fisher 19 - Coach Wyatt, A Back
Jacob Maffett rushed for 101 yards on 22 carries
and Sophomore QB Derek Powell was 4 of 8 for 119
yards and two TD's as the Mustangs remained
undefeated with a 39-19 win against a tough
Fisher Team. Next week we play the undefeated
Falcons of Gibson City. Ridgeview has qualified
for the playoffs for the seventh straight
year.
-
- *********** IOWA-
Galva-Holstein 54 Westwood 14 - we gave up 28
yards of total offense in the first
half.
-
- *********** NEW YORK -
Lansingburgh 43, Glens Falls 26 We improved to
4-0. A back Kenny Youngs had 15 carries for 231
yards and 3 scores; b back Chris Sawyer had 10
carries 64 yards; c back Mike Hewpp had 8
carries 58
-
- *********** Coach,
Coming off that 60-7 loss we did not know what
to expect from the kids up against a good team
that we lost 37-0 to last year. The first half
was great, we scored on our first three
possessions. We then squandered some possession
with mistakes and penalties. We recovered with a
95 yard punt return for a TD. Leading 30-0 at
half was a great feeling. Our opponent came out
ready to go in the 2nd and played much better.
We still did a good job of controlling the clock
and ended with a 30-20 victory. We rushed for
375 yards on 50 carries. Thanks, Roger Doorn,
Britton-Deerfield "Black Lions", Britton and
Deerfield, Michigan
-
- *********** Hi coach,
I am finding it hard to enjoy watching college
games on the tube because of the commentators,
color analysts and sideline bimbos' constant
barrage of non football Bulls**t they insist on
spewing out of their holes. I was watching a
very good Penn State Ohio State game when right
before half time Joe Paterno was caught on tape
running ( yes, running; what a stud at almost
eighty) to the locker room by the football
geniuses. What kind of conspiracy is going on
here! It was made even clearer how intelligent
they are when a Penn State assistant handed Ohio
State coach Jim Tressel something at the half.
Was it Joe Paterno's resignation? Turns out it
was an Ohio State player wristband. The Nittany
Lions didn't want an unfair advantage. There
goes an excellent opportunity to promote true
sportsmanship, instead the sideline sweety was
more interested in whether JoePa was having a
solid stool or not. Respectfully,Norm Barney,
Chiloquin Oregon (Coach, Great point. I also
heard Coach Tressel say that, and I thought that
the announcers should have made more of it.
HW)
-
- *********** Well I
became head coach this year at ------- High
School and I put in the Double Wing. I was
an assistant coach two years ago and we ran it
at --------- . So I ordered a bunch of
your stuff last year and put it in the
system. We haven't played any one that
good but we are 3-0, and we have scored more
points in three games then they did the previous
two seasons combined. I have a little
problem now. We are playing a school that
is good they have been to the payoffs 3 of the
last 4 years and they run the Double wing
too. I was wondering if you had any
thoughts. This is a new one for me. Thanks
for your time
-
- I don't know what
you do defensively, but I would advise you to
stay with your base scheme and tweak it as
necessary. I assume that you have scouted them
and know what they do well and what they don't
do. It is a lot easier if they are not "fully
armed."
-
- For example, if
they don't/can't pass, dare them to pass by
committing more men to the run. Maybe they don't
run a sweep. That enables you to pinch down on
the powers. If they don't wedge - and some
double-wing teams don't (but not my guys) - that
takes a load off your mind.
-
- I would certainly
want to be strong at the DE position - stronger
than the opposing B-Back if possible. That's
really about as much as I can get into, not
knowing your team or their team.
HW
-
- *********** Hey Coach!
We are 2-2 coming off a "moral" victory against
a much larger school. We play our rivalry game
this coming Saturday - the 5th annual Battle For
the Sword - against Highlands Christian. History
is on our side as we have won the previous 4
meetings and our kids are really pumped to do it
again!
-
- Also want to take the
time to officially sign us up for the 2006 Black
Lion Award. Keep up the good work - even though
we are a one back, Fly Sweep team, I really
enjoy reading the "News".
-
- Thanks again! Your old
VanPort Receiver,
-
- Jake von Scherrer,
Coral Springs, Florida (Coach von Scherrer,
who played wide receiver for me back in 1980 on
a semi-pro team called the Van-Port
Thunderbirds, brings up an excellent point - you
do NOT have to be a double-wing team to be a
Black
Lion Award
team!
HW)
-
- ***********
Walden's best line came when I asked if he ever
talked to Mike Price or Dennis Erickson. "I
think they feel the same way I do - we never
should have left Washington
State!"
-
- He did say that
Dennis Erickson should have stayed at Oregon
State.
-
- *********** "As the
rumor that Usama Bin Laden is dead spread
worldwide, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) began gearing up to provide
massive disaster relief in the so-called 'blue
states' where FEMA expects members of the
Democrat party will be hardest hit."
www.scrappleface.com
-
- *********** The
best-paid HS coach in America? Considering he
doesn't even teach, I'm guessing it's Butch
Goncharoff, of Bellevue, Washington, who, the
Seattle Times reports, was paid a $55,000 bonus
last year by the school's booster club ---
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/highschoolsports/2003272030_bellevue23.html
-
- *********** Hi
Coach! It's been a while since we last spoke but
I wanted to give you an update on our team. We
started the season with 24 players on the roster
but only 5 from last year's championship squad.
One new
player, Nick Remmert, was working real hard and
earned himself a starting spot on offense at
tight end. Then, a week before the season
opened, he was hit by a pick up truck while
riding his bike home from school. I was told by
witnesses that he was thrown over 30 feet by the
impact. Luckily Nick was wearing a helmet
because, although he suffered a fractured
skull, he is lucky to be alive. He
suffered no other broken bones and despite some
bruises and road rash, is home from the
hospital resting. It would be a real boost
for Nick to hear from some fellow "Double
Wingers" as his season was over before it even
started. I will give you his address at the end
of this e-mail.
-
- As far as our
season, we are now 0-2 but certainly not
discouraged. We opened up with a strong Albany
squad and it was 6-0 Albany at the end of 3
quarters. We had a TD pass dropped in the end
Zone and another long TD run called back. The
final was 20-0. This past weekend we played a
very strong team from Rotterdam ( only 3 losses
the last 3 years ) and we played them tough as
nails but lost 8-6 as our 2 point conversion
kick hit the left upright. I think our kids are
really starting to believe in themselves and the
system. I'll keep you posted throughout the
season. Thanks for all your
support.
-
- Mike Cahill,
Guilderland Dutchmen, Guilderland, New
York
-
- I will be pleased
to put Nick's address in my NEWS.
-
- Nick Remmert, 8
Pine Lane 25E, Albany NY
12203
- I'll bet he'll hear
from a few people!
-
- In the meantime,
best of luck to the Dutchmen (even though that
is a very politically incorrect name and you
should probably change it to "People from the
Netherlands").
-
-
|
|
|
Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
|
BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
The
Speech I Wrote For The
President!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Oklahoma's
Guv Don't Know Jack About
Football!
(See"NEWS")
|
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
- September
22,
2006
- "What now passes for
multitasking was once called not paying
attention." Jared Sandberg, in The Wall
Street Journal
-
- *********** Hello to the Black Lions. A
handful of Black Lions, vets of the Viet Nam
Battle of Ong Thanh, have made it an annual
practice to get together as close as possible to
the date of the battle - October 17 - at West
Point, enjoy good fellowship, honor fallen
comrades, and take in an Army game. This
weekend, out of respect for one of their number,
George Crume of Houston, an honorary Black Lion
like me, they are holding the reunion in
Narragansett, Rhode Island, so that Saturday
they can go cheer on George's son, Kane, a
senior offensive lineman for the Rhode Island
Rams, who play Delaware.
-
- *********** Here is
a sneak peek at the speech which I wrote for the
President (he hasn't yet said that he won't use
it):
-
- "Mr. Speaker,
Members of Congress, and my fellow Americans.
The other day, the head of another country
referred to me as 'El Diablo' - the
Devil.
-
- "Now, look - I can
take it. I mean, after all, I've been called
lots worse - right here in Washington, D.C.! By
Democrats! (laugh, and pause for laughter) Isn't
that right Teddy? (Smile, and pause for
laughter)
-
- "But, you know, I
think it's important that we all realize that
whatever people may think about me, they need to
remember that the Presidency of the United
States is a special institution - one that dates
all the way back to George Washington, and
includes men like Thomas Jefferson, Andrew
Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin
Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, men
of both parities.
-
- "And after I'm gone
from office - and from what I've been told,
there's a movie out that shows me leaving office
a little sooner than I'd like (pause for
laughter) , and in a way that doesn't exactly
have a lot of appeal (pause for laughter) -
there will be another President in this same
office. And you know what? He may not even be a
Republican, either. (pause for laughter) In
fact, he may not even be a "he." (Long pause for
laughter). But whoever the next President is,
and whatever we think of him (or her) we simply
must begin once again to show respect for the
office, and we must be mindful of that whenever
we criticize the President.
-
- "I ask everyone who
criticizes me to feel free to continue - not
that any of you have ever acted as if you needed
my permission do so , ha, ha (pause for
laughter) but to please remember to show great
respect for the office which someday perhaps
someone more to your liking - maybe even you
yourself - will hold, and I also invite our
former Presidents to join me in my pledge that
when I am also a former President, I will have
nothing but good to say regarding my successor
and his or her policies.
-
- "To President
Chavez of Venezuela, I say, 'F--k you, Football
Face.'
-
- "Thank you, and may
God Bless America."
-
- *********** I'm
usually a pretty positive person, but for me,
September 20, 2006 was the lowest day in our
history - and I am counting September 11, 2001.
September 20, 2006 was the day we were finally
exposed before the world as a society weakened
by years of boys-don't-fight feminization, of
tolerance and non-judgmentalism, of moral
relativism, of anger management and paying
others to do our fighting while we got our
pedicures and moussed our hair. It was the day
we sat on our hands and allowed Hugo Chavez, a
pissant dictator from a two-bit oil-rich nation,
to come to our country and stand in front of the
United Nations and get cheap laughs by calling
our president a "devil." (Somebody want to try
telling me again why we belong to the United
Nations?)
-
- I must admit I never
envisioned the day that America would stand
still and take it like a punk. But since it came
just days after people in the West grovelled in
apology to idiots in the Islamic world who
rioted and killed nuns over something the Pope
read aloud, just one day after we hosted the
little tyrant of Iran who has declared it his
goal to destroy Israel, it didn't come as a
surprise that our reaction to this latest
outrage has been to suck our thumbs and - keep
on sucking..
-
- In the America I grew
up in, when men still had balls, Republicans and
Democrats alike would have been steaming mad,
demanding action. Now, though, the Democrats,
perhaps failing to realize that one day one of
their kind could be on the receiving end of such
insults, seem to take delight in letting Chavez
do their name-calling for them.
-
- Is everyone going to
stand on the sidelines? Isn't there one American
with the balls to call for action? Is there an
American with a set of balls who isn't pissed at
the Kennedys and Pelosis and Harry Reids and
Clintons and Jimmy Carters and Shumers, knowing
full well that Hugo Chavez was simply reading
from their script?
-
- Out with all of our
corrupt, weak, overly-feminized politicians!
-
- What's that? You say
that's the only kind we've got?
-
- Hmmm. Where do I sign
up for our military coup?
-
- *********** Don't
forget the news media's role in our national
degradation, either. I listened on the radio as
the same Brian Williams who a couple of weeks
ago questioned President Bush impertinently
licked the boots of the Premier of Iran, the guy
who has dedicated himself to the destruction of
Israel. It was "Mr. President" this, and "Mr.
President" that, as he lobbed softball questions
at the world mastermind of Islamic
radicalism.
-
- *********** President
Bush (at the United Nations) : "There is no war
on Islam."
-
- Michael Savage (on the
radio): "Of course not! That's the
problem!"
-
- *********** Isn't
there some way we can just cut off the
electricity and water to that rat's nest they
call the United Nations?
-
- *********** And while
we're at it, a red-blooded American will crawl
on his hands and knees on broken beer bottles
before driving a car with Citgo gas in it.
(Citgo is owned by Venezuela, which I have heard
- maybe incorrectly - is changing the names of
many of its stations to Petro
Express.)
-
- ***********
Interesting that Mel Gibson will say something
stupid about Jews running everything and he's
the reincarnation of Hitler, while the real
reincarnation of Hitler, the little tyrant of
Iran who denies that the Holocaust ever occurred
and whose stated objective is wiping Israel off
the map, is welcomed into our midst and accepted
as the equal of our President. I guess the
difference is that Mel Gibson is a Christian,
and as we all know (thanks to Rosie O'Donnell),
we have more to fear from radical Christianity
than from radical Islam.
-
- *********** A friend
sent me a copy of a beautiful note he'd received
from a former player, who'd served in Iraq as a
Marine.
-
- I told him that it was
things like that that other people, no matter
how much more money they make than coaches and
teachers, will never see, because the gratitude
of a person for what you've done for him can't
be bought and it can't be faked.
-
- I think one reason why
many administrators are anti-athletics is
resentment of the influence we have over kids -
they were never coaches themselves, and they
were in such a hurry to get out of teaching and
into administration that they never really
touched any kids' lives, and as a result they
never get any notes like that.
-
- *********** So there's
Deion Branch, MVP of the Super Bowl two years
ago. Hell of a receiver. At 27, he's got some
good years left. Although he missed all of
training camp, he's undoubtedly like all NFL
players these days - never far from playing
shape. Yet even though the Seahawks paid him an
enormous sum to sign with them a couple of weeks
ago, he has yet to play. This weekend, finally,
he will play. I've joked about the Seahawks'
enormous playbook, but it says something about
the game of football when a guy, no matter how
talented, can't just show up in the middle of
the week and make a contribution in that
weekend's game. Name another team sport like
that. It happens all the time in other team
sports - a guy's traded in mid-season, and he's
playing in the next game for his new team. All
that's required is a change of uniforms. But not
football. Football is a true team
sport.
-
- Which gets me to
Morten Anderson. The guy's 46 years old. He's
got plenty of good years left in whatever field
he's in, but not as a professional football
player. But then, Morten Anderson is not a
professional football player. Not really. He's a
kicker. And he just came out of retirement to
sign this week with the Atlanta Falcons. And
he'll play next Monday night against the
Saints.
-
- And that's why I
refuse to call a kicker a "football
player."
-
- *********** Oklahoma
is threatening to cancel a game scheduled to be
played at Washington in 2008 if the Pac-10
insists on using conference officials. I think
things can be worked out with a reasonable
compromise: Pac-10 officials will still work the
game, but they must wear cowboy
hats.
-
- *********** Boy, I bet
Oregon's Mike Bellotti wishes they'd scheduled a
game this week. Back when they scheduled
Oklahoma, it probably seemed like a good idea to
take a week off to rest up, but with all the
questions he's had fired at him this week, I'll
bet he'd love to be able to say, "You're going
to have to excuse me, but I have a game to get
ready for."
-
- *********** You may
have seen this already, but the now-infamous
Oregon replay official was the referee of the
2002 Apple Cup (Washington-Washington State) in
Pullman. He allowed a linesman to convince him
that a barely-thrown batted ball was a backward
pass. His call - video replays were totally
inconclusive - ended the game on the spot, and
preceded a bottle-throwing barrage. Christopher
Anderson, Palo Alto, California
-
- I wish we knew more
about how officiating works, because this sounds
like someone prone to bad judgment that you
might not want officiating a big intersectional
game in your conference. (I remember the
call, which went against Washington State, and I
was livid. I don't claim to know what goes on
inside officials' associations, but I suspect
that like most such organizations, there is an
understandable reluctance to throw an erring
member under the bus, when in fact it would be
to the other members' benefit to do so.
HW)
-
- ***********
Apparently, many Stanford people see nothing
wrong with Bill Walsh's open criticism of
Cardinal coach Walt Harris while doing color
commentary on Stanford games. Of course,
Stanford being perhaps the most liberal,
left-wing school still playing Division IA
football, it is reasonable to assume that a
great many of the Stanford wine-and-cheese crowd
are also Clinton/Carter lovers. Jimmy and Billy
are the ones who broke the taboo, as old as our
Republic, against former presidents criticizing
the guy in office
-
- I'm tellin' ya - Walsh
is setting things up like this: (1) After a
barrage of criticism, spurred to a great extent
by Walsh's open questioning of his coaching,
Harris is fired; (2) A "search committee" is
formed; (3) Walsh, if not head of the committee,
is on it; (4) Many of the others on the
committee are Walsh plants; (5) One interviewee
after another falls short of the committee's
standards until the search seems hopeless; (6)
Finally, one member of the committee turns to
Walsh and says, "Bill, I don't know how to
approach this, but... I don't suppose you'd
consider taking the job...?"
-
- *********** Dear Coach
Wyatt; I read with interest your posts about the
Army VICTORY (in every way that really matters)
over A&M and as you can tell from my word
choice I agree with you. So the time ran out
before they could cross the goal line, who
cares? Those young officers drew their line in
the grass and said flat out, "We will go no
further."
-
- Bobby Ross and the
Army program have EVERYTHING to be proud of. Two
years ago that A&M team would have blown
them out of the stadium. Saturday they traded
blows down to the final nine
seconds.
-
- While we're on the
subject, Air Force is making my brain melt. One
yard away from beating a top-caliber team in
Tennessee, Tenn then goes on to take Miami down
to the last seconds. Air Force, when they play
their brand of football, is as good as any team
in the nation.
And then Navy hands a
good, old fashioned ASS WHACKING to Stanford.
Now, I hate Stanford. Any place that let John
Elway play football should be razed and the
ground sown with salt, but Navy simply
disassembled them with the outside
veer.
-
- Now if only my Coast
Guard Academy would start playing football.
Since they don't, is there any way I can jump
service just to play for Bobby Ross? It might
even be worth becoming an officer.
-
- My best to you and
Connie! Very Respectfully, Derek Wade, Petaluma,
California (PS: $425 for a microwave?) (I
don't hate Stanford. I love Stanford, and it
galls me that the administration there has
squandered the school's great athletic
tradition, and its unique recruiting trifecta of
(1) Ivy-League prestige, (2) Big-Time football,
and (3) California climate and a gorgeous campus
by putting the emphasis on "overall sports
excellence", which translated means "who needs
football when we're good in water polo and
women's soccer?")
-
- *********** I wanted
to know if it is a good idea to double team with
our tackle and tight end on 6 and 7 G against
the defensive tackle?
-
- Coach, It is not a
good idea. It is potentially disastrous because
if the tackle doesn't block down you will have
no way of preventing penetration through the
hole that your pulling guard
vacated.
-
- *********** Answer to
a question about when/whether to run from spread
formation...
-
- I think in some
cases, spread formation can be of use: when you
have (1) no tight ends, or (2) outstanding wide
receivers and a good passer, or (3) a great need
to get "must-play" kids into the game.
Otherwise, except possibly to get the community
off your butt, it offers no
advantages.
-
- *********** Facing a
5-2 this weekend for the first time in years (I
know, start licking my chops...). One
thing concerns me is the SS that "walks up" to
blitz from either outside the D End or
inside into the C Gap. My concern is with
the Super Powers and who would pick him
up? Especially if we are running right to
him. On 88 if the C back gets him, what if
he comes from the outside in? Does
the C still stay with him?
-
- If he comes from
the outside in, the C back would have run past
him on his way to first man inside, and he will
either be taken by the QB or backside
guard.
-
- If he is declaring
a side based on your motion - run the play
without motion - and then probably the C back
will get him. If you get a good enough pushback
with your TE-Tackle double-team, the playside
LBer will have a tough enough time getting to
the play anyhow because he won't be able to get
past the pile.
-
- If you're already
running without motion and he is declaring in
advance, you still should be okay, but you could
automatic at the line - call "88 or 99 - check
with me," and depending on the side, have the QB
call the play opposite him. You don't have to
say 88 or 99 at the line, of course - I'm sure
the kids would enjoy some sort of secret
code!
-
- You could assign
the playside wingback to block that guy, but my
problem with giving wingbacks something new to
do is that in most cases it is so hard to get
them to do the right thing in the first place,
and do it consistently. And then we have to get
them back in harness for the next game. And I am
talking about HS kids.
-
- Besides, I worry a
lot more about that Inside LBer scraping into
the hole if he's not blocked.
-
- But if you get a
really good push with your TE-T double-team, one
that obstructs the inside LBer, you could
probably assign him to that Monster Back for
this game only.
-
- *********** I know you
told me Navy runs something different than our
DW, but I can not help but notice that an
offense based on running, trapping and
misdirection puts up the top numbers every year
in college for offense. Still the
big schools would never run this, or would they
probably hire Paul Johnson fearing he would put
in this offense. This obsession with
passing and wide open offense is all the way
down to youth level. My 12 year old team
is coming under heat for only having a few plays
and "everyone" knows what is coming.
SG, Maryland
-
- Of course Paul
Johnson would be successful anywhere he took his
offense. Imagine him running it with Florida
State-type talent!
-
- The biggest problem
is that athletic directors are scared to death
that their alumni will rebel because to them it
is boring. The service academies, though, have a
different clientele - they don't demand
entertainment. They want their teams to be
competitive, and if that means running the ball,
so be it. They do seem to like watching physical
football.
-
- And they seem to be
further removed mentally from the NFL-think that
preoccupies most of today's football
fans.
-
- *********** Coach: You
know you're making an impact when the (Middle
School) PE teacher calls a conference because
his flag football tournament is being ruined due
to all the teams wanting to try the double wing.
Happened to me today...he is a soccer
coach...and he was livid....turns out he tried
to sell the kids on passing and playing
receiver...and someone (maybe a football player,
maybe not...we aren't sure) yelled out
"receivers suck...run the wedge!" Is this not
great!
-
- On another note -
after today's practice our DC...who played LB/QB
in HS ball and some college has a newfound
respect for the Double-Wing after trying to play
middle linebacker on our scout team and not
making a single tackle...after practice he
commented on how he A) couldn't blitz B)
couldn't find the ball C) couldn't get around
the double teams D) got rolled by the wedge (he
said he wanted the real experience...) and E)
totally missed the trap...all I could answer is
that these are 8th graders...imagine facing it
at the HS or maybe even college level...I think
I have a new convert...
-
- Gabe McCown, Piedmont,
Oklahoma (That's hilarious! Why can't they
run the ball in flag? I have seen some
pretty good running attacks in adult flag
football. Tell Mr. Fairyball that your kids are
simply trying to prevent injury - after all,
some of the worst injuries I have seen have
occurred in 7 on 7, when receivers and defenders
with no protection crash into each other in the
secondary at full speed.
-
- Also a great
testimonial from the DC! HW)
-
- *********** My fellow
Yalie David Boren (he was '63, I was '60, and I
don't think we drank at the same places),
President of the University of Oklahoma, may
know a little more than I do about running a
major university, and, as a former governor,
probably a little more about running a state,
too. But when it comes to the rules of football,
he don't know jack, and unless he's thinking
about running for office again (I mean, once a
politician, always a politician, right?) he
really ought to stay the hell out of the
controversy over the Oregon-Oklahoma
result.
-
- But just to enlighten
him or anyone else who thinks that the officials
should be castrated and Oregon should offer the
win to Oklahoma:
-
- 1. Castration is not
an option. Realizing that, the Pac-10 has
instead suspended the entire officiating crew
for a game. And besides, we are likely to see
the day when women officiate college football
games. What then?
-
- 2. Even in the
unlikely event that Oregon were to concede the
game to Oklahoma, the NCAA rules prohibit their
doing so.
-
- Did you read that
carefully, Guv? The NCAA rules prohibit their
doing so.
-
- The late Dave Nelson,
longtime coach of the University of Delaware,
served on the NCAA Football Rules Committee from
1958 until his death in 1991, and in his
marvelous book "Anatomy of a Game," the story of
the evolution of the rules of football, he makes
perfectly clear that it is not permissible
within the rules of the game to overturn
results.
-
- To illustrate the
point, he referred to the famous "fifth-down"
game in 1940, in which Cornell, trailing
underdog Dartmouth 3-0, was mistakenly awarded a
fifth down after having been stopped on
Dartmouth's six yard line with only seconds to
play. Given the extra down, Cornell scored and
won, 7-3.
-
- After a review of game
films, it was determined that the officials had
erred, and Cornell very chivalrously offered the
win to Dartmouth. Dartmouth, perhaps not so
chivalrous, accepted, and the result was
reversed.
-
- Big mistake,
said Nelson, and one that we have been paying
for ever since.
-
- Wrote Nelson, "The
1940 rule was the same as it is today:
-
- 'The team with the
greater number of points after four periods
is the winner.'
-
- (My note: with
the institution of overtime, the rule has
since been revised to read, "The team
scoring the greater number of points during
the regulation and extra periods shall be
declared the winner," but its effect is
unchanged: the final result is the final
result.)
-
- "Cornell and
Dartmouth violated the rule, and it has
haunted the game and institutions that play
by the rules ever since.
-
- "After the
Dartmouth-Cornell game, whenever an official
errs on a victory or a defeat decision,
there is a hue and cry that the team that
benefited from the error should violate the
rules of the game and offer the game to the
winner. NCAA institutions are required
to play by the NCAA playing rules, and it is
not possible for an institution to award a
game to the opponent when the final score is
not in their favor.
-
- "One of the joys of
a college football game is its finality and
the lack of an appellate system. Like the
rest of football, an official's error is just
one more 'rub of the green' that is part of a
total education. The rulemakers of yesterday
may have had the foresight to envision the
instant replay and concluded that appeals
would endanger the game's
character."
- So you see, Mr.
President, Oregon - the team scoring the greater
number of points during regulation and extra
periods (none of which were necessary) - has
been declared the winner. And that, I must tell
you, is that.
-
- *********** My son,
Ed, became an Australian citizen last Sunday,
giving him dual citizenship, and my
daughter-in-law, Michelle, wrote to tell about
the events:
-
- It was a fun day,
all the family were there and then we had a
bit of a barbie at our house
afterwards...
-
- When they were
reading out the names, there were sprinklings
of applause through the hall for each name...
When they read out "Edward Wyatt"... all of
the family (and some of our friends)
cheered... The announcer then said "and his
cheersquad".
-
- At the conclusion
of the ceremony, everyone stands and sings
"Advance Australia Fair"... As it finished,
my brother and I both screamed out "Carn the
'Pies", as that is the tradition at the footy
once the anthem has been sung. As you
can imagine that prompted a lot of
non-English speaking migrants to turn around
and look at us rather confused.
-
- ("Carn the
'Pies," I am told, is "Strine" - Australian -
for "C'mon 'Pies!", shouted by the followers
of the famed Collingwood Magpies Australian
Rules ("Footy") Football
team.)
- *********** Noting the
campus uproar over Stanford's band's being
suspended and banned from playing after some
members vandalized the rented trailer used to
store equipment, and no one has yet come forward
and taken responsibility, Christopher Anderson,
a high school coach and graduate student at
Stanford writes, "The most frequent argument is
'it's not fair to punish many for the actions of
a few.' I've heard it so many times it makes me
sick. Today everyone is entitled, even if they
are on a team. I can't wait until a coach argues
he should be given a victory because just one of
his players screwed up and it wouldn't be fair
to make the whole team lose because of one
guy."
-
- *********** Collie
Nicholson, the sports information director
credited by Eddie Robinson with bringing
Grambling football to the nation's attention,
died last Wednesday. He was 82.
-
- *********** Dear
Coach, Sorry for the delay in asking, once
again, to be enrolled in the Black Lion program.
It is the one award that truly means something
at our end-of-the-season banquet.
-
- I can proudly state to
you that our past winners wear their Black Lion
patch proudly on their letter jackets and that,
when they return as graduates, they want to know
who is in the running for the award during the
current season.
-
- Thanks once again for
the opportunity for participate in the program.
I will be the contact person for the award,
information following.
-
- Sincerely, Mike
Schmidt, Head Football Coach, Platte Canyon HS,
Bailey Colorado
-
- MAKE
SURE TO SIGN YOUR TEAM(S) UP FOR THE BLACK LION
AWARD!!!
-
- *********** Coach
Wyatt, I'd thought I'd update you on our last
game Tuesday night. The final score was
Riverside 20- Evans 8. We scored on 99
superpower from 30 yards out. Also we scored on
a 35 yard TD pass (8 red). We only threw 2
passes. The other was just before halftime and
was a "Hail Mary" that fell incomplete. Our c
back also had a 60 yard run down to the 10 yard
line. Alas, the b back fumbled the ball on the 5
yard line the next play. We had about 300 yards
rushing and 35 yards passing for the night. Both
my starting wing backs have had `100+ yard games
and the B back is averaging about 50 yards a
game. Best Wishes Dan King Riverside Middle
School, Evans, Georgia
-
- *********** Hey coach,
Larry Hanson here (Mukwonago, Wisconsin). I just
thought I'd react to some of the items in your
news section on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
-
- Lou Holtz, asked if
he thought Dan McCarney, the Iowa State coach,
should have gone for it on fourth and 10 with
five minutes to play (the Cyclones came up a
foot short), said, "I think he has five years
left on his contract. If he'd had one, he would
have punted."
-
- I watched that game
and Iowa State never got the ball back with any
time to do anything, so it was irrelevant in my
opinion. But the media blowhards were sure quick
to throw McCarney under the bus.
-
- In my opinion, it
was not one of TV's best moments when they
interviewed an Iowa kid whose dad had died a few
days before the game. The young man was
obviously overcome with grief, and yet the
interviewer felt he had the right to probe the
kid's feelings.
-
- I saw that and thought
it was disgusting.
-
- Oregon's numbers
look like the ones on the bottom of
checks.
-
- Do you think that is
accidental, considering how many checks Nike has
written to the U of O lately?
-
- My take is that,
while I feel bad about OU, this is partial
payback for Oregon's twice being screwed by the
BCS. You will remember back in 2002 when
Nebraska, which had been beaten in the Big-12
championship game by Colorado, mysteriously
jumped ahead of Oregon in the computer polls,
and sent by the football gods to play in the
"championship" game against Miami, and Oregon
was shipped off to play in the Holiday Bowl
(where, if I remember correctly, they beat
Colorado). You will certainly remember last bowl
season, where they wound up playing OU after
being screwed out of a BCS game. So Oregon can
look forward to many, many more bad replay calls
going its way before things are evened
up.
-
- I have actually
used the karma argument to defend Oregon's win
since Saturday.
-
- *********** Friday
Night Lights, which believe me, you'll get tired
of hearing about before it finally goes on the
air in October, is the best high school football
show since Coach Butkus. Take that for what it's
worth. Except at least the football on the
Butkus show was real.
-
- Where Butkus' kids ate
at KFC, in Friday Night Lights, the team hangs
out at Applebee's where one player's girlfriend
is a waitress. There is Gatorade aplenty at the
games, and AT&T billboards at the
stadium.
-
- Where Butkus gave an
SUV - a Jeep, I think - to the real coach, in
Friday Night Lights, one of the characters is
going to be a Toyota dealer, and the Tundra
(Toyota's ballsy pickup) will be prominently
shown.
-
- Friday Night Lights is
said to be loaded with hidden commercials -
they're diplomatically called "product
placements," or "product integration," and their
purpose is to defeat you people out there - you
know who you are - who Tivo shows and zip
through the commercials. In one episode, players
will all head to the movies to watch "Eragon," a
Fox movie due to be released in
December.
-
- Football fans should
be warned in advance: Despite the name, and
despite the promos, do not expect to see a whole
lot of football on "Friday Night
Lights."
-
- According to the Wall
Street Journal, the show "forms the centerpiece
of NBC's strategy to use National Football
League games on Sundays to boost prime-time
ratings the rest of the week."
-
- That means, in order
to draw the kind of prime-time ratings they're
looking for, a football show simply won't get it
- they're going to have to reach a wider
audience (read "women"). For those advertisers
who worry about the shows appeal to a wider
audience, Kevin Reilly, NBC President of
Entertainment says not to worry: "This isn't a
sports show. It's a coming-of-age show that uses
athletics as a dramatic device."
-
- Uh-oh. That means you
shouldn't expect the football to look like real
football or the players to look like real
players. As a matter of fact, writes The Wall
Street Journal, "NBC cast a group of dreamboats
as football players, including a former
Abercrombie & Fitch underwear model." (Where
I come from, players move to the other end of
the shower room from guys who look like
underwear models.)
-
- The Executive
Producer, Peter Berg, is the cousin of the
book's author, H. G. Bissinger (who now seems to
prefer to be called "Buzz"). He knows straight
football isn't gonna make it. He told The
Journal he's well aware of the importance of
appealing to non-sports fans, saying, "We need
to have a certain amount of sex, drugs and rock
and roll. People want to be entertained. We get
it."
-
- Berg says he has added
"sophisticated themes," one of which will to be
race relations, which will play a major role in
the series. Think "Remember the Titans" with "a
certain amount of sex and drugs and rock and
roll" added. Plus, of course,
dreamboats.
-
- And phony stories.
Writes The Journal, "To hook viewers who would
rather crawl across broken glass than watch a
football game," Berg " dreamed up story lines
that didn't include football," such as three
teenage girls who didn't exist in the
book.
-
- And, "In another move
to attract more women, the producers
significantly expanded the role of the coach's
wife."
-
- Remember, though
(you'll hear this often, just in case you might
forget) it's all "based on a true
story."
-
|
|
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Osama shows that
he will stop at nothing in his plot to
weaken America...
|
|
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BECOME A
BLACK LION TEAM
GIVE THE BLACK
LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR
PLAYERS!
|
|
|
Army's Will Sullivan
wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all
winners) in the Army-Navy game
|
(FOR
MORE INFO)
|
The Black Lion
certificate is awarded to all
winners
|
|
|
Random
Reflections on "Separation
Saturday"!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Sometimes,
Profanity Can Have its Place!
(See"NEWS")
|
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
- September
19,
2006
- "The problem of manliness is not
that it does not exist. It does exist, but it is
unemployed." Harvey C. Mansfield
-
- *********** This week in college football,
compliments of the National Football
Foundation...
-
- September 18, 1954: Running back Art Luppino
set one of the current oldest school records in
Arizona history, scoring five touchdowns and two
PAT kick conversions for 32 points in a 58-0
victory over New Mexico State at Tucson.
Luppino's season total of 166 points (24 TDs, 22
PATs), led the nation, and is still a school
record. Under coach Warren Woodson, the Wildcats
went 7-3, and scored more than 40 points six
times that season.
-
- September 18, 1982: In the fourth and final
"Elway Bowl," Dad Jack got the better of son
John as San Jose State upset Stanford, 35-31.
Spartans' quarterback Steve Clarkson threw for
285 yards to pace the San Jose State attack. In
four meetings between the two, each won
twice.
-
- September 18, 1999: Ron Dayne became the Big
Ten's career rushing leader at 5,615 yards, but
the No. 9 Badgers lost to Cincinnati,
17-12.
-
- September 19, 1964: Arkansas won its first
game of the season over Oklahoma State 14-10 in
Little Rock, and began an 11-game march to the
national championship. Hall of Fame Coach Frank
Broyles' Hog went 7-0 in the Southwest
Conference, allowed one touchdown in its last
six games, and downed Nebraska 10-7 on Jan. 1,
1965, in the Cotton Bowl
-
- September 19, 2003: Nevada defeated San Jose
State, 42-30, but SJSU's Neil Parry, returned to
action and played on the punt coverage team.
Parry, who earlier had lost his right leg below
the knee, played with a prosthetic leg following
25 surgical procedures,
-
- September 21, 1921: Birthday of the late
Charlie Conerly, Ole Miss' All-SEC quarterback,
College Football Hall of Fame member, and New
York Giants' quarterback,
-
- September 21, 1991: QB Dustin DeWitt of Iowa
Wesleyan set an NAIA record with 86 pass
attempts (61 completions) against Harding, and
an all-division record of 99 total offense plays
(he also rushed 13 times).
-
- September 22, 1990: Howard Griffin of
Illinois set NCAA Division I-A record for points
scored 48) and rushing touchdowns (eight) as the
Fighting Illini downed Southern Illinois 56-21
at Champaign, Ill.
-
- September 22, 2001: The North Carolina Tar
Heels, After an 0-3 start to their season, the
North Carolina Tar Heels pounded No. 6 Florida
State in Chapel Hill, 41-9.
-
- September 23, 1989: Former University of
Colorado quarterback Sal Aunese died of cancer
at age 21. Just the year before, he had set a
school record by throwing 92 passes without an
interception, leading the Buffaloes to an 8-3
record.
-
- September 23, 2000: The UAB Blazers got
their first win ever over an SEC team, ruining
LSU's homecoming, 13-10.
-
- *********** It's nice
to see BYU looking like BYU again after that
failed Nike experiment with the old gold
trim.
-
- *********** After
seeing how few homestate kids make up the
starting lineups of so many schools - Oregon,
Oklahoma, Washington, Nebraska, Iowa, Iowa
State, Louisville, etc., I propose that the NCAA
pass legislation something like NFL Europe,
requiring a certain minimum of homestate kids to
be on the field at all times.
-
- *********** There was
an article in The Wall Street Journal recently
about the little-known fact that Duke has been
known to admit otherwise marginally-qualified
applicants whose family is likely to make large
donations. Frankly, after watching the players
Duke had out there on their punt team, and the
way they cowered, not covered, on a long
Virginia Tech return, I suspect somebody might
have been selling spots on their special teams,
too.
-
- *********** The color
guy on the Duke-VT game was a beaut. He claimed
that a play was, indeed, a fumble because when
the ball came loose, "his knee wasn't down." He
either didn't know the rules, or he simply
overlooked the fact that the guy was lying on
his back when he lost the ball.
-
- *********** Wonder if
the geniuses who darkened the uniforms at Pitt
and Michigan State ever thought about how drab
and dreary they'd look on TV.
-
- *********** Chris
Spielman still hasn't been taught to pronounce
the "t" in "foo'bawl."
-
- *********** Announcers
on college games should be fired the first time
they say anything about the NFL and where a
player may go in the draft.
-
- *********** 61 per
cent of BYU's players are returned missionaries;
more than 20 of them are married.
-
- *********** Kansas
State's players enter and leave the field
together as an entire team, in what they call
the Cat Pack.
-
- *********** Two
ex-coaches, Jackie Sherrill and Pat Jones, were
doing a studio gig on Fox.
-
- *********** On the
BYU-BC game they showed a clip of the place
where the broadcast crew had had dinner the
night before - Legal Seafoods, a great chain of
restaurants in the New England area. I've eaten
at the one in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Supah!
-
- *********** Mike
Gottfried, whom I've always liked for his depth
of knowledge, seems to be slowing way down in
his delivery, and becoming repetitious to the
point of sounding almost Madden-like at
times.
-
- *********** Some
sideline bimbo whose name escapes me interviewed
new Kansas State basketball coach Bob Huggins,
and started out, as many of them do, with some
dumbass comment about something that Huggins had
supposedly said.
-
- Huggins responded,
"That's not exactly what I said," and went on to
straighten her out by saying exactly what he had
said.
-
- The bimbo came back
with, "That's what I meant to say."
-
- And Huggins closed by
saying, "I thought that's what it was. I was
just trying to help you."
-
- *********** Huggins
described one of the players he's inherited at
K-State:
-
- "When you're in my
business, you're used to being around big
people. But he's really big."
