*********** Hi Coach, Just finished watching the 1st annual (uh huh) Seattle Bowl, sponsored by 989 Sports. I believe 989 is a software company that does Playstation/Nintendo games. As I watched the game, I wondered a few things that might happen at the next 989 geek speak meeting: "Um, what is the variable to program an apathetic attendance? All those random empty seats aren't as easy as it sounds" "No, the logarithm for large chunks of sod flying out from under player's feet is this. You have the equation for a baseball infield made of dyed Tidy Scoop ...which, ironically, is gonna be useful" "You want to play the game where?" Todd Bross - Sharon, Pennsylvania *********** HEY! NOT SO FAST!!! I WAS AT THAT GAME!!! Thanks to Mike Gastineau, a friend of my son who has a highly-rated sports-talk show in Seattle, I was able to attend last Thursday's Seattle Bowl as his guest. As you might have guessed if you'd read what I thought originally about the sort of brilliance that would conceive a bowl game in Seattle at the end of December, in a baseball stadium yet, I went there fully prepared for a very negative experience. I have to say, I came away very, very pleasantly surprised. Of course, it didn't hurt that even though the game was played in a baseball stadium, Safeco Field is a very fan-friendly baseball stadium, and you do tend to find yourself in a forgiving mood when you find that your seats along the left-field line turn out to be upper-deck, front row, 50-yard line. You'd have to donate $10,000 a year to your favorite college for ten years or so to get seats like that to a real bowl game. And despite some pretty amateurish staging of the game itself, we got a rather good game, in a cozy, up-close setting that reminded me of the days of the Eagles in Shibe Park, the Bears in Wrigley Field, the Pirates in Forbes Field and the Lions in Briggs Stadium. Don't listen to the TV guys - there were a lot of good seats, with great sight lines, right on top of the action. Too bad so many of them were unoccupied. As a result, the people at home watching TV didn't share my experience. The feedback I have gotten from many of them (including Todd Bross, above) is generally negative, and it seems to me that the loser in the whole deal has been Seattle - a city with a decent sports reputation that for some reason risked that hard-earned image by lending its name to such a bush production. I simply couldn't believe that they would allow that skimpy crowd (they said it was 30,000 but they lied - they sent 7500 tickets to Georgia Tech but the athletic department there was able to sell fewer than 500 of them) to be dispersed throughout the stadium. I was surprised, for example, that they allowed seating in the third level. Every smart promoter knows you don't do that when you know you won't need those seats. For some reason, though, the promoters really seemed to think that people by the tens of thousands would walk up at the last minute with $20 bills in their hands, insisting they be sold tickets. They don't do that in major-bowl cities such as Miami or Phoenix or Dallas or New Orleans. Or second-level bowl cities such as Memphis or Shreveport, either. So there is no reason to think that folks in Seattle will do it, either The seats are typically bought by fans of the teams, and unfortunately, Stanford's fans are not what you'd call rabid, and neither are Georgia Tech's, when the bowl game is in a cold city 2,500 miles away. Which means, as they say in the biz, you have to paper the house - fill those seats with freebies, if you have to, but fill them whatever you do. Doggone, if they had to round up