-
- *********** In my
opinion, it was not one of TV's best moments
when they interviewed an Iowa kid whose dad had
died a few days before the game. The young man
was obviously overcome with grief, and yet the
interviewer felt he had the right to probe the
kid's feelings.
-
- *********** For some
reason, Iowa State often seems to have Iowa's
number, so when the Hawkeyes won, it was very
emotional. It was cool watching all the Iowa
players - fans, too - reaching out to touch the
trophy they'd just won.
-
- *********** Lou Holtz,
asked if he thought Dan McCarney, the Iowa State
coach, should have gone for it on fourth and 10
with five minutes to play (the Cyclones came up
a foot short), said, "I think he has five years
left on his contract. If he'd had one, he would
have punted."
-
- *********** The Notre
Dame infomercials on NBC are bad enough, but
Andrea Kremer's halftime interview with the
Great Charley Weis was fulsome (disgustingly
over the top). It went on for at least 10
minutes, and her eyes were so full of wonderment
and adoration that I could have sworn she was
going to offer to give him a full-body
massage.
-
- *********** Miami's QB
actually said, "People don't give us pride and
respect. We've always taken it."
-
- And then the
Hurricanes went out and danced on the Louisville
logo at midfield.
-
- But when they teed it
up and it really counted, they got their heads
handed to them. So much for pride and respect.
-
- *********** Yee-Haw!
Less than a minute gone in the game, and
Michigan intercepts a pass and takes it to the
house (wherever the f--k that is) and it's 7-0,
Michigan.
-
- *********** Oregon's
numbers look like the ones on the bottom of
checks.
-
- *********** Boston
College wins in OT for the second week in a
row.
-
- *********** There's no
better testimony to the fact that the crowd at
Oregon's Autzen Stadium is unbelievably loud
than this: Oklahoma had used its final time out
with 3:22 left in the first quarter.
-
- *********** NBC. What
turds. It was halftime of the Michigan-Notre
Dame game, college football Saturday, and their
studio crew spent the better part of the half
talking about the New England
Patriots!
-
- *********** I heard
someone say, as the Michigan score began to
mount, "One of the charateristics of Charley
Weis' teams is they don't panic." Now,
considering that the guy had coached exactly 14
games as a head coach at that point, isn't it a
little early to be generalizing like
that?
-
- *********** I think
that Jerome Bettis has potential as a TV guy.
Just as he is. He has a winning personality and
he has something to say. I hope the big guys
don't ruin him by either (1) polishing his act,
or worse (2) sending him on the Madden route,
where he becomes a parody of
himself.
-
- *********** Michigan
33, Notre Dame 7, 2:30 left in the game. Paging
Jimmy Clausen.
-
- *********** Where did
"trickeration" go? Did the guys at ESPN give up
on it when Webster's didn't include in in their
last edition?
-
- *********** Watching
Michigan's LaMarr Woodley returning a ND fumble
for a TD, I suspect he was a running back - and
a good one - at some point in his
life.
-
- *********** Forget the
debate over whether the onside kick went 10
yards - it didn't - and check out the way the
Oregon kicker (coach Mike Bellotti's son)
started out aiming to the right, then turned and
kicked the ball left. Pretty slick.
-
- *********** Heard the
guy doing the Ole Miss-Kentucky game say that
one of the teams was in a "Hell Mary
formation."
-
- *********** If those
Texas Tech pants, viewed from the rear, ain't
the silliest-ass things you've ever
seen...
-
- *********** Seems to
me the defense should be able to decline an
illegal procedure penalty if the officials
goofed and let the play proceed without blowing
it dead.
-
- *********** QB Isaiah
Stanback has 242 total yards and three TDs and
Washington beats Fresno State. No worries about
a Gatorade bath for Coach Willingham. I do think
that he will be the last coach in America to get
doused, and I admire him for that.
-
- *********** They
played two major college games in Seattle
Saturday. Washington played Fresno State and
drew 57,000 while Washington State (their
president thinks it's good PR to play one game a
year in the eastern part of the state, where a
lot of its alumni live) played Baylor in front
of 42,000.
-
- *********** The
biggest coaching failure that I have noticed in
the hhigh school games I've watched ths year is
the utter refusal of play-callers to repeat a
successful play. I watched one team fail to put
together a single drive, simply because after a
play would pick up decent yardage, the coach
would run a totally different, unrelated play.
And it would fail. Only once the entire game did
he run the same play twice in a row. (He
lost.)
-
- So I hope many of
those coaches were listening when Bill Curry,
doing the Army-Texas A & M game, said,
"One
of the marks of a good play-caller is, if
something's working - call it
again!"
-
- *********** One minute
to play in the Clemson-FSU game. Clemson goes
without huddling and ESPN, caught cruising the
stands for people with painted faces, misses the
play. Clemson scores with :08 to win,
27-20.
-
- *********** Army had
three bad things in a row happen to it, and Bill
Curry wondered whether that would cause a
"momentum change." All I could think was, if
that's enough to rattle the guys who are going
to be leading our troops into battle some day,
we are in deep trouble.
-
- *********** Army's
Bobby Ross leaned to the side to take a look at
how much yardage Army needed for a first down
and accidentally bumped the head linesman, and
the officious creep hit him with a 15-yard
penalty.
-
- Said Bill Curry,
"Whoever that linesman is needs to be doing
another sport."
-
- *********** In some
places, it is called a firing moment. Fourth and
one on their own 30, two minutes remaining,
ahead 28-24, and Texas A & M's Dennis
Franchione went for it. Giant tailback Jorworski
Lane, who has to be all of 260 pounds, was
stopped in his tracks, lifted up and thrown for
a loss by Army's Cameron Craig. And Army drove
to within two yards of what would have been the
season's biggest upset.
-
- *********** Lord, it's
fun to watch a soft Pac-10 team, used to facing
spread offenses every week, trying to cope with
Navy's powerful running game. (Navy's fullback
had 26 carries.)
-
- *********** In a span
of five seconds at the end of the half, Stanford
somehow got off two plays, setting up a
last-play field goal.
-
- Interviewed right
afterwards, Navy's coach Paul Johnson didn't
exactly come right out and accuse the close
operator of helping Stanford, but he did say,
"They ran two plays in four seconds (actually,
it was five). That's pretty good clock
management!"
-
- *********** There must
be some reason why the letters on the front of
Navy's kicker read "NAYV"
-
- *********** It was
very sportsmanlike of the Texas A & M
players to stand respectfully with the Army
players during the playing of the West Point
alma mater, a tradition after every Army
game.
-
- *********** I guess if
I'd been at Auburn, the tension of the watching
Auburn and LSU slug it out would have kept me on
the edge of my seat. But I wasn't, and with only
two TV's in front of me and only two remotes, it
was really difficult to keep tabs on more than
four games at a time, and there always seemed to
be four more exciting games.
-
- *********** I dislike
USC and I like Nebraska (although I don't like
their pretentious AD) and like thousands of
Cornhusker fans, I'd hoped for something better
when NU headed west. Forget it. For my money,
USC is the best in the country. Meanwhile, it is
the third year of the Bill Callahan era, and
although he's obviously a good coach, I'll be
damned if I can see any sign of improvement over
Frank Solich.
-
- *********** I watched
a HS team lose a game in OT when, faced with
fourth and maybe two-and-a-half inches, they
tried to run a off tackle, bobbled the handoff,
and lost the fumble.
-
- *********** ESPN has
got to can the stunt of having players handle
the intro's. They remind us of how close the NFL
sometimes comes to resembling pro
wrestling.
-
- *********** I never
thought I'd see the day when the Pittsburgh
Steelers, the team of Fran Rogel, Franco Harris,
Rocky Bleier and Jerome Bettis, would go an
entire game without a first down
rushing.
-
- *********** What a
great Monday Night game - Jacksonville nine,
Pittsburgh nil.
-
- *********** Did it
look to you as if Ben Roethlisberger was
pushing his passes, instead of whipping
them?
-
- *********** Will
somebody please tell Roethlisberger that that
backward cap makes him look like a slacker?
-
- *********** I think
the reason they don't play many Monday Night
games in Jacksonville is that it takes the
announcers too long to learn to say "JAG-warr,"
and not "JAG-wire." Where the f--k do they get
"wire" in there? Do they drive
Jagwires?
-
- *********** If you
thought he was a bad blocker before, wait till
he comes back...
-
- Is Terrell Owens a
joke, or what? I had the biggest laugh I've
heard in a long time when I read that supposedly
he;d broken his finger while "blocking."
-
- *********** Of the 26
NFL teams in "action" Sunday, 10 of them ran
more times than they passed - Atlanta, Buffalo,
Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Minnesota, New
England, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
Nine of them won. The lone loser, Kansas City,
lost to one of the nine, Denver.
-
- *********** Of the 26
NFL teams playing Sunday, 12 "rushed" for under
100 yards.
-
- *********** ALABAMA -
Providence Christian 17, Kinston 14 - Coach, We
are 2-1 in our initial season of varsity high
school football action. Last week we lost a
heart breaker to the number 9 ranked team in 1A
in the state, Florala, by the score of 28-21. We
led 14-0 in the second quarter and had scored
what we thought was a TD to go ahead 21-0, but
were called for offensive pass interference. We
were proud of our guys' effort even though the
loss hurt. Last night we won a nail biter over
region foe Kinston 17-14. Scored on first play
of the game for a 70 yard TD pass "thunder Jet"
(3 verticals vs. cov. 2). We're struggling on
defense in matching up and stopping opponents,
but we are thankful that our best defense is our
offense in playing keep away most of the time.
Have a great weekend. Coach Emory Latta,
Providence Christian School, Dothan,
Alabama
-
- *********** FLORIDA -
Umatilla 30, Mt. Dora 7 - Bulldogs rushed for
372 total rushing yards, led by sophomore
running backs Tyson Gaines and Eric Samuels, who
each rushed for over 100 yards and score two
touchdowns.
-
*********** ILLINOIS -
Crystal Lake Central 24, Woodstock 6: Crystal
Lake Central running back Anthony Degani rushed
for 189 yards and a touchdown
-
- *********** ILLINOIS -
Ridgeview 21, Tri-Valley 6 - Coach, Ridgeview
rushed for 283 yards tonight against a tough
Tri-Valley team. Unfortunately, it was a costly
win as our starting B-Back Tim Vandegraft broke
his leg in the first quarter. Our defense played
well tonight and we overcame a lot of mistakes
in winning this game. Next week we play Fisher
High School. They will present a lot of problems
because of their speed and athleticism. We are
happy to be 4-0!
-
- *********** IOWA -
Galva-Holstein 27 Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn- 0 -
We jumped out 21 -0 in first quarter, 27-0 at
half. They came out and played better in the 3rd
quarter defensively, but with 3:48 left we got a
nice light show courtesy of Mother Nature. It
stormed the entire rest of the night. At around
10:30 it was decided that the game was over.
Overall, quite impressive night for the Pirates,
and from Mother Nature herself. Congrats to
Beloit HS and Greg on another huge victory. Go
DW!!!!
-
- *********** KANSAS -
Beloit 50, Minneapolis 14 - Beloit goes 0 for 3
passing, but no matter - Beloit rushes for 529
yards and 30 first downs. Next up: defending
state champs and #1-ranked SE of Saline.
-
- ***********
MASSACHUSETTS - Somerville 18, Malden Catholic 7
- We are now 2 - 0 - Three touchdowns were
scored on 88 Super Power (5yds), 2 Wedge (40
yds) and Lead Criss Cross 47C (45yds.) I will
stay in touch. Joe Curtatone
-
- *********** NEW JERSEY
- Bishop Eustace 49, Riverside 6
-
- *********** NEW YORK-
Oakfield-Alabama 46 Holley 8. It was 40-0 at the
half. We ran mostly superpower, traps, a few
counters. We did work our base leads nicely and
tried a few 88/99 G reach follows. We ran 44 for
361 and 7 TDs and 1-3 for 21 yds and a TD in the
air. The passing game is totally there - but we
have not been connecting - our timing seems to
be off. We are 3-0 now and entering the most
difficult stretch of the season. We play an
Attica team who was picked to be tops in the
league this year but is currently 1-2. They will
be angry and hungry and it is at their place and
homecoming.
-
- *********** NEW YORK -
Lansingburgh 52, Gloversville 41 - a back Kenny
Youngs 10 carries 147 yds and 2 scores, b back
Chris Sawyer 13 carries - 173 yds 2 scores, c
back Mike Hepp 10 carries- 102 yds 2 scores -
good game hard fought on both sides. we are now
3-0 overrall and 1-0 in our league. Big
divisional game this Thursday night at Glens
Falls
-
- *********** NEW YORK -
Corning West 41, Elmira Free Academy 14 -
Vikings scored on all six first-half possessions
and ran for 273 yards in the first half to build
a 41-0 halftime lead. Clarence Onyiriuka rushed
for 207 yards on just 12 carries and scored
three touchdowns.
-
- *********** OKLAHOMA
- Cheyenne MS (Edmond) 36, Ponca City
Mayfield 8 - They were a perfect example of why
to avoid the puppy mill. (My term for getting
your Double-Wing from people who don't/can't
stand behind their "product." HW) They
tried blending the DW with the triple option and
failed to execute either one very
well. They love the rocket sweep.
They also tried to GT the trap...didn't
work.(hehehe) They got us on a couple of
play action passes but overall we held them to
2.4 yards per play. We ran the ball 18
times for 226 yards, and went 2 for 2 passing
for 30 yards. (both on 88 brown) At
one point or another they tried all the normal
tricks, crab and grab, crashing ends, and keying
guards...they even went as far as to film our
warm up and show it to the players on the
sideline before the opening kickoff. Our B
back scored on a 70 yard wedge despite attempts
to cut our legs...he also had a 77 yard KR for
TD. One thing that is proving to be true -
when two Double-Wing teams meet, the
better-coached Double-Wing will always win.
(Amen. HW)
-
- *********** OREGON-
Hood River 35, The Dalles 6 - Coach Tracy
Jackson's return to the Double-Wing is a
successful one.
-
- ***********
PENNSYLVANIA - Olney 20, Lincoln 9
-
- *********** Had a bye
Saturday so I scouted about 6 games. Get this, I
drove 212 miles on Saturday scouting games! As I
was filming the last game I was up in the
crowsnest by myself. It was about 8 PM and
getting cool and windy up there. I look to the
North and I could see the flames from the fires
up in the hills behind my home (I was about 30
miles away but the flames seemed much closer).
When I left the house at 6 that morning with my
youngest, the fire was about 10 miles away. When
I called the house they had creeped to about 8
miles away. I talked to the wife and asked her
if she wanted me to come home. She said "No, I
like the peace and quiet...". She was kidding of
course (I hope). She said she was putting a list
together of things to take should we have to
evacuate. I told her to make sure she inlcuded
my "Wyatt tapes" on the list. When I got back
home that night and she was already asleep, I
checked the list and I will be damn if she did
not include "Wyatt stuff" on our "evacuation
list". Funny things these football wives do.
John Torres, Castaic, California (Only a
coach's wife would understand!
HW)
-
- *********** Tyrone
Willingham started 11-3 and got blown out by
Michigan. Weis started 11-3 and got blown out by
Michigan.
-
- But someone told me
that he has had much better recruiting classes
than Willingham. Putting aside the issue that
almost none of that "talent" has played yet, I
asked him "if he was such a great recruiter, why
couldn't he get two corners who could play ahead
of those (guys) they put on the
field?"
-
- Christopher Anderson,
Palo Alto, California (Uh, so Tyrone was a
bad recruiter, was he? Weren't those his kids
that Weis has been winning with?
HW)
-
- *********** Have the
football powers that be ever thought to shorten
their game time , why not just cut out 10-20 of
those extra 'TV' timeouts? Tim Brown, Jackson,
Tennesee ( Amen. TV is the reason why they
want to shorten games, so they don't overlap
when there are two or three in a row scheduled
and they have only allowed 3:15 - or less - per
game. HW)
-
- *********** Buck
Harvey, San Antonio Express-News: Franchione,
instead, built another argument against his
survival. Army's Bobby Ross, with half the
talent, put in twice the coaching
job.
-
- *********** We won,
34-0. The other coaches told me that we didn't
have to run the score up. I told them that
I only called 2 plays, even our JV stuck with 3
plays (I let them run 99 SP), Is it my fault
they didn't prepare well?
-
- Nice going. I don't
think you have any other responsibillity to keep
the score down beyond calling a conservative
game and substituting. From there, it is the
other coach's responsibility. HW
-
- *********** Gabe
McCown, from Piedmont, Oklahoma,
asks...
-
1) Why have
replay if you don't have officials who are
capable of properly interpeting what they
see?
I must admit I feel
guilty today - I wanted Oregon to win, so I was
happy when I heard them f--k up the replay. But
honestly, I didn't think it was a particularly
tough call - it was difficult not to see that
the ball was touched first by an Oregon player -
and I agree with you that there's no point in
having replay if you aren't going to use it to
get things right.
2) Why is
it when two teams play that run spread zone
systems, the announcers feel they have to give a
constant sales pitch for the offense of the
winning team...don't the notice that one spread
zone team is getting beat?
Excellent point.
More than half the teams in the NFL suck
offensively, and with very few exceptions - San
Diego and Atlanta come to mind - they're all
pretty much running the same
stuff.
3) Why do coaches
who teach holding act so damn shocked when they
get a holding penalty?
We already knew that
99 per cent of today's modern offenses taught
holding as a basic part of their pass
protection, but I am really pissed at the way
holding has completely taken over the running
game as well. I see people running sweeps that
they couldn't possibly be getting away with
without holding the edge defender. And sure
enough, replay shows that's exactly what's
happening. Don't even get me going on the way
wide receivers "block" defensive backs who are
twice the football players they are but can't
seem to get unstuck from the
"blocks."
4) How many times
can you say Adrian Peterson in one freakin
brodcast? Even when he doesn't make a play
it's look at that blocking...don't they realize
there are five guys who block every
play?
You're right, but he is
damn good, especially when you realize that he
is all the running game they've got. With
nothing to key on but him, Oregon managed to
keep him under control in the first half, but he
kept pounding and showed me that he has
toughness to go with his speed, and for a while
there, I thought his running was going to be
enough to bury Oregon. I think OU is a pretty
good team and I think they're going to get
better. I think that they are going to have to
fight for everything they get, and they showed a
lot of fight Saturday. I think Stoops is doing a
great job with them.
-
- By the way, the
Pac-10 Conference has suspended the crew of
officials that worked Saturday's Oklahoma at
Oregon game. I have no problem with that. I
assume that part of the reason was the offensive
pass interference that the Oklahoma receiver got
away with on the Sooners' last
touchdown.
-
- I do wonder if
Oklahoma's president, David Boren, a fellow
Yalie and a former US Senator, realizes how
silly he looks getting involved in the
officiating of Saturday's game? What is he,
Jesse Jackson? There he was on that TV
commercial during Saturday's game, telling us
what a great educational institution OU is,
blah, blah, blah and today he goes and calls for
the Big-12 Conference to investigate a f--king
football game. I guess he finally got the
philosophy department in good enough shape to
where he could get involved in
football.
-
- I concede that the
Oregon-Oklahoma game was poorly officiated. I
almost feel guilty about Oregon's win. I do wish
there were some way that in these intersectional
games they could get crews from another
conference. I have heard it said that the cost
of bringing them in would be too great, but I
rather doubt that with all the TV money involved
that is a problem. On the other hand, we have to
be careful where we get these "neutral"
officials - we all saw what happened in last
year's Michigan-Nebraska bowl game when they
brought in a crew from a lesser conference and
they simply weren't able to deal with the level
of competition they were working
with.
-
- *********** Before you
Raiders' fans get all upset with me and send
motorcycle gangs to my house, consider
this...
-
- It is possible that
your anger is misdirected. Granted, Al Davis is
getting up in age, but as crafty as the guy is,
who woould put it past him to be deliberately
going in the tank? Could he have his eyes set on
returning to LA?
-
- Letting a team go all
to hell in order to justify moving a franchise
has been done many times in professional sports,
and at least once before in the NFL.
-
- Consider the way the
late Robert Irsay ruined the Baltimore Colts and
drove away fans by the thousands before slipping
off in the night - literally - to Indianapolis.
-
- *********** Got a note
from my daughter, Julia, in Durham, North
Carolina - OK, we were watching the
Panthers/Vikings game and Matt and I were just
amazed at how bad the commentators were. When a
guy starts saying something and gives up and
says "well, I can't really explain it", you know
you've got problems. Say what you will about the
women on the sidelines (and you'd love my friend
Sterly, who finds them the most annoying part of
football games; she also just met Archie Griffin
which made her speechless she was so awed), but
they can at least articulate. What happened to
getting people who knew the game AND could
speak?
-
- I attribute it to
two factors - (1) what talent there is is spread
so thin, with the NFL doing 13 broadcasts every
Sunday, and God knows how many college games on
Saturday, and (2) even more important, all they
care about is having a semi-recognizable name,
irrespective of talent. Back when I was doing
Portland State telecasts, I got in touch with an
agent in San Francisco, and sent him a few of my
tapes, and essentially, he said that while I was
good and all that, my only shot was in
play-by-play, because in color analysts they are
not looking for knowledge of the game so much as
they are looking for "marquee value." That
usually translates to "recently-retired
player."
-
- Of course, we were
more horrified that Carolina's Gamble decided to
lateral a punt return which gave the Vikings the
ball so they could tie up the game and take it
into overtime. Talk about stupid!
-
- Inexcusable. A
principle rule of coaching is first prevent
losing, and then try to win. In other words,
just like tennis, if you just keep it in play
and don't make dumbass mistakes, you have a
chance to win. Of course, there is enormous
incentive nowadays not so much to win as to get
on SportsCenter, and that means doing the
sensational thing ahead of the sound
thing.
-
- *********** Coach, You
may be interested in a new offensive tactic that
an NFL team has been showing over the past few
weeks.
-
- The Atlanta Falcons
have discovered a system by which they "run" the
ball in order to produce yardage. That's right,
they "run" it.
-
- The system in itself
is a little bit like pro football but the ball
only occasionally travels through the air. When
it does it is usually on a short backwards pass
called a "pitch".
-
- The real key to the
system seems to be not that they have their
quarterback "run" with the ball or that they
have two other eligible receivers in the
backfield to "run" and "block" but that they
have developed a "blocking" scheme that relies
upon athletic and talented linemen who can move
quickly.
-
- This is a truly
exciting development that has seen the Falcons
go 2 &endash; 0 to start the year. It can't
last. Atlanta have 5 wide receivers who are
getting very tired "blocking" and playing
special teams and their positional coach is
starting to cry.
-
- What a pity &endash;
it could have caught on as well.
-
- Kind
regards,
-
- Graeme Saint, London,
UK
That is very
perceptive and well-expressed. But all this
running down in Atlanta can't last - not after
all those wide receivers and their agents and
personal entourages start squawking. And watch
the idiots in the news media start to say that
Michael Vick isn't a "true" quarterback because
he runs so much! HW
-
- *********** From my
Australian correspondent, my son, Ed (yes, they
get some college football games on TV
there)
-
- *Hard to believe, but
Charlie Weis might be on the hotseat,
huh?
-
- After the Greatest
College Coach of All Time (I've actually heard
this) got his ass spanked by solid,
unspectacular Lloyd Carr, I suggest they tell
the sculptor to hold off for another week or so
on that Charley Weis bust for the Hall of Fame.
Wait - make that two more weeks. (They're off
next week.) Meantime, if the folks at Notre Dame
would like Tyrone Willingham's phone number, I
can get if for them. His team won Saturday, and
like Notre Dame is 2-1 also. But he probably
won't return their call.
-
- *Speaking of hotseats,
Larry Coker's is smoking - and Florida is the
best team in Florida.
-
- After those Miami
jackasses danced on the Louisville logo, he
should be fired for not being able to hold his
players to normal standards of sportsmanship.
But since those antics are what a lot of Miami's
"fans" seem to want, they are probably insisting
that he should be fired for recruiting kids who
aren't good enough to back up their horsesh--
behavior. Of course, you can understand the
Miami players' cockiness, coming off that big
win over FAMU.
-
- *Ducks got a couple of
lucky breaks, but so what? How many times
have they gone the other way?
-
- My take is that,
while I feel bad about OU, this is partial
payback for Oregon's twice being screwed by the
BCS. You will remember back in 2002 when
Nebraska, which had been beaten in the Big-12
championship game by Colorado, mysteriously
jumped ahead of Oregon in the computer polls,
and sent by the football gods to play in the
"championship" game against Miami, and Oregon
was shipped off to play in the Holiday Bowl
(where, if I remember correctly, they beat
Colorado). You will certainly remember last bowl
season, where they wound up playing OU after
being screwed out of a BCS game. So Oregon can
look forward to many, many more bad replay calls
going its way before things are evened
up.
-
- *Army must've played
very well against A & M.
-
- They did. They were
very well prepared, and they played their asses
off in front of a national TV audience and a big
crowd in San Antonio. They actually had a chance
to win but botched things in the final nine
seconds on the A & M two. A lot of Army fans
reject the idea of a moral victory, and choose
to focus instead on the last nine seconds,
rather than on the fact that this is the first
Army team in years to gave a good major college
team all it wanted. When you start out as the
worst team in all of Division I-A, which is what
Coach Ross inherited two years ago, I think that
success has to be measured by the progress that
you make; and in terms of progress, in terms of
becoming a competitive program, I consider
playing Texas A & M down to the wire a whole
lot bigger than last week's overtime win over
Kent State.
-
- *Walt Harris should be
fired.
-
- You would get that
impression from listening to genius Bill Walsh,
who was doing the color for the Stanford-Navy
game on Fox Sports Bay Area. Not that Harris has
done anything worth keeping him around for, but
Walsh is really a backstabbing a**hole, a
Stanford man openly criticizing the Stanford
coach on TV. Personally, I think The Great Man
would like Stanford to invite him back for a
third g-round. Guess he didn't f--k the program
up enough his last time there.
-
- As for Walt Harris,
he told the halftime interviewer: "We got to get
back to playing our football."
-
- Whic indicates to
me he doesn't have a clue - the problem is,
Stanford has got to stop playing "our
football."
-
- *Huge win for Tyrone
Willingham.
-
- I told you they
played well against Oklahoma last week. This
week, they finished the job against a tough
Fresno State team. They still have a long way to
go, but they are starting to look like Huskies
again.
-
- *Dan Hawkins is
probably yearning for the blue astroturf about
now.
-
- I doubt that he had
any idea how bad it was going to be. He thinks
it's been bad so far? Next two weeks: at
Georgia, at Missouri
-
- *Did Spurrier's boys
really beat Wofford by just 7
points?
-
- Yes. And don't
forget that last week they were shut out by
Georgia.
-
- You forgot perhaps
the biggest story of all, for those of us who
reject the notion that "grass basketball" is the
Football of the Future and that "Old School
Football" is dead - TCU 12, Texas Tech 3. The
Frogs shut out the supposedly unstoppable
offense!
-
- *********** Don't know
whether you saw Army's gallant performance
against Texas A & M, but those guys, not a
damn one of whom is going to be wasting our time
on future Sundays while he dances in end zones,
stood toe-to-toe with Texas A & M, and ended
up on the A & M 2-yard line when time ran
out. Unfortunately, there were many who
disagreed with Army's play-calling in the last
nine seconds, and they've allowed their
disappointment to cloud the fact that those kids
played their asses off and their coaches coached
their asses off. They keep saying on the Army
Football Forum that they're not interested in
"moral victories," to the point where I felt it
necessary to add my two cents...
-
- In 30+ years of
coaching, I have had a few adventures in taking
over high school programs that
sucked.
-
- When you take over
such a program, before you can even think in
terms of winning, you have to be realistic - Job
One is not to win, it is to stop sucking. When
you start out as the worst team in all of
Division I-A, which with the possible exception
of Temple is what Coach Ross inherited two years
ago, it is a long way back to respectability.
Without the Junior College fix, it has to be
done in short steps.
-
- Sometimes those
steps are too short, too slow to please the
program's supporters. Sometimes only the coach
is able to see subtle signs of progress that are
overlooked by fans who see it only in terms of
W's. And trust me - in terms of measuring
progress, in terms of taking those steps that
turn a doormat into a competitive program, yes,
there are such things as "moral victories."
Coaches don't call them that, but when they are
building a program, they do see them as signs of
progress.
-
- With all due
respect for those who reject the idea of a moral
victory, choosing to focus instead on those last
unfortunate nine seconds... consider that this
Army team did what would have been unthinkable
just a few years ago - went on national TV in
front of a noisy, hostile crowd (at its own
"home game" no less) and gave a good major
college team all it wanted. We're all sorry it
wasn't a win, but let's deal with reality - we
are not yet where we want to be, but based on
that performance, we have made measurable
progress.
-
- Reject a moral
victory? Not me. Not when it means what this one
did. In terms of progress, in terms of assessing
our ability to compete with future opponents, is
there really anybody on this board that was as
encouraged by an overtime win over Kent State as
by Saturday's loss to Texas A &
M?
-
- Is there a single
potential Army football player out there who
wasn't more impressed by the A & M loss than
by the Kent State win?
-
- *********** I had a
very reverent and wonderful experience at our
game. I always give a little prayer before every
game (I'm not a paid coach so I can pray if I
want to, without getting fired). One of the
things I always ask the BIG Head Coach, is that
we have no serious injuries on either team. With
about 2 min. left one of the opposing team's
players got whacked pretty hard and I assume he
got a minor concussion. When I went over to see
how he was (as the ambulance was loading him),
the coach told me he did not lose consciousness
and thought he would be all right. After the
game and after everyone had shaken hands I
stopped to talk to the injured boy's coach
again, etc. Then when I got back to our side of
the field to talk to our players about the game,
next practice, etc. they were all on a knee. The
Captains said,"Coach, we are waiting for you to
lead us in a prayer for the injured player". It
was all I could do to keep the tears back.
-
- It's just a damned
shame that people and parents do not understand
all the values of life that football teaches a
young person.
-
- Frank Simonsen, Cape
May, New Jersey
-
- *********** Idaho is
at Oregon State this Saturday. It marks the
return of Idaho coach Dennis Erickson to the
place where he had the Beavers to the pooint
where they could whup Notre Dame. My suggestion:
if Oregon State wins, they get Erickson back,
and Idaho gets Mike Riley.
-
- *********** You'll
have to excuse me if my preoccupation with
football means I'm not up on my popular
entertainers, but who, exactly, was that tart
who "sang" and "danced" the intro to "Sunday
Night Football on NBC," and what, exactly, did
her slutty act have to do with
football?
-
- *********** Coach, We
defeated Hanna 33-0 on a miserable Friday
afternoon. We had some nice Canadian weather-
15mph winds, rain/snow flurries, and temperature
just above freezing. The wet ball made the
Crisscross (a play that was been big for us so
far) very difficult to execute. Fortunately the
power and wedge were working well for us. I was
very happy with our execution. The worst news
for us was that we lost our starting b-back to a
broken ankle. He is most likely out for the rest
of the season. He made about 10 yards on a 7-C
and was dragged down by about 3 or 4 tacklers. I
think we have enough talent to make up for the
loss but it is really too bad because our three
backs were working very well together. Next up
for us is Brooks on Friday, it should be a tough
game. I will let you know how things go with a
new b-back. Anthony Donner, CHHS Vikings,
Medicine Hat, Alberta
-
- *********** Coach
Wyatt, Have you ever seen that show on MTV
called "Two A Days"? It's about the Hoover
High School football team (wherever that is) and
the everyday day goings with the team and
players. I'm really into shows that will
give me an insight into high school football,
but I just got done watching an episode and it
seemed as if the coaches were constantly
demeaning the players and using profanity.
I'm in a high school program now where it
was clearly laid out that there is to be no use
of profanity by either coaches or players.
I'm all for using different methods for
motivating players, but my experience has taught
me that consistent demeaning doesn't help.
Also cussing at players doesn't help
either. There is a clip where a coach is
calling a player a dumbass on the practice
field. Also in this episode Hoover High is
on the road and when they arrive at their
opponents' school, there is a clip where the
opposing fans are "greeting" the Hoover buses
with yelling and waving of what looked like the
Confederate flag. Maybe it's just me or
maybe it's just a very late night, but I don't
think that is part of the high school
sportsmanship that we are trying to promote to
high school players. Just wanted your
opinions and insight about this.
Thanks......JE, Washington
-
- Coach, Let me
answer the second question first. By and large,
fans lag way, way behind football players in the
practice of good sportsmanship. Without
question, the reason is that football players
have coaches, who for the most part do a good
job of teaching their players good
sportsmanship. Not so with fans. They don't
learn their behavior from coaches - they learn
it from TV, where fans are part of the show.
They learn that "supporting your team" means
ridiculing and taunting opposing players and
teams, often to the extent of using vulgarities
and racial insults.
-
- Now, as to the use
of profanity on the field... I'm sorry, but I
will not live in a sanitized world. I plead
guilty to occasional use of profanity in
coaching.
-
- I work very hard to
keep the F-word under control, but one will slip
out, maybe once a season. And I refrain from
taking the Lord's name in vain. I hold others to
the same standard, but I understand that
sometimes, under duress, something will slip
out. I will not use racial terms under any
circumstances, nor will I tolerate their use by
others. That includes use of the dreaded "N"
word by black players, which seems to be
acceptable in some circles.
I don't believe that
any kid should have to put up with being
personally insulted, and I will never direct
anything, with or without profanity, at a kid. I
learned from coaching at a Catholic school the
concept of "hate the sin but love the sinner." I
would never call a kid a "dumbass," or an
"a$$hole." Or a jerk or a fool or a slob, etc.,
etc.
-
- But if a kid does a
dumbass thing, good coaching calls for letting
him know it. So I might say, for emphasis, "What
the hell was that?" or "Come on, guys, this is
bullsh--t. You can do better than that." Or,
"come, on - knock him on his
ass."
-
- I happen to think,
as an educated man - and I have the good fortune
of being able to put my education up against
that of almost any so-called educator - that
profanity sometimes has its place in getting
someone's attention. Obviously, if its use
becomes commoonplace, its effect is
lost.
-
- I think it is my
job to provide a safe, respectful environment in
which I can use football to teach kids all sorts
of valuable things. One of them is that there is
a time and a place for everything, and another
is that sometimes an adult will use a mild
profanity in their presence - and they will
survive.
-
- *********** Coach,
Chris Davis here in Minnesota. After the game
last night, my wife informed me that my old High
School coach past away. His name was Avitus
Ripp, everyone called him Ripper, even his wife.
I had the pleasure of playing for him back in
Wisconsin in the late 70s. He lived two houses
down from us, and was always willing to open up
the weightroom or gym anytime we would ask.
Anything for the kids. He mowed my grandfather's
lawn when I left for college. He came to alot of
my games in college and even drove family 6 1/2
hours out here to see me coach a game, after he
retired. He's in the Hall of Fame in WI, and
without his great influence in my life, who
knows where I might of ended up. The things that
he taught me and every other player that came
through that high school can not be measured by
any state required test. He taught us the game
of football, but more importantly he taught us
about life. He will be greatly missed. Please
keep him, his wife Julie, sons Eric, Brian, Bo
and daughter Erin in your prayers. He was a
COACH. Sincerely, Chris Davis-HFC, Slayton, MN
P.S. 3-0 and ranked 6th right now, would never
be there without him. (We all have a coach
like Coach Ripp in our lives. Say a prayer for
Coach Ripp and for the coaches who've helped
you. And if you're lucky enough to still have
them with you, give them a call and thank them!
HW)
-
- *********** Currently
we are running the doublewing, having plenty of
success in the open field, however, within the
red zone, we tend to struggle. Is this a
mental aspect that needs to be improved
on? If so what would you suggest? Or
is it play calling? When we get into the
red zone, I stick with what has gotten us there,
not getting to fancy. What are your
favorite play calls within the red zone? AA,
Michigan
-
- It isn't common for
Double-Wing teams to notice any slowdown in the
so-called "Red Zone" (a pro term that I
depise).
-
- I think one
phenomenon is that drives simply run out of
steam because after a certain number of plays,
players lose focus and turnovers and stupid
penalties start to crop up.
-
- We don't make any
significant adjustment to our play-calling,
which is one of the great advantages of our
offense - we are running the same stuff going in
as we were coming out.
-
- Interestingly,
unlike what passing teams experience when they
get down close - which is that coverages are
compressed and they lose the advantage of being
able to spread the field, for us, play-action
passes seems to be especially effective down
close. I think that is because the compressed
defenses that commit everyone to stopping the
run make it difficult for them to cover passes
to the corners and flats, after they've seen a
play fake.
-
- *********** Having a
hell of a time getting my TE to leave "man on"
alone. Must have run the play 50 times last
night and before we even get set I see his
little head eyeballin' the DE. I blow the
whistle before we even start and yell "WHY ARE
YOU EVEN LOOKING AT HIM!?"
-
- Coach we have run this
play 1000 times at least and this kid STILL does
this if I don't get on his ass. You keep telling
people that this is a high maintenance offense.
I'll bet you have a lot of wingers out there
that get 6G in and forget to keep tweaking
it.
-
- You've reallly gotta
watch close to figure out it's the TE getting in
the way when you got a big pile of guys in
there.
-
- If isn't the TE,
it's the tackle not blocking down. And if it
isn't the tackle it's the wingback not getting
to his backer. Like the rest of the offense, 6-G
is not something you can just walk away from and
assume it's "in."
Yet I would bet that
the vast majority of guys who run the
Double-Wing make that assumption and start
adding new plays - sometimes entire new offenses
- to their game plans.
-
- ***********
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (AP) -- A woman pleaded guilty
to disorderly conduct in connection with a
bizarre incident in February that resulted in a
fake penis being microwaved at a convenience
store.
-
- Leslye Creighton, 41,
of Wilkinsburg, entered the plea Wednesday, and
authorities dropped the same charge against
Vincent Bostic, 31, of Pittsburgh, who has
agreed to help pay $425 to replace the store's
microwave, police and the couple's defense
attorney said.
-
- Police in McKeesport,
about 10 miles east of Pittsburgh, said the Feb.
23 incident began when Bostic filled a fake
penis with his urine that they said Creighton
planned to use to pass a drug test to get a
job.
-
- The two stopped at a
GetGo! convenience store and, after wrapping the
device in a paper towel, asked a store clerk to
heat it up in a microwave, police said.
Authorities said they believe Creighton wanted
the device heated so the urine inside would be
at body temperature during the drug
test.
-
- The clerk, however,
believing the lifelike device to be a severed
penis, called police.
-
- Defense attorney
William Difenderfer said Creighton faces a
maximum punishment of $300 and 90 days in jail
when she is sentenced Nov. 15 by McKeesport
District Judge Doug Reed. Difenderfer called it
"a humorous, but weird, case."
-
- Hey- funny story,
but get the facts straight. That was not your
ordinary "fake penis." (That would be a
"dildo.") That was a WHIZZINATOR, as any true
NFL fan knows.
-
- Jeez, those people
were really stupid. I'll bet even Onterrio Smith
knew to warm the "clean" urine separately -
before filling the
WHIZZINATOR.
-
- I can't believe the
people at WHIZZINATOR world headquarters still
haven't gotten around to putting warning labels
on the "device" telling users not to microwave
it when it's "loaded." I expect a
lawsuit.
-
- *********** I have
sort of adopted WV as a favorite, considering
the sad state of our Golden Gophers. They are
probably not raiding potential Ivy Leaguers, but
what I had tremendously enjoyed about watching
WV is their seemingly more businesslike approach
to playing the game. I wasn't watching
carefully, but it appeared that when the
Mountaineers made a big play, they don't carry
on like idiots or court jesters, and try and
make a spectacle of themselves. They move on to
the next play. Even Slaton after a big run tends
to flip the ball to the ref and get back to the
huddle. The Mountaineers make a nice contrast to
the Miami type programs. Take care, Mick Yanke,
Cokato, Minnesota (I zinged 'em because I do
think that the QB's speech was a poor reflection
on the university, but I believe that they are
one of the best coached teams in America. And,
yes, their players keep the theatrics under
control. A few years ago, I was talking with
Mike Lude former AD of the U of Washington. UW
had just canned Keith Gilbertson, the guy who
had replaced Neuheisel, and Mike said to me, "If
I were still the AD, I'd take a run at that
young fellow Rodriguez, at West Virginia." Now,
everybody in the country knows the guy.
Fortunately for WVU, he is a native West
Virginian, which means he might stay a while.
HW)
-
- *********** It is all
so sleazy, this relatively sudden marketing of
high school football's elite programs on
national TV. They say that the great appeal of
high school football is that, unlike the pros
and big-time colleges, it is so
"pure."
-
- "Pure," is it? Wait
till the shoe companies and ESPN get through
with it.
*********** ATTENTION!!! YOU
ARE NEEDED! As many of you know, former
Army All-American Bob Novogratz is a member of the
board of the Black Lion Award. Bob has been
tireless in supporting the cause, including
presenting the award, and was instrumental in
persuading the Army Football Club, the association
of former Army football players, to present the
Black Lion Award to West Point football player
every year.
In the photos below, Bob is shown in January,
2003 presenting the Black Lion Awards to young men
from the Millersville, Maryland youth football
program. The photo in the top middle was taken in
1958, when Bob was an All-American guard and
linebacker on and Colonel Red Blaik's last team and
Army's last undefeated team, the fabled "Lonely
End" team that finished 3rd in the nation.
FROM MY ARCHIVES - JANUARY 2003-
- A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It's not
every day that a team is fortunate enough to
have its Black Lion Awards presentation made
by a veteran or an active serviceman; it's
rarer still when the presenter is a former
West Point All-American.
He is Bob Novogratz, and that's he in the
middle of the top row, before his senior year
at Army. That's also he in the other five
photos, shown with Black Lion Award winners
from five different teams in the
Millersville, Maryland youth football
program.
When the football picture of him was
taken, it was fall of 1958, and no one would
have dared to predict the kind of year he and
his Army teammates would have; preseason
forecasters knew that they would be good -
the Cadets had finished 7-2 in 1957. But no
one could have foretold that it would become
one of the most famous of all Army teams.
It would be the final season in the
fabulous career of legendary Army coach
Earl
"Red" Blaik, and that 1958 Army team
finished the season unbeaten and ranked
number 3 in the nation. The last Army team to
go unbeaten, It gained nationwide notice
through Blaik's ingenious deployment of a
split end who never entered the huddle - the
so-called "Lonely End."
But it was by no means a team based on a
gimmick. The
1958 Army team was solid on offense, and
on defense as well. Three of the 11 men on
the team - remember, it was two-way football
- were named All-American. Two of them - Pete
Dawkins and Bob Anderson - were running
backs, and one of them - Dawkins - won the
Heisman Trophy that year; the third, Bob
Novogratz, played guard and linebacker, and
won the Knute Rockne Award, given then to the
nation's outstanding defensive player. (With
only 11 spots to fill on those All-America
teams in those days, selection was quite an
honor.)
-
- Coming from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a
hotbed of wrestling, Bob actually went to
West Point as a wrestler, and was persuaded
to play football by Coach Earl Blaik. In
addition to being an All-American football
player, Bob was Eastern Heavyweight wrestling
champion.
Bob was drafted by the World Champion
Baltimore Colts, but he had other things to
do than play pro football - he had a
commitment to serve in the US Army. He spent
time briefly as a coach at West Point, and
went on to serve in Vietnam, where he earned
the Bronze Star medal. After a career in the
Army, he retired as a colonel.
- Colonel Bob Novogratz and the
Millersville Black Lion Award winners. (TOP
LEFT: Aaron Terry, TOP RIGHT, Aaron Farrare;
BOTTOM (L to R) Ian Page, Dale Younker,
Justin Cronin (More
about the Black Lion
Award)
Correctly identifying Bob Novogratz:
Joe Daniels- Sacramento,California... Kevin
McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Tom Hinger-
Auburndale, Florida ("What a great series of
pictures with the young Black Lion Award
winners. Colonel Novogratz is a class act, which
is no surprise. Leaders like him are a pleasure
to follow.")... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski,
Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois...
Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("The pic
this week is of no other than Bob Novogratz, the
All American Strongside guard who was also a
starting linebacker for the 1958 team.
Incidentally Mr. Novogratz was named outstanding
lineman for the Army -Navy game and I believe
was the Outland trophy winner that year.")...
John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("Whatever
happened to the Rockne Award?")... Greg Stout-
Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Alan Goodwin-
Warwick, Rhode Island ("That must have been one
heck of a team. I'd like to see a game at West
Point. UConn plays there this year. That may be
a good road trip. I haven't seen West Point
since I visited with my Boy Scout troop - must
have been around 1968")... Jim Hooper-
Englewood, Colorado ("Thanks for recognizing
Army All-American Bob Novogratz. No small feat
to gain national recognition on a team that
included Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter.")...
Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ( "I finally
looked up a website that had highlights of the
1958 football season and that gave me the
answer. Bob Novogratz certainly was a great
player. When I put his name into the search
engine to find out more about him, I was
directed to Chapter 9 of a book written about
Coach Blaik. Lo and behold, the author is the
one and only Hugh Wyatt!")..
NOW- Here's where you
come in. Bob is a native of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, where his dad, who came here from
Austria, worked in the local cement plant
(Northampton High's teams are the Koncrete
Kids).
The Allentown Call, which
serves the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern
Pennsylvania, is putting together The Lehigh Valley
All-Time, All-Area team. It is no small honor to
make it - among those nominated along with Bob
Novogratz are All-Time All-Pro Chuck Bednarik, who
played all 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL championship
game, and All-Pro Packers' center Jim Ringo. Bob
Novogratz, who passed up a pro career to serve his
country, belongs on it.
I am asking you readers - If
you have ever been involved in the Black Lion Award
program... If you have ever been a lineman or a
line coach... If you have ever admired service
academy football... If you respect a man for
putting his country ahead of his sports
aspirations... If you love the idea of a college
football player who was also a champion wrestler...
If you just admire the grace and toughness of the
guys who played OLD SCHOOL FOOTBALL... go to the
following site and vote for Bob
Novogratz!
http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/all-football-local-about-oline,0,719088.story?coll=all-sportsstorycontent-utl
"INVINCIBLE?"
UNBELIEVABLE - FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE REAL VINCE
PAPALE!
www.coachwyatt.com/vincepapale.htm
|
|
Tyrone
Willingham's Gracious Gesture to an Old
Coach!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
The
Surgeon General's Warning About Kicking
Round
Balls!
(See"NEWS")
|
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
- September
15,
2006
- --"Some
people spend an entire lifetime wondering if
they made a difference in the world. But the
Marines don't have that problem." Ronald
Reagan
-
- Kerrville
(Texas) Daily Times
-
-
- Award
helps keep hero's memory
alive
-
- By
Bill Begley
-
- Published
September 13, 2006
-
- There
will be chills - there always were
before each game.
-
- Sitting
in the stands Saturday, when Army
faces Texas A&M in a college
football game at the Alamo Dome in
San Antonio, old flames will spark
anew for Peter Vann.
-
- "I'll
have cold chills," said the
Kerrville resident. "I always got
them just before kick
off."
-
- A
record-setting quarterback at West
Point in the early '50s, Vann will
sit with family, friends and former
teammates and cheer on the Cadets as
they face the Aggies.
-
- With
the chills will come memories.
Stories swapped of big wins over
Navy, of the days when Vann played
for legendary coach Earl "Red' Blaik
and grew under the tutelage of a
demanding position coach - a guy
named Vince Lombardi.
-
- No
doubt, tales of how Vann and his
teammates helped the Academy
overcome the biggest athletic
scandal in its history will come up,
when in 1951, the preseason No. 1
team in the nation saw 37 players
dismissed because of charges of
cheating &emdash; and two years
later finish 7-1-1, including a
14-13 win over a top-ranked Duke in
the Polo Grounds in New York. A
season later, Vann finished ninth in
the voting for the Heisman
Trophy.
-
- "Those
are things, experiences you never
forget," Vann said.
-
- And,
inevitably, Don Holleder's name will
come up, because he was the kind of
teammate - and friend - you never
forget.
-
- Vann,
in fact, is helping to preserve his
former teammate's
memory.
-
- It
is in Holleder's memory that an
award was created in 2001 - the
Black Lion Award - to honor the
former All-American end and hero who
lost his life in Vietnam in
1967.
-
- The
award has been given to hundreds of
young men across the nation,
football players who exemplify the
qualities that Holleder embodied. At
first, the award focused on high
school players, but the last two
seasons the Army Football Club
picked a recipient before the annual
Army-Navy game &emdash; a Cadets
senior to wear the Black Lions
regimental patch on his jersey. He
also gets a certificate recognizing
the honor and has his name placed on
a plaque of winners displayed at the
Academy.
-
- To
be eligible, schools must send
applications to Hugh Wyatt, a high
school coach in Washington state who
is part of a board of advisors that
includes current Army coach Bobby
Ross.
-
- "Any
player in the United States is
eligible, from the college ranks on
down," said Wyatt, who was inspired
by Blaik and urged to create the
honor by Tom Hinger, the medic who
was with Holleder the day he died.
"Each school can pick one player a
year to be honored. We're talking
about an outstanding individual
&emdash; not just the best player or
MVP, but someone to represent the
school and to represent the ideals
this award stands for."
-
- Vann
is making in-roads to include Tivy
High in the program, and would be
the organization's representative
and presenter for the
Antlers.
-
- It
is not a task he takes lightly -
because it honors the memory of a
man who meant a great deal
Vann.
-
- Don
Holleder was in Peter Vann's
wedding.
-
- Peter
Vann was part of the honor guard
that laid Holleder to rest in
Arlington National
Cemetery.
-
- When
he speaks of his friend - of not
only his athletic prowess, but also
of his courage and character
&emdash; Vann is not the only person
with chills.
-
- "People
used to say, 'Peter is a pin-point
passer,' but I just threw it up and
let Don go get it," said Vann, who
left Army as the holder of nine
school records for passing. "He
became the most sensational target I
ever threw at. And, he was a natural
leader. You always knew where you
stood with Don Holleder. You might
not agree with him, but you knew
what he thought."
-
- A
year after Holleder earned
All-American honors, Blaik asked him
to move from end to quarterback, to
fill the shoes of his best friend.
Vann, who was in his fifth year at
the Academy, was out of eligibility,
but spent a great deal of time
tutoring his former target in the
niceties of playing
quarterback.
-
- It
didn't start well - Army was
hammered 26-2 by Michigan in its
opener - but the Cadets rebounded,
and with Holleder at the helm Army
finished 6-3, including a win over a
Navy.
-
- "Don
started off throwing kickoffs for
passes - end-over-end," Vann said.
"But, by the end of the season, he
had become a very good running and
throwing quarterback. He helped us
beat Navy without ever throwing a
pass.
-
- "People
don't understand the sacrifice. He
had been an All-American the year
before, and probably would have been
again if he had stayed at end. But,
he did what Coach Blaik and the team
needed him to do. That is the kind
of person he was."
-
- And
why Vann is adamant in his support
of the Black Lions
award.
-
- "This
award is not for blue-chip athletes,
it's for blue-chip people, the kind
of person Don Holleder was," Vann
said. "Morally straight, physically
straight and, dare I say, mentally
straight.
-
- "I
got involved because it is a tribute
to not just the athlete, but the
kind of person Don Holleder was. He
was the kind of guy you wanted in
your company, a guy you could trust.
A disciplined fellow who would bust
his butt to do whatever it took to
get the job done and didn't need a
general looking over his shoulder. A
doer, not a watcher."
-
- Holleder
followed the instinct the day he
died. In dense jungle 40 miles
northwest of Saigon, Holleder, then
a 33-year-old major and the
operations officer for the First
Infantry Division, rushed to the aid
of troops who had been ambushed by
the Viet Cong.
-
- "He
commandeered a helicopter and went
after the wounded," Vann said. "He
didn't wait for an order. He did
what he had to do. He was clearing a
landing spot for the helicopter,
hacking out a spot in the jungle for
the final pick-up, when he was
killed."
-
- Sacrifice
is a word, too often, tossed about
casually. Coaches use it to motivate
athletes. People equate it with
giving up luxuries.
-
- Don
Holleder sacrificed on the football
field and gave up national
recognition. Don Holleder sacrificed
on the field of battle and gave up
his life.
-
- A
patch. A certificate. A plaque.
Doesn't seem like enough. But, it's
what Vann, and Wyatt and the Black
Lions Award board has, and they want
to make sure what the honor lacks in
baubles is more than made up for in
lasting meaning.
-
- "This
award is about leadership," Vann
said. "It's about character. It's
about morality. It's how you treat
your fellow man and how you play the
everyday game of life.
-
- "This
award is about a guy you can never
forget - and guys like him we should
never forget."
-
- Copyright
© 2006 Kerrville Daily Times
(Reprinted by
permission)
-
- If your
team's not already signed up for the
Black Lion Award, e-mail me and do
so- coachwyatt@aol.com --- include
your team's name and your location,
the name, address and e-mail address
of the person responsible for the
award. For more
information
http://www.dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=3c491ccc14b9b34a
|
-
- *********** Coach, Following a tough 29-30
loss two weeks ago (record 0-2), we knew we had
the offensive firepower to win games. This
week we held on late to beat West Prairie
28-26.
-
- On our last drive, with it tied 20-20 at
5:40 in the 4th quarter, we ran 88 Super Power
on eight of our ten plays. We even ran it
on the two point conversion. On that play
I saw them stack a couple of extra guys over
there and laughed, thinking to myself "heck, we
do 1st and Goal with up to 20 guys on defense
sometimes." Needless to say, we punched it
in.
-
- We celebrated a little too much (at 0-2, I
could see how our kids got overly excited - but
we have to handle ourselves until after the
game) and had to kick off from the 25.
They started at the 50 with 1:40 to go.
They scored with :30 to go. Our sophomore
linebacker, making his first start, came up big
by tackling their quarterback on an option. Not
the overall defensive performance we wanted, but
got what we needed when it counted.
-
- Teams seem to be going with the philosophy
of nose-diving their TNT's to clog up the middle
and screw up our pulling linemen. Other
than preventing us from running up the middle,
it hasn't affected us that much. I would
like to run the fullback or tackle trap, but
it's just not there. Fortunately, super
power and counter have been there for over 300
yards each of the last two games. Our
fullback will just have to bide his time... Have
a great week and good luck,
-
- Todd Hollis, Head Football Coach,
Elmwood-Brimfield Coop, Elmwood, Illinois
(You are right about your fullback having
to be patient, but there is still 6-G/7-G and
6-C/7-C. And you are also right- so long as
defenses seem willing to sacrifice three
defensive linemen simply to clog up the middle,
they're not very useful at anything else.
HW)
-
- *********** Good morning!
-
- I'm still running 100% Wildcat with 7-8 year
olds. We run 88, 88BL, 88K, 6G, 7G, 99, 99BL,
99K, 47C, 77 special. We have played well
against more athletic teams. We have lost 2
games by a touchdown and in both of those we had
the ball last and were driving. Ran out of
time.
-
- We played the best team in the league and
tied them, but they have protested the game. In
our area, some of the leagues allow rushing the
kicker on extra points and some do not. We tied
the game by kicking ( counts for 2 ), but the
ref told the other team they could not rush our
kicker. He refs multiple leagues and got
confused.
-
- They protested the game and I'm being told I
need to dress all my kids and show up to play
the last 2:40. Do you agree with this? Anyway I
see it as an opportunity to WIN!
-
- I will have to line up for the extra point
with 2:40 left. At that time the score was 14-6
them. By kicking we tie. Would you kick? This
team will probably spend the whole week
practicing the block. If they do block it, would
give their kids big momentum shift. They will be
expecting us to kick. If I come out and run,
they will have practiced that for nothing and I
think it may deflate them.
-
- I have 2 time outs left.
-
- I'm thinking I should spend my practice time
before the game getting the ball back on the
kick off. Our base kick off is for the K to
place ball on left hash and squib it to the 50.
Many times we get it back, but this team has
seen this. Should I change it up?
-
- Also, if they get the ball, do I burn the
time-outs while I'm on defense? If I don't, and
they go 4 and out, I will probably get it back
with 1:20.
-
- My plan if I do not have time outs is to
practice running 88 over and over as a hurry up
and telling A to try and get out of bounds. Just
wanted your thoughts. It's a rare thing when you
get to re-write history.
-
- Coach- Stupid decision (to replay) but it
is what it is... As I understand it, you get
only one point for running or passing, so why
would you go to all that trouble to still be a
point down, even if you should make it?
-
- Why not work on your PAT operation?
(Practice by having the defense rush 13 people.)
-
- But still proceed with Plan B - what you
would have to do if you ran for it - whether it
was good or not?
-
- And then, if your kick should fail, then
you can proceed with Plan B.
-
- A few tips---
-
- Have your two guards lock their legs with
the center (by placing their feet inside the
center's feet.) No one else on the line is
permitted to do so. That will make you tougher
up the middle.
-
- And tell everybody on the line that they
can step with their inside foot (to the inside)
but they can't move their outside feet.
-
- It is almost like a passive wedge
block.
-
- And since most successful blocks take
place by a man coming through the gap between a
TE and a wingback, the surest way to protect
that area is to move the wingbacks in, behind
the tackles, and turn them so they face outward.
Their job is to keep people outside the
triangle. Let defenders rush as hard as they
want from the outside, but if they are going to
block the kick, they are going to have to get in
front of the ball, which means getting into the
triangle. So keep defenders outside that
triangle!
-
 -
- The normal depth for grown players - high
school, college and pros - is 7 yards, which, if
the line of scrimmage is the three yard line,
puts the point of the spot on the 10 yard line.
That is deep enough to prevent the block up the
middle (provided the kicker gets sufficient
height on the ball), but shallow enough to keep
it from being blocked by someone coming off the
edge.
-
- I would think that since your kids are
smaller and therefore the edge is closer, you
might want to spot it a yard or even two yards
closer.
-
- *********** Coach - That's was great news
about Somerville !! I hope that poor bastard
pumps some life into that program, But Coach
they are Probably in one of the Most Rugged
Leagues in all of Mass. the GBL ( Greater Boston
League ) Everett, Waltham are Powerhouses
Cambridge R&L is a Solid D1 program and
Arlington and Peabody( which is in a Post Coach
NIZ rebuilding mode) are Not an Easy Out, Malden
the runner up from last Year was in Globe
Pre-Season Top 20.
-
- Coach as much as I admired the guy as a
player John Hannah ( From media reports and
people I know From Somerville ) Set that Program
back 10 F&*KIn years from his 1 year Tour as
a head coach I guess It was Not Good.
-
- Coach that would of Been a Pisser if Air
Force could of Pulled that Upset over the Vols
!!! Sept 1984 Our Boy Nate "the scape" Sasseman
puts on a stunning performance in Neyland
Stadium and Army ties the Vols 24-24 ( I think
it was 24-24 not sure )
-
- see ya Friday Coach - John Muckian Lynn,
Massachusetts
-
- *********** Bill Simmons - a writer after my
own heart...
-
- There are six elements in
sports that simply don't work: sideline
reporters, All-Star voting, MVP voting, Halls of
Fame, WNBA players participating in NBA All-Star
Weekend and TV essays that columnists awkwardly
read off of teleprompters. People have devoted
an inordinate amount of money and energy to
trying to get these six elements to work. And
still they don't. Five of them never
will.
-
- Which one can be saved?
Halls of Fame. The three major sports have
botched the voting process so badly that nobody
can take the results seriously anymore. Players
can be rejected for eight straight years, then
elected the ninth. Candidates have been
discarded for not being friendly to the media
(Jim Rice) and ushered in for being great guys
(Harry Carson). Stalwarts for big-market teams
(James Worthy) get sizable advantages over studs
who peaked in relative obscurity (Adrian
Dantley). In baseball and football, a Veterans
Committee can override decades of sound logic.
It's a mess. We've reached the point at which we
rarely argue about the candidates anymore. Like
with the Emmys, Grammys and Oscars, we just
expect mistakes.
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, I read in your news
today about a DVD you have of the spread
formation. How do I obtain a copy? I
would be very interested, as I have a shortage
of ends who are willing blockers.
-
- Coach, It is $29.95 because it doesn't
have any audio yet, but there is a lot of useful
stuff on it.
-
- *********** Army is playing Texas A & M
on Saturday. In San Antonio. In the Alamodome.
It is supposed to be Army's home game (Army, if
you didn't know, is in West Point, New York, at
least 1,500 miles from San Antonio), but you
know how it goes in these days where money rules
- everything is for sale, including precious
home games.
-
- This leaves Army with only four real home
games. Real, as in "in their own stadium, on
their own campus."
-
- The good reason: there are thousands of U.S.
Army personnel in the San Antonio area, and this
will give them a chance to see their team
-
- The real reason: there are tens of thousands
of A & M alums in Texas, and they will pay
to go see there team play, even if it's
disguised as your home game.
-
- I think I am safe in saying that Texas A
& M, whose academic requirements may or may
not be stiff but do not approach Army's, has
better football players. Texas A & M also
must be much better coached, since their head
coach, Dennis Franchione, makes at least twice
what Army's Bobby Ross does.
-
- I don't want to piss off the Aggies, which
have to be at least three-touchdown favorites,
and I don't want to piss off any Aggie fans out
there either, but I simply can't pass up an
opportunity to honor one great Texas tradition -
the Aggie Joke. In Texas, Aggie jokes are so
numerous they could fill several jokebooks, but
I will repeat just one...
-
- The greatest Aggie senior
linebacker in history is one grade short of
graduation.
-
- Because of time
constraints, he's given the chance to orally
complete the final question on his semester
math exam during half-time of the last
A&M home game of the season. If he
answers correctly he will fulfill his major
degree requirements...
-
- Professor: "What is 8
times 8?"
-
- Linebacker: "8 times 8...
8 times 8... Uh, 8 times 8 is... uh...
64?"
-
- A hush falls over the
sellout crowd at Kyle Field - then, slowly
but gathering like a Gulf storm in strength
until the whole stadium rocks, this chant in
unison from the Aggie home
stands...
-
- "GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!
GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! "
- *********** I growl when I hear President
Bush continue to say that we are going to catch
Osama bin Laden and assorted other animals and
"bring them to justice." Hey - what the f--k
ever happened to just going out and killing
those people?
-
- Yeah, bring them to justice. That's what
they did with Christian Longo. The SOB killed
his wife and three little kids, threw them in
the ocean down on the Oregon coast, then ran to
Mexico where he posed as a young, single swinger
and lived it up. Next to the same ocean that he
threw his wife and kids into.
-
- And then was caught. Problem is, our friends
the Mexicans, who don't mind letting a criminal
or two slip across our borders every night,
refuse to extradite murderers - because we have
the death penalty. (Now isn't that compassionate
of them?)
-
- But, one way or another, the guy was brought
back here. Brought to justice, as President Bush
would say. And , after a trial by jury, given
the death penalty.
-
- And then the real American justice system
kicked in. Believe me, if you want to live
forever, there is no better way than to be
sentenced to death in a lib state like Oregon,
because you will be taken good care of, and you
will have the right, at taxpayer expense, to
appeal after appeal. Trust me - you will never
be executed.
-
- So it is with Christian Longo. His lawyers
are now appealing because, they claim, he was
tricked into returning to the US!!!
-
- Imagine! Instead of dragging him back here
behind a pickup truck, which is about what he
deserved - they tricked him!
-
- I'm just telling you all - God help us if we
ever bring Osama bin Laden to "justice."
-
- *********** And then there's justice as it's
applied to NFL players. Chris Henry is the
latest. 100 hours of community service.
Community service! Talk about a f--king joke!
They'll probably count his playing for the
Bengals as community service. At the least, he
should have to spend those 100 hours playing for
the Raiders.
-
- *********** Be sure to point this out to all
those cretins who tell you that you need to
spread it out and throw...
-
- Call it the median, or call it the
over-under, but more than half the teams in the
NFL last week had 176 yards passing or
less.
-
- Be sure to tell them that those impressive
stats were achieved with million-dollar
quarterbacks, protected by million-dollar
offensive linemen, throwing to million-dollar
receivers.
-
- *********** It was the summer of 1960. I'd
graduated from college, I was married with a
baby, and I had a summer job working in an
asbestos factory in Ambler, Pennsylvania. I
worked the swing shift, and during my breaks,
I'd listen to the Pittsburgh Pirates' games.
Lord, that was exciting, sitting out on the
loading platform and listening to Bob Price spin
the stories about the "Beat 'em Bucs." It seemed
like every night, they'd come from behind to
pull out another game. They finally made it to
the series, where they beat the Yankees in epic
fashion, winning with Bill Mazeroski's two-out,
ninth-inning home run in the seventh game.
-
- Ambler, Pennsylvania was about 300 miles
east of Pittsburgh, but we got the Pirates'
games because they were on KDKA, a 50,000 watt
station. (At that time, I believe, every state
was limited to just one such station, and KDKA,
the first commercial radio station in America,
was Pennsylvania's.)
-
- But next year, after more than 50 years, the
Pirates are dropping KDKA as their flagship
station, and switching to WPGB, an FM station.
See, despite KDKA's greater reach and larger
audience, it doesn't have the number of
listeners in the 25-to-54 age group that
advertisers want to reach.
-
- Duh, maybe I'm missing something here, but
is it KDKA that the younger men aren't
listening to? Or is it the baseball? I
mean, if you put baseball on a "younger"
station, are its younger listeners going to
suddenly start listening to ball games? Aren't
they just going to tune in another "younger"
station when the Pirates' game comes on?
-
- *********** It must have been just too much
for the punter to be told by the coach that the
other guy was a better punter than he was. I
mean, when it's so much of your life that your
vanity license plate is 8-KIKR, what are you
going to do?
-
- How about stabbing stabbing your rival? In
the kicking leg?
-
- By now you've all heard about the backup
punter at Northern Colorado who stalked the
starter, then, concealing his identity by
pulling his hooded sweatshirt tight around his
head, struck him from behind and stabbed him in
his kicking leg.
-
- Actually, the incident is not completely
without precedent. I mean, except for the fact
that the guy didn't have his mother do the
stabbing for him, it's almost as if he were a
Texas high school cheerleader, instead of a
punter.
-
- I'm sorta pissed because Northern Colorado
was in town last weekend to play Portland State
(the soon-to-be-victim punted four times for A
38.8 yard average), and if I'd known this was
going to be going down, I'd have gotten
somebody's autograph.
-
- Without intending to be humorous, a Colorado
police officer provided a good line. "You'd
think there would be better and more legal ways
to compete for a starting position," said Evans,
Colorado police Lt. Gary Kessler.
-
- Lt. Kessler, let me assure you - there are.
For the most part.
-
- *********** The Seahawks just gave up a
first-round draft choice to get receiver Deion
Branch, and then they agreed to pay him
gazillions to sign (ending the holdout that
caused the Patriots to trade him). Yet now they
say he isn't ready to play any time soon
because... He doesn't know the
playbook!
-
- Are you kidding me? This is a
receiver, for God's sake! Go long, Deion!
Gimme a hitch. Run a slant. Curl in at 12.
Turnout at 15. Deion, run a post. Deion, beat
your man.
-
- He doesn't know the playbook? Gimme a
break. These are the Seahawks, whose
offense, despite having last year's MVP, Shaun
Alexander, couldn't manage a single touchdown
last Sunday, in their 9-6 thriller win over the
mighty Detroit Lions!
-
- Yes, these are the Seahawks, whose offense
is so complex that the playbook, we are told, is
"thick as the Seattle phone book."
-
- Now, that I had to see for myself, so
I managed to get hold of a copy...
-
|
Anderson,
Lars
& Edna - 5508 Ballard Pl.
N........................555-9834
|
|
Anderson,
Ole
- 1532 132nd St
NW..................................555-4809
|
|
Anderson,
Sven
& Olga - 982 Queen Anne
Wy..................555-4809
|
-
- Hey- wait a minute! No wonder
Branch is having trouble learning it! No
wonder their offense was so bad last
Sunday! That is the Seattle phone
book!
-
- *********** Deion Branch, by the way, said
he held out in New England because "I have to do
what's best for me and my family."
-
- Ever eloquent, Branch told Seahawks' fans,
"I want to contribute to a major role."
-
- *********** Is it just me, or does it sound
a bit conceited when a runner says he has to
give credit to "My O-line." His
O-line?
-
- *********** At first I was angry when I
heard Rosey O'Donnell say, "Radical Christianity
is just as threatening as Radical Islam."
-
- But then I figured, "Consider the source." I
mean, her homosexuality is more important to her
than her country's safety.
-
- And then I started laughing my tail off,
imagining her being captured by a bunch of
Radical Muslims, and picturing all these dudes
arguing among themselves over the best way to
kill a mouthy lesbian.
-
- *********** Several years ago, I was
coaching in Denmark, and for some reason the
subject of the Queen came up (Denmark has one).
Like a dumbass American, I said something like,
"What in the world do you need a queen for
nowadays."
-
- John Sylvester, a Danish coach, said that
the Queen was somebody they could all rally
around. Everybody loved the Queen, he said. And
the Queen loved her subjects. She had no
political agenda, no votes to go after. She had
no reason to be nice other than the fact that
that was her nature.
-
- And while I was there, damned if a ship
didn't go down in the sea between Denmark and
Norway, and there the Queen was, on the scene to
provide comfort to the victims and their
families. The people loved her for it.
-
- And not one Danish Teddy Kennedy dared stand
in front of a microphone and accuse her of
"politicizing" the event.
-
- That's when the whole Queen thing made sense
to me.
-
- *********** Some Thursday night game, huh?
Steve Slaton carries 8 times for 178 yards. West
Virginia 28, Maryland 0. IN THE FIRST
QUARTER.
-
- *********** In case you wonder how a school
from a small state like West Virginia is able to
build a powerhouse football program... good
coaching helps, but you have to have good
players, and when you have a chance to get a
good one, you do get the impression that at West
Virginia they're not going to let academic
standards get in the way. But doggone, man - if
you place any value on your West Virginia
diploma, you had to shudder at listening to
quarterback Pat White tell a national TV
audience why his buddy, running back Steve
Slaton, wasn't offered a scholarship by
Maryland: "They ain' want him."
-
- *********** I happened to see Jim Sweeney
interviewed on TV at a Fresno State game. Coach
Sweeney is revered in Fresno, as the guy who
took the Bulldogs into the big time.
-
- Jim Sweeney was one class act. Still is. He
was always way ahead of the pack offensively. I
was really pleased that at Fresno State he
finally got the public recognition he deserved
as a great coach, to go along with the high
regard everyone involved with football already
had for him as a person and as a coach.
-
- At Washington State he was very well liked,
if not as successful as he'd have preferred. The
newspaper guys loved him. Back in 1975, one of
them told me about running into him in a
restaurant along I-5 where the WSU team had
stopped, on the way home after losing that day
to Oregon State, 7-0. Sweeney was disconsolate.
He told the reporter, "We just lost to the worst
team in America."
-
- One of his kids (I think he had eight or so
- a true Irishman), Mary Lou, was married to one
of our players on the Portland Thunder, in the
World Football League. She was really nice.
-
- Coach Sweeney is a native of Butte, Montana,
a hard-rock mining town with a well-deserved
reputation as a town that - well, let's just say
men didn't wear skirts in Butte. At a clinic one
time while he was at WSU he cut loose with a few
choice profanities, then, realizing that perhaps
he'd gone a bit too far, stopped and said,
"Pardon my Butte." The crowd roared.
-
- He broke up another clinic - this was maybe
1980 - by turning around as if to draw something
on the board and revealing the back of his
shirt, which said, "A FOOTBALL COACH'S MAJOR JOB
IS TO STAMP OUT SOCCER!"
-
- *********** My question is what is the best
defense to run against the double wing T or
better yet which D gives you the most problems.
I've tried more than a few but have found
real success treating the double wing T as
though it were the old wishbone option.
Basically that is what we are gong with but if
you had any ideas I would be open to them thank
you for your time. Great Site
-
- I hope you will understand that I am
dedicated to helping people who run my
Double-Wing, not the people who want to stop
them. Glad you enjoy the site.
-
- *********** On Monday, after Katie Couric's
much-hyped first week as its "news" anchor, CBS
Evening News was back where it was before they
shelled out millions for Ms. Couric - dead last,
behind NBC Nightly News and ABC World News in
the ratings.
-
- On her first night, September 5, in much the
same way that sideshows initially draw crowds of
the curious, she drew 13.6 million viewers.
-
- But then, just as the crowd invariably goes
home disappointed after once again discovering
that they've been duped, Ms. Couric's viewers
vanished, until a week later, her audience was
back at the 7.5 million level that caused CBS
executives to hire her in the first place.
-
- Guess people just wanted news after
all.
-
- *********** Coach, I just wanted to give you
a quick update on our progress. Our record is
now 1-1. We we played the strongest team in our
league last night (they have won our league
title every year since 2000 and outscored us
140-14 in three games last season) and lost by a
score of 7-6. Unfortunately, we had our extra
point blocked and we missed a field goal with a
minute left, so the special teams really need
some work. Here is the link to the game from our
local paper:
http://www.medicinehatnews.com/article_3078.php
-
- While we only scored one touchdown, we moved
the ball fairly well and we played a very good
team. We certainly have some things to work on.
I can really tell the difference in the attitude
of both our offence and defence. The D has more
confidence in our offence and our offence is
enjoying being on the field.
-
- I will let you know how things unfold as the
season progresses. Thank you once again for all
of your assistance!
-
- Anthony Donner, Crescent Heights High School
Vikings, Medicine Hat, Alberta
-
- *********** The newest NFL "Power Rankings"
have the Colts ranked second. Say, "Power?" They
"rushed" for 55 yards.
-
- *********** Offense looked great week
one. We shocked everyone. Almost
beat a team that smoked us last year.
Question, trying to put in Tight Rip Stop
77 Special Power. My A back is fantastic and
runs 88 and 38 G O very well. We
scrimmaged one or our other weight classes last
night for a few minutes. The backside D
End is not blocked on this play and was getting
to the A back from behind. I made an O
call and had the Y end stay and block him, but
now I have lost a blocker. Any
ideas? I was guessing that D end should
stay at home after getting hurt by the A back on
88 but he did not. Maybe you will tell me
I should run 29 keep right if he is that
aggressive. Really want to get this play
in for my next game.
-
- You do not need to make an "O" call to
keep your end home.
-
- I suspect that your back is getting
caught from behind because you are running too
much motion and your back is getting too
deep.
-
- The motion alerts the end to chase, and
the depth of the running back means he gets to
the hole too late.
-
- Yes, Special Power will work fine. But it
is a relatively high-maintenance play. I assume
you run Power, and not Super Power (you should
run Super Power). You should watch your QB every
time you run power, and if they are ignoring
him, simply call for a naked bootleg. Make it
just between you and the QB. Don't even tell the
other players, and make sure the QB doesn't tell
them, either - it will be a better fake if they
don't know.
-
- By the way, when I introduce a new play,
I rarely expect to run it that week, because I
want to have full confidence in it. I like to
rep it in practice for two weeks before running
it in a game.
-
- *********** Hi, Coach, wanted to get your
feedback if any on USA Football.
-
- As you may know, I despise the NFL and
what it is doing to our game, and I see USA
Football as the front for the NFL's move to one
day monopolize every aspect of the
game.
-
- *********** "And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation
worketh patience; And patience,experience;and
experience, hope." Romans:5:3-4 Hi Coach, Connie
a big hello. Please put me on the list of people
that are still pissed, spitting mad, ass-kicking
enraged. Screw the Muslim world and what they
think of us. Bomb the sh-- out of all of them.
Declare real war on their ass. Bring them to
their knees, And do not accept anything but
total surrender. I'm like you I'm sick of all
this crying. Armando Castro, Roanoke,
Virginia
-
- I couldn't have said it any
better.
-
- But where are all these so-called tough
Americans who talk big but stand back while our
President lays wreaths?
-
- Our news media - and our leaders - are
turning us into a nation of poodles by
withholding from us news that might fuel our
anger.
-
- For example, they won't show us the
planes crashing into the World Trade Center, or
the people jumping to their deaths. And when was
the last time anybody saw those f--king
Palestinians dancing for joy at the news of the
World Trade Center attacks?
-
- They refer to the cowardly attacks as
"tragedies" and "disasters," and we spend
September 11 watching hack politicians lay
wreaths, and listening to other hack politicians
accusing our President of "politicizing" the
day.
-
- Soon enough - you mark my words - they
won't even print the names of terrorists, as if
we are supposed to think that maybe they were
Norwegians.
-
- And one day, our little kids will be
reading in their textbooks, "Many citizens of
third-world countries grew angry with the United
States because we insisted on dominating the
world, and kept all our wealth to ourselves
while refusing to share any of it with poorer
nations so they could feed their starving
children and buy medicine for their sick babies.
They tried in many ways to get our attention,
but we wouldn't listen to them. Finally, a group
of their young people came up with a great idea
to get our attention. They got onboard several
American airplanes, and shortly after takeoff,
they began to tell the people on board exactly
how they felt. Most of the people on board were
hearing this for the first time, and they nodded
their heads in agreement and began to say "Allah
is great!" But several rich white men, sitting
in First Class realized that if enough others
heard what these young people had to say, they
might have to share some of their ill-gotten
wealth with the world's hungry, so they got up
and tried to silence the young people. When the
flight attendants were unable to get them all to
return to their seats, they called for the
pilots to help, and while the pilots were
distracted, the planes spun out of control.
Several of the young people tried to regain
control of the planes and save everyone on
board, but they were too late - four planes
crashed, one each into the World Trade Center's
twin towers, one into the Pentagon, outside
Washington, D.C., and one into a field in
Western Pennsylvania. So every year, on
September 11, the day on which these tragic
events occurred, we celebrate Martyrs' Day, in
honor of the heroic young people who died trying
to plead with the rich white capitalist men of
America to share just a little bit of their
wealth with the world's poor."
-
- What ever happened to "Remember Pearl
Harbor?"
-
- *********** Dad, I wondered what you'd think
of those Syracuse uniforms. They looked like a
team that would have been in a picture on the
wall of your room down at the shore &endash; a
Philly area HS team from the 50s. I guess they'd
look better if they'd win.
-
- How bad were the Raiders? Wow. That is a
bad, bad football team. You know you're in
trouble when Randy Moss says "It's crazy around
here, man." That's Randy Moss saying that.
-
- Favre's decision is proving to be a
disaster. Instead of leaving the game the way he
should, he's going to either have a terrible
season like last year, finish the season on the
bench, or quit mid year. Not very fitting for a
guy of his caliber.
-
- Spot on with the comment about the 700 page
playbook. The guy's getting $2 million bucks for
that offense. As much as I like Brunell as a
gutsy veteran and a class guy, I think they
needed an upgrade there.
-
- Your mention of receivers gesturing for a
flag is interesting &endash; in world soccer now
if you gesture for a yellow card for an
opponent, you can actually get one yourself. A
similar rule could be passed in the NFL or
college.
-
- Ducks v Oklahoma should be very interesting.
Autzen will be a madhouse I'm sure!
-
- Talk to you soon. Love, Ed - Melbourne,
Australia
-
- *********** I like Tyrone Willingham. I
thought he got screwed by Notre Dame, and I was
happy when Washington hired him. I may yet be
proven wrong about his ability to coach, but
there will never be any question about his
character.
-
- Let's go back a few years to a huge fuss
created in Seattle when boosters announced plans
to erect a statue of former Huskies' coach Jim
Owens. Coach Owens, an Oklahoma All-American
under Bud Wilkinson, coached the Huskies from
1957 through 1974. (Here's a good one - he
succeeded former OU teammate Darrell Royal, who
spent only one year in Seattle before being
tapped for the Texas job.) In his time there, he
won 99 games, including two Rose Bowls (in three
appearances).
-
- And then he ran into the whirlwind - Vietnam
and civil rights and student protest and
don't-trust-anyone-over-30, etc., etc. - and
being a hard-nosed southerner, he did not take a
compromising stance when some of his black
players threatened to boycott the team. I'm
sorry, I do not know what the particular issue
was, but I do know that college football was a
minefield for many coaches. It is too long ago
for many of you to remember, but it caused
incredible turmoil at colleges all over the
country. And as a result, Jim Owens came out of
it with a reputation in some quarters as a
racist.
-
- But, some 30 years after he left coaching,
there were local civil rights organizations
ready to oppose a statue that in their minds
honored a racist.
-
- In the end, deals were made, angry people
were pacified, and the statue went up. But Coach
Owens remained, in the eyes of many, a
racist.
-
- So it was quite a gracious gesture when
Coach Willingham invited former Coach Owens and
his wife to accompany the Huskies' team to
Oklahoma last weekend. Sadly, Coach Owens'
health wouldn't permit him to go, but the
important thing to me is that Tyrone Willingham,
whose credentials as a black man can't be
questioned by anyone, reached out to a white man
who had once stood in his shoes.
-
- *********** I too watched the Iowa Syracuse
game. Did you hear the announcers comment about
it not being speeding unless you are caught?
Thanks a lot guys.
-
- Also, I'd like to nominate Jimmy Johnson,
Don Shula, and Urban Meyer for whore/pimp status
for that abominable "Briscoe High" Nike add
campaign. Great, lets just encourage athletes to
be arrogant and brain dead in class. After all,
"Football is everything."
-
- John Zeller, Tustin, Michigan (Come to
think of it, I do remember the "not speeding"
bit. I'm with you on the "Briscoe High"
campaign. I find the ads objectionable on
several levels. But that's Nike for you. They
call it "pushing the envelope." I call it
"taking sports down the gurgler." HW)
-
- *********** (You wrote) "Jamie Foxx, whoever
the f--k he is, was "interviewed" in the
broadcast booth right through the game".
-
- Foxx won an Academy Award for his portrayal
of Ray Charles in "Ray". Never saw it, but
damned if he didn't look like Ray when he put on
the glasses.
-
- He's done pretty well for himself in
Hollywood considering that I never thought much
of him on "In Living Colour", FOX's old sketch
comedy show. He was also in "On Any Given
Sunday", a movie I was dragged to and was one of
the 10 worst films I've ever seen. I was
squirming within four minutes as it both sucked
and blew.
-
- As we walked out of the theatre, I screamed
that Oliver Stone should never be allowed behind
a camera ever again (come to think of it, I
don't think Stone got behind a camera again
until "World Trade Center")
-
- That and the scriptwriters should've been
forced to run back a punt against the Baltimore
Ravens without the benefit of blockers.
-
- Back on point - all the celebrities in the
booths (bleep you, Tom Cruise), sidelines, etc.
is bullshit. Shots of owners like Daniel Snyder
is just as annoying.
-
- Gov. Ah-nald appeared during the Raiders
game and I hit the mute button.
-
- One high spot on Monday Night Football - I
enjoyed the trio of Brad Nessler, Jaworski and
Vermeil during the Raiders game (and as an
Oakland fan, I had to have something to
entertain me).
-
- Nessler sticks to the basics (thank the
maker). Vermeil was better than I thought. And
Jaworski should be doing color all the time. He
and Vermiel were insightful without being
overbearing. Or clueless, like some
dingbats.
-
- All hail Jaws
-
- Vaya con dios.... Ned Griffen, New London,
Connecticut (So you did see those Raiders,
then? My personal theory is that this is Al
Davis' payback for all those years he spent
putting the Raiders first and the NFL dead last,
behind whatever else occupies his empty
life.
-
- And now, he keeps foisting on us the same
nonsensical "Pursuit of Excellence"
sloganeering, the kind of motivational garbage
you find on office walls everywhere. Maybe he
should bring back "Pride and Poise."
-
- Ah-nald was borderline sick, telling us
what a wonduhful game we were watching. Maybe
that deception works in California, but the rest
of us knew what we were seeing. HW)
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, Just wanted to give
you an update on the Britton-Deerfield "Black
Lions". Well, it was a long time coming but the
pieces are finally starting to come together
with these kids and the double wing is finally
achieving some of its potential and creating
some believers. We recorded our first league
victory, 32-20, since Oct. 2004 last Friday in
our league opener. The game started out poorly
and we were down 12-0 in the first quarter. We
took control from there on. We ran for 423 yards
and threw for 79 more. We scored on 3 plays of
over 70 yards. Rip 77 Power Inside for 90 yards,
Red Red for 70 yards, and Rip 47 XX-C for 74
yards. All three scores were by my C back, Matt
Rau. Matt finished with 221 yards rushing on 12
carries. It has been a long tough road, but
hopefully we can continue to go forward from
here.
-
- Also, please make sure we are signed up for
the Black Lion award for all three levels,
Varsity, JV, and Middle school. We do wear a
small Black Lion insignia on the back of our
helmets. I will try to send you a picture some
time.
-
- Hope all is well in Washington. Roger Doorn,
Britton-Deerfield Football, Britton and
Deerfield, Michigan
-
- *********** Hugh, Just thought you'd like to
know. Finally!! Hamilton Township broke into the
win column last Friday night with a 16-13 win
over Zane Trace. Although the final score was
close the game was not as close as the final
score would indicate. We had a 16-7 lead in the
third quarter and fumbled the ball at their six
yard line after a 17 play drive that ate up most
of the third quarter. Yeah, you read that right,
a 17 play drive.
-
- Earlier in the second quarter we had the
ball 3rd and Goal at their five but got called
for a motion penalty (yeah, the officials even
in Ohio can't get the motion rule right) and had
to settle for a FG. (yuck). Final score could
have easily been 28-13 but as you can see we're
still working on correcting mistakes, but are
starting to play like a good football team.
-
- The boys were absolutely beside themselves
afterward and couldn't figure out what to do
next. So, after the band played the alma mater
and the team saluted the home fans they all
raced out of the stadium to the front of the
school to ring the victory bell that hadn't been
tugged on since September of 2004. The bell
still works, and was music to everyone's
ears.
-
- Tomorrow night we start our conference
schedule and travel to play against the
defending conference champs. We are both 1-2. We
have played and lost to two state ranked
opponents while they have also lost to a state
ranked team and to a team that is also 1-2. They
are also considered one of our rivals so it
should be a good game.
-
- Hope all is well with you and yours. I still
enjoy reading your "news" and encourage you to
continue to "Give 'em hell Hughie!!" Talk to you
soon.
-
- Joe Gutilla, Columbus, Ohio
-
- *********** Won 21 - 0 on Sunday. They
were also undefeated in our division. Had
two fumbles, 6 penalties and two TD's
called back (Second string ends lined up in the
backfield both times) and one extra point (Wing
back aiding the runner). I'm afraid that
my kids are going to (or already do) think that
they can get away with playing sloppy and still
win. We get backed up in 3rd and long and
our counters almost always work. I kind of
feel like I should yell or punish them a
little. But they were dominant once
again. Any thoughts?
-
- Glad to hear that things are working
well. Not sure about whether you need to yell at
the kids, but complacency could set in. One
thing you could do is tell them that they'll
going to run a certain number of sprints at the
end of practice (just for conditioning, not
punishment), but every time they run a play
perfectly in practice you'll deduct a
sprint.
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, I'm letting you
know that we won our game last night 31-14. We
had a 24-0 halftime lead and I put in the subs
and let them play all of the second half except
for one drive. We still are not blocking 99
super power as good as I want and our passing
game needs some more reps. One of my former
assistants Ryan Guy son of Ray Guy is now at the
other school. I tried to keep the game
respectable but the head coach, not Ryan refused
to put in his subs. That's why they got 14
points against my 2nd and 3rd string. It would
be nice to play someone of equal talent. Then
our kids would really have to play hard and
execute, but they can get away with average
blocks and technique because the other teams
can't match up in either in size or speed. Dan
King Riverside Middle School
-
- ***********Tennessee retired the uniform
numbers of four student-athletes who died in
service during World War II prior to the Sept. 9
UT-Air Force game. The honored veterans were
Bill Nowling, Willis Tucker, Rudy Klarer, and
Clyde Fuson.
- 18-year-old Matthew Stafford was 8-19-171-3
INT in the Bulldogs win over South
Carolina…. Mustain's first start versus
Utah State drew 69,491, fans, or 7,000 more than
the average Razorback non-conference home game
(other than Texas and USC)
-
- *********** Michigan is now 21-0 all-time
against MAC opponents
-
- *********** Virginia Tech hasn't lost an
away conference game since joining the ACC in
2004. The Hokies are now 9-0 on the road.
*********** Old Dominion University has hired
former Navy and Virginia coach George Welsh,,
and former NC State coach Dick Sheridan, to
serve as consultants as the school prepares to
start up a football program for the 2009
season.
-
- *********** Minnesota will break ground
September 30 on a new $248 million on-campus
stadium
-
- *********** Coach Wyatt, I couldn't agree
more on the need to seek perfection.
-
- (You said) "There is one way to win
with this offense and I have told you what it
is: successful repetitions. If there were
another way, I would suggest that. The
journey to excellence is often boring,
especially to people who have been taught
that life is a matter of being constantly
entertained."
- I think I do an ok job of coaching the
offense, but I always strive to make those base
plays better. After 3 games the superpowers
aren't up to their potential, especially 99 sp.
I'm looking at film to see if it's a personnel
issue or if we aren't stressing proper
technique. (In the first play of our opening
game we scored on 88 sp).
-
- Dan King Riverside Middle School, Evans,
Georgia
-
- *********** No doubt you have seen or heard
about the incident in the World Cup final in
which an enraged Frenchman named Zinedine Zidane
sucker-butted Italian Marco Materazzi and, in
the final game of his career, was ejected.
People could only speculate what Materazzi had
said to set Zidane off, until weeks later,
Zidane said it was this exchange: ZIDANE:
"I'll give you my shirt";
MATERAZZI: "No, I'd rather have your
sister."
-
- Now, Sepp Blatter (love that name), head of
FIFA, soccer's world governing body, would like
France's Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Marco
Materazzi to make up. "We are working on
bringing together Zidane and Materazzi and to
bring an end to this matter," he said.
-
- Don't tell anybody I told you this, but I
have it on good authority that Materazzi has
agreed - "but only if he brings his
sister."
-
- ***********
I have
noticed that the local high school
runs their version of the wedge, a
quarterback wedge. It is very
effective! The difference between theirs
and yours is that the fullback, in blatant
violation of the rules, puts his shoulder into
the quarterback's back and shoves him and
the pile forward. I asked one of the
coaches about it and they said "teams have done
it to us for years and the refs don't call
it. We will run it that way until they
do!"
-
- If the officials will
not enforce the rules, is it unethical to coach
a play that is technically illegal? Same
thing with the holding rules. A lot
of teams teach holding by coaching
hands-blocking and having their linemen grab
cloth in close, on the grounds that referees no
longer consider that to be holding.
-
- Well, of course it
is unethical to coach something illegal. I dealt
with this a week or so ago by quoting the New
York Times ethicist.
-
- There is that old
saying, "Character is what you do when nobody is
looking."
-
- Ethical behavior is
doing what is right even when you know you could
get away with doing wrong.
-
- It is what keeps
our game - and our society - from totally
degenerating into anarchy.
-
- I have no respect
for a coach who would teach something illegal.
"Other people are breaking the rules?" So what?
That is moral relativism - you get to pick and
choose the rules that you believe you should
obey. There is no way you can justify spending
taxpayers' money on a football program that
teaches kids moral relativism. What kind of a
society are we creating when that's what we
teach our football players? What kind of leaders
are they going to be?
-
- How can we teach
that on the football field and at the same time
wonder why our business and our civic leaders
are corrupt and self-serving?
-
- I believe in moral
absolutes. I don't get to choose which laws I
wish to obey, and neither do you. Right is right
and wrong is wrong, irrespective of the
authorities' ability to enforce it. Our civil
society is based on that principle. The end
result of doing otherwise is
anarchy.
-
- *********** How'd you like to be Lew
Kasselman? He just started his 11th season as
head coach at Bonner Springs High, in Bonner
Springs, Kansas, about 20 miles outside Kansas
City.
-
- And unless he wins at least half his games,
it will be his last.
-
- That's because he was offered - and
accepted, it should be pointed out - a contract
saying he can be fired if his kids don't win
half their games this year.
His contract calls for
improvements in other areas, such as
fundamentals, but the requirement that he go
.500 or better is the only measurable criterion.
And going .500 may not be easy: Bonner Springs
had been winless for two years before Kasselman
took over in 1996. It's better now, but at 20-29
since 2001, it's described as "a
traditionally middle-of-the-road football
school" by the Kansas City Star.
-
- Prominent athletic directors and coaches in
the Kansas City area told the Star that they'd
never heard of anything like the deal Lew
Kasselman was offered.
-
- "I've never heard of
it, and I've never seen any contract that had
words like that, and I've been in this business
35 years," said Darwin Rold, district athletic
director in Lee's Summit.
-
- "It's just amazing to
me that someone would do that at the high school
level," said Sam Brown of Excelsior Springs, in
his 36th year of coaching football.
-
- "They're not at Notre
Dame or with the New York Giants, you know what
I'm saying?" said Blue Springs athletic director
Tim Crone.
-
- "I'd have given them
the contract right back," said Rockhurst's Tony
Severino, in his 30th year as a head
coach.
-
- Although the Star couldn't get the Bonner
Springs superintendent to talk, they did get the
principal.
-
- "We're trying to do
what's best for kids," principal Jerry Abbott
told The Star. "We're certainly trying to have a
good year, and that's all I'm going to say about
it."
-
- Said Kasselman, "I
believe there's more to high school football
than winning and losing. There's character,
discipline, grades. Giving kids a sense of
belonging. Turning kids into productive
citizens. A lot of that doesn't mean anything
anymore, I guess."
-
- For the record, after
two games Bonner Springs is 1-1. Wouldn't you
love to be able to keep score on that
principal?
-
  ***********
We all know that obesity is a growing (no humor
intended) problem among American kids, and we
all know that a major part of the problem is a
lack of exercize. So the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, in an attempt to deal
with the problem, has spent some $339 million
(all taxpayers' money, of course) on something
called the "Verb" campaign. Most of the money
was spent on TV ads, but some of it went to
balls - 500,000 six-inch diameter yellow balls -
distributed to school-age kids all over the US.
The kids were asked to play with the ball, then
log onto verbnow.com and write a blog about what
they did with it, then pass the ball on to
another kid, who will also, it is hoped, play
with it, write a blog, pass it along, etc.,
etc., with the idea that kids will be able to
trace what happens to their ball. Enough,
already. This thing has dangerous potential.
Before the campaign gets too far along, I am
petitioning my congressman (a liberal Washington
Democrat, to give you an idea how successful I
expect to be) to recall all those balls and
attach the following label to them:
- *********** coach
wyatt.....i saw were you mentioned coach gill
and his buffalo bulls.....a former player of
mine is a grad assistant at bowling green and i
was at the game......the game was unique in that
it started at 3:00 pm est and because of two
lighting delays did not end until about
9:15.....bgsu dominated the game from
scrimmage.....i'm sure they had close to 600
yards total offense with both qb's and a running
back at or over 100 yards rushing.....bgsu took
the opening kick and used 5 plays to score.....a
delay of 58 minutes then took place.....i just
got to my seat in time to see buffalo return the
kickoff for a td.....they must have made good
use of the delay.....buffalo went up when they
blocked a punt into the end zone.....bgsu used a
punt formation where their line was spread from
hash to hash.....from the sound of the crowd
bgsu must have had a punt blocked for a td vs
wisconsin.....bgsu went to a tight punt the next
time and had a coverage break down causing a
long return that set up a buffalo fg.....score
at half was 17-14 buffalo.....bgsu was able to
score in the last two minutes to force
overtime.....buffalo executed to perfection in
the first two ot's.....after their score in the
second ot their pat was blocked.....you could
since that this was bgsu's chance and they
scored on their first play.....of course their
pat was wide left and the game
continued.....bgsu scored and converted two in
their part of the 3rd ot.....buffalo had a 4th
and 2 at the 17 to keep their hope alive.....the
rb appeared to be close and when he twisted for
more yardage, the ball squirted out bouncing
toward the sideline the qb scooped it up and
went untounced into the endzone......unheard by
anyone in the stands - and, it appeared, on the
field - was the ref's whistle ending the
play.....i assume it was an inadvertent whistle
just as the back twisted that brought the game
to an end......coach gill's team played as hard
and executed as well as a team coming off a
string of winning seasons.....not an 0-11 team
of last year.....both teams were playing like
winners which led to a great and entertaining
game.....i would have paid more attention if i
knew i would be writing you.....kevin
mccullough.....plymouth, indiana (Always
great to get an on-the-scene report, and such a
good one at that. HW)
-
- *********** A West
Point graduate who uses the nom de plume of "J.
Phoenix, Esquire" writes "Gray Matter," a weekly
newsletter to West Point graduates touching on a
wide variety of topics both interesting and
enlightening. They range far afield, but they
all touch in some way on the tradition and
history of the United States Military Academy.
This one, printed with his permission, is a
brief digest of the evolution of many of the
rules of football... the author can be reached
at JPhoenix@aogusma.org, and you can "subscribe"
(it is free) here -
http://www.aogusma.org/CONTACT/signup.htm.
-
- Rules of
Football
-
- Presumably, the first
known collegiate football game was played
between Princeton and Rutgers on 6 November
1869&emdash;using a round rubber ball. Each team
had 25 players, each goal counted one point, and
the first team to score six points was declared
the winner. Rutgers won, 6-4. A week later, the
second game&emdash;extended to eight
points&emdash;was won by Princeton, 8-0. Before
the game, the Princeton team asked their fans to
make some noise to encourage them. Evidently it
worked&emdash;and the cheering section was
born.
-
- By 1873, the number of
players on a side was reduced to 20, and two
years later the familiar, egg-shaped,
leather-covered ball debuted. It was similar to
the ball used in Rugby. During our nation's
centennial year, the American Intercollegiate
Football Association was formed by the two
institutions above plus Columbia, Harvard and
Yale. The rules of the day awarded one point for
a ball carried over the goal line but four
points for a field goal. In 1877 the team was
reduced to 15 (nine linemen and six backs) and a
time limit of 90 minutes set for a
game.
-
- In 1882, the concept
of downs was introduced&emdash;a team had to
advance the ball at least five yards in three
plays to retain possession&emdash;and the team
was reduced to the present eleven players. A
touchdown garnered four points and a safety was
worth two. 1884 was a confused year, with a
touchdown reduced to two points, a field goal
elevated to five, a goal after a touchdown set
at four, and a safety reduced to one point. 1885
was no better&emdash;the touchdown was back at
four points, the goal after was reduced to two,
and the safety elevated to two. Three years
before West Point fielded a team, Penn and
Rutgers played the first indoor game at the old
Madison Square Garden.
-
- In 1893, the "flying
wedge" was banned, and the following year saw
the demise of the AICF. The University Athletic
Club of New York formed a rules committee with
Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale that reduced
the game to two 35-minute halves. In the same
year, President Cleveland cancelled the
Army-Navy game for 1894 because of excessive
lost time due to injuries suffered by the cadets
and midshipmen plus incidents at the 1893 game.
By 1897 a touchdown was increased to five points
and the goal after was back to one point. The
Army-Navy game resumed in 1899, with Army
winning 17-5 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
The first outdoor night game (Drake v. Grinnell
in Des Moines, IA) was played in 1900, and 1904
saw the points awarded a field goal fall from
five to four.
-
- But 1905 was a
watershed year. Piling on, tackling out of
bounds, and hitting the ball carrier in the face
were forbidden, the referee called the end of
each play, the game was shortened to 60 minutes,
and the forward pass was legalized. An
incomplete pass gave the ball to the other side,
as did passing outside of five yards to either
side of the center of the field or passing to an
ineligible receiver. Amazingly, a pass
completion in the end zone was considered a
turnover instead of a touchdown. And a little
group known as the Intercollegiate Athletic
Association of the United States was formed. In
1908, two teams&emdash;Western and
Jefferson&emdash;put numbers on football
jerseys, and the following year a field goal was
pegged at three points. In 1910 the game was
divided into four quarters, with a 30-minute
break at half time, and forward passes could not
exceed 20 yards. In that year, the
Intercollegiate Athletic Association also
changed its name to the present National
Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA).
-
- Another watershed year
was 1912. A first down required a ten-yard gain
in four plays, the length of the field was set
at 100 yards, a touchdown was awarded six
points, and all distance restrictions on the
forward pass were eliminated. An incomplete pass
was a loss of a down, not a turnover, and a pass
completed into the end zone was scored as a
touchdown. Thus, Notre Dame's aerial show
against Army on 1 November 1913 was hardly as
shocking as the Knute Rockne movie would have
one believe. Army had employed the forward pass
since 1906 and set up two touchdowns with passes
of its own against Notre Dame in the first half.
In 1915, the University of Pittsburgh was the
first school to list players and their numbers
in (can't tell the players without) a program.
In 1919, COL Charles D. Daly '05 founded and was
first president of the American Football
Coaches' Association. In 1926, an incomplete
pass resulted in a five-yard penalty, and
Army-Navy attracted the first crowd of over
100,000 when the game was played at Soldier
Field in Chicago (a 21-21 tie before over
110,000 fans). By 1937, all players were
required to wear numbers on their jerseys, and
official statistics were maintained for the
first time.
-
- In 1939, Fordham
played Waynesburg in the first televised game.
In 1941, free substitution (except during last
two minutes of half) was introduced, and in 1945
the first "two-platoon" game was played at
Yankee Stadium in New York City. Michigan used
separate offensive and defensive squads but
still lost to Army, 28-7. Army also beat Notre
Dame (48-0), Penn (61-0), and Navy (32-13) that
year, en route to a 9-0 season and a national
championship. By 1952, single platoon football
was reinstated&emdash;players starting a quarter
could not be replaced during the quarter. In
1958, the option of a two-point conversion after
a touchdown was introduced, with the ball
spotted at the three-yard line. In 1959, the
goal posts were widened by about five feet from
the 1876 standard, and free substitution of a
single player at any time was permitted. In
1965, unlimited free substitution again was
permitted. And now you know the rest of the
story. Beat Navy!
-
- Your humble servant,
J. Phoenix, Esquire
-
- (The definitive
book on the evolution of our rules, and how they
came about - including, in some cases, the
discussion, debate and politicking that went
into them - is Anatomy of a Game, by David
Nelson, 1994, University of Delaware Press.
Coach Nelson built the University of Delaware's
program and is famous as the head coach under
whose leadership the Delaware Wing-T came about.
But he also served from for 33 years on the NCAA
Football Rules Committee from 1958 until his
death in 1991.)
-
- *********** DO YOU
HATE THE NEW, TOTALLY UNNECESSARY CLOCK
RULES?
-
- Prior to the season,
most college football fans heard something about
the changes to the rules governing the game
clock: The clock would start running the moment
the ball is kicked on a kickoff. Even more
bizarrely, it would also run after the ball was
set following a change of
possession.
-
- The driving force
behind these 'improvements' to college football
was a desire by the TV networks for shorter
games.
-
- If you agree with me
that they have broken something in order to fix
it, go to...
-
- http://www.wehatethenewclockrules.com
and sign the
petition!
-
*********** ATTENTION!!! YOU
ARE NEEDED! As many of you know, former
Army All-American Bob Novogratz is a member of the
board of the Black Lion Award. Bob has been
tireless in supporting the cause, including
presenting the award, and was instrumental in
persuading the Army Football Club, the association
of former Army football players, to present the
Black Lion Award to West Point football player
every year.
In the photos below, Bob is shown in January,
2003 presenting the Black Lion Awards to young men
from the Millersville, Maryland youth football
program. The photo in the top middle was taken in
1958, when Bob was an All-American guard and
linebacker on and Colonel Red Blaik's last team and
Army's last undefeated team, the fabled "Lonely
End" team that finished 3rd in the nation.
FROM MY ARCHIVES - JANUARY 2003-
- A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It's not
every day that a team is fortunate enough to
have its Black Lion Awards presentation made
by a veteran or an active serviceman; it's
rarer still when the presenter is a former
West Point All-American.
He is Bob Novogratz, and that's he in the
middle of the top row, before his senior year
at Army. That's also he in the other five
photos, shown with Black Lion Award winners
from five different teams in the
Millersville, Maryland youth football
program.
When the football picture of him was
taken, it was fall of 1958, and no one would
have dared to predict the kind of year he and
his Army teammates would have; preseason
forecasters knew that they would be good -
the Cadets had finished 7-2 in 1957. But no
one could have foretold that it would become
one of the most famous of all Army teams.
It would be the final season in the
fabulous career of legendary Army coach
Earl
"Red" Blaik, and that 1958 Army team
finished the season unbeaten and ranked
number 3 in the nation. The last Army team to
go unbeaten, It gained nationwide notice
through Blaik's ingenious deployment of a
split end who never entered the huddle - the
so-called "Lonely End."
But it was by no means a team based on a
gimmick. The
1958 Army team was solid on offense, and
on defense as well. Three of the 11 men on
the team - remember, it was two-way football
- were named All-American. Two of them - Pete
Dawkins and Bob Anderson - were running
backs, and one of them - Dawkins - won the
Heisman Trophy that year; the third, Bob
Novogratz, played guard and linebacker, and
won the Knute Rockne Award, given then to the
nation's outstanding defensive player. (With
only 11 spots to fill on those All-America
teams in those days, selection was quite an
honor.)
-
- Coming from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a
hotbed of wrestling, Bob actually went to
West Point as a wrestler, and was persuaded
to play football by Coach Earl Blaik. In
addition to being an All-American football
player, Bob was Eastern Heavyweight wrestling
champion.
Bob was drafted by the World Champion
Baltimore Colts, but he had other things to
do than play pro football - he had a
commitment to serve in the US Army. He spent
time briefly as a coach at West Point, and
went on to serve in Vietnam, where he earned
the Bronze Star medal. After a career in the
Army, he retired as a colonel.
- Colonel Bob Novogratz and the
Millersville Black Lion Award winners. (TOP
LEFT: Aaron Terry, TOP RIGHT, Aaron Farrare;
BOTTOM (L to R) Ian Page, Dale Younker,
Justin Cronin (More
about the Black Lion
Award)
Correctly identifying Bob Novogratz:
Joe Daniels- Sacramento,California... Kevin
McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Tom Hinger-
Auburndale, Florida ("What a great series of
pictures with the young Black Lion Award
winners. Colonel Novogratz is a class act, which
is no surprise. Leaders like him are a pleasure
to follow.")... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski,
Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois...
Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("The pic
this week is of no other than Bob Novogratz, the
All American Strongside guard who was also a
starting linebacker for the 1958 team.
Incidentally Mr. Novogratz was named outstanding
lineman for the Army -Navy game and I believe
was the Outland trophy winner that year.")...
John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("Whatever
happened to the Rockne Award?")... Greg Stout-
Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Alan Goodwin-
Warwick, Rhode Island ("That must have been one
heck of a team. I'd like to see a game at West
Point. UConn plays there this year. That may be
a good road trip. I haven't seen West Point
since I visited with my Boy Scout troop - must
have been around 1968")... Jim Hooper-
Englewood, Colorado ("Thanks for recognizing
Army All-American Bob Novogratz. No small feat
to gain national recognition on a team that
included Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter.")...
Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ( "I finally
looked up a website that had highlights of the
1958 football season and that gave me the
answer. Bob Novogratz certainly was a great
player. When I put his name into the search
engine to find out more about him, I was
directed to Chapter 9 of a book written about
Coach Blaik. Lo and behold, the author is the
one and only Hugh Wyatt!")..
NOW- Here's where you
come in. Bob is a native of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, where his dad, who came here from
Austria, worked in the local cement plant
(Northampton High's teams are the Koncrete
Kids).
The Allentown Call, which
serves the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern
Pennsylvania, is putting together The Lehigh Valley
All-Time, All-Area team. It is no small honor to
make it - among those nominated along with Bob
Novogratz are All-Time All-Pro Chuck Bednarik, who
played all 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL championship
game, and All-Pro Packers' center Jim Ringo. Bob
Novogratz, who passed up a pro career to serve his
country, belongs on it.
I am asking you readers - If
you have ever been involved in the Black Lion Award
program... If you have ever been a lineman or a
line coach... If you have ever admired service
academy football... If you respect a man for
putting his country ahead of his sports
aspirations... If you love the idea of a college
football player who was also a champion wrestler...
If you just admire the grace and toughness of the
guys who played OLD SCHOOL FOOTBALL... go to the
following site and vote for Bob
Novogratz!
http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/all-football-local-about-oline,0,719088.story?coll=all-sportsstorycontent-utl
"INVINCIBLE?"
UNBELIEVABLE - FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE REAL VINCE
PAPALE!
www.coachwyatt.com/vincepapale.htm
|
|
Colleges
- A Random Ramble!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
The
NFL - A Sarcastic Slog
!
(See"NEWS")
|
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
- September
12,
2006
- "This is called a second Pearl
Harbor. It's an understandable reference, and
yesterday's assault was an act of infamy. But
the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor looks
like an affair of honor next to Tuesday's
aggression." David Reinhard, Portland
Oregonian, September 12, 2001
-
- *******************************************************************************************
- WHERE IS
THE RAGE?
The terrorist attack on our country is a great
national tragedy, possibly the greatest in my
lifetime (and I was alive in 1941), and maybe
even in our entire history. It is also possibly
the greatest outrage in my lifetime. But I was
home all day Tuesday, and what I seemed to see
on TV as the news began to sink in was mostly
expressions of grief and fear. But no anger.
Yes, it's sad. Unbelievably sad. It's awful
thinking of those innocent people whose lives
were snuffed out, and of their families. And of
the brave, dedicated rescue workers and
firefighters who also perished. And, yes, there
is some reason for all of us to be afraid. But
where, I thought, is the anger - where is the
rage? I don't think I saw a single person
interviewed on TV who appeared angry -
really angry. Where was the anger at the
kind of scum who would fly planes full of
innocent people into buildings full of innocent
people? Where were the people, like the ones I
talked to and the others I heard from, ones who
sounded ready to suit up right now if that's
what it takes to rid the world of those
bastards? Have we turned into such a nation of
eunuchs - such a bunch of sensitive Alan Aldas -
that we'll wring our hands and hug and cry, and
worry about what to tell the children, and try
to figure out what could possibly make people so
angry that they'd lash out at us like that? This
was not the way Americans reacted to
Pearl Harbor. Are we going to let our leaders
get us involved in some do-nothing "coalition"
with our gutless European pals, the ones who
love to have us defend them in return for the
right to criticize us? Are we going to sit
passively and listen while the
peace-at-any-costers tell us that violence on
our part will just beget more violence? While
politicians babble about bringing the
perpetrators to "justice?" Bringing them to
justice, you say? You mean the way we brought
the killers of the Marines in Lebanon, or the
bombers of the USS Cole to justice? Justice, you
say? American justice? The kind that allows a
foreign court to deliver a slap on the wrist to
the Lockerbie bombers? The kind that leaves no
stone unturned in its search for an excuse for
the most heinous of crimes, and turns proven
killers loose on technicalities? The kind that
does everything it can to deprive society of any
chance to display its outrage? Isn't anybody
else, finally, angry? (from this
page, Sept 12, 2001)
- *******************************************************************************************
I am definitely not a
candlelight vigil guy, and so I had to reprint
this, from my NEWS page, September 15,
2001
OFF THE TOP:
- Uh-oh. Now those terrorists are in for it.
The United Nations is after
them.
- If we'd properly respected the sanctity of
our borders, most of the terrorists wouldn't
have been in the US in the first place.
- If our politicians hadn't been so cowardly
on the topic of profiling at security
checkpoints, the terrorists might not have
gotten on the planes.
- Maybe the killers are willing to die, but I
don't get the idea that their leaders are. Let's
find out.
- Like most of you, I have been deluged with
e-mails containing the piece, attributed to a
Canadian named Gordon Sinclair, beginning ""This
Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the
Americans as the most generous and possibly the
least appreciated people on all the earth..."
Not that this isn't a very appropriate time to
resurrect it, but the piece actually dates to
1973, when we were catching hell for our role in
Vietnam and our dollar was being bashed on world
currency exchanges. If you doubt me, bear in
mind that a European Consortium, Airbus
Industrie, does in fact make jets, has done so
for years, and now sells as many jets as Boeing;
neither Lockheed nor Douglas has made a plane in
years. The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New
York Central merged into the Penn Central, which
went bankrupt and hasn't been heard from since.
Draft-dodgers - that in itself should date it -
may still be walking the streets of Toronto, but
an awful lot of them are back in the US -
probably teaching in colleges - and have been
ever since they were pardoned by Jimmy Carter.
It appeared as a recording, narrated by Mr.
Sinclair, with The Battle Hymn of the Republic
playing in the background. It made the the
rounds of US radio stations and for a brief time
was quite a hit. I suspect the guy made a buck
or two on it. But that doesn't make it any less
appropriate now than it was then.
- It was with mixed emotions that I watched
the flower of American corruption, members of
the United States Congress, singing "God Bless
America" - for the TV cameras, of course. Not
that I object to anyone calling for God's
blessings on us at any time - and maybe some
cowardly school people will now figure that if
Congress can do it, they can too - but
considering the running battle so many of those
people have been waging against our culture and
God's place in it, I felt I was either
witnessing shameless hypocrisy ("patriotism is
the last refuge of a scoundrel" - Samuel
Johnson) or a mass foxhole conversion.
- ABC's Peter Jennings has rocketed to the
top, past even Dan Rather, in my personal
Pompous Ass Poll. Yet in a day of watching him,
I found myself almost pitying him. Poor guy. He
kept wondering aloud whether President Bush was
up to the job ("some people are better at it
than others," he informed his viewers,
shamelessly using a national catastrophe to push
his political prejudices) and even appeared to
be questioning the President's courage as Air
Force One whisked him off to Louisiana and
Nebraska. Poor Peter seemed to be pining for the
days when we had a real man in the White
House. When we had - if you can believe this -
Bill Clinton, that man's man, who I am willing
to bet has never been in a fist fight in his
life (but only because we've never met). I'll
bet he'd stand up in front of the
American people and tell us exactly what
was going on! We could count on him to
level with us. (Wasn't he the guy who flew back
from Cape Cod to declare war on terrorism?)
- Our good friends, the French, have been
dealing with Saddam Hussein; our good friends,
the Chinese, have been supplying nuclear
technology and missiles to nations that hate us;
likewise our good friends, the Russians, who
have even thrown in submarines.
- THE SPEECH I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR, BUT
HAVEN'T HEARD YET - "My fellow members of
the Arab-American community and I wish our
fellow Americans to know that we consider us all
to be in this together. We may share the
religion and the ethnicity of the human devils
who choose to wage war on this country, and at
times we may disagree with our nation's foreign
policy, but we love America and we are proud to
call ourselves Americans, and we stand ready to
do whatever we can to assist in the capture and
punishment of anyone who dares to harm America
and our fellow Americans. We deplore, but we can
understand, the passions that may provoke other
Americans to consider taking revenge against the
scum who attacked innocent Americans by
directing attacks against us and our places of
worship. We ask them to understand that we are
as horrified as they are at the tragic loss of
life, and the fact that Americans can no longer
enjoy the security we all once believed was our
right. We join them in condemning the animals
who carried out the attack on New York, in
dedicating ourselves to doing whatever we can to
capture and punish them, and in assisting our
fellow Americans in rebuilding our nation."
- When you begin to hear the first wave of
excuses for the terrorists, they will likely
take the form of a condemnation of Israel - and
of America's and American Jews' support for
Israel. Let's make sure we don't forget the
reason why the Jewish people of Europe, with no
homes to return to, were given a homeland in the
first place. Anyone remember a guy named
Hitler?
- The junior senator from New York, Mrs.
Clinton, has called for a Palestinian
state.
- Hiroshima was a horrible thing, but possibly
- just possibly - after generations of peace
which allowed dove schoolteachers the luxury of
hindsight in teaching our school children about
its unmitigated horrors, we will understand what
motivated President Truman's decision.
- The internment of Japanese-Americans during
World War II was a gross violation of their
rights, but somewhat understandable in the
context of the near-panic that gripped the US in
the days following Pearl Harbor. So real was the
US fear of a Japanese attack on the US mainland
that large gatherings of people on the West
Coast were prohibited - resulting in the Rose
Bowl on New Year's Day, 1942 being moved to
Durham, North Carolina.
- During World War I, during the Red Scares
that followed it, and during World War II,
Germans, Italians and Japanese, and Americans of
German, Italian and Japanese ancestry,
experienced far worse treatment from other
Americans than anything Arab-Americans are
facing now.
- Where have all the flag-burners gone?
- Take a brief time out from all those
thoughts racing through your mind right now and
consider this for a minute - That could have
been Madeline Albright up there instead of Colin
Powell. Janet Reno instead of John Ashcroft.
Whew.
- I'd like to organize a bunch of football
coaches and make this proposal to America's
airlines: just give us each a sidearm and let us
ride the nation's airplanes. One of the reasons
those terrorists did what they did is that they
knew everyone else on that plane was
unarmed.
- It is not the American preference to strike
at innocents, but this is total war, which by
definition involves all citizens, and before you
start feeling too sorry for all those "innocent
women and children" who might be harmed by an
all-out attack on terrorists - did you catch
those screaming jackals, mostly women and
children, on CNN, dancing in the streets of the
Middle East and whooping it up at the news that
thousands of Americans had been killed? (If you
didn't, it's because someone has retired the
clip, for fear of its effect on American
tempers.)
- If we have to send troops into the Middle
East in pursuit of terrorists, those people who
have condemned former Senator Kerry of Nebraska
for supposedly ordering the killing of innocent
Vietnamese civilians may come to understand the
difficulties of fighting a war against an enemy
who doesn't wear red uniforms with shiny brass
buttons, but instead is often indistinguishable
from the general populace.
- We may yet have the stones to stop gagging
those military people willing to admit that we
shouldn't have reduced the physical requirements
in our military training just to keep women from
washing out.
- This time, let's not sidestep the issue -
let's make sure we declare war, so that our
armed forces never have to put up with the
treasonous acts of a Jane Fonda, providing aid
and comfort to our enemies.
- My idea of justice for the terrorists would
be to announce their entrance, and have them
walk through the Big Foot Inn in Washougal,
Washington on a Friday night.
- Let's not kid ourselves - thanks to the
disgraceful demilitarization of the "last
decade," (see "Clinton Administration") we now
find our armed forces understaffed and
overcommitted. (Remember when Willie said the
troops would be home from Bosnia?) By most
accounts, we are militarily unprepared to fight
the kind of war we now face. We allowed
ourselves to be caught similarly unprepared in
1941, but we rallied and fought back. If we do,
indeed, need to rebuild our forces, expect some
brave soul to speak a word that a lot of
politicians have been avoiding for a long time:
D-R-A-F-T.
- It took a catastrophe to show America what
real New Yorkers are really made of. New Yorkers
suffer from a generally, uh, negative image in
other parts of the country. In all fairness,
that's because most outsiders' image of New
Yorkers comes from TV shows in which actors play
New Yorkers, from TV commercials that show them
to be a bunch of young street punks, or from the
first-hand experience with the admittedly hard,
uncaring people who patronize them when they
visit there. (But then, what people in any town
that caters to tourists are warm and caring?)
For the last several days, though, we have seen
New Yorkers as people just like the rest of us,
whether in the South, the West or the Heartland.
These New Yorkers are tough, they are courageous
and they are caring; they care about their
fellow humans, and they work tirelessly to help
them. In the way that they jumped in and got to
work in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on
their city, despite the heartbreaking losses
they have been hit with, they have been an
inspiration to all of us.
- The most pathetic and moving sight I have
seen in my lifetime is that of the hundreds,
maybe thousands, of Americans, dazed and
wandering the streets of New York with pictures
of their loved ones, going from hospital to
hospital, desperately searching for the husband
who didn't come home, the child who didn't call,
the mother they'll never see again.
-
- "Honor
the victims of 9/11 by making a pledge: I will
not submit." Michelle Malkin
- *********** Coach
Wyatt: I just wanted to let you know that we ran
the Wildcat offense for the first time this past
Friday. We ran a total of 65 plays of which 63
were run. We had over a total of 400 rushing
yards!!!! The final score was 42-26. I modified
the offense to fit the 8 man game. Thank you
again for the great offense. I will put together
some clips for you at the end of the season and
send it to you. It's just a great as the Double
Wing!!! Best of luck this season. Aaron Meschuk,
Head Football Coach, St. Michael's Prep, San
Diego, California
- *********** Erskine
"Erk "Russell, who accomplished more as a second
banana - as the defensive coordinator who built
Georgia's famous Junkyard Dawgs - than most head
coaches ever will, and then went on to a second,
even more illustrious career as the man who
started the Georgia Southern program and built
it into a national power, died last Friday of a
stroke, suffered while driving. He was
80.
Coach Russell was the
quintessential career assistant, the man without
whom Vince Dooley could never have built the
Georgia dynasty. Yet in 1981, at the age of 55
and after 17 years as a Georgia assistant, he
accepted the challenge of building up the
dormant program at Georgia Southern, in
Statesboro, Georgia. By 1985, he'd won a
Division I-AA national title, and he repeated in
1986. Passed over for the Georgia job in 1988
when Dooley retired, he stayed at Georgia
Southern and won another national title in
1989.
He certainly had a
sense of humor, one that enabled him to turn a
negative into a positive. He renamed a drainage
stream running by the practice field, calling it
"Beautiful Eagle Creek, " then bottled its
"magic water" and had his players spread some of
it on the playing field before road
games.
He was definitely a
hands-on coach. I once heard Coach Dooley tell a
clinic that Coach Russell kept a card taped
inside his locker that said, "If I don't - they
won't."
He was famous for his
pre-game routine in which he worked his played
into a lather by butting head with them - they
wearing their helmets, he wearing nothing but
his bare-as-a-billiard-ball head. Binoculars
were trained on the scene, and when his forehead
was bleeding - the scab from last week's game
knocked off - fans would share with themselves
the information that he - and his players - were
ready.
Recently, a former
Georgia captain said that it wasn't what it all
appeared to be - Coach Russell never really
butted heads with helmeted players.
"We'd huddle around
him, and he'd point to one and they'd run up and
they'd lift their chest and he'd butt them in
the chest, like putting your facemask into a
chest for a tackle," Frank Ros told the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.
"Of course, the
shoulder pads had some sharp edges, and
eventually, it'd open up the cut from the week
before. It looked like he was butting a helmet,
but he wasn't. Still, if you couldn't get
excited and ready to play then, you better check
for a pulse."
Coach Russell came up
with "Junkyard Dawgs" as a nickname for his
defenses. A popular 1970s song by Jim Croce told
of "Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown - baddest man in the
whole damn town... Badder than old King Kong...
Meaner than a junkyard dog." When the Georgia
defense went on the field, the Georgia band
would play the song, and the crowd would go
nuts.
He retired and stayed
close to the Georgia Southern program, but after
they fired his son as defensive coordinator, he
stayed away. Ironically, last Thursday
afternoon, at the invitation of head coach Brian
VanGorder, Coach Russell returned and addressed
the team at practice. It was his first time back
ont he field in years. He died the next
day.
This was perhaps Erk
Russell's greatest legacy - when he arrived at
Georgia Southern, enrollment was about 5,000.
Today it's around 15,000.
*********** Coach
Wyatt, I can't find anything on attacking the
6-2 defense with the Wing-T offense I have
searched the internet etc. Can you help me
with how to attack it at the youth level, I am
looking for the best way to block 6-2 while
running the Buck Sweep Series. I can't
find any DVD or books on the subject of
attacking the 6-2. I have DVD and books on
how to attack the 4-4, 3-4, 5-3 but nothing on
the 6-2. My season starts next week,
and most of the youth teams in my league use the
6-2 Defense. Thanks for any help that you can
give me. CH, Maryland
The Delaware rules
enable your kids to block any defense they see,
without ever having to know what coaches call
the defense.
- For example,
Buck Sweep-
-
- Playside Wing-
Attack first man to your
inside
-
- Onside TE-
Gap-Read Down (Down-Backer)
-
- Onside
T-Gap-Read Down
-
- Onside G- Pull
Block out on 1st to show
-
- C- Reach - Area
- Away
-
- Offside G- Pull
& Wall Off
-
- Offside T- Cut
Off
- If you are running
the Wing-T, you really need to get a copy of the
blocking rules and teach them to your kids,
rather than how to block a particular defense. A
kid can recognize what is in his particular
area, but he can't be expected to know that it
is a 4-4, or 6-2, or 5-3 because he can't see
beyond his immediate area. Hope that
helps!
*********** I'm
concerned about this week's game. We play
the only team to beat us last year, they are
extremely talented and they are well coached as
well. The thing that worries me is that
it's rumored that they are now running the
double wing, along with this "ninja" formation
that OU ran back in 99. (used at BYU before
that). PC schools don't trade film so we
can't be sure what we will see or how well they
will run it. I'm now under a lot of
pressure from our staff to teach them how to
stop the DW...I told them I'm not sure I know
how if it's run right (the truth). I can't
seem to make them understand that by abandoning
our defense (4-3, 5-2, 6-2) and attempting to
put in a DW stopper in 2 days they are
doing exactly what a DW coach wants. How
would you handle this?
By telling them
again exactly what you've already told
them.
And reminding them
about learning more about the Double-Wing and
what it is that you as a Double Wing coach are
trying to accomplish.
The answer to
stopping the Double-Wing, like stopping most
offenses, lies in understanding the offense. But
most defensive coaches give it so little respect
that they can't be bothered with trying to learn
such an ancient, obsolete
offense.
Your former head
coach was a good example. He had no respect for
it when he worked with you, and didn't take the
time to learn anything about it, but then once
he got a new job he had the gall to call me and
think that I would help him against
you.
I say - if they
don't want to take the time to learn what you're
doing - f--k 'em. That'll teach them to respect
what you're doing.
CALIFORNIA - Natomas
20, Highlands 12 - hey Coach!! after a week from
hell, player suspensions, locker room thefts and
the other incident I wrote you about earlier
this month, it was great to get down to the
business of playing football. We beat HIGHLANDS,
yes my old place of employment, 20-12. and it
was not as close as the score indicates. They
were bigger than us up front and we still ran
the ball down their throats to the tune of 400
yards. Our 4(C) back Demoin Stroman, also a
former highlands kid, ran for 180 yards on 15
carries, all on 45 Toss(99SP) and 45
Counter(47C). It was funny to watch their DC rip
his kids during time outs about them not
stopping out "wack assed offense". What I liked
most about the win was that I knew their kids
were going to take some cheap shots at our kids,
and our kids didn't fall into the trap. They
kept their heads and stayed focused on what was
important, winning came. very satisfying win for
me and DC Bubba D'Ambrosio, also a former
highlands coach. Your friend, Joe
Daniels
FLORIDA - Umatilla 32,
Hawthorne 19 - senior running back Shawn
Kelleher gained 123 yards on 14 carries,
including a 15-yard first-quarter touchdown run
that put the home team up 6-0. With Umatilla
clinging to a 26-19 lead with two minutes left
in the game and Hawthorne driving, Kelleher dove
in front of a pass and bolted 52 yards up the
right sideline to ice the win.
GEORGIA - Nathanael
Greene 42 Hancock 22 - Hugh, We got our second
win Friday with a big offensive night and a
pretty good defensive night as well with the
exception of about 5 plays. We had one wing with
198 yards another with 102, our fullback with
112. A total of 475 yards on the night. Problem
of scoring so fast is the defense plays all
night and gives the opponent time to figure some
things out and with our bad tackling, getting
some points. We hit the best team in the league
Friday, a Veer team who was the "AA" champs last
year going undefeated, and now they drop to "A"
in my region. No one is happy about that to say
the least. Competing at that high level at "AA",
why would anyone want to drop voluntarily to a
smaller conference, even if the numbers allow
it. Can you say D O M I N A T I O N !!!!!!! OH
WELL, I love playing teams like this, for it is
the ultimate challenge. A challenge indeed as we
will be giving up at least 75 lbs. per man up
front minimum, and my best weight lifter on
bench is 100lbs under their front 5 guys. We
must hope for enough bee stings to bring the
beast down. Coach Larry Harrison, Head Football
Coach, Nathanael Greene Academy, Siloam,
Georgia
-
- GEORGIA - Columbia 19,
Lakeside 9
ILLINOIS - Crystal Lake
Central 35, Dundee-Crown 0 - CLC scores the most
points in years. Two CLC backs rush for over 100
yards, a third rushes for 99, and the defense
pitches the first shutout in recent
memory
ILLINOIS - Ridgeview
28, Villa Grove 21 - Coach Wyatt, Ridgeview is
now 3-0 after an exciting come from behind win
against Villa Grove. Down 14-0 early after
fumbling on two straight possessions, we could
have folded up, but our kids hung in there and
we kept fighting and eventually we turned it
around. We were very sloppy on offense tonight
as we fumbled the ball 8 times! We lost 5 of the
fumbles but still managed to win. Luckily they
threw 4 interceptions and fumbled twice as well
to help our cause. I didn't get very deep into
the playbook tonight. Pretty much all we ran was
88-99, out of tight, stack and Tackle under. the
sweeps were ineffective because our guards were
getting hung up on our tackles and ends who
weren't doing a good job of sealing up playside.
We couldn't trap em for some reason either. We
did complete 5 of 7 passes tonight, and I know
what you're thinking, we probably should have
passed more but the 88-99 was effective so I
just stayed with that. Next week we play Downs
Tr-Valley. We will be addressing ball security
this week in practice! Mike Benton
www.ridgeviewfootball.us
IOWA - GH- 54 Kingsley
Pierson 12 - Freakin' offensive explosion...
Over 400 yards total offense. A Back had 178 and
4 scores, B Back 2 scores, QB 2 scores returned
a punt for td, caused 4 turnovers... most
physically dominant performance at GH ever, and
I mean we BEAT them up. Brad Knight PS last week
we returned the opening kickoff for a score
too
KANSAS ---- Beloit 52,
Sacred Heart 44 --- The two teams traded TDs,
but four successful two-point conversions made
the difference as Beloit knocked off favored
Sacred Heart of Salina. Beloit's ball-control
more than matched Sacred Heart's shotgun spread,
as the Trojans rushed 69 times for 490 yards and
28 first downs, and completed five of seven
passes for 90 more. A-back Eric short carried 24
times for 190 yards and C-Back Bradly Esterl
carried 19 times for 173.
MASSACHUSETTS -
Somerville 28, North Quincy 10 - Coach: We
installed your double wing system over the
summer. I wanted to share the results of our
first game with you. I will keep in touch with
more results and stats as the season progresses.
"It takes a set!" Joe Curtatone
- By
Brendan Hall, Boston Globe
SOMERVILLE
-- On what became a drizzly night, Harry
Marchetti got soaked.
With time
expired, Jesse LaMontagne picked off a North
Quincy pass, officially sealing the
Somerville Highlanders' first win since 2002,
snapping a 33-game losing skid with a 28-12
win over the Red Raiders in front of a packed
crowd at the re-opening of Dilboy
Field.
It was
Marchetti's first win as coach at Somerville,
after an 0-11 finish in 2005. After the
interception, a pair of Highlanders gave him
a traditional Gatorade dunk, while the rest
of the players jumped, screamed, shouted, and
danced around the brand new FieldTurf, the
cherry on top of Dilboy's brand new
state-of-the-art facilities.
Not a bad
way to start off a new era.
"I can
tell you honestly, you can taste victory. You
can taste it," Marchetti said. "And this one
was pretty sweet."
Somerville
took the lead for good in the fourth quarter
when Gavin Nelson followed a five-man convoy
around the left side, broke free of an arm
tackle, and sprinted down the sideline for an
85-yard score, capped off by a 2-point
conversion. Ricardo David then sealed it with
just over three minutes to go with a 14-yard
touchdown, this time following a group of
blockers around the right side. He was shaken
up after the play, but Somerville converted
another 2-pointer to go up, 28-12.
Given the
recent history of Somerville football -- the
losing streak, the five years of playing home
games in Medford -- this felt, in Marchetti's
words, "like a Super Bowl," and with good
reason.
The
stories surrounding the old Dilboy Field,
home to Somerville High's football teams
since the 1940s, are legendary, and not just
for the games that were played on the field.
From the condemned visiting-side bleachers to
the rotting stands on the home side; the
playing surface that resembled either a dust
bowl or mud bowl, depending on the weather;
the track around the field that was cracked
and rippled to the point that one risked
injury running on it; to even the locker
rooms underneath the stands, which became so
rundown that the team switched to the lockers
at a public pool next door in the early 1980s
-- not that they were any better.
"Oh God,
it was decrepit," Somerville mayor and
volunteer assistant football coach Joe
Curtatone said. "Take your pick really,
between all the things wrong with it . . .
those locker rooms, honestly I'd say it felt
like walking into a sewer system. That's how
dingy and damp it was, not to mention
crunched."
Last
night, though, Curtatone was wild-eyed and
alive as ever in his navy blue trunks and
navy Somerville football polo, screaming
relentlessly at his linemen and anyone else
within earshot.
An
assistant coach at Medford, Whittier Tech,
and Somerville over the last 25 years (he
took a year off when he was elected mayor in
2003), the game clearly made him a whole
other being.
And when
the final seconds ticked away, Curtatone
pointed towards the stands. "Go celebrate
with them!`` he shouted, and a handful of
players rushed into the stands to join the
fans.
The skies
rained, and everyone's hearts poured. For one
moment in time, all seemed
right.
- NEW JERSEY - Bishop
Eustace 35, Paul VI 14
NEW YORK - Corning West
34, Susquehanna Valley 14 - Clarence Onyiriuka
scored from 52 yards out and Austin Rose threw a
35-yard scoring strike to Zach Phillips and the
Vikings' defense intercepted four passes and
recovered two fumbles to seal the
win.
NEW YORK - Lansingburgh
34, Mohonasen 12 - Kenny Youngs scored four TDs-
two rushing, one receiving and one on a 95-yard
interception return. Youngs finished with 67
yards rushing and 131 yards receiving. Connor
Gallo was 2 for 2 passing, with passes of 98
(TD) and 33 yards to Youngs. First time in my
coaching career that we had no one go over 100
yards rushing and we still won! Pete
Porcelli
NEW YORK -
Oakfield-Alabama 54, Alexander 13 - there have
been rumors lately that people have finally
figured out the double wing here in Upstate NY.
Well - we ran for 400 yards tonight and were up
35-7 at the half, (we won 50 something to 13 or
20 - at the moment I can't remember although I'm
almost positive it was 53-13). Anyways, our B
back led the way with 12 carries for 174 yards
and 3 TD's - almost all of which on trap (and a
few wedges). They ran the 5-4 straight off the
Internet. We were able to power, sweep, trap and
counter them to death. The passes were there,
but we dropped a few and overthrew a few (1-5
and a 20 yard TD). I'm pumped - it's 12:30 AM
and I am getting ready to break down the film. A
few hours to sleep and then off to scout. The
Hornets are 2-0 and beginning to pick up steam.
We didn't even have to use our other formations
- although we did use a little stack in the
second half to practice it. John Dowd PS - funny
what you can do when you don't fumble 12 times
and are able to make the cuts on a dry field.
(our starters did not fumble once this
game)
OKLAHOMA - We are 2-0!
Cheyenne M.S. (Edmond) 28 Sequoyah 12, 27
carries 234 yards 4 TD's, 1-1 passing for 2
yards. We've gone ultra traditional DW and are
outperforming last year. So far we run 7 plays
from 1 formation... Gabe McCown
TEXAS - Laredo Martin
14, Carrizo Springs 6 - We won our home opener
Friday night 14-6. Ran for 302 yds, had one TD
called back. Kind of a fullback night, Sergio
Martinez (b-back) had 113 yds, wedge and 6-G.
A-back Jerry Gallardo, leading rusher the week
before, had 93 yds., four backs averaging 5+ yds
per carry. Actually scored one TD on a four yd
pass (blue-blue) from Jonathan Olvera to Jerry
Gallardo. Only threw twice, by the
way.
- A RANDOM RAMBLE
THROUGH THE WEEKEND'S COLLEGE
GAMES...
- *********** I'm tired
of Wide Receivers signaling to officials to
"throw the flag." Officials wouldn't put up with
that in too many other sports.
********** In the
Louisville-Temple game, we were treated to the
Kentucky Lottery Offensive Starters. Meanwhile,
the NCAA insists that colleges do everything in
their power to acquaint their athletes with the
dangers of gambling.
********** How'd you
like to be Duke's Ted Roof? Last week the Blue
Devils lost to D-IAA Richmond. This week, on
their first offensive play of the game, a
wide-open Duke receiver drops a sure touchdown
pass; on the last play of the game, after
driving the length of the field in 1:33, Duke's
field goal attempt is blocked. The Blue Devils,
despite playing their asses off, lose to Wake
Forest. Next five games: Virginia Tech,
Virginia, Alabama, Florida State, Miami. When
does basketball start?
*********** Sheesh. Has
Rutgers, the sleeping Jersey giant, ever
awakened
*********** What is
going on here? Ole Miss is trounced by Missouri.
Mississippi State is scoreless after two
games.
*********** I did see a
clip of Mississippi's trick TD play against
Memphis last week, and I'll be damned if it
wasn't run from our Wildcat set. With a bunch
alignment to the right (what we would call
"Double-C"), the QB faked a sweep right; the
ball was snapped to the B-back, who ran left
untouched for the score.
*********** Syracuse's
retro uniforms look dreary-ass. They sure did
look better under Dick McPherson and Paul
Pasqualoni. Played better, too.
*********** I know they
don't mow artificial turf, but the Carrier
Dome's sure looked shaggy.
*********** One of the
ESPN dweebs told me, "I'm gonna be honest with
you -this was a really ugly game." In his eyes,
the Iowa-Syracuse game was "ugly," and that,
since I am not smart enough to decide for
myself, was that.
Actually, I thought it
was very exciting, filled with tension. There
was Iowa, a very good team, playing without
starting QB Drew Tate, in a hostile environment,
in one of those games where you know you're the
better team, and you know you should be winning,
but things keep going against you until you
start to wonder if you are in the Twilight
Zone... and there was Syracuse, loser of the
last ten in a row, playing their butts off in
front of the home crowd. And then the game goes
into overtime, and Iowa puts on one of the
greatest goal-line stands you will ever see -
eight straight stops from inside the five, and
seven from inside the two! Ugly game my
ass.
*********** Ouch. Akron
defeats NC State. I happen to like Chuck Amato
and what he's done at State, but after ponying
up a huge sum to build a state-of-the-art team
center as part of their attempt to keep him
around a few years back, the alums are not
happy. Ouch.
*********** Watch the
Washington Huskies. Tyrone's guys are showing
improvement. They go for a TD on the first play
against Oklahoma and hang with the Sooners for a
half. A Husky punts the ball 82 yards - 82
yards! - but unfortunately, it's returned 62
yards.
*********** OU's Paul
Thompson, pressed into service after Rhett Bomar
was ruled ineligible, shows promise. The Sooners
have two huge tight ends who can catch, and in
Adrian Peterson, possibly the best running back
in the country.
*********** Sideline
interviews are way out of hand, and there was
Bonnie Bernstein down on the sidelines of the
OU-UW game, talking women's basketball.
WTF?
*********** "First Down
Line Presented by Xerox." Is everything
for sale? Is anything not for sale? "Air
the Players Breathe Courtesy of
AFLAC."
*********** Look. Brady
Quinn is a good football player. And he's a
good-looking guy. And probably a good kid, too.
So can we have just a little less of the
"heart-throb" sh-- and just treat him like a
football player.
*********** Sure looked
like Zamardzija was giving us a little bit of
the "Applause Please" act after
scoring.
*********** Penn State
has not replaced Michael Robinson.
*********** Why you
want to have two TVs (at least), side-by-side:
Iowa-Syracuse and BC-Clemson are both in OT, at
the same time.
*********** Is Turner
Gill actually doing what they said nobody could
do? Buffalo takes Bowling Green into three
OTs.
*********** Sure looked
as if Ohio State (coaches and players, too) was
praying after the game. Up yours,
ACLU.
*********** Very sad
all around. Northwestern honors the late Randy
Walker and his family - and gets blown out by
New Hampshire.
*********** Always bet
against a team coming off a big upset win. Fresh
off a huge upset of Colorado last week, Division
I-AA Montana State comes home and gets upset by
D-II Chadron State.
*********** MY
RANKINGS:
FIRST RANK: Clearly the
best so far (in alphabetical order):
Auburn, Georgia, LSU,
Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC
SECOND RANK: Capable of
moving up:
Florida, Louisville,
Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee,
Virginia Tech, West Virginia
THIRD RANK: Good, and
still have a chance, but probably won't make it
because something is lacking, or they already
have a loss, or their schedule won't provide
them a chance to prove themselves against top
competition, or they face at least one superior
opponent
Alabama, Arizona State,
Boise State, Boston College, Clemson, Florida
State, Iowa, Miami, Missouri, Rutgers, TCU,
Texas, Texas A & M, Texas Tech, UCLA,
Wisconsin
*********** This coming
Saturday we'll sort 'em out, won't we? (Better
buy another TV or two)
Florida at Tennessee...
Michigan at Notre Dame... LSU at Auburn...
Nebraska at LSU... Miami at Louisville... Iowa
State at Iowa... Oklahoma at Oregon... Texas
Tech at TCU... Clemson at Florida
State
***********I caught Jim
Tressel afterwards saying, "This was a great
college game."
Yeah, right. That's why
I watched Tennessee-Air Force. Now that
was really a great college
game.
It was very scary for
an Army fan like me, because Air Force is back.
And with a vengeance, coming within a whisker of
winning. Do not judge Tennessee harshly. The way
those damn Zoomies executed that flexbone -
running and passing - they are capable of giving
any team in the country problems. If you
appreciate a well-designed, well-executed option
offense, you had to enjoy the suspense of
wondering whether a team like Air Force, giving
away size and speed, could go toe-to-toe with an
SEC power for an entire game.
*********** Darrin
Nelson was one of the most exciting offensive
players I've ever seen when he was at Stanford,
and he was a pretty good pro, too. But he was
not a big guy, and his career depended on
avoiding the big hitters. His son, J.D. Nelson,
plays for Oregon, but he does not play offense.
Instead, he is a defensive back, and possibly
the hardest hitter on the team.
*********** Kentucky
snapped back from an opening game drubbing by
Louisville to put one on D-IAA Texas State.
Ordinarily, that would be a ho-hummer, except
that this year, D-IAA teams have been unusually
tough on D-IA schools.
*********** San Jose
State was about to drop football a little over a
year ago, but instead, took a great step forward
and hired Dick Tomey. At about the same time,
Stanford, whose football teams had been playing
as if they had already given up football, took a
great step backward by hiring Walt Harris,
making it two-for-two in disastrous buddy hires
by then-AD Ted Leyland (he had previously hired
Buddy Teevens, who like Harris had worked under
Leyland previously).
When SJSU announced
that it was not dropping football, there had to
be a sigh of relief at Stanford, with the
knowledge that they could count on at least one
sure win every year.
But not so fast. San
Jose State spotted Stanford leads of 27-7 and
34-14, then roared back to win,
35-34.
*********** "I don't
know if you saw the postgame interview with the
Ohio State QB and a sideline bimbo after the
game. She tried three times to get him to
brag on himself and his responses
were.
1st question---We
couldn't do anything without the guys up front
blocking, it's all because of the
line.
2nd question---It's not
me...it's our coaching staff. They do a
great job, they put in hours of film study so we
know what to do, it's about the
coaches.
3rd question--- when
asked how he felt getting even after last years
loss he said...it's not about revenge, it's not
like that, every win we get is a big
win...
The sideline chick
seemed totally dumbfounded that he wasn't taking
the opportunity to praise himself....it was a
nice change to see a big time player with his
head on right. Gabe McCown, Piedmont,
Oklahoma
-
- Coach,I saw the
same thing and was going to remark on what a
good job Troy Smith did at refusing to take the
bait. Don't know what kind of a kid he is - he's
had his issues in the past - but he sure does
seem to be learning, which is what college is
supposed to be about.
*********** Oregon over
Fresno State... Arizona State over
Nevada...Washington State over Idaho... San Jose
State over Stanford... Boise State over Oregon
State
Pac-10 3, WAC 2. Not
exactly what you expect from a "major"
conference.
*********** Finally! A
newspaper columnist - Terence Moore of the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - who isn't whining
and pleading for a Divison-IA football playoff!
He actually thinks that a playoff would diminish
the regular season!
It is ironic that with
the exception of men's basketball, all the other
college playoffs that now take place wouldn't
take place if they weren't subsidized by
college football, which, we are told ad
infinitum, is "the only major sport not to have
a playoff system to determine a 'true national
champion.'" Blah, blah, blah.
I'm not going to get
into all my arguments in opposition. Let's just
say that for me - and several million other fans
each fall weekend - the college regular season
is the greatest spectacle in sports. The bowl
games are the icing on the cake; I really
couldn't care less who the media idiots anoint
as the "True National Champion."
Face it, folks - the
football goose is already laying the golden eggs
that support women's sports and men's minor
sports, too. If those bloodsuckers insist they
need more, tell 'em to hold bake sales and car
washes. Just don't let 'em kill football in
their search for more eggs.
*********** Maybe
you'll remember that back when he let Frank
Solich go, Nebraska's showboat AD said that the
move was necessary if Nebraska was going to take
the big step up so that it could play with the
Texases and Oklahomas. Uh... in retrospect,
mightn't Nebraska have been just as well off if
they'd kept Frank Solich and just waited for
Texas and Oklahoma to come back down to
earth?
*********** The coaches
who vote in the USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll
ought to be ashamed of themselves for keeping
Texas in the Top Ten - eighth place to be exact.
Meantime, at least 10 quality teams, still
unbeaten, are ranked below the Longhorns.
Granted, two of them - Nebraska and Oklahoma -
both get shots at Texas, but presumably, the
rest of them can all go undefeated, and unless
Texas loses again, they will never pass the
Longhorns. Boo.
*********** Boy, those
Miami fans sure are rabid. Last week, they
packed the Orange Bowl to watch their beloved
Hurricanes play Florida State. This past
Saturday, against a lesser opponent, Florida A
& M, they barely drew 40,000.
*********** Last week,
Stanford still had 10,000 tickets left unsold
for next week's grand opening of its
newly-rebuilt stadium against Navy. That was
before this past weekend's flopperoo against San
Jose State. (No, they are not giving refunds to
those who've already bought tickets to the Navy
game.)
Maybe this is why
Stanford downsized.... with the stadium capacity
reduced from near-80,000 to about 55,000,
Stanford season ticket sales are likely to get a
big boost every year the "Big Game"
(Cal-Stanford) is played at Stanford. That's
because despite the meagre crowds at most
Stanford games these days, Big Game is always a
Big Draw - last year's Big Game at Stanford drew
more than 70,000, and it is estimated that far
more than half were Cal fans. Now, with fewer
seats available, I suspect that in order to get
tickets to Big Game, many shrewd Cal fans will
buy Stanford season tickets and just shred all
the unwanted ones. Or - the Cal fan's ultimate
revenge - give them to the homeless.
Call it the LSU Effect.
In the years when Tulane has played LSU at home,
Tulane's season ticket sales have always spiked,
thanks to LSU fans buying Tulane season tickets
just to get to watch their Tigers play one more
game.
*********** Guttiest
call of the day was Oregon coach Mike Bellotti's
decision to fake a field goal against Fresno
State late in the game. His decision with 4:55
left to play and the game tied, 24-24, gave the
Ducks a touchdown they needed to win,
31-24.
Knowing that Fresno's
Pat Hill had sent the house once before and
blocked an Oregon field goal attempt, Bellotti
anticipated him to do it again, and called for
an option left. Sure enough, Fresno came with
maximum rush, and holder Brady Leaf (Ryan's
younger brother) carried the ball to the left
and at the last possible moment pitched it to
kicker Paul Martinez, who carried it in for the
score (and then, I'll bet, headed for the locker
room and a change of underwear.)
Even their earlier
block of an Oregon field goal worked against
Fresno. After the block, the ball went
downfield, where a confused Fresno State player
touched it, making it a live ball which Oregon
recovered on the Fresno five. On the next play,
the Ducks scored.
*********** Desmond
Howard is bad. He reminded my of Eddie Murphy
making fun of guys like Desmond
Howard.
*********** Amazing!
Emmett Smith was down on the sidelines of the
Ohio State-Texas game, and what do you know?
Turns out he's going to be on Dancing With the
Stars and - talk about your coincidences! - it's
on the very network we're
watching!
*********** To prevent
a team from running an end sweep, every defense
has somebody there to contain the sweep. To
force. Somebody with outside leverage. So when
the force man simply doesn't appear, it can only
mean one of three things - the defense was
playing a man short, the player responsible was
out of position, or the player responsible was
held.
When Boise State began
turning the corner repeatedly the other night, I
was able to eliminate the first two
possibilities very quickly, and turn my
attention to the "blocking."
Holy sh--. Not to make
excuses for Oregon State's miserable showing on
defense, but Boise State HOLDS. BIG TIME. The
holding was flagrant and shameless, a travesty
on the game.
When a friend pointed
out that Boise State has a new offensive line
coach this year, and that he came from the
Detroit Lions, I understood immediately. Maybe
next he'll put out a video showing younger
players how to do it.
Remember kids - it's
not holding if you don't get caught!
And besides, what's a
piddly-ass 10-yard penalty every now and then,
in return for the ability to break the
rules?
- A SARCASTIC SLOG
THROUGH THE NFL...
- *********** Thank God
for the NFL on Sunday. After a day of college
football excitement, there's nothing quite like
the National Fieldgoal League to bring you back
down gently. For me, watching the defending
Super Bowl runnerup Seattle against Detroit was
the perfect sedative. Seattle 9, Detroit 6.
FIVE F--KING FIELD GOALS!!!
Are you ready for
some football? You are? Too bad the only
thing on is the NFL. If it's real football you
want, you're going to have to wait till Thursday
night, when the next college game comes
on.
*********** So they
wrote that the hit that knocked out Kansas
City's Trent Green was a "brutal hit." Hey- he
was HOOK-SLIDING. As far as I am concerned,
defenders should be able to use baseball bats on
any quarterback that hookslides!
Let's see - It's pretty
much okay to hold while protecting the
quarterback... as of this year, you can't hit
one in the knees unless you're blocked into
him... You can't hit him in the head... You
can't hit him even a split-second after he's
thrown the ball... He can hopopkslide and he can
intentionally ground the ball from almost
anywhere on the field... So what's left?
Dressing him like an enemy of the United States
so the ACLU will protect him?
*********** Is it
possible to be a whore and a pimp all at once?
Why, of course it is, if you're Bill Walsh and
Dick Vermeil. You whore it by taking Coors'
money, and you pimp for Coors Light in those
stupid "press conference"
commercials.
Now here's the funny
one. Supposedly, a knock against Mike Price when
Stanford was looking for a coach (and settled on
- or for - Walt Harris) was that Coach Price was
known to drink a beer after practice. Imagine -
a football coach who drinks beer!
Yet there's the Great
White God, Bill Walsh, who unless I'm mistaken
is still on the Stanford staff, and he's
debasing himself by shilling for Coors. But I
suppose that's all right, because he probably
sips white wine with the rich alumni.
*********** Jimmy
Johnson's comment, when asked if Bill Cowher
would be back next year: "Isn't his family
living in North Carolina? Don't you go with your
family?"
Uh, wasn't it JJ who
either (1) left his wife in Miami - dumped her -
when he moved to Dallas, or (2) left his wife in
Dallas- dumped here - when he moved back to
Miami?
*********** LaVarr
Arrington. What an ass. Introduces himself on
national TV as being from the "...school of hard
knocks." If the introductions are going to be
for the players, and not for the viewers - why
bother having them?
*********** But then...
ESPN seems to think it's cool to have one of the
players handle its Monday Night intros. That's
really cool. If you like strutters. ("And at
wide receiver, there's Me Myself...")
*********** Cleveland's
Braylon Edwards can't even hold onto a f--king
slant thrown right into his numbers, and the
ball is deflected right into the hands of a
Saints' defender. End of Browns' comeback. And
how much are they paying that guy to drop
passes?
*********** You see a
f--king NFL head coach, the Giants' Tom
Coughlin, leading cheers, exhorting the crowd to
make more noise while the Colts are on offense,
and you realize that this "12th man" bullsh--
has gone too far, and new commissioner Roger
Goodell is right on the money in advocating
putting receivers in the helmets of all the
offensive players.
*********** Brilliant
Question of the Day: Andrea Kremer to Payton
Manning: "What kind of win was this for
you?"
*********** Jamie Foxx,
whoever the f--k he is, was "interviewed" in the
broadcast booth right through the game. You
don't suppose he'll be on ESPN or ABC any time
soon, do you?
*********** They told
us that Al Sanders, the new Offensive
Coordinator of the Redskins, has a 700-page
playbook. Like I am supposed to be impressed.
After the Redskins' offensive effort Monday
night, I would suggest they pare it down to
about 20 pages. And work on executing
it.
*********** Am I the
only person who thought that Randy Moss' new 'do
made him look like Geronimo.?(No disrespect
intended to the great Indian leader.)
*********** With
scoreboards 100 feet wide, and coaching staffs
of a dozen or so men, how necessary is it to
stop the game to tell both benches that there
are two minutes left to play?
*********** Just based
on Sunday's games...
There were only 40
touchdowns scored by offenses (there were three
scored on returns)... But there were 45 field
goals kicked
Kickers were 45 for 54
- 83 per cent. Now, that's suspenseful.
The NFL would be a lot better off if the figures
were reversed, and kickers were successful 17
per cent of the time.
Nearly a fourth of all
the teams in "action" - six, including returning
Super Bowl team Seattle - did not score an
offensive touchdown. Seattle won a breathtaking
thriller in which neither team scored a
touchdown, pounding Detroit into submission,
9-6. St. Louis treated the home fans to six
field goals (but no touchdowns) in thumping
Denver, 18-10.
Nearly half the teams
in "action" (12 of 26) scored no more than one
offensive TD.
Exactly half the teams
(13) were unable to rush for as much as 100
yards. Two of them - Detroit and Tampa Bay -
"rushed" for under 50 yards, Tampa Bay winning
the Walter Payton rushing award (he's no longer
with us, sadly, but even dead he could outrush
the Bucs) with 26 yards.
Only two teams, Atlanta
and New England, rushed for more than 150 yards,
and only Atlanta rushed for more than 200. Are
you kidding me? Atlanta rushed for 252 yards?
And passed for only 133 yards? And they
won? Do this a few more times, and
they'll have the Fantasy Football guys all
pissed off at them.
*********** I almost
yorked when Bonnie Bernstein started telling us
that poor Steve Foley was spending his 31st
birthday in the hospital ("Not where he was
planning on spending it") and then those turds
in the booth started in on the "Steve, if you're
listening, we miss ya.." routine.
*********** Awesome.
(The North vs South, SEC football stuff) I think
my two favorites were Alabama (and the guys
remembering how the bear would've done it) - as
I read the recent book on the Bear and of course
Arkansas - no electricity. Also liked the North
vs. south football - favorite one the southern
women - "you slow sumbitch." My 5 month old
daughter, although a Northerner, will probably
understand football quite well. She attended her
first game tonight and seemed excited to see
daddy smiling afterward. She wore her hornet
blue and gold (we had a fleece embroidered with
an OA). She routinely watches film with me and
seems interested (maybe it is the 42 inch flat
screen LCD TV with many colors, but I like to
think she is her daddy's girl. John Dowd,
Oakfield, New York
*********** NOT SAYING
I SAW THIS COMING, OR ANYTHING, BUT I WROTE THIS
IN APRIL, 2005 ----
- Over the past few
years, DeLaSalle, of Concord, California has
traveled to play St. Louis Prep of Honolulu,
and hosted Evangel Christian of Shreveport.
Last year, Bellevue, Washington hosted
DeLaSalle (and ended DLS's record win
streak), and this year a Miami team will
travel to Tyler, Texas, Double-Wing power
Clovis East (California) will go to Midland,
Texas to play Midland Lee, and Long Beach
Poly will go to Seattle to play
Bellevue.
-
- It's cool and all
that, but it's just a matter of time before
there's a Nike Super League.
So far, we have the
Nike High School Football Game of the Week. It's
just a matter of time. So what's the harm, you
ask? Why not ask the people who play in the same
leagues as the Evangel Christians, the Duncan
Byrneses, the Tulsa Unions and the Hoovers what
it's like having to go up against people who can
offer their players national exposure and trips
to exotic places? When you are established as a
Nike power, you don't have to recruit - the kids
will come to you unsolicited.
*********** I'll make
this quick, we lost a close one on the last
play of the game last night. We moved the
ball well enough, but my TE's are not physical
and are not getting it done. I have
heard you talk about splitting your TE's out and
playing 9 man football. Will this work,
and does it limit what I can run. What
plays would you suggest I can run effectively
doing this. Thanks for all your
help.
You can run anything
except 6-G/7-G, but 4-x/5-X will work almost as
well.
Check all plays on
"Dynamics of the Double Wing" that are run from
"Spread." Spread formation is essentially 9-man
football.
You don't need Tight
Ends, but because your tackles are now
uncovered, they have to be better players than
what are usually required when you play
"Tight."
You will have to
make some adjustments
1. You shouldn't run
Super Power. Instead, run Super-O. And your
wingback will have to double with the tackle.
And unless the "5" technique is clearly outside
the tackle, we double him.
2. When you trap,
your playside wingback will have to do what the
TE normally does - block the 1st LBer to his
inside.
3. You can't run
"lead" counters, because you have no backside TE
to cut off chasers. You will have to fill with
your B-Back.
You might be
interested in a DVD I have showing the offense
from "Spread."
*********** We had
long, quality drives for almost the whole
scrimmage. But I did have to take a time out to
explain to the officials (rule book in
hand...it's not enough to tell them section,
article, etc. I have to show them) that my tight
ends shoeshine is, in fact, legal. "Tackle to
tackle" almost brought Coach ----- (long-time
coach) out of the press box...
Connecticut
*********** Hugh, I am
convinced that my coaching others kids for 18
years prior to my own, helped with avoiding
this. In fact, my son (like me) has it tougher
than the others on his teams because of this. In
the long run, this is my way of "favoring" him
as it will (and has) help him develop into, if
nothing else, unselfish.
The difference between
a coach and "parent that helps" is that a coach
can separate their emotions from their
offspring. This also explains why there are so
few good coaches at the youth level. It also
mimics our society pretty well. Matt Bastardi,
Montgomery, New Jersey
Anybody who's ever
played baseball (and at one time every American
male had) can coach baseball, and even people
who haven't played basketball can pretend to
coach it. I won't even get into pantywaistbol
(soccer). But in football there is first and
foremost the need to teach safe techniques, and
I am constantly appalled at the number of people
who can't/don't do that.
The scary thing is
that there is so much to learn before ever
stepping on a football field as a coach, yet
they let people whose only qualification is
parenthood step on the field and "help
out."
*********** Coach, we
(10-year old team) run SuperPower, Counter, and
Sweep to both sides. Wedge, Trap and G play to
one side only. We have started to practice
counter XX and we run out of "I" formation at
times. We also have a few pass plays. We
rep the plays to death and we are getting very
proficient. However, the kids are getting a
little bored. Ten year olds and some of my
coaches do not see the value in repping plays to
death. Last year (11-0, league champs) I had a
similar problem( I have a new group this year)
and we started practicing a few plays that I
knew we would not use in a game just to keep
their interest level up. Any suggestions? Thanks
Ps we won our first game 20-6.
There is one way to
win with this offense and I have told you what
it is: successful repetitions. If there were
another way, I would suggest that. The journey
to excellence is often boring, especially to
people who have been taught that life is a
matter of being constantly entertained. Frankly,
I doubt that your kids are so good or your
coaches so knowlegeable that you should listen
to them. Sounds to me like a classic case of
complacency setting in. Do not let yourself be
seduced. Stick to what has worked for you. If
you need to relieve the boredom, there are other
ways than cutting down on repetitions. (Is 20-6
such an overwhelming win that they are already
executing to perfection?)
I have always
believed that there should be time set aside in
every practice for some fun. Not to peddle
products, but my Practice Without Pads video
contains an assortment of fun things that you
can do at practice.
*********** Hi Coach!
Though listed at 5-11, 194, if I was a pro
scout, I'd be pencilling in Ian Johnson (Boise
State). To heck with the NFL's formulaic
mediocrity! That guy's got game! (He's only a
soph!) This guy plays with PASSION. It is
telling that while Boise St. was lighting up
Oregon St., and putting the game pretty much out
of reach, it was still more fun to watch than
the Steelers-Dolphins on the other
monitor....the difference in passion, energy,
enthusiasm, excitement....all of the things that
make football such a great, great game.....were
on display, and plain for all to see!
Ian Johnson. I love it
when all those "2nd-tier" Western Athletic,
Mountain West, etc. conferences put it to the
big boys. Very much like last year's Fresno/USC
game. (Though I know the Beavers "aint quite the
best" of the big boys!)
Regards, John Rothwell,
Austin, Texas
*********** Garden
Plain, Kansas, a town of fewer than 1,000 people
about 15 miles west of Wichita, has 109 boys in
its high school. Seventy-two of them are on the
football team.
"It's just that kind of
town," Garden Plain football coach Todd Puetz
told the Wichita Eagle. "They get behind their
team in whatever sport is going on."
But football is
special. The Owls Garden Plains Owls are 136-41
over the past 15 seasons, and although they have
yet to win a state title, they've reached the
state playoffs 13 of those 15 years.
Coach Puetz, a former
Garden Plain player himself, admits that the
numbers can be a bit of a problem. He says he
tries to start seniors, and whenever the Owls
have a comfortable lead, he tries to get as many
kids in as he can. "Our main goal is to try and
win the game," he said. "But I also know it's
important for these kids to
play."
-
- For example, no fewer
than 18 different players carried the ball in
the Owls' season opener.
Senior Michael Kerschen
has played all four years at Garden Plain, and
finally became a starter this season. He
believes in the seniority system. "I used to
work out on the scout team," he told The Eagle.
"I would run plays as the opposing team. It was
tough, but I knew I had to wait for my
chance."
Some players never get
to start. Senior Tim Renyer is a backup
offensive and defensive lineman, and he plays on
special teams. "I usually get in about every
quarter. I'm fine just being a part of it," he
said.
"This is something I'm
always going to remember.I'll never be on
another football team, so this will always be
special."
*********** Not meaning
to stay on the fictional story of Vince Papale
too much longer, but my wife and I had a good
laugh when we read in a movie review that Vince
was down on his luck - he'd been "laid off from
his job as a substitute teacher."
Say, what? How,
exactly, does a substitute teacher get "laid
off?"
*********** "I always
felt you can have too much information. You
gotta look out and make sure the players aren't
starting to blink. Don't give them too much. If
you wnat them to learn how to speak Spanish,
don't teach them Japanese and Russian at the
same time." Marv Levy
*********** Those NFL
coaches, so caught up in paranoia that they
cover their mouths with their play cards to
prevent opponents from reading their lips? Bill
Musgrave, Atlanta's QB coach, said that even if
teams did employ lip-readers, it would be nearly
impossible for anybody to take any information
they might get that way and translate it quickly
enough and communicate it to their players
quickly enough for it to be of any use in a
game.
*********** "If you
do things right, you will assure that when the
little godlets grow up, they will still just be
large children, totally dependent on you and
unable to function as responsible
adults."
Hi Coach, An addendum
to this..." They will remain spoiled, me-first
brats."
Regards, Matt Bastardi,
Montgomery, New Jersey
*********** Coach, Just
wanted to drop you a line and tell you we have
started the season 2-0. Our Super Power is
killing people and we still are not running it
as well as I believe we are capable. We were
outweighed by at least 20 pounds per man in both
contests yet were able to rush for 334 and 299
yards respectively and that was while overcoming
75 and 80 yards in penalties. Our y-end caught
TD passes of 42 and 29 yards on 2-Red Friday
night. I've never had linemen enjoy watching a
play on film as much as we do 2-Wedge this
year.
We have a very tough
opponent this week. They are big and physical.
But I have never run a play that I have as much
confidence in as the Super Power.
My dilemma, if that is
the correct term, is that I have a quarterback
who is very good at throwing the ball. In your
opinion could I just devote enough practice time
to the powers, super powers, C's & G's,
wedges, traps, etc. to keep them sharp and maybe
start putting more time, as a team, on passing
which we may need against some of our tougher
opponents? Or could the passing part of practice
be done just as well with only the QB's and
receivers and not the entire team? I'm just
seeking your opinion, coach, as I am aware that
you are not familiar with our individual
situation.
Thanks for all the help
so far and any in the future. I hope all my
correspondences will continue to be this
positive.
I'm glad that things
are going well for you so far. I understand what
you are saying about the QB, but in my opinion,
unless you totally platoon your players and
staff, you don't have enough practice time to
maintain a good double-wing attack and also
prepare a separate passing offense with any
degree of effectiveness.
If this passer is
this good, and you have the receivers to go
along with him, and the line to block for him,
and the know-how to coach a passing attack,
maybe that's what you should be doing. But in
order to do that, you are going to have to
greatly simplify your running
game.
Personally, I think
that you can develop a good enough play-action
passing game within the system. That in itself
is going to take time to get good
at.
Remember, defenses
are going to get better adjusted to what you're
doing, and in my opinion your best way to deal
with that is going to be to get better yourself
- to make sure that you put in the time making
sure that your Double-Wing is better, not to
have an entirely different
offense.
I suspect that this
may not be what you wanted to hear, but I
haven't budged from this position in over 10
years. The Double-Wing has plenty of things to
recommend it, but it is a team offense, and
definitely not the best offense in the world to
"showcase" an individual.
Best of luck, and if
you'd like to have your scores posted on my NEWS
page, please e-mail them to me!
*********** Coach, long
time no talk. Mind if I use you for a sounding
board for a moment. You usually confirm my gut
feelings. Just dropped my daughter off at George
Washington University in DC. What an awesome
place. The White House is apprx. 250 yards and
visible from her dorm. My question is this Do
you think all the debt we are incurring (we are
splitting the cost after graduation) is worth
it? Being an Ivy Leaguer, football guy and all
around right thinker I figure you'll have an
opinion. This assuming that she is motivated and
really achieves there. As an aside I told her
"You are leaving this house a conservative,
patriotic young lady. Considering you are
heading directly for the belly of the beast I
expect you to hold onto and defend rigorously
your beliefs". She just laughed. Anyway your
thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you as
always, DL, Massachusetts
First of all, my
congratulations to your daughter, and to you on
raising her.
If she is going
there patriotic and conservative, she will have
ample opportunity to defend herself and her
views. Based on some of the things I have read,
she will be tested.
I think that the
greatest thing that college has to offer is what
my high school headmaster called the "rarified
intellectual atmosphere" that you are far more
likely to find the more selective a college is.
I do not intend for this to sound elitist, and I
know that there are many high-quality state
universities, but I do think that your daughter
is far more likely to be surrounded by people at
least as intelligent, at least as intellectually
curious as she is, at George Washington than at
the stereotypical, party-every-night state
school.
As to whether it is
worth the cost... I can't say. I think the
upward spiral of the cost of a college education
is a national scandal. I can't understand why
legislators who scream and holler about $3
gasoline ignore the fact that a year of college
is over $40,000 a year at elite private
colleges, and at least $10,000 a year at many
public colleges - and much of the cost increases
are being covered by the taxpayers, through
subsidized loans and outright
grants.
Asking me if it was
"worth it" for me to go to Yale is not fair.
When I attended Yale, it was one of the most
expensive colleges in the country, but tuition
was under $5,000 a year. Financial aid was
available to anyone who was admitted, and it
always consisted of three parts - outright
grant, university job, and long-term loan. The
amount of each was adjusted every year based on
your performance - do a better job and more of
the job and loan might be converted to outright
grant. Or the converse. I graduated with what
seemed then as a somewhat burdensome loan of
several thousand dollars. Nowadays it would be a
joke.
Our kids all went to
expensive colleges - Stanford and Duke. But
because of our income - my wife and I were both
teachers and, since we started teaching rather
late, near the bottom of the pay scale - we
qualified for rather generous financial
assistance. It was still quite a drain on us,
and our kids were left with some loans to pay
off, but my wife and I believe that it was worth
it, and I think our kids would all agree. (Two
of our daughters met their husbands at college,
and in view of my high opinion of those guys, I
would have to say for that reason alone it was
worth it.)
As for preserving a
conservative, patriotic point of
view...
Bear in mind that I
attended Yale in another era. I was taught by
men who were both liberal and conservative, but
who understood that their job - their passion,
really - was to teach their subject. They might
express their opinions on other matters, but
only in the most offhanded way. They stayed, as
educators like to say, "on task."
I would not, for
example, have had to sit and listen to my
"History of Russian Imperialism" professor
harangue us about how stupid the President of
the United States was. His passion was the
History of Russian Imperialism, and that is what
we got from him.
Yale then was a
patriotic place. No f--king "former Taliban
spokesman" would have shown his face on our
campus.
Things are vastly
different now, at Yale and elsewhere. College
faculties, especially in the arts and sciences,
are heavily liberal, and their makeup, and the
fact that they have a certain say in new
hirings, assures that any additions to the
faculty will be hold similar points of
view.
It is very difficult
for young students to cope with the intellectual
imbalance at most colleges, where the professors
are nearly uniformly liberal and there is almost
nothing to counterbalance their
bias.
Combine that with
the fact that young students are impressionable
and that they tend to be rather idealistic
anyhow, and most kids are almost certain to lean
to the left. Also to be very sure of
themselves.
It is natural for
young people to be liberal. I actually voted
Democratic once - in 1960, the first
presidential election I was eligible to vote in.
If it happens to your daughter, live with it and
try to keep her grounded and keep her trying to
see that there is more than her professors' side
to the arguments.
In time, with a good
education, your daughter will see the light.
Life and living and having to earn a buck and
dealing with the pressures of raising a family
will do that do people. It did for
me.
I once heard someone
say that a good education is a B-S Detector.
Most college kids are not truly educated until
they can listen to one of the faculty gasbags
pontificate on something and say,
"Bullsh--!"
Until that point,
they are not educated. They are merely
indoctrinated.
Best of luck to your
daughter. And again,
congratulations.
*********** Coach, What
you wrote about Vince Papale reminded me of
something boxing writer Charles Jay wrote about
a year and a half ago (around Oscar time) about
Million Dollar Baby. In an article called "My
Million Dollar Problem" (I can send it to you if
you like) he wrote "There ought to be a law
against people who are intimately familiar with
a subject seeing a movie about it."
I haven't seen enough
games this season to comment on the clock rules,
but I always felt those four-hour games were
just way too long. The other thing that always
bothered me was how the networks usually blocked
out 3 1/2 hours for the games, so if you
programed your VCR (or DVR or Tivo) sometimes
you wouldn't see the end of the game. I couldn't
understand why the networks couldn't just block
out four hours.
Have a good weekend.
It's opening night around here
tonight.
Steve Tobey, Malden,
Massachusetts (I don't care what they do with
a story. That is between the author and the
people who buy the story. Just so they don't use
the word "true story" in there anywhere, in any
way, unless everything in it is true. None of
these "based on a true story" claims. Any time
they want to use the term "True Story", they
should have to submit the script to a Government
Bureau of Truth in Movies, which I envision as
having several thousand employees, with me as
its head, working out of my home in the Pacific
Northwest. At a gargantuan salary with full
retirement after two years.
The way they told
the Vince Papale story just feeds the New
American Dream: I'm good enough - I just need to
be discovered! Its appeal is to the growing
number of Americans who reject the tired, old
notion of working hard and putting in the time
and learning a craft in favor of the notion that
they can sit on their ass and wait to start out
at the top.
Agreed on the
time-inflation of football games. I'm sure that
the bitching of people like you and me who have
come home to find that the game we Tivo'd is
missing the last ten minutes of play was what
got the TV people involved. The problem is
directly attributed to one thing: more passing.
All they have to do is get rid of the archaic
rule that stops the clock following every
incomplete pass (in effect, awarding the
offensive team a time-out in return for its
incompetence), a rule which might have made some
sense when they had only one ball and when it
was thrown into the blackberry bushes they had
to wait for it to be retrieved.
HW)
*********** DO YOU HATE
THE NEW, TOTALLY UNNECESSARY CLOCK
RULES?
Prior to the season,
most college football fans heard something about
the changes to the rules governing the game
clock: The clock would start running the moment
the ball is kicked on a kickoff. Even more
bizarrely, it would also run after the ball was
set following a change of possession.
The driving force
behind these 'improvements' to college football
was a desire by the TV networks for shorter
games.
If you agree with me
that they have broken something in order to have
something to fix, go to...
http://www.wehatethenewclockrules.com
and sign the
petition!
-
*********** ATTENTION!!! YOU
ARE NEEDED! As many of you know, former
Army All-American Bob Novogratz is a member of the
board of the Black Lion Award. Bob has been
tireless in supporting the cause, including
presenting the award, and was instrumental in
persuading the Army Football Club, the association
of former Army football players, to present the
Black Lion Award to West Point football player
every year.
In the photos below, Bob is shown in January,
2003 presenting the Black Lion Awards to young men
from the Millersville, Maryland youth football
program. The photo in the top middle was taken in
1958, when Bob was an All-American guard and
linebacker on and Colonel Red Blaik's last team and
Army's last undefeated team, the fabled "Lonely
End" team that finished 3rd in the nation.
FROM MY ARCHIVES - JANUARY 2003-
- A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It's not
every day that a team is fortunate enough to
have its Black Lion Awards presentation made
by a veteran or an active serviceman; it's
rarer still when the presenter is a former
West Point All-American.
He is Bob Novogratz, and that's he in the
middle of the top row, before his senior year
at Army. That's also he in the other five
photos, shown with Black Lion Award winners
from five different teams in the
Millersville, Maryland youth football
program.
When the football picture of him was
taken, it was fall of 1958, and no one would
have dared to predict the kind of year he and
his Army teammates would have; preseason
forecasters knew that they would be good -
the Cadets had finished 7-2 in 1957. But no
one could have foretold that it would become
one of the most famous of all Army teams.
It would be the final season in the
fabulous career of legendary Army coach
Earl
"Red" Blaik, and that 1958 Army team
finished the season unbeaten and ranked
number 3 in the nation. The last Army team to
go unbeaten, It gained nationwide notice
through Blaik's ingenious deployment of a
split end who never entered the huddle - the
so-called "Lonely End."
But it was by no means a team based on a
gimmick. The
1958 Army team was solid on offense, and
on defense as well. Three of the 11 men on
the team - remember, it was two-way football
- were named All-American. Two of them - Pete
Dawkins and Bob Anderson - were running
backs, and one of them - Dawkins - won the
Heisman Trophy that year; the third, Bob
Novogratz, played guard and linebacker, and
won the Knute Rockne Award, given then to the
nation's outstanding defensive player. (With
only 11 spots to fill on those All-America
teams in those days, selection was quite an
honor.)
-
- Coming from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a
hotbed of wrestling, Bob actually went to
West Point as a wrestler, and was persuaded
to play football by Coach Earl Blaik. In
addition to being an All-American football
player, Bob was Eastern Heavyweight wrestling
champion.
Bob was drafted by the World Champion
Baltimore Colts, but he had other things to
do than play pro football - he had a
commitment to serve in the US Army. He spent
time briefly as a coach at West Point, and
went on to serve in Vietnam, where he earned
the Bronze Star medal. After a career in the
Army, he retired as a colonel.
- Colonel Bob Novogratz and the
Millersville Black Lion Award winners. (TOP
LEFT: Aaron Terry, TOP RIGHT, Aaron Farrare;
BOTTOM (L to R) Ian Page, Dale Younker,
Justin Cronin (More
about the Black Lion
Award)
Correctly identifying Bob Novogratz:
Joe Daniels- Sacramento,California... Kevin
McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Tom Hinger-
Auburndale, Florida ("What a great series of
pictures with the young Black Lion Award
winners. Colonel Novogratz is a class act, which
is no surprise. Leaders like him are a pleasure
to follow.")... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski,
Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois...
Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("The pic
this week is of no other than Bob Novogratz, the
All American Strongside guard who was also a
starting linebacker for the 1958 team.
Incidentally Mr. Novogratz was named outstanding
lineman for the Army -Navy game and I believe
was the Outland trophy winner that year.")...
John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("Whatever
happened to the Rockne Award?")... Greg Stout-
Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Alan Goodwin-
Warwick, Rhode Island ("That must have been one
heck of a team. I'd like to see a game at West
Point. UConn plays there this year. That may be
a good road trip. I haven't seen West Point
since I visited with my Boy Scout troop - must
have been around 1968")... Jim Hooper-
Englewood, Colorado ("Thanks for recognizing
Army All-American Bob Novogratz. No small feat
to gain national recognition on a team that
included Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter.")...
Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ( "I finally
looked up a website that had highlights of the
1958 football season and that gave me the
answer. Bob Novogratz certainly was a great
player. When I put his name into the search
engine to find out more about him, I was
directed to Chapter 9 of a book written about
Coach Blaik. Lo and behold, the author is the
one and only Hugh Wyatt!")..
NOW- Here's where you
come in. Bob is a native of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, where his dad, who came here from
Austria, worked in the local cement plant
(Northampton High's teams are the Koncrete
Kids).
The Allentown Call, which
serves the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern
Pennsylvania, is putting together The Lehigh Valley
All-Time, All-Area team. It is no small honor to
make it - among those nominated along with Bob
Novogratz are All-Time All-Pro Chuck Bednarik, who
played all 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL championship
game, and All-Pro Packers' center Jim Ringo. Bob
Novogratz, who passed up a pro career to serve his
country, belongs on it.
I am asking you readers - If
you have ever been involved in the Black Lion Award
program... If you have ever been a lineman or a
line coach... If you have ever admired service
academy football... If you respect a man for
putting his country ahead of his sports
aspirations... If you love the idea of a college
football player who was also a champion wrestler...
If you just admire the grace and toughness of the
guys who played OLD SCHOOL FOOTBALL... go to the
following site and vote for Bob
Novogratz!
http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/all-football-local-about-oline,0,719088.story?coll=all-sportsstorycontent-utl
"INVINCIBLE?"
UNBELIEVABLE - FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE REAL VINCE
PAPALE!
www.coachwyatt.com/vincepapale.htm
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College
Coaches Go Along With the Born-Rich
Effect!
(See"NEWS")
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Steve
Irwin and the Cult of Child Worship!
(See"NEWS")
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"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
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My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
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-
- September
8,
2006
- "I never
saw people with more self-esteem in
the world than street-level drug dealers. They
had all kinds of self-esteem. But
they didn't have any self-respect."
William Bennett, former US Drug Czar, former
Secretary of Education
-
- *********** Omigod...
Is Oregon State that bad, or is Boise State
sophomore running back Ian Johnson (22 carries,
240 yards, 5 TDs) that good?
-
- *********** I once
bought the old chestnut about how much more
money the typical Ivy League graduate made in
comparison to his counterparts at
less-prestigious colleges, until one day it hit
me - it wasn't the Ivy League diploma at all.
Very simply, the average Ivy League student came
from a wealthier family in the first place!
Those guys were rich before they ever went to
Yale, or Harvard, or Princeton. They started out
on top, and as long as they didn't screw up the
family fortune, that's where they were going to
stay.
-
- So it is with the
college football rankings. There is such a thing
as being born rich. If you start out on top in
the preseason magazines, you will be on top in
the preseason polls. And if you're on top in the
preseason polls, you will stay there barring a
major screw-up.
-
- The real scandal in
college football is not the BCS system. It's the
"born-rich" effect - the influence of the
preseason polls on the final rankings. If
somebody were to do the research, it would be
interesting to see what the greatest leap has
been from a low preseason ranking to the
national championship. I am guessing that it
isn't that great.
-
- That's because once a
team is conferred a high ranking, it simply
won't fall very far, so long as it wins. All it
has to do is win, ugly or not. Ugly wins or wins
over weak opponents don't seem to make much
difference. Conversely, strong play by
lower-ranked teams doesn't seem to lift them
very far.
-
- The coaches who vote
in the USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll are to
blame. They're the ones who allow themselves to
be swept along by the magazines and the
preseason polls, the ones who ignore the results
of actual games. For example - Florida State is
ranked only ninth this week. Yet Florida State
is the only one in this week's Top Ten to have
played (and beaten) another ranked team (#6
Miami). Ahead of FSU are teams with higher
pre-season rankings - teams such as Ohio State,
Texas and LSU, which are undoubtedly very good
teams, but didn't exactly jeopardize their
pre-season rankings this past weekend against
weak opening-game opponents.
-
- To put this influence
of pre-season rankings another way, while the
winner of this week's Ohio State-Texas game will
undoubtedly be Number One next week, I am
betting that the loser, solely because of its
lofty preseason ranking, will not drop out of
the Top Ten.
-
- *********** The leader
of Iran, possibly the most dangerous man in the
entire world, is evidently coming to New York to
address the UN. Can you believe that? The f--ker
says that his aim is to wipe out Israel and then
us - and we're going to let him into our
country! Why don't we give him a tour of our
major military bases while we're at it? Maybe
he'd like the plans for a nuclear
submarine.
-
- F--k him and f--k the
United Nations.
-
- Is there not one
sniper in the whole United States willing to go
to New York and take this f--ker out?
-
- *********** Coach
Wyatt, I tried putting in some split right plays
last night and you would have thought that
I had an eye in the middle of my
forehead.....the up-side is that my kids
are very comfortable the tight double wing
formation, like an old slipper that fits really
well....the down-side is that my kids are
really comfortable with the tight double
wing formation :)
-
- I just had a couple of
quick questions about it: 1. Do you have any
special adjustments, footwork, or advice to the
B back on the super power to the
right......when he's trying to kick out
the DE, his angle isn't as good.
-
- 2. Do you fill with B
back on counters? I run a lead 47C all the
time and do not pull my backside tackle
(cut-off). It seems that to be able to run
a counter to the left with a split right
formation you need to fill with B back and
have the tackle pull (or can you still run
a lead 47C?). My goal is always give the kids
less to deliberate about.
-
- Man, the kids like the
"closeness" of the double wing....I kept
on seeing the split backs creeping up
towards their O lineman.
-
- 1. The B-Back's
kickout angle isn't so good in "Split" but he is
2 men closer and he gets right on that DE a lot
quicker
-
- 2. We still run the
lead counter (and lead criss-cross) , and now
the B-Back doesn't have to take a counter step.
It is actually easier for him.
-
- PS- Introduction of
change is a classic management problem. You do
have to look at it from the players' point of
view and be prepared for them to ask "what's
wrong with what we've been
doing?"
-
- *********** I enjoyed
your segment last week on the lack of service in
the military among the "elites". The most common
response I get from people when they learn that
Ian, my son, is applying to the USNA is "that's
great" - and then, "it's too bad it isn't better
timing"....you know, like if you're in the
military, it's too bad that you might have to
engage an enemy at some point....and the
implication is that the lower socioeconomic
class types should do the heavy lifting. In my
thinking, it seems that now more than ever we
need our best and brightest to serve in the
military, to lead men (and women) and to manage
the complicated high tech aspects of our
military. That's just me though. Rick Davis,
Duxbury, Massachusetts (It does gall me when
a young man gets killed in Iraq - or Afghanistan
- and I think of all the worms whose place he
was taking. HW)
-
- *********** In the
Slot 88 power, on playside who is making the 6/9
call-- the tackle, the c back or the tight end.
IF it is a 6 call for the tackle, then the slot
and tackle double team and the TE goes down on a
LB?
-
- We don't make a 6
or 9 call. The tackle blocks gap, on, area as
usual, the slot back blocks gap, on, down and
the end blocks down. If the tackle has a man in
a "5" technique and the man is touching him, he
"punches through" to the next level (LBer). That
means he drives the defender with his outside
shoulder before heading for the
backer.
-
- But we don't run
Super POWER because with the backside end
flexed, he cannot legally shoeshine. So we run
Super O
-
- *********** So the
truth comes out - Algerian-Frenchman Zidane
butted an opponent, at the critical moment of
the (World Cup) tournament, because the guy made
a comment about his sister ("I'll give you my
shirt"/"No, I'd rather have your sister.") Are
we still in elementary school? Christopher
Anderson, Palo Alto, California
-
- Mr. Tough Guy
wouldn't have lasted very long in the NBA, would
he? HW
-
- *********** I could
just imagine coaches watching the Miami-Florida
State game and phoning their AD's to tell them
not to schedule either of those two teams. Ever.
I'm not sure how many other teams in the country
could have taken the hitting that went on in
that game and walked away ready to play again in
a week.
*********** I don't
know if you noticed, but I'm sure some recruits
did - Oklahoma's new (Nike) jerseys didn't have
players' names on the backs. And if there's any
recruit out there that didn't notice, I feel
sure that at least one rival recruiter will
point out that if you go to Oklahoma you won't
even have your name on the back of your
jersey.
-
- *********** In its
victory over Northeastern, Virginia Tech blocked
a kick for the 110th time in 228 games under
head coach Frank Beamer
-
- *********** Three
military veterans made the Florida State team as
walk-ons this year. Thirty-three year-old
running back Eric James spent eight years in the
Army and Navy, and 23-year-old tight end Josh
Johnson served four years in the Army. Jeremy
Franklin, a 26-year-old Navy vet, will play
special teams and back-up linebacker for the
Seminoles.
-
- Meantime, UCLA's Karl
Dorrell stripped the scholarship from a former
walk-on and gave it to an incoming freshman
recruit.
-
- *********** Any advice
for a pregame warmup to get the kids ready to
hit, I can't come out soft and get behind
early.
-
- I have always liked
to play a little "bull in the ring." The guy in
the ring has three tries at breaking out of the
ring. The they switch. The rest of the guys, who
form the ring, have to make sure that when the
"bull" comes at them they stick together and do
not allow any gaps between them.
-
- *********** Our new
commissioner wants me to play all 45 kids in our
varsity games. We have 8 games but we also
have 8 JV games. As you know I am a
volunteer coach and I also give up my Monday
nights for JV games, if we have to play all kids
Sat. night, first thing is we'll lose, the
second thing is that we should cancel the JV
games. Just thought I would get your
opinion on the situation. In the past we
played to win on Sat. nights and got in
everybody we could, then on Monday we played the
JV game. My rule was that if you started
Sat then you couldn't play Mon. The other
three levels have 25 kids, i have 45, not as
easy to get them all in. Thought you might
have some advice as to how to discuss this with
him. DK, Pennsylvania
-
- Insane. Even in a
high school game there isn't enough time to get
45 kids in. I don't know any high school coach
anywhere who routinely gets 45 kids in a game. I
am assuming that your quarters may be even
shorter than 12 minutes, so it is going to rob
all the kids.
-
- I think it is
reasonable to look at the varsity as a
meritocracy, where scarce playing time is
earned, and the JV as an "anybody-plays" rec
league deal.
-
- *********** New
University at Buffalo Head Football Coach Turner
Gill got his first win with a 9-3 victory over
Temple on Saturday. It was the first time since
the Bulls became a Division I program in 1997
that they have opened a season with a
win.
-
- *********** I'm as sad
as most people at the loss of the Crocodile
Hunter, Steve Irwin. He was a lot of fun to
watch, and very informative as well as
entertaining. Even Australians laughed at his
accent, and considered him something of a
Down-Under Gomer Pyle.
-
- But a comment made by
his sister-in-law (his wife was from Eugene,
Oregon) brought me up short.
-
- "He idolized his
kids," she said.
-
- Did you catch that
word? Idolized?
-
- Maybe it was an
unfortunate choice of words. Maybe she simply
meant that he really loved them, which is
certainly admirable. All kids should be
fortunate enough to have a father who really
loves them.
-
- And maybe she doesn't
really know what "idolize" means - to worship
excessively, to make an object of
worship.
-
- But maybe she hit on
what is wrong with much of America today.
-
- I call it Child
Worship, and it is everywhere.
-
- Child worship is way
different from child love. When you truly love
your children, you discipline them, you correct
them, you teach them responsibility, you teach
them right from wrong, and you teach them
respect. In short, you prepare them to be the
sort of adults who can live and work with others
and become useful and productive people. In the
end, they will live happier lives that
way.
-
- Child worship, on the
other hand, produces self-centered people with
no thought whatever of others except to the
extent that they can be useful in providing
material goods or gratification.
-
- Want to have little
godlets in your house? Give them anything
they want. That includes letting them wear
anything they want and letting them wear their
hair any way they please. When they ride in the
car, make sure you listen to their music.
Or better still, buy them their own iPods. Let
them have cell phones, no matter how young they
are (you can rationalize it by telling people
this way you always know where they are) and
make sure their room is their sanctuary. You are
never to go in there without their
permission. Never pass judgment on their
friends, and never ask them where they've been
or where they're going. In return for all you do
by way of worshipping them, ask nothing of them
in return.
-
- Teach them that they
are never wrong. Defend them against teachers,
coaches and police and, if necessary, other
kids.
-
- Never correct your
children and never teach them to respect
authority. (Why should they? After all, they are
little gods.)
-
- Make sure your
family's entire life revolves around their
sports and activities. Nothing else is more
important.
-
- Keep them in a bubble,
shielding them from any possible harm,
embarrassment or failure.
-
- Be a "helicopter
parent" - always hovering nearby, ready at a
moment's notice to step in and support, defend
or advocate for them.
-
- Make irrational
demands on their coaches and teachers. It is
their job, not yours, to make your children
better.
-
- Make sure they truly
believe that they are the center of the
universe, and they are entitled to expect others
to accommodate them.
-
- Make sure they never
gain an appreciation of the value of material
things, by seeing to it that they get anything
they want.
-
- Reward their tantrums
when they think they've been deprived of
something they want.
-
- Above all, remain a
child yourself. Why should you have to be a
responsible adult, when it's a lot more fun
acting like a child yourself? Let somebody else
teach your kids how an adult acts.
-
- If you do things
right, you will assure that when the little
godlets grow up, they will still just be large
children, totally dependent on you and unable to
function as responsible adults.
-
- *********** I hope you
don't mind a little late-in-the-day recap of
last weekend's football. It was a great
weekend!
-
- It started Friday
night with a visit to East Bay against Riverview
(As in east of Tampa, Fl.). East Bay's coach is
an unrepentant Wishbone advocate, Riverview is
DW. I hesitate to criticize a 'Bone disciple, so
let me just state that the coaching friend I
travelled with from St. Pete and I saw the
option keys a little differently than the East
Bay staff did. But we're fans now so we see
everything a little differently.
-
- Riverview ran a very
nice DW, and that's an understatement. They
almost ran a perfect game. One day soon, they
will. They ran a nice Dive Mesh with the FB
several times and for those who think the FB is
too close to obtain that result, I suggest you
look again. One interesting bit came from the
write-up from the "Journal for Class Warfare
Studies and Social Justice", dba The Saint
Petersburg Times:
"The Sharks' "scrum"
offense, meanwhile, amassed 286 yards on the
ground. Addae finished with a game-high 144
yards on 15 carries with two scores."
-
- "Scrum Offense..."
Hmmph!
-
- The rest of the
weekend was simply great!
-
- "How could you say
that it was great? Mediocre football, throwing
every down? Ugh!".
-
- Simple: My coaching
friend has a football package that broadcast the
Navy - East Carolina game, and the rest of the
weekend was spent moving my option tape
collection to DVD. Featured game: Mississippi
State Wingbone against Florida (First appearance
of Florida great Wayne Peace, Offensive
Coordinator: Mike Shanahan!) with commentary by
Pepper Rodgers.
-
- Put it this way:
Florida State rushing yard: 1. Miami rushing
yardage: 2. Rushing yardage I saw this weekend?
Thousands!
-
- What a great football
weekend!
-
- Charles Wilson,
Seminole, Florida
-
- *********** I lost
most of my respect for Bill Walsh long ago, so
it didn't surprise me all that much to see him
pimping for Coors Light. (Although since I
believe he is still on the staff at Stanford,
his endorsement of a beer is totally
inappropriate.) But I really lost a whole lot of
respect for Dick Vermeil, seeing him turn into a
beer whore, too. Like those guys need the
money.
*********** It is that
time again and I wanted to update our team's
status. Our teams are from Highland Falls and
West Point but we have changed our name to the
Jr. Black Knights.
-
- Our web site is
jrblackknights.com and we now wear the Army
black and gold uniforms. I just wanted again to
touch base with you for the current season and
maybe have you promote the following book (not
really)
-
- I have published The
Complete Guide to Youth Football. This book
includes the following chapters:
-
- * How to Properly
Line Up a Punt on Second Down
-
- * How to Run a Full
Back Dive from an Empty Backfield
Set
-
- * How to Tire out
Your Opponent's Offense by Making Them Run Up
and Down The Field
-
- * How to Get an 10
Yard Long Snap in a 5 yard Shotgun
Formation
-
- * Using Your Shadow
on the Sideline to Cover that Out of Bounds
Step by Your Running Back
-
- * Crying and How to
Handle it
-
- * Proper Excuses
for a Dime Package on that Goal line
Stand
-
- * How to
Rationalize a QB Sneak on 4th and
22.
-
- * How to Assist
Marking the Ball that The Referee saw drop
Incomplete.
-
- * Why Your Wife
Doesn't Care That Your QB Throws Like Steve
McNair
-
- * How to Let the
Cheerleading Squad Hold the Blocking Dummies
in Practice Without Getting
Embarrassed
-
- * How to Relax
After Your Third Bench Penalty
- I am working on the
sequel "How to Rechain the Distance Marker for
Home Games"
-
- MAJ BENJAMIN S. BANE,
USMA, West Point, New York
-
- *********** Hello,
Coach Wyatt,
-
- Thank you for telling
the true Vince Papale story on your Web site. I
went to see "Invincible" over the weekend, and
came away very disappointed. It was hard to
believe that Disney ignored Vince Papale's
seasons with The Philadelphia Bell.
-
- In 1974-75, I worked
in the office of the Bell, first on Broad
Street, and later when the office moved to John
Bosacco's office in Media. My boss was the
business manager Richard Iannarella, who has
since passed away. I remember Ron Waller, you,
and Gloria (I think her name was Gloria, but I
don't remember her last name). I worked with Bob
Ellis, Eleanor Stern, Richard Pollak and
Jonathan (whose last name I don't
remember).
-
- A man named Tom Hefner
is putting together a Web site on the Bell. I
was wondering if you are in touch with him. He
is working on game summaries for both seasons.
There is currently a Web site under construction
at:
http://www.geocities.com/wflphiladelphiabell/
-
- Best
regards,
-
- Patricia (Malm) Viets,
Waldorf, Maryland
-
- *********** I have to
play a defense this week who runs a 4-4.
the odd thing is that the olb's are stacked
behind the de. I still get the double
team on the end, but the kick out has become
more difficult, which usually is that
backer. Do I still try and kick out
the backer or have the fb seal that backer
in. also, I think 38 g-o reach would work
well. any thoughts.
-
- I am guessing that
a good push by your TE and C Back will drive
that DE back so that the LB gets pushed back,
too.
-
- I would have the
B-Back seal, because from there the defense has
only the corner left to make the play, and you
still have the QB leading. In other words, you
will be running what we call 88 Super Power
Reach.
-
- And, yes, any sweep
will work well.
-
- *********** Hi Coach,
This is our 4th year in using your Practice
without Pads video. I really want to thank you
for the way it has improved our team
tackling.
-
- I am sure I am
preaching to the choir when I tell you that your
methods are a great way to teach all players to
be confident in their tackling
skills.
-
- The tackling
techniques from the good old days where you just
lined up players and let them run into each
other taught the 4 studs that they could run
over the other 26 players on the team.
Unfortunately, it also taught the other 26
players that it really hurt when those 4 run
over them. After tackling like that, it would
take us all year to try to get the confidence
back for most of our players.
-
- Now we use your
techniques to teach the fit and lift safely
while building confidence each time we drill the
technique. It has greatly improved our defensive
play.
-
- Thanks again,
coach!!
-
- Marlowe Aldrich,
Billings, Montana
-
- *********** This week
in football history, from the National Football
Foundation...
-
- September 11, 1913:
Paul "Bear" Bryant born in Moro Bottom,
Arkansas.
-
- September 12, 1972:
Southern California began the week as the #1
team in the country in the AP poll, and would
stay there for 17 straight weeks
-
- September 12, 1998:
Kansas State's Martin Gramatica kicks a 65-yard
field goal against Northern Illinois, the
longest field goal kicked without the use of a
tee.
-
- September 15, 1973:
Archie Griffin rushed for over 100 yards against
Minnesota, beginning a streak of 31 games,
spanning three seasons, in which he would rush
for at least 100 yards. Griffin is the only man
to win two Heisman Trophies, and was inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame in
1986.
-
- September 16, 1989:
Raghib "Rocket" Ismail returned two kickoffs for
touchdowns as No.1 Notre Dame defeated No.2
Michigan 24-19 in Ann Arbor.
-
- September 16, 2000:
Alvon Brown of Kentucky State set a Division II
single-game rushing record by gaining 405 yards
against Kentucky Wesleyan.
-
- September 17, 1994:
Jason Davis of UNLV completed 28 of 41 passes
for 347 yards in the fourth quarter -
against Idaho. completions, attempts, and
yardage are all single-quarter
records.
-
*********** Coach
Wyatt, We have established the wedge as one of
our most productive running plays, I am curious
to see what other plays you run off of wedge
action?
-
- In our first game the
official across from our sideline called our TE
for blocking below the waist 2 times.
During a timeout I asked the referee why were
being called for this and I was told that the
free blocking zone only extends from tackle to
tackle. I informed him that it was 4 yards
on either side of the center and our TE's are
clearly in the free blocking zone (I even had
the rule book out). The officials refused
to admit their mistake and told me that if our
ends block below the waist they will be called
for it. That will be the first and last
time that I forget to discuss the free blocking
zone with the officials prior to a
game.
-
- I have not been able
to attend one of your clinics but your tapes are
a great resource. I especially enjoyed the
Virtual Clinic. Although we have never met
you have served as a great mentor for
me.
-
- Thanks, Jason Klusmann
- Head Coach, Wishek-Ashley Football, Wishek,
North Dakota
-
- Wedge is a huge
play. As you have seen in the Virtual Clinic, we
have also gone unbalanced and moved the point of
attack over one man. But otherwise, mainly
because we can't even run all the good plays we
already have, the only play that we run from
wedge action - by which I am assuming you mean
using wedge blocking - is wedge
reverse.
-
- But if by "wedge
action" you mean faking the fullback into the
line, we have all sorts of plays, including 2
Black-O.
-
- Amazing how
ignorant officials are about the rule. Your note
is a reminder to me to remind readers about this
little "rule of thumb" that officials use, which
simply isn't so!
|
|
A GUIDE FOR LAZY OFFICIALS
--- More and more,
rather than reading the Rule Book, many
officials seem to have been reading the
Cliff's Notes version - the one that
says that the free-blocking zone goes
"from tackle to tackle." That may be a
convenient rule of thumb, but the
actual rule states "The free-blocking
zone is a rectangular area extending
laterally 4 yards either side of the
spot of the snap..." You can see how
the lazy official's "tackle-to-tackle"
memory device might apply in the case
of Navy, with its huge splits; but if
it is applied to a team with minimal
splits, such as a typical Double-Wing
team, it would mean that the Tight
Ends, who are clearly within the
free-blocking zone as it is described
by the Rule Book, would be prohibited -
wrongly - from blocking an opponent
below the waist. To be brief: OUR
TIGHT ENDS ARE IN THE
FREE-BLOCKING ZONE. PERIOD. (The
illustration above is obviously not
exactly to scale, and it does not show
that the free-blocking zone also
extends "3 yards behind each line of
scrimmage"
|
- *********** How many
times have you coached your kids as well as you
could only to see them play poorly and finally,
in resignation, said, "we can't tackle for
them?"
-
- Not unless, it seems,
you coach in Stockton, California. By now,
you've probably seen the video of the "coach"
who ran onto the field and ("allegedly")
attacked a player on the other team who had
cheap-shotted his kid.
-
- Funny - the thing that
pissed me off most was not that the coach went
after the cheap shotter. It really was a late
hit, away from the play, and if the guy had been
going out there on the field to defend one of
his players, well - it was still totally wrong
and totally uncalled-for, but at least I'd
understand his getting carried away. I would
condemn it, and I'd be for banning the guy from
kids' sports for life, but I'd
understand.
-
- What pissed me off the
most was that this ass was going after a kid,
not because he'd cheap-shotted a player - but
because it was his son! I really doubt that he'd
have gotten so carried away if it had been
someone else's son. The guy was supposed to be a
coach, a coach of all the kids, but at heart, he
was every real coach's worst nightmare - a
helicopter parent, who simply has to hover
around his kid, ready to swoop in whenever Dad
perceives that he's in need of help. And it
doesn't matter how out of line he might be - his
little boy needs his help. Now.
-
- I have known many dads
who coach their own sons along with other
people's sons. They are professional enough when
they are on the field to be coaches first and
foremost, and to coach their sons exactly the
way they coach every other player.
-
- This guy dishonors
them all. (See the next article)
-
- *********** I have a
question. And please don't think I'm one of
"those dads". My starting QB on the middle
school team is my son. We started him out at
left guard. But because of a couple of guys with
"talent" deciding practice was optional we
placed him at QB. He's OK with it but would
rather play guard or center, really I ain't
joking. And he makes the line blocking calls
too. My other son is the QB on the grid
kids team, a legit QB but would rather play
C-Back. So I got 2 kids playing QB. Think of the
shit I take. Although, my assistants and some
parents talked me into both
decisions. AM I LOSING PERSPECTIVE?
Coaching 2 teams and having both sons at QB
and being head coach of both teams I'm thinking
my judgment has been compromised. You'll be
getting a call in the morning.
-
- My position on this
is that so long as when you are with the team
you are a coach first and a father second, you
can do it. You have an obligation to the team to
put the right players in the right places, which
might mean putting your son at QB.
-
- But you also have
an obligation to the team to treat your own son
like any other player.
-
- In the latter case,
I know coaches who reinforce this by having
their own sons call them "coach" when they are
on the football field.
-
- I think you have to
be careful of little things like calling all the
players by their last names - except for your
own son, whom you call by his first
name.
-
- And if it's your
practice to get on a kid's butt if he screws up,
you have to make sure you do this uniformly,
too.
-
- Many guys can bring
it off. At the high school level it seems to
have the best chance of working, probably
because a high school coach is likely to have
more experience not only as a coach, but also as
a father.
-
- Some guys can't
bring it off. I can't help noticing all the
agent-fathers involved in youth baseball, where
it is a rare dad/coach whose son doesn't make
his league's all-star team.
-
- And I have seen
coaches turn rapidly into protective daddies
when it was their son on the receiving end of a
questionable hit. Take, for example, that
assistant youth coach in Stockton, Calif who
attacked a kid on the other team who'd taken a
cheap-shot at his son. That's what I call taking
parental favoritism to its extreme. I frankly
doubt that he'd have done the same thing if it
had been another person's kid.
-
- *********** Saturday
we won our season opener in convincing fashion
after 3 scrimmages in which the kids struggled
to remember their blocking rules. The grumbling
on the sidelines was evident but having run the
system last year, I knew it takes time to get 11
players to do the right thing most of the
time.
-
- With bruising linemen
pulling and crushing their blocks we cruised to
a 32-0 half time lead, where at that point we
couldn't score anymore due to league rules.
Well, our 2nd string fullback broke a wedge for
55 yards and forgot that we told them to run out
of bounds and not score.
-
- Well, we let them
score on the next play to end 38-6 but they
filed a complaint with the league that we ran up
the score. Thank God, I have film to prove our
second stringers were in the game. Makes me
wonder why they think we couldn't score another
32 points in the second half if we wanted to run
it up.
-
- Anyway, I wanted to
thank you for all your assistance over the years
and wanted to let you know that when my top
assistant and I are not on the same page on
footwork, we always say "Let's see Wyatt's
playbook".
-
- I will let you know
how we fared after next week's game in which we
play last year's championship
runner-up.
-
- Coach Akis Kourtzidis,
Chino Hills, California (It is important that
you had the experience to know to be patient and
that improvement would come. Try as they might,
nobody has yet figured out an equitable way of
keeping scores from getting out of hand. It's
tough when you get way ahead and your good kids
get to play only a half of football, but also
when your backups get to run only the wedge.
HW)
-
- *********** FROM
THE INTERNET...
-
- HOW MANY SEC
STUDENTS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
-
- At VANDERBILT: it
takes two, one to change the bulb and one more
to explain how they did it every bit as good as
the bulbs changed at Harvard. At GEORGIA: it
takes two, one to change the bulb and one to
phone an engineer at Georgia Tech for
instructions. At FLORIDA: it takes four, one to
screw in the bulb and three to figure out how to
get stoned off the old one. At ALABAMA: it takes
five, one to change it, two to reminisce about
how The Bear would have done it, and one to
throw the old bulb at an NCAA investigator and
one to throw the other old bulb at Fulmer. At
OLE MISS: it takes six, one to change it, two to
mix the drinks and three to find the perfect J.
Crew outfit to wear for the occasion. At LSU: it
takes seven, and each one gets credit for five
semester hours. At KENTUCKY: it takes eight, one
to screw it in and seven to discuss how much
brighter it seems to shine during basketball
season. At TENNESSEE: it takes ten, two to
figure out how to screw it in, two to buy an
orange lampshade, and six to phone a radio
call-in show and talk about how much they hate
Alabama. At MISSISSIPPI STATE: it takes fifteen,
one to screw in the bulb, two to buy the Skoal,
and twelve to yell, "GO TO HELL, OLE MISS". At
AUBURN: it takes one hundred, one to change it,
forty-nine to talk about how they did it better
than at Bama, and fifty to get drunk and roll
Toomer's Corner when finished. At SOUTH
CAROLINA: it takes 80,000, one to screw it in
and 79,999 to discuss how this finally will be
the year that they have a decent football team.
At ARKANSAS: None. There is no electricity in
Arkansas.
-
- PLANNING FOR THE
FOOTBALL SEASON - NORTH VS SOUTH
-
- Planning for the
fall football season in the South is radically
different than up North. For those who are
planning a football trip to the South, here are
some helpful hints. Women's Accessories NORTH:
ChapStick in back pocket and a $20 bill in the
front pocket. SOUTH: Louis Vuitton duffel with
two lipsticks, waterproof mascara, and a fifth
of bourbon. Money not necessary - that's what
dates are for. Stadium Size NORTH: College
football stadiums hold 20,000 people. SOUTH:
High school football stadiums hold 20,000
people. Fathers NORTH: Expect their daughters to
understand Sylvia Plath. SOUTH: Expect their
daughters to understand pass interference.
-
- Campus Decor NORTH:
Statues of founding fathers. SOUTH: Statues of
Heisman trophy winners. Homecoming Queen NORTH:
Also a physics major. SOUTH: Also Miss America.
Heroes NORTH: Rudy Giuliani SOUTH: Bear Bryant,
Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning, Bo Jackson,
Herschel Walker, Walter Payton, Bret Favre,
Steve McNair, Jerry Rice, (should I go on?)
Getting Tickets NORTH: 5 days before the game
you walk into the ticket office on campus and
purchase tickets. SOUTH: 5 months before the
game you walk into the ticket office on campus
and put name on waiting list for tickets. Monday
Classes After a Saturday Game NORTH: Students
and teachers not sure they're going to the game,
because they have to prepare for classes on
Monday. SOUTH: Teachers cancel Monday classes
because they don't want to see the few hung over
students that might actually make it to class.
Parking NORTH: An hour before game time, the
University opens the campus for game parking.
SOUTH: RVs sporting their school flags begin
arriving on Wednesday for the weekend
festivities. The really faithful arrive on
Tuesday. Game Day NORTH: A few students party in
the dorm and watch ESPN on TV. SOUTH: Every
student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast, and
rushes over to where ESPN is broad casting "Game
Day Live" to get on camera and wave to the
idiots up north who wonder why "Game Day Live"
is never broadcast from their campus. Tailgating
NORTH: Raw meat on a grill, beer with lime in
it, listening to local radio station with truck
tailgate down. SOUTH: 30-foot custom pig-shaped
smoker fires up at dawn. Cooking accompanied by
live performance by "Dave Matthews' Band," who
come over during breaks and ask for a hit off
bottle of bourbon. Getting to the Stadium NORTH:
You ask "Where's the stadium?" When you find it,
you walk right in. SOUTH: When you're near it,
you'll hear it. On game day it becomes the
state's third largest city. Concessions NORTH:
Drinks served in a paper cup, filled to the top
with soda. SOUTH: Drinks served in a plastic
cup, with the home team's mascot on it, filled
less than half way with soda, to ensure enough
room for bourbon. When National Anthem is Played
NORTH! : Stands are less than half full, and
less than half of them stand up. SOUTH: 100,000
fans, all standing, sing along in perfect
four-part harmony. The Smell in the Air After
the First Score NORTH: Nothing changes. SOUTH:
Fireworks, with a touch of bourbon. Commentary
(Male) NORTH: "Nice play." SOUTH: "Dammit, you
slow sumbitch - tackle him and break his legs.."
Commentary (Female) NORTH: "My, this certainly
is a violent sport." SOUTH: "Dammit, you slow
sumbitch tackle him and break his legs." ;
Announcers NORTH: Neutral and paid. SOUTH:
Announcer harmonizes with the crowd in the fight
song, with a tear in his eye because he is so
proud of his team. After the Game NORTH: The
stadium is empty way before the game ends.
SOUTH: Another rack of ribs goes on the smoker,
while somebody goes to the nearest package store
for more bourbon, and planning begins for next
week's game.
-
- ***********
Remember Bob St. Clair? How about
this---
-
- One of Bob's
grandsons plays football at Burlingame High
where one of my grandsons is a sophmore on the
varsity and the other is a tackle on the
frosh/soph. Jesse James, Millbrae,
California
-
- *********** Who
remembers this, from Charlton Heston's first NRA
presidential address, in 1998?
-
- "Mr. Clinton, sir,
America didn't trust you with our health care
system, America didn't trust you with gays in
the military, America doesn't trust you with
our twenty-one-year-old daughters, and we
sure Lord don't trust you with our
guns!"
- *********** I told Ned
Griffen, of New London, Connecticut about
something the coach at Shippensburg State (now
Shippensburg University) in Pennsylvania told me
back in the early 70s: he'd had some personnel
problems, and was forced to go into a game
running from a full-house T with two tight ends.
Surprisingly, he won, and after the game the
opposing coach, whose knowledge of the game
clearly didn't extend back too many years,
congratulated him on his innovative use of the
"inverted Wishbone."
-
- Ned, in turn, told me
about the coach in Connecticut who wound up
winning the state girls' basketball title in a
huge upset:
-
- "The winning coach
credited his team's defensive effort to a plan
that involved 'a stratified zone defense with
man-to-man principles.'
-
- It sounded so
fancy
-
- I asked the writer
what fancy pants defense this coach
concocted.
-
- It was a
box-and-one
-
- *********** DO YOU
HATE THE NEW, TOTALLY UNNECESSARY CLOCK
RULES?
-
- Prior to the season,
most college football fans heard something about
the changes to the rules governing the game
clock: The clock would start running the moment
the ball is kicked on a kickoff. Even more
bizarrely, it would also run after the ball was
set following a change of
possession.
-
- The driving force
behind these 'improvements' to college football
was a desire by the TV networks for shorter
games.
-
- If you agree with me
that they have broken something in order to fix
it, go to...
-
- http://www.wehatethenewclockrules.com
and sign the
petition!
-
*********** ATTENTION!!! YOU
ARE NEEDED! As many of you know, former
Army All-American Bob Novogratz is a member of the
board of the Black Lion Award. Bob has been
tireless in supporting the cause, including
presenting the award, and was instrumental in
persuading the Army Football Club, the association
of former Army football players, to present the
Black Lion Award to West Point football player
every year.
In the photos below, Bob is shown in January,
2003 presenting the Black Lion Awards to young men
from the Millersville, Maryland youth football
program. The photo in the top middle was taken in
1958, when Bob was an All-American guard and
linebacker on and Colonel Red Blaik's last team and
Army's last undefeated team, the fabled "Lonely
End" team that finished 3rd in the nation.
FROM MY ARCHIVES - JANUARY 2003-
- A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It's not
every day that a team is fortunate enough to
have its Black Lion Awards presentation made
by a veteran or an active serviceman; it's
rarer still when the presenter is a former
West Point All-American.
He is Bob Novogratz, and that's he in the
middle of the top row, before his senior year
at Army. That's also he in the other five
photos, shown with Black Lion Award winners
from five different teams in the
Millersville, Maryland youth football
program.
When the football picture of him was
taken, it was fall of 1958, and no one would
have dared to predict the kind of year he and
his Army teammates would have; preseason
forecasters knew that they would be good -
the Cadets had finished 7-2 in 1957. But no
one could have foretold that it would become
one of the most famous of all Army teams.
It would be the final season in the
fabulous career of legendary Army coach
Earl
"Red" Blaik, and that 1958 Army team
finished the season unbeaten and ranked
number 3 in the nation. The last Army team to
go unbeaten, It gained nationwide notice
through Blaik's ingenious deployment of a
split end who never entered the huddle - the
so-called "Lonely End."
But it was by no means a team based on a
gimmick. The
1958 Army team was solid on offense, and
on defense as well. Three of the 11 men on
the team - remember, it was two-way football
- were named All-American. Two of them - Pete
Dawkins and Bob Anderson - were running
backs, and one of them - Dawkins - won the
Heisman Trophy that year; the third, Bob
Novogratz, played guard and linebacker, and
won the Knute Rockne Award, given then to the
nation's outstanding defensive player. (With
only 11 spots to fill on those All-America
teams in those days, selection was quite an
honor.)
-
- Coming from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a
hotbed of wrestling, Bob actually went to
West Point as a wrestler, and was persuaded
to play football by Coach Earl Blaik. In
addition to being an All-American football
player, Bob was Eastern Heavyweight wrestling
champion.
Bob was drafted by the World Champion
Baltimore Colts, but he had other things to
do than play pro football - he had a
commitment to serve in the US Army. He spent
time briefly as a coach at West Point, and
went on to serve in Vietnam, where he earned
the Bronze Star medal. After a career in the
Army, he retired as a colonel.
- Colonel Bob Novogratz and the
Millersville Black Lion Award winners. (TOP
LEFT: Aaron Terry, TOP RIGHT, Aaron Farrare;
BOTTOM (L to R) Ian Page, Dale Younker,
Justin Cronin (More
about the Black Lion
Award)
Correctly identifying Bob Novogratz:
Joe Daniels- Sacramento,California... Kevin
McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Tom Hinger-
Auburndale, Florida ("What a great series of
pictures with the young Black Lion Award
winners. Colonel Novogratz is a class act, which
is no surprise. Leaders like him are a pleasure
to follow.")... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski,
Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois...
Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("The pic
this week is of no other than Bob Novogratz, the
All American Strongside guard who was also a
starting linebacker for the 1958 team.
Incidentally Mr. Novogratz was named outstanding
lineman for the Army -Navy game and I believe
was the Outland trophy winner that year.")...
John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("Whatever
happened to the Rockne Award?")... Greg Stout-
Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Alan Goodwin-
Warwick, Rhode Island ("That must have been one
heck of a team. I'd like to see a game at West
Point. UConn plays there this year. That may be
a good road trip. I haven't seen West Point
since I visited with my Boy Scout troop - must
have been around 1968")... Jim Hooper-
Englewood, Colorado ("Thanks for recognizing
Army All-American Bob Novogratz. No small feat
to gain national recognition on a team that
included Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter.")...
Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ( "I finally
looked up a website that had highlights of the
1958 football season and that gave me the
answer. Bob Novogratz certainly was a great
player. When I put his name into the search
engine to find out more about him, I was
directed to Chapter 9 of a book written about
Coach Blaik. Lo and behold, the author is the
one and only Hugh Wyatt!")..
NOW- Here's where you
come in. Bob is a native of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, where his dad, who came here from
Austria, worked in the local cement plant
(Northampton High's teams are the Koncrete
Kids).
The Allentown Call, which
serves the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern
Pennsylvania, is putting together The Lehigh Valley
All-Time, All-Area team. It is no small honor to
make it - among those nominated along with Bob
Novogratz are All-Time All-Pro Chuck Bednarik, who
played all 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL championship
game, and All-Pro Packers' center Jim Ringo. Bob
Novogratz, who passed up a pro career to serve his
country, belongs on it.
I am asking you readers - If
you have ever been involved in the Black Lion Award
program... If you have ever been a lineman or a
line coach... If you have ever admired service
academy football... If you respect a man for
putting his country ahead of his sports
aspirations... If you love the idea of a college
football player who was also a champion wrestler...
If you just admire the grace and toughness of the
guys who played OLD SCHOOL FOOTBALL... go to the
following site and vote for Bob
Novogratz!
http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/all-football-local-about-oline,0,719088.story?coll=all-sportsstorycontent-utl
"INVINCIBLE?"
UNBELIEVABLE - FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE REAL VINCE
PAPALE!
www.coachwyatt.com/vincepapale.htm
|
|
Rapid
and Random Reflections on the College
Football Weekend!
(See"NEWS")
|
|
Farewell
to Bob Mathias!
(See"NEWS")
|
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
|
My
Offensive System
|
My
Materials for Sale
|
My
Clinics
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
- September
5,
2006
- "There are
no atheists in the foxholes." William Thomas
Cummings
*********** The sports world lost Bob Mathias,
one of the great athletes of the 20th Century, over
the weekend. He won the Olympic Decathlon in 1948
as a 17-year-old high school kid, and won it again
in 1952. In between, playing fullback for Stanford,
his 96-yard kickoff return helped beat USC 27-20
and put Stanford in the Rose Bowl. He is still the
only athlete ever to compete in the Rose Bowl and
the Olympics in the same year. While at Stanford,
he won four straight US decathlon championships,
and in college meets, he often participated in as
many as seven events.
*********** A couple of our neighbors had their
mailboxes knocked over the other night, post and
all. Not that there's any profiling going on, or
anything, but I suspect that the local police have
probably narrowed down their search to teenage
boys.
*********** Rapid and Random Reflections...
Dennis Erickson takes Idaho into East Lansing
and gives Michigan State all it wants. The guy sure
can coach.
When Nebraska lined up in the I-formation and
ran off tackle, it looked like the Huskers of
old.
Two great former coaches and program-builders -
Bob Pruitt of Marshall and Don Nehlen of West
Virginia - were interviewed together at the
Marshall-WVU game.
North Carolina fumbles on the 1 and loses to
Rutgers.
Stanford, down close, tries a halfback pass, and
the back, under pressure, throws the ball out of
bounds. Directly out of bounds. It does not cross
the line of scrimmage, and a running back is
charged with intentional grounding. Stanford is
penalized and fails to score.
In close and down, 34-10 with 1:41 left in the
third quarter, Stanford goes for a field goal - and
misses.
Down 41-10 with 9:25 to go in the game, Stanford
tries another field goal. This one is
blocked and returned for an Oregon touchdown.
Talk about a double-cross... After practicing
flag football since the beginning of camp, Cal
arrives in Knoxville to find that the contract with
Tennessee requires it to play The lack of practice
shows in numerous missed tackles and an
embarrassing blowout.
This is what happens when they change the name
from Division I-AA to NCAA Championship Division:
Richmond beats Duke, Montana State beats Colorado,
and Portland State beats New Mexico.
On the other hand, given an extra game to play,
it's kinda sick how so many major colleges took a
page from the pros and scheduled what amounted to
"pre-season" games, going out and getting Division
I-AA opponents to whip up on.
After undergoing stomach-stapling surgery for
largely cosmetic reasons (he thought that his
appearance was costing him job opportunities),
Charley Weis appears to be back where he was
pre-surgery. I do worry about the man's health.
Notre Dame is tough and well-conditioned. They
went into Atlanta and took Georgia Tech's best shot
and, in my opinion, wore down the Yellow Jackets.
But it was not a knockout. So - if Notre Dame is #2
in the country, what is Georgia Tech?
Georgia Tech's Calvin Johnson is something to
see. I must not have been listening, but where was
Jeff Samardzija?
Washington State, on the Auburn 1, lines up in
the Double-Wing.
USC may no longer have Bush, Leinart and White,
but they were the best team I saw this weekend.
I'm sure that Arkansas' Houston Nutt didn't want
to have to do it so soon, but with the game out of
control and the Hogs going nowhere, he inserted
true freshman QB Mitch Mustain, and the kid
immediately brought life back to the fans (those
who hadn't already left) by completing his first
three passes and running the final five yards for a
touchdown.
So this is what they mean by modern,
Cutting-Edge Football... Halftime rushing stats:
Arizona 8, BYU -17
With the six seconds left and the BYU-Arizona
game tied 13-13, Arizona, deep in BYU territory -
okay, at the 33 - turned a football game over to a
keeker and won with a 50-yard field goal. Be still,
my beating heart.
The rulesmakers drove a spike into the idea that
a football game isn't really over until the final
whistle blows when they passed the idiotic rule
that says the clock will start on a kickoff when
the ball is kicked, not when it is touched. And on
changes of possession, it starts on the
"ready-for-play" signal, instead of waiting for the
ball to be snapped. So- just scored to go ahead
with a few seconds to play, did you? Don't even
think about kicking that ball to anybody. Just
dribble the SOB along the ground. Game Over.
I hurt for two coaches I admire - Army loses to
Arkansas State, Kentucky gets drilled by
Louisville.
Injury of the season - Louisville's Michael
Bush, as strong a Heisman candidate as anybody out
there, broke his leg against Kentucky.
The Big East didn't hurt itself any with
Rutgers' win over UNC, Louisville's over Kentucky
and Pitt's over Virginia.
Washington did get a win over San Jose State,
but the big story is that the Huskies' crowd of
52,000 and change was their smallest in 25 years.
As strong as the Seahawks are now, it could be a
long time - if ever - before the Huskies ever
regain the upper hand in Seattle.
Boy, considering that as late as July Ole Miss
didn't even know if he'd be eligible to play, Brent
Schaeffer sure picked up their offense in a hurry,
didn't he?
Florida State picks up two STUPID personal foul
penalties, but of them committed by junior college
transfers. The announcers attributed the
knucklehead plays to "extra exuberance." It's not
"extra" anything - It's not enough
self-discipline.
Mike Patrick, calling the Miami-Florida State
game on ESPN, said that the NCAA's replay system,
which allows any controversial play to be reviewed
if an official in the booth requests it, is "better
than the NFL's," which depends totally on coach's
challenges. Boy, is he going to catch hell! Didn't
they tell him that if you're working for a network
that broadcasts NFL games, you're not allowed to
say anything negative about Big Football?
The cameras stayed extra long on the Florida
State and Miami players joined in their postgame
prayer circle. I couldn't imagine why that guy was
holding the boom mike over them, though, because no
network will ever use audio that includes the words
"God," "Lord," or Jesus." Unless, of course, they
need the footage for some dumbass network special
on how "invasive" Christianity has become in the
sport of football.
*********** Alert reader Dave Fleming of Atlanta
remarked that he saw Ole Miss score against Memphis
on a play from a formation that looked a lot like
our Wildcat. He sent along this description from
ESPN.com...
" The Rebels answered on the first play of the
second quarter with a tricky formation on
fourth-and-1 from the 31. McCluster lined up in the
backfield next to Schaeffer, who was under center.
Schaeffer handed the ball to McCluster, who slipped
around the left side and scored untouched."
*********** Every Sunday, the New York Times
Magazine runs a column by Randy Cohen called "The
Ethicist," in which Mr. Cohn considers the
application of ethics to everyday situations.
Mr. Cohn was dealing with the ethics of a guy
who figures that it's okay to park illegally in a
loading zone because even if he gets a couple of
tickets a week, it's still cheaper than paying for
a place to park.
Responded Mr. Cohn:
"A fine is not a fee for the right
to break the law."
"There is a distinction between a permit
and a penalty."
"You should obey the law even when
enforcement is spotty and getting caught a
bargain."
Can you see where I am headed? Does this sound
at all like the people who, fully cognizant that it
is illegal, still teach their blockers to hold and
their defenders to cut grab your blockers' legs and
cut your blockers low?
Knowing that officials can't see everything -
and even if they do see it they will likely be
reluctant to keep calling the same penalty - these
people calculate (1) that the odds are against
their getting caught at all, but (2) even if they
do get caught, the rare penalty is a small price
they are willing to pay in return for the huge - if
unethical - advantage that they've gained.
In other words, they see the occasional 10-15
yards not as a penalty but as a permit to cheat.
Overall, they view it as a bargain.
*********** Seems a bunch of immature college
kids at Penn State apparently never quite grasped
the idea that tailgating was something done
before games. Instead, they would start out
boozing it up when everyone else did, but when the
football fans headed into the stadium, they would
stay outside and get drunk - getting obnoxiously
drunk, to the point where it led to some serious
problems when the game ended and the real fans came
out to get in their cars. So university officials,
showing that they are "zero tolerance" school
administrators of the same stripe as those who send
elementary school kids home for drawing pictures of
guns, have outlawed all alcohol at tailgate parties
in the school parking lots. Rather than crack down
on the undisciplined brats, they find it easier
politically just to clamp down on everybody,
including tens of thousands of loyal fans who've
managed to drink responsibly, without incident, for
years.
*********** ALBERTA: Coach, I just wanted to
check-in and let you know that we won our first
game of the season last night versus McCoy by a
score of 27-10. The first half was sloppy, with us
down 10-8, but we finally executed in the second
half and outscored them 19-0.
Our A-Back rushed for 227 yards on 18 carries
with 3 TD's, including scores of 65 and 85 yards,
both of those plays came on 'Liz-56 CrissCross",
and our C-Back had 1 on the opposite 47. This team
was cheating their line and had LB' s flowing in
the direction of our motion so that play was most
of the night. The one area I was not happy with was
our Wedge, we gave up too much penetration. This
will need ALOT of work. However, the game was a
great way to start the year!
Thank you for all of your help, I will let you
know how we make out on September 12.
Take Care, Anthony Donner, CHHS Vikings,
Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
*********** ALABAMA - Coach, Just wanted to
share the good news of our first varsity football
game in the history of Providence Christian School.
As you may recall, we began two seasons ago as a
Junior High, last season we split into a JV and a
JR High and this season we entered our first
varsity team into competition in the Alabama High
School Athletic Association as a 1A team (smallest
classification). I have two seniors on the team
(although arguably our best lineman is one of them
and is out for several weeks after fracturing his
ankle in our first scrimmage). The majority of our
team is tenth graders with several 11th and 9th
graders rounding out our squad of 33 players.
It was a great win for our program. I want to
thank you for all of your help and support in the
beginnings of our program. Looking forward to
Atlanta again in the spring.
(I have attached the news article from this
morning's paper.)
Sincerely,
Emory Latta
Providence Christian School, Dothan, Alabama
(It's a great win, and I couldn't be happier for
Coach Latta. As an indication of how he's really
getting the job done, read what his fullback
Preston Jones and quarterback Nicholas Plagenhoef
said when asked about the game afterwards.
"It's amazing," Plagenhoef told the
Dothan Eagle. "After two years, to come out here
and win, it's just amazing."
"God really blessed us," Jones
said.
"We think God blessed us with a great
leader," Plagenhoef said.
In the grand scheme of things, what's it
worth to have a kid say that about
you?
*********** GEORGIA - Nathanael Greene 34 -
Peidmont 28 - Nathanael Greene rushes for 360
yards
*********** IOWA: Galva-Holstein 21, Guthrie
Center- 15 - 37 carries for 207 yards, 4 of 6
passing for 100 yards; 1st half GC had 12 first
downs, G-H 2; 2nd half G-H10 first downs, GC 1
*********** ILLINOIS: Crystal Lake South 14,
Crystal Lake Central 13 (OT) - Central coach Jon
McLaughlin returns to the Double-Wing after two
years of running the spread and almost pulls off
the upset of #10-ranked South, falling short by the
margin of a missed extra point in OT.
*********** ILLINOIS: Ridgeview 42-0, Blue Ridge
0. Ridgefield rushes for over 400 yards to move to
2-0.
*********** MARYLAND: Archbishop Curley 44,
Riverdale Baptist 18 - Down 18-12 at the half,
Curley outscores Riverdale Baptist 32-0 in the
second half
*********** NEW YORK: Corning West 13,
Nottingham 12 - Corning West opens with a win in
the KIckoff Classic in the Syracuse Carrier Dome.
"You have to credit the system," Coach Mike
Johnston told the Corning Leader. "We believe in
the double-wing offense. We believe we can move the
ball on people. We try to dictate the pace of the
game and we like to control the tempo and that
worked for us tonight."
*********** NEW YORK: Lansingburgh 52,
Scotia-Glenville 8 - a and c backs rushed for 115
yds each
*********** NEW YORK: Oakfield-Alabama 14, Notre
Dame 8 - Oakfield-Alabama survives Hurricane
Ernesto and nine fumbles to win in four
overtimes.
*********** NEW YORK: Queensbury 26, Niskayuna
14 - four scoring drives (72, 79, 69 and 95 yards)
produced 315 yards and ate up 26:22 of the
clock.
*********** OKLAHOMA Cheyenne MS (Edmond) 46
Putnam City Western Oaks 0
*********** SOUTH CAROLINA; Clover 42, Forest
View 13
*********** SOUTH CAROLINA: Ware Shoals 14,
Palmetto 0
*********** WASHINGTON: Vancouver Christian 28,
Naselle 14 - Vancouver Christian rushes for 460
yards; B-Back Feliks Polyakov carries 23 times for
153 and QB M.J. Adams carries 8 times for 116
*********** Coach - I know I have only been
watching ABC's pre-game for 10 minutes but... Doug
Fluties is 400 Times better than Aaron Taylor was,
and Im not saying that because Im a Boston
guy,because believe me I know Fluties can off as
arrogant,but in watching 5 minute his Analytical
skills are 100 times better than Taylor's and he's
a lot more mature and camera savvy than Taylor ever
was. Taylor maybe was the worst tv analyst I have
ever saw. John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts
*********** Can you briefly explain the spinning
fullback single-wing attack?
Go to -
http://www.coachwyatt.com/singlewing.html
To the extent that any single wing attack can
be called "common," the third diagram from the top
is probably the most common "spinning fullback"
formation. In the spinner series, the ball is
snapped to the fullback (the second back from the
left - the leftmost back is the "tailback"), who
then spins so that his back is turned to the line
of scrimmage, thereby concealing the ball from the
defense while he (1) hands the ball to the tailback
going right; (2) hands the ball to the tailback
going left; or (3) keeps the ball himself and runs
at various places along the line."
In "The Winged T," one of the most important
and influential of all coaching books, Dave Nelson
(Delaware) and Forrest Evashevski (Iowa) wrote,
"The finest series in single wing football, or all
football for that matter, is the complete spin of
the fulback." In the Wing-T offense invented by
Nelson (and popularized by Evashevski), the QB
takes the snap from under center and does the
spinning and provides the deception. HW
*********** From a self-described "die-hard
Eagles' fan":
As far as "Invincible" goes not only did they
not tell the truth- they got the Eagles Chant AND
Fight Song wrong- no credibility.. As you know,
Vince Papale is pretty big around here- he was
telling us that during training camp the Eagle
players were taking side bets as to how long he
would last and when the NFL saw that in the story
they made Disney take it out of the movie because
of the gambling inference or they wouldn't let them
use their logo, teams, or anything else that had
anything to do with the NFL... haha, the NFL sure
is worried about their, uh-hum, pristine image I
suppose..
Jeff Belliveau, West Berlin, New Jersey
*********** Back in 1971 or 1972, back when the
wishbone was coming into vogue, the coach at
Shippensburg State (now University) in PA told me
that in one game, he'd been forced by personnel
exigencies to run an old-fashioned full-house
T-formation offense.
Shippensburg wound up winning, and after the
game his opponent congratulated him on his clever
use of the "inverted wishbone."
*********** Now that he's just retired, what can
they do to him? A recent article in Sports
Illustrated quotes Andre Agassi as saying, after a
long-ago victory, "I'm as happy as a fag in a
submarine."
*********** Nice job on the Vince Papale story
in the Vancouver Columbian by reporter Tom Vogt
-
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/09022006news56022.cfm
- I told Tom that to put my peevishness about
"Invincible" into perspective, he should imagine
a guy at The New York Times who'd learned how to
be a reporter by working hard as a reporter at
the Columbian, yet when they made a movie about
him, they ignored his real experience and showed
him working as a bartender and responding to an
"open tryout" for writers.
*********** ATTENTION!!! YOU
ARE NEEDED! As many of you know, former
Army All-American Bob Novogratz is a member of the
board of the Black Lion Award. Bob has been
tireless in supporting the cause, including
presenting the award, and was instrumental in
persuading the Army Football Club, the association
of former Army football players, to present the
Black Lion Award to West Point football player
every year.
In the photos below, Bob is shown in January,
2003 presenting the Black Lion Awards to young men
from the Millersville, Maryland youth football
program. The photo in the top middle was taken in
1958, when Bob was an All-American guard and
linebacker on and Colonel Red Blaik's last team and
Army's last undefeated team, the fabled "Lonely
End" team that finished 3rd in the nation.
FROM MY ARCHIVES - JANUARY 2003-
- A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It's not
every day that a team is fortunate enough to
have its Black Lion Awards presentation made
by a veteran or an active serviceman; it's
rarer still when the presenter is a former
West Point All-American.
He is Bob Novogratz, and that's he in the
middle of the top row, before his senior year
at Army. That's also he in the other five
photos, shown with Black Lion Award winners
from five different teams in the
Millersville, Maryland youth football
program.
When the football picture of him was
taken, it was fall of 1958, and no one would
have dared to predict the kind of year he and
his Army teammates would have; preseason
forecasters knew that they would be good -
the Cadets had finished 7-2 in 1957. But no
one could have foretold that it would become
one of the most famous of all Army teams.
It would be the final season in the
fabulous career of legendary Army coach
Earl
"Red" Blaik, and that 1958 Army team
finished the season unbeaten and ranked
number 3 in the nation. The last Army team to
go unbeaten, It gained nationwide notice
through Blaik's ingenious deployment of a
split end who never entered the huddle - the
so-called "Lonely End."
But it was by no means a team based on a
gimmick. The
1958 Army team was solid on offense, and
on defense as well. Three of the 11 men on
the team - remember, it was two-way football
- were named All-American. Two of them - Pete
Dawkins and Bob Anderson - were running
backs, and one of them - Dawkins - won the
Heisman Trophy that year; the third, Bob
Novogratz, played guard and linebacker, and
won the Knute Rockne Award, given then to the
nation's outstanding defensive player. (With
only 11 spots to fill on those All-America
teams in those days, selection was quite an
honor.)
-
- Coming from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a
hotbed of wrestling, Bob actually went to
West Point as a wrestler, and was persuaded
to play football by Coach Earl Blaik. In
addition to being an All-American football
player, Bob was Eastern Heavyweight wrestling
champion.
Bob was drafted by the World Champion
Baltimore Colts, but he had other things to
do than play pro football - he had a
commitment to serve in the US Army. He spent
time briefly as a coach at West Point, and
went on to serve in Vietnam, where he earned
the Bronze Star medal. After a career in the
Army, he retired as a colonel.
- Colonel Bob Novogratz and the
Millersville Black Lion Award winners. (TOP
LEFT: Aaron Terry, TOP RIGHT, Aaron Farrare;
BOTTOM (L to R) Ian Page, Dale Younker,
Justin Cronin (More
about the Black Lion
Award)
Correctly identifying Bob Novogratz:
Joe Daniels- Sacramento,California... Kevin
McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Tom Hinger-
Auburndale, Florida ("What a great series of
pictures with the young Black Lion Award
winners. Colonel Novogratz is a class act, which
is no surprise. Leaders like him are a pleasure
to follow.")... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski,
Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois...
Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("The pic
this week is of no other than Bob Novogratz, the
All American Strongside guard who was also a
starting linebacker for the 1958 team.
Incidentally Mr. Novogratz was named outstanding
lineman for the Army -Navy game and I believe
was the Outland trophy winner that year.")...
John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("Whatever
happened to the Rockne Award?")... Greg Stout-
Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Alan Goodwin-
Warwick, Rhode Island ("That must have been one
heck of a team. I'd like to see a game at West
Point. UConn plays there this year. That may be
a good road trip. I haven't seen West Point
since I visited with my Boy Scout troop - must
have been around 1968")... Jim Hooper-
Englewood, Colorado ("Thanks for recognizing
Army All-American Bob Novogratz. No small feat
to gain national recognition on a team that
included Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter.")...
Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ( "I finally
looked up a website that had highlights of the
1958 football season and that gave me the
answer. Bob Novogratz certainly was a great
player. When I put his name into the search
engine to find out more about him, I was
directed to Chapter 9 of a book written about
Coach Blaik. Lo and behold, the author is the
one and only Hugh Wyatt!")..
NOW- Here's where you
come in. Bob is a native of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, where his dad, who came here from
Austria, worked in the local cement plant
(Northampton High's teams are the Koncrete
Kids).
The Allentown Call, which
serves the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern
Pennsylvania, is putting together The Lehigh Valley
All-Time, All-Area team. It is no small honor to
make it - among those nominated along with Bob
Novogratz are All-Time All-Pro Chuck Bednarik, who
played all 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL championship
game, and All-Pro Packers' center Jim Ringo. Bob
Novogratz, who passed up a pro career to serve his
country, belongs on it.
I am asking you readers - If
you have ever been involved in the Black Lion Award
program... If you have ever been a lineman or a
line coach... If you have ever admired service
academy football... If you respect a man for
putting his country ahead of his sports
aspirations... If you love the idea of a college
football player who was also a champion wrestler...
If you just admire the grace and toughness of the
guys who played OLD SCHOOL FOOTBALL... go to the
following site and vote for Bob
Novogratz!
http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/all-football-local-about-oline,0,719088.story?coll=all-sportsstorycontent-utl
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Nebraska
Still Has to Work a Few Bugs Out of Its
New Scoreboard!
(See"NEWS")
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I'm
Asking For Your Vote!
(See"NEWS")
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"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
(Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)
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My
Offensive System
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My
Materials for Sale
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My
Clinics
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Me
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- September
1,
2006
- "Head
coaches who act primarily as administrators,
delegating nearly all of the coaching
responsibilities to assistants, are often at the
mercy of their offensive and defensive
coordinator's competence level once the game
starts." Tom Osborne
*********** RIP - On September 3, 1970, Vince
Lombardi died of cancer at the age of 57
 ***********
You may remember my showing this a few weeks ago,
after I'd returned from a trip to the Middle West.
It's Nebraska's new scoreboard/TV screen, 4,000
square feet of it. Along with the luxury boxes just
below and the 6,000 additional grandstand seats,
the project, just finished, cost $50,000,000. Not
so very long ago, the 'Huskers were claiming that
it was the largest such screen in the world. Now,
though, Cornhuskers have been hit hard - twice.
First, Texas just unveiled an even bigger screen -
120 feet wide. But that was just an issue of pride.
Even worse is the fact that the screen is proving
to be the world's largest bug attraction.
"There's like a billion bugs," said a member of
the NU marching band who's been practicing down on
the field.
No surprise, said a member of the university's
department of entomology (that's insects). "The way
it's constructed is going to act like a magnet for
certain insects. And the problem could get worse at
night. If you have night games that go particularly
late," he told the Daily Nebraskan, there could be
a lot more insects."
He added a warning that seemed to be aimed at
those Nebraskans who were lucky enough to get seats
in the new section: "Don't be alarmed if they land
on you."
Imagine paying several hundred dollars to sit
underneath the world's largest bugwhacker.
*********** Central Michigan could have upset
BC. Damn shame a couple of really stupid coaching
decisions played such a bit role in the loss.
Sorry, but a major responsibility of a coach is not
to lose it for his kids. (Example - running gets
you a second and goal inside the BC five - and you
throw twice in a row? Example: Fourth and
eight inside your own 40 - and you go for
it? )
*********** I have no problem with acknowledging
football players of Hispanic extraction, but when I
watch the Oregon State-Eastern Washington game and
I see that Oregon State's Alex Serna (probably
Hispanic) is a candidate for the "Lou Graza Award,"
I do have to point out that it was Lou
Groza. He was a helluva kicker, the best in
the game when he played, but even more than that,
an All-Pro offensive lineman. And a Italian.
*********** South Carolina's punter is named
Succop. It apparently is pronounced "Suck-up," but
based on the job the kid did against Mississippi
State, he got his position the old-fashioned way -
he earned it.
*********** It's a standard of the Little League
World Series telecasts that when they introduce the
kids, they tell us who their favorite player is.
It's invariably a well-known current player, but
one of the Little League kids from Beaverton,
Oregon, a kid with a Hispanic surname, said his was
Roberto Clemente, a man who's been dead for more
than 30 years. How cool. I can't imagine how the
kid would ever have known about Roberto Clemente if
it hadn't been for David Maraniss' wonderful
biography of the Pirate great, a native of Puerto
Rico.
*********** Aren' t you glad that college
football is back?
NFL fans are so screwed up that they gave
Terrell F--king Owens, world class malingerer, a
standing ovation when he took the field for the
first time after missing two exhibitions and God
knows how many practices.
*********** This week we play a team that runs a
5-3-3, their tackles play a 3 tech (or what I call
a 4i), DE at 9, and their outside backers at D gap.
What are your opinions on running a 7-X Lead where
the tackle and End make the x-block?
I think it may be too far for the TE to go to
get to the 3 technique. If that guy gets
penetration, you are dead. What's wrong with
7-G?
*********** I wanted to thank you for coach
Bergen's letter. That was very touching. I love
stories like this. I hope he continues doing his
job and training good kids. I wish him luck this
year.
Just to let you know about my little team even
though we are a wing T team. We played our first
game this year and won 30-6. It was 6-6 at half but
I had to do some butt whuppin at half. Backs kept
running outside of kickout blocks and running
outside of our ends. The thing is I don't have a
play that does that. After half the kids woke up
and scored 24 points. We missed all the extra
points. That is another issue. But we had a lot of
success with Trap. Easily over 100 yds. In 37 plays
only 2 passes. So the run is back in GA.
Next year I will be with a different group of
kids. So next year I am planning on breaking out
the DW for the first time. It has given me two
years to get use to the terms and such. So I will
keep you up to date on that.
I hope all is well and God Bless. David Fleming,
Atlanta, Georgia
*********** Hey coach, I was checking out the
Bell Roster and there was a Don Shanklin listed. Is
he any relation to the Don Shanklin that QB'd at
Oregon State in the early to mid 90's? Joe Daniels,
Sacramento, California (The Don Shanklin who
played QB at Oregon State - when Jerry Pettibone
was running a good wishbone attack - was the son of
our Don Shanklin, and the nephew of Ronnie
Shanklin, who played wide receiver on the Steelers'
Super Bowl teams of the 70s. The Shanklins came
from Amarillo, Texas. HW)
*********** Courtesy of the National Football
Foundation - This Week in College Football History
(Sept. 4 &endash; Sept. 10)
September 4, 1932: Georgia Coach Vince Dooley
was born in Mobile, Alabama. Dooley would go on to
play at Auburn as a team captain before his Hall of
Fame coaching career for the Bulldogs, which
included the 1980 national championship.
September 5, 1981: Mark Richt, current Georgia
head coach, stepped in as the backup QB for Miami's
injured starter Jim Kelly and led the Canes to a
21-20 victory over the Florida Gators.
September 5, 1998: Shaun Alexander set the
Alabama record for points per game (30) by scoring
five touchdowns against BYU. The Crimson Tides'
Santonio Beard would equal the mark against
Mississippi on Oct. 19, 2002.
September 6, 1975: Grambling and Alcorn State
played the first-ever college game in the New
Orleans Superdome with Grambling QB Doug Williams
completing four TD passes (two to WR Sammie White)
for a 27-3 victory.
September 6, 1980: Freshman Herschel Walker made
his debut as a Georgia player with a 16-yard TD run
in the second quarter and a 9-yard TD in the fourth
quarter that secured a 16-15 Bulldog victory en
route to a national title.
September 6, 1997: Florida QB Doug Johnson tied
the record for touchdown passes in a half with
seven against Central Michigan.
September 7, 1974: ABC's Jim Lampley appeared as
the first TV sideline reporter (Tennessee -UCLA, a
17-17 tie,
September 7, 1985: Bo Jackson of Auburn rushed
for 230 yards in 23 carries against Southwestern
Louisiana (now Louisiana- Lafayette).
September 7, 1989: BYU's Ty Detmer began his
streak of throwing TD passes in 35 consecutive
games during a loss to Washington State.
September 8, 1979: SMU "Pony Express" debuted,
with TB Eric Dickerson rushing for 123 yards and 3
TDs, and FB Craig James, scoring the game winning
TD in the Mustangs' 35-17 victory over the Rice
Owls.
September 8, 2001: James King of Central
Michigan blocked four punts against Michigan
State.
September 9, 2001: Syracuse's streak of 262
consecutive successful PATs came to an end with a
miss against Temple.
September 10, 1988: For the second consecutive
year, Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders returned the
opening kickoff of the season for a touchdown. His
100-yard dash against Miami of Ohio matched his
previous year's return against Tulsa.
September 10, 1994: Steve McNair of Alcorn State
amassed 646 yards of total offense against
Chattanooga.
*********** Hugh, As always, great read today.
BTW, I went to see "Invincible". Whatever happened
to creativity with these filmmakers? I kept waiting
to hear a "yo, Adrian" from Stallone. All they did
was plug the Rocky script in and make it a football
flick. Typical MSM, can't think enough on there own
so either a) re-package what was done or b) throw
in something with bodies, cursing or sex.
Wahlenberg (sp?) certainly doesn't look the part
(football player) but that will help it appeal to
the women. Some of the other guys in that locker
room may have been and in fact, several former UD
football players were in there and throughout the
movie. Also, it seems to me that there were several
game scenes that were nothing more than pullouts of
Madden football. Hands down though, the funniest
scene in the movie to me was when they had all
those winos lined up for the tryout. I was
ROTFLMAO! I mean, I used to go to Phillies tryouts
when they had 'em in South Jersey and you would see
some pretty tanked up guys.
BTW, was there a team in Atlantic City from your
league back in '73 or '74? Maybe the Atlantic City
Seahawks? We lived down there and I seem to
remember a team.
Great job on the link to your stuff. Plywood was
$3.00a sheet?! You gotta be kidding!!!!
Regards, Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New
Jersey
PS - Just imagine what would have happened if
they did include your league as part of the story
AND had an actor play you! I have Pacino or
Eastwood in mind but given the selection of
Wahlberg as Papale, I doubt those two would have
been asked.
There was no team in AC in the Seaboard
Professional Football League..
My last year in that league, we had teams in
Aston, PA; Chambersburg, PA Cardinals;
Conshohocken, PA Steelers.; Hagerstown, MD Bears;
Hartford, CT Knights; Long Island (Hempstead) NY
Chiefs; Portsmouth, VA Bucs ; Schuylkill County
(Pottsville, PA) Coal Crackers
There was another league in the East that was
pretty good. - I think it was called the Empire
State League. We played a pre-season exhibition
game against their champion, the Tri-Cities
(Binghamton-Endicott-Johnson City) Jets, who were
very good. I'm sure we drew at least 5,000 people
to our game outside Binghamton. (We should have
beaten them. It's too late to fine me for saying
this, so, 34 years later, I'll say it - we got
homered.)
There were rumors that there was a pretty
good team in New Jersey called (I think this is
correct) the Plainfield Jersey Oaks, but I'm sure
they struggled to find decent opponents. There were
a few wannabes all over the east, and Atlantic City
may have been one, but they were strictly
show-up-to-practice-when-you-can operations, while
we honestly felt we were given guys a chance to
show their stuff to the pros. What really set us
apart was that we had a strong league
organization.
Most of us in our league played exhibitions
against these other guys because we could pick up a
reasonably good win in front of our home fans, and
they'd come for very reasonable guarantees. (We did
have to check very carefully to make sure that
these teams would show up with enough men in
uniform.)
I did a bit of poaching at other teams'
exhibitions, and once snagged a terrific running
back after watching his team from Washington, DC
get beaten up in an exhibition game against the
Coal Crackers. I went right down on the field after
the game and asked him if he'd like to play for a
real team. We signed him on the spot and he was at
practice the following Monday. (Hagerstown is about
1-1/2 hour's drive west of DC.) His name was Bobby
Green. He was too old to be an NFL prospect, but he
was big and powerful and he had great speed - he
had been a world class high hurdler - and in our
opening regular-season game we put him at wide
receiver and he caught a slant pass and went past
defenders as if they were standing still.
What really put our league head and shoulders
above the rest was Hartford, which we admitted
after its league, the Atlantic Coast Football
League disbanded. The Hartford Knights were very
good. At least 20 players off their team wound up
playing in the World Football League. Their QB Tom
Sherman, out of Penn State, was one. He won the
starting QB job with the New York Stars.
To play me, with all the great ones like
Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster and John Wayne and
Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen dead, and Clint
Eastwood getting up in years, I might consider
letting Robert DeNiro or Chuck Norris play me.
(Actually, dead actors would be better than the
flit they chose to play Dick Vermeil.) But the guy
I really want to play me is the only actor I've
ever seen who actually looked and acted like a
football coach - and that includes "Coach Butkus."
I want Denzel Washington to play me or there's no
f--king movie!
*********** INTERNET HUMOR:
Early days of California -156 years ago!
Do you know what happened this week back in
1850, in California? California became a state.
The State had no electricity... The State had no
money... Almost everyone spoke Spanish... There
were gun fights in the streets.
So basically, it was just like California today
except the women had real breasts and men didn't
hold hands.
*********** When Kansas State and Kansas play on
November 18 things could be even more interesting
than usual. How about brothers starting at QB
against each other? Could happen.
ON Saturday, Dylan Meier will start at QB for
Kansas State against Illinois State, while his
brother Kerry will be starting at quarterback for
archrival Kansas against Northwestern State.
*********** Coach, I saw the Air Force Coach hit
the player on the link you posted.
We must use our English language properly for
clarity these days. That was NOT a coach that hit
the player, that was a PR--K!
sorry!
Larry Harrison, Siloam, Georgia
********* WANT ONE REALLY GOOD REASON WHY OUR
NATION IS F--KED UP? READ ON...
Hugh: I saw Frank Schaeffer on a CSPAN interview
last night and was so impressed by his presentation
that I sent him an email thanking him. I received
this answer eight hours later. I thought it might
spark your interest. Black Lions Jim Shelton,
Englewood, Florida (General Shelton is a member of
the Black Lions Board of Advisors)
By Frank Schaeffer (frankaschaeffer@aol.com)
More than three years ago President Bush
declared "mission accomplished" about the war in
Iraq. Perhaps he could be so cocky, not to say
misinformed, because the backdrop of troops on that
carrier deck were strangers. These days the ruling
class rarely sends any of their own to the armed
forces.
With talk about a possible strike against Iran,
the war in Iraq continuing, and a growing list of
potential American targets for "intervention" we
think it's past time to consider who will bear the
brunt of our entanglements and who won't.
Whatever the putative reasons behind the
non-service of privileged Americans, our concern is
that the gap between the opinion-makers -- the
cultural, professional, and business elites - and
the military is harming us. This is not a
Democrat-Republican issue. It is a wealth and
privilege issue. Small town, middle class Democrats
are more likely to have someone in the military
than wealthy Republicans. (In the interest of full
disclosure I note that my son volunteered for the
Marines and served two combat tours in Afghanistan.
I never served in the military and was ambivalent
about my son serving. I've changed my mind.)
Why don't the elites serve in proportion to
their numbers? Most probably they never even
consider it. Before 9/11 and before the war in
Afghanistan, the second Iraq war and the "war on
terror," and before gays in the military became an
issue in reaction to the "don't ask, don't tell"
policy, the elites weren't encouraging their
children to serve. The reasons may change but one
thing remains constant: the expectation that
military service is for the "other" and never for
the most privileged.
Carol Cohen, an associate dean and the
coordinator for ROTC at Brown, summarized the
attitude typically found amongst faculty in our top
schools. She was quoted in the school newspaper
saying that ROTC is "incompatible with the
principles of a liberal arts education."
An anti-military college culture that may have
once had political roots in the Vietnam era is now
effectively plain elitism. Groups like the Campus
Anti-War Network (CAN), Military Out Of Our
Schools, Students Against War and others have aimed
to silence military recruiters on campus. The
result is that "our kind" are not bothered with
questions about what they might owe our society
whereas the "other", those in the lower middle
class and the poor, are.
Stripped bare of the "gays in the military"
issue--that is after all a law passed by
congress--the Harvard Law School recently suing to
prevent the military from asking its students to
consider service is startling. Or take Stanford. In
1956, 1,100 Stanford students enrolled in ROTC;
today there are 29. They are trained off-campus
taking military science and national defense
courses at Santa Clara, classes for which Stanford
University grants them no credit - although the
students can get credit on campus for Hip-Hop or
Yoga.
Military recruiters find that "influencers" --
parents and teachers --are particularly responsible
for blocking military service by young people who
otherwise might serve. It is a natural instinct for
parents to want to protect their child. In
particular, parents who begin planning their
children's lives before the first interview for a
$35,000-a-year preschool rarely embrace something
risky.
Our elites seem to have forgotten that we live
in a democracy. We have to take part in the
institutions and actions of our democracy, not only
by voting and talking but by doing. We can't wait
until our decision making is perfect, our
government is perfect, or our military is perfect.
Some in the upper classes understand this. And
those few privileged Americans that do volunteer
find service rewarding. Polls of the military, from
Gannett's Military City poll, to RAND, to the
Center for Security and International Studies
agree. They consistently show that most military
people experience their service as enriching.
Here are excerpts of some written responses I
got from those few Harvard and Princeton graduates
who recently volunteered. Some were against the war
in Iraq, many described themselves as liberals, and
none were uncritical of the military. However they
all were glad of their decision.
"Joining the Army formed my character.
I learned confidence, toughness, how to fail
gracefully, how to win as a team. I would
encourage any woman who really wants to
challenge herself to join."
"The military experience absolutely has
benefited me. There is no doubt that I am an
infinitely more mature person than I was when I
graduated Princeton, and am so much more aware
of the things I had taken for granted my entire
life... And after something like Ranger School,
lots of other challenges that may have seemed
daunting in the past seem pretty easy by
comparison... I will likely return to school
when my commitment is over. I would serve
again."
"I serve because I believe in the promise of
the United States regardless of the practice on
any given day. I believe that with all its many
flaws and despite the periodic efforts of the
American people to self destruct, our system of
government and our society are the most
self-correcting in the world."
"The military experience has given me
confidence that adversity can be mastered."
The military has effectively given up on
recruiting from our privileged classes. Today the
urgent WW II poster, "UNCLE SAM NEEDS YOU!" that
was addressed to all Americans has been changed to,
"Uncle Sam wants to make you a job offer you might
consider. Got a better offer? OK, sorry to have
bothered you."
How we got to this point is a black eye for the
government's commitment to the egalitarian spirit
of our nation. It reflects badly on our top
schools' commitment to our country. It reflects
badly on a generation of over-protective parents.
The net result is the military concentrates on the
"productive" parts of the country. This represents
cynicism on all sides.
The current recruiting policy shortchanges
America. We are going to have a leadership class
low on real world knowledge and hands-on solidarity
with other Americans. It also shortchanges those
bearing the brunt of our overseas adventures
disconnected from the leadership class to whom they
might otherwise communicate their lessons learned.
When privileged Americans rarely have anyone they
know and trust in uniform, we lose the feedback
loop from the front lines to the opinion-makers.
Recent research by sociologist Charles Moskos shows
that historically, voters distrust their country's
military decisions when privileged families do not
serve. In short, the military/class divide costs us
the ability to make fully informed decisions, and
the ability to sustain those decisions once
made.
Some people consider their reaction against
military service to be a political statement.
However, military service is not a referendum on
political activity. "Should the country engage in
this war?" is politics; "Shall I serve my country
because it asks for its members to serve?" is
patriotism. The more critical someone is of the
military or our actions using our military, the
more they are bound - if they want to be taken
seriously - to encourage broader military
participation. It is after all, our military, not
someone else's. And for those who wave the flag and
support the troops but also consider their own
family exempt from service because of the wealth of
"better options" available to them - we suggest
they take the magnetic yellow ribbon off their SUV
and re-think their position.
Our country was a more moral place when
presidents were photographed with troops that
included members of their own family and the
families of their powerful friends. It is time for
privileged parents to be open to the honor of their
children serving. It is time for our top colleges
to reexamine their contempt for the military. It is
time for the military to stop taking the cynically
utilitarian path of least resistance. It is time
for the recruiting process to be infused with the
spirit of democracy and fairness.
America's military represents all of us to our
credit or our shame. Whoever is president, wherever
our troops are sent, either none should serve, or
the call should be heard equally by all
classes.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of several
books on the military including "AWOL" and the
"Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and
the United States Marine Corps." His most recent
novel is "BABY JACK" a book about a Marine killed
in Iraq and what happens to his family. HIs books
are available at any bookseller. Contact Frank at:
FrankSchaeffer.com
*********** From the St. Joseph's University web
site...
"The Invincible Vince Papale" - By Tom
McCarthy-
It's only right to start at the beginning. In
reality, though, you want to get to the middle of
the story, because that's the part that seems so
unrealistic that it grabs you and leaves you
smiling, wanting more and hoping one day you can be
that fortunate. Still, it's the beginning that
gives you the insight and lays the groundwork about
the individual and about how real dreams can be
fulfilled, by real people.
Vince Papale, whose life is the subject of the
Disney movie Invincible", which premieres on August
25, 2006 with stars Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear,
was not that different from many others who grew up
in the Delaware Valley.
In high school during the early 1960s, his
athletic ability was evident when he would step on
the football field or wipe down his pole vault in
preparation for a meet. The signs were clear in his
speed, his toughness, and his hands, and they did
not go unnoticed. It was Father's Day in 1964 when
Saint Joseph's track and field coach Lou Nicastro
tapped young Vince on the shoulder at a meet at La
Salle College. Nicastro offered him a scholarship
to continue his education and his athletic career
at Saint Joseph's.
"I turned to my Dad and said, 'Happy Father's
Day,' " Papale recalled. He turned back to Nicastro
and accepted the scholarship.
"I loved that campus and the school," he said of
Hawk Hill, which he fondly describes as part of the
family, then and now. "I used to listen to the
basketball games on the radio all the time, so I
was excited about the opportunity to go there."
He did find his first year challenging, though.
It's hard to imagine that the outgoing and
gregarious Papale says of his college experience,
"At first, I was intimidated by Saint Joseph's. I
was shy, but started to gain confidence as the year
went on."
Although freshmen weren't allowed to compete,
being involved in varsity sports and a team still
helped Papale. He adjusted to the rigors of college
life with the help of then-athletic director Jack
Ramsay, Ed.D. '49 (B.S.), and his best friend,
David "Duse" Van Dusen '67 (B.S.). Dr. Ramsay
helped Papale get over some of the academic hurdles
that went along with being a student at Saint
Joseph's. As for Duse, Papale said it was the Lower
Merion High School graduate and former captain of
the track and field team who took him under his
wing and gave him the "social confidence" he needed
to succeed in college.
"All I did was act like any person from St.
Joe's would," Van Dusen said of the way he looked
out for Papale. "I was fortunate that when I was a
freshman, I had Jimmy Lynam ['64] as my
mentor. So I acted in the same way with Vince. I
just showed him the ins and the outs of everyday
situations at Saint Joseph's."
With his confidence growing, Papale began to
ascend the athletic ladder with Nicastro's track
and field team, launching himself to lofty heights
with the pole vault, ultimately setting the school
record of 14 feet, 6 inches.
"He was a heck of an athlete," said SJU's
current women's track and field coach, Kevin Quinn
'62 (B.A.), who ran track at Saint Joseph's and
then took over for Nicastro as the head track and
field coach during Papale's junior year.
"My favorite Vince story was that during his
junior or senior year, there was a meet down in
Quantico [Virginia], and during one of the
pole vault events, he fell between two foam pads
and hurt his ankle," Quinn recalled. "We rested him
for a week, and during the conference
championships, it was still bothering him. He could
lead off the relay team, but he couldn't pole
vault. But he could do the long jump. He won the
long jump by jumping off his opposite foot. He was
very tough."
That toughness has always been part of Vince's
makeup. It is what made him a standout football
player in high school, in fact. Despite entering
college at 5-foot-8, Papale grew into his current
frame of 6-2 by his junior year at Saint Joseph's.
While he was growing physically, his love for
football was growing as well. Since the College
didn't have a football team, Papale threw himself
into intramural football. When Quinn wanted him to
give up playing because he was concerned about the
risk of injury, Papale tried to glide under the
radar. But that proved impossible.
"I read about this star intramural wide receiver
in The Hawk one day - it was Vince," a laughing
Quinn remembered about the student newspaper
article depicting Papale's exploits.
Finally heeding Quinn's advice, Papale stopped
hitting the gridiron and placed his football
desires on the back burner until after
graduation.
His love of football stemmed from his playing
days at the Glenolden Boys Club and Interboro High
School in Prospect Park, Pa. Like a lot of
Philadelphians, his love of the pigskin grew
because he was a huge Eagles fan and a season
ticket holder. He first purchased season tickets in
1966, while the Birds were playing at the
University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field, and
then carried them over to the 700 level at Veterans
Stadium in 1970. It is a love that seeped into his
blood and, to this day, has never left. It is the
same love and intensity that propelled him into
teaching and then coaching after he graduated from
Saint Joseph's with a marketing degree in 1968. He
went back to Interboro, where he taught business
and coached track and field, taking over for his
long-time mentor, George Corner. He also assisted
Corner with football.
"I loved it - there was nothing better than
coaching and teaching young kids," Papale said. "My
dad, who they used to call Kingie, Coach Corner,
and Dick Vermeil were three people who had a
tremendous impact on my life. Coach was cutting
back a little and asked me to help out. There I
was, 22 years old, coaching the track team at my
high school alma mater and teaching business. It
was great."
That was Vince's day job, but in between, he was
starting to play football again. It took six or
seven years, but his desires were fueled on the
sandlot fields throughout Philadelphia. He would
play rough touch football on Sunday morning and
then take the train, with his buddies, to watch the
Eagles.
His Sunday morning games mushroomed from fields
that were littered with stones and bottles, located
behind Delaware County bars like Cannon's Cafe in
Chester and Maximillian's Tavern in Prospect Park,
to the Seaboard Semi-Pro Football League in
Aston.
While with the Aston Knights, Papale continued
to excel as a wide receiver. One of his best games
came against the Hagerstown Bears, who were coached
by Hugh Wyatt. Wyatt would later become the
personnel director of the Philadelphia Bell of the
World Football League, an alternative to the NFL.
He remembered Papale, as did Bell owner and
Interboro resident John Bosacco, when Papale
decided to try out for the team at JFK Stadium.
Papale ran a 4.5, 40-yard dash, catching the
attention of everyone at the tryout. He made the
Bell and played for two years, until the league
folded. His individual success opened his own mind
to a chance, so at the ripe age of 30, he took a
risk and tried out for his beloved Philadelphia
Eagles. It was 1976 and the Eagles were coached by
a young and energetic newcomer named Dick Vermeil,
who was looking to add an outside spark to a team
that was growing but still struggling.
(I do think that this article will
substantiate my contention that Vince Papale was a
very good athlete. Three slight corrections - (1) I
did not coach against Vince Papale. He came to my
attention when I was scouting. (2) John Bosacco,
who stepped in an some point and pumped some money
into the team, had absolutely nothing to do with
Vince's signing. And (3) the tryout where he was
discovered was in Medford, NJ. It was following a
subsequent tryout at JFK Stadium where Vince went
up against others we'd signed and convinced us to
keep him.
You may also notice the name of Dr. Jack
Ramsay, Hall-of-Fame NBA coach and long-time
basketball analyst, and Jim Lynam, also an NBA head
coach. HW)
For the full story -
http://sjuhawks.cstv.com/sports/m-track/spec-rel/081506aac.html
*********** This is not what red-shirting was
originally intended for...
USC woman's basketball player Brynn Cameron will
be red-shirted this season, "sitting out" so to
speak, because she is pregnant with Matt Leinart's
baby.
The announcement was made by the young woman's
father, who told the Ventura County Star, "We're
very happy to have a new baby in the family."
Well, yeah - I mean, hell, the new baby's Daddy
is rich. Very rich. Very, very rich. And we know
where we can serve the child-support papers, don't
we?
There are some of us who still can remember when
the interview with the Ventura County Star would
have gone something like this: "'Yup,' said the
young woman's father, as he loaded his shotgun.
'Them kids're fixin' to get married real
quick.'"
The women in my family say they find it kind of
surprising that according to her father, she just
found out about the baby a month ago, and it is
already due in November. Oh, well.
You will recall that last fall, Leinart took
only one class - ballroom dancing.
The November due date means the baby was
conceived after Leinart graduated last December,
which means that it could NOT have happened in
class.
There are no plans to get married, because
apparently the impregnation took place after they'd
"broken up" and during the time Leinart was "linked
romantically" with Paris Hilton.
I am guessing that Jay Leno's comedy writers are
finding lots of inventive ways to work "Trojans"
into his monologue.
*********** Hello Hugh.................hope
everything your way is just fine...........hoping
your family is healthy and blessed...........Hiram
College football is moving right along..........we
opened camp on Thursday, August 10th..........we
have our first game this coming Saturday home
against CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY out of
PA..........they are
wing-t team................our team is young and
learning...........hopefully we will be
okay......we are running a spread offense out of
shot gun..........a 3-4 defense........I am
coaching the wide outs..........nice group of
guys........wide range of age and ability......my
son is backup center to a senior captain..he is
first team snapper for punts/extra point/field
goal..........punt return and kickoff
return.............he is going to see a lot of
playing time...........I am very happy to be
coaching and working with young men...........of
course I am blessed to be close to my
son.........he seems to have made a nice transition
to college life............6' 235 pounds at age
17..........what are you up to??...........please
stay in contact...........your
friend................Coach Glodowski (Mike
Glodowski was one of the first guys to buy into my
Double-Wing, and really lit 'em up at Richmond
Heights, Ohio, outside Cleveland. HW)
*********** Coach Wyatt, Riverside Middle School
won our season opener 21-6. We battled the Georgia
heat as much as our opponents. The humidity hovered
around 75% and the temperature was in the low 90's
until the sun began to set in the late afternoon.
We scored on the first play of the game with 88
superpower from the opponent's 38 yard line. We
played a very sloppy game fumbling 7 times and
turning it over 2 times. They were all caused by
the qb not getting under the center and taking the
snap. We also threw 2 int's both times we tried to
pass. Since we played the day before everyone else
in our league, every coach in our area was scouting
the game. The target is on our backs and all the
other teams are out to beat us. It's a nice problem
to have. Good luck to you. Best Wishes Dan King
Riverside Middle School, Evans, Georgia
(Riverside Middle School is shooting for its
third straight unbeaten season! HW)
*********** Coach, I had the following
conversation this morning with the coach from a
team we are scrimmaging next week:
Him - "Coach, if it's ok with you I'd like to
talk to you after our game next week about the
double wing."
Me - "Sure, Coach. Are you thinking about
changing over to it?"
Him - "No, no. The thing is I have two teams in
my conference that run it now. Last year ________
ran it up our ass and we couldn't figure out a way
to stop it. Then the week later ________ scrapped
their spread in the fourth period and ran the
double wing up our ass for a ten minute drive to
win the game."
Me- "That sounds about right...control the ball,
take time off the clock. It's not easy to
stop."
Him -"Well, that's what I was hoping you could
help me with. I want to pick your brain on how to
stop it."
You can imagine my response. And yes, laughter
was involved. Take care, PC, Connecticut (You
can always refer people like that to me!
HW)
*********** Hi Coach! I'm still very much
enjoying your news, and try to keep up with the
goings-on in the DW world.....I have a
question....
(a bit tongue-in-cheek):
Do you think you could get someone here in the
Austin area to coach the DW? (Your system, of
course!)
Joaquin is a 6 hr. drive
Laredo is 3+
and Keller is 3!
Yeah, you know....Texas is BIG!
I remember going to see some youth-ball in
Arlington (2.5 hrs. drive), where there was a solid
group of DW'ers....
MAN, did I enjoy watching those kids play real
football!
Is anyone in Austin, or say...an HOUR'S DRIVE!
from here running your system?
Dang, I miss it!
Due to business....and the recent relocation to
Austin.....I have not been in a situation to commit
the amount of time required to do a team "justice",
hence, I haven't been coaching. BUT, I've "made the
decision" to get into it as soon as possible.
1. At my age....I "think" I'm wise enough to
realize my limitations - especially after having
read your "news" and related tips, etc. over the
years, and I "think" it best that I begin as an
assistant with a solid DW'er (again, your
system!).
2. Appreciate it if you could let me know if
anyone near here has purchased your system.
Good luck in the coming year! Those kids are
darn lucky to have a man like you coaching
them.
Regards, John Rothwell, Austin, Texas
*********** ATTENTION!!! YOU
ARE NEEDED! As many of you know, former
Army All-American Bob Novogratz is a member of the
board of the Black Lion Award. Bob has been
tireless in supporting the cause, including
presenting the award, and was instrumental in
persuading the Army Football Club, the association
of former Army football players, to present the
Black Lion Award to West Point football player
every year.
In the photos below, Bob is shown in January,
2003 presenting the Black Lion Awards to young men
from the Millersville, Maryland youth football
program. The photo in the top middle was taken in
1958, when Bob was an All-American guard and
linebacker on and Colonel Red Blaik's last team and
Army's last undefeated team, the fabled "Lonely
End" team that finished 3rd in the nation.
FROM MY ARCHIVES - JANUARY 2003-
- A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It's not
every day that a team is fortunate enough to
have its Black Lion Awards presentation made
by a veteran or an active serviceman; it's
rarer still when the presenter is a former
West Point All-American.
He is Bob Novogratz, and that's he in the
middle of the top row, before his senior year
at Army. That's also he in the other five
photos, shown with Black Lion Award winners
from five different teams in the
Millersville, Maryland youth football
program.
When the football picture of him was
taken, it was fall of 1958, and no one would
have dared to predict the kind of year he and
his Army teammates would have; preseason
forecasters knew that they would be good -
the Cadets had finished 7-2 in 1957. But no
one could have foretold that it would become
one of the most famous of all Army teams.
It would be the final season in the
fabulous career of legendary Army coach
Earl
"Red" Blaik, and that 1958 Army team
finished the season unbeaten and ranked
number 3 in the nation. The last Army team to
go unbeaten, It gained nationwide notice
through Blaik's ingenious deployment of a
split end who never entered the huddle - the
so-called "Lonely End."
But it was by no means a team based on a
gimmick. The
1958 Army team was solid on offense, and
on defense as well. Three of the 11 men on
the team - remember, it was two-way football
- were named All-American. Two of them - Pete
Dawkins and Bob Anderson - were running
backs, and one of them - Dawkins - won the
Heisman Trophy that year; the third, Bob
Novogratz, played guard and linebacker, and
won the Knute Rockne Award, given then to the
nation's outstanding defensive player. (With
only 11 spots to fill on those All-America
teams in those days, selection was quite an
honor.)
-
- Coming from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a
hotbed of wrestling, Bob's first sport at
West Point was wrestling, where he was
spotted by coach Earl Blaik and persuaded to
play football. The rest is history, but
addition to being an All-American football
player, Bob earned third place in the East as
a heavyweight wrestler.
Bob was drafted by the World Champion
Baltimore Colts, but he had other things to
do than play pro football - he had a
commitment to serve in the US Army. He spent
time briefly as a coach at West Point, and
went on to serve in Vietnam, where he earned
the Bronze Star medal. After a career in the
Army, he retired as a colonel.
- Colonel Bob Novogratz and the
Millersville Black Lion Award winners. (TOP
LEFT: Aaron Terry, TOP RIGHT, Aaron Farrare;
BOTTOM (L to R) Ian Page, Dale Younker,
Justin Cronin (More
about the Black Lion
Award)
Correctly identifying Bob Novogratz:
Joe Daniels- Sacramento,California... Kevin
McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Tom Hinger-
Auburndale, Florida ("What a great series of
pictures with the young Black Lion Award
winners. Colonel Novogratz is a class act, which
is no surprise. Leaders like him are a pleasure
to follow.")... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski,
Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois...
Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon ("The pic
this week is of no other than Bob Novogratz, the
All American Strongside guard who was also a
starting linebacker for the 1958 team.
Incidentally Mr. Novogratz was named outstanding
lineman for the Army -Navy game and I believe
was the Outland trophy winner that year.")...
John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts ("Whatever
happened to the Rockne Award?")... Greg Stout-
Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Alan Goodwin-
Warwick, Rhode Island ("That must have been one
heck of a team. I'd like to see a game at West
Point. UConn plays there this year. That may be
a good road trip. I haven't seen West Point
since I visited with my Boy Scout troop - must
have been around 1968")... Jim Hooper-
Englewood, Colorado ("Thanks for recognizing
Army All-American Bob Novogratz. No small feat
to gain national recognition on a team that
included Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter.")...
Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ( "I finally
looked up a website that had highlights of the
1958 football season and that gave me the
answer. Bob Novogratz certainly was a great
player. When I put his name into the search
engine to find out more about him, I was
directed to Chapter 9 of a book written about
Coach Blaik. Lo and behold, the author is the
one and only Hugh Wyatt!")..
NOW- Here's where you
come in. Bob is a native of Northampton,
Pennsylvania, where his dad, who came here from
Austria, worked in the local cement plant
(Northampton High's teams are the Koncrete
Kids).
The Allentown Call, which
serves the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern
Pennsylvania, is putting together The Lehigh Valley
All-Time, All-Area team. It is no small honor to
make it - an awful lot of good football players
have come from the area. Fopr example, nominated
along with Bob Novogratz are All-Time All-Pro Chuck
Bednarik, who played all 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL
championship game, and All-Pro Packers' center Jim
Ringo.
Bob Novogratz, who passed
up a pro career to serve his country, belongs on
it.
I am asking you readers - If
you have ever been involved in the Black Lion Award
program... If you have ever been a lineman
yourself... If you have ever admired service
academy football... If you respect a man for
putting his country ahead of his sports
aspirations... If you love the idea of a college
football player who was also a champion wrestler...
If you just admire the grace and toughness of the
guys who played OLD SCHOOL FOOTBALL... go to the
following site and vote for Bob
Novogratz!
http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/all-football-local-about-oline,0,719088.story?coll=all-sportsstorycontent-utl
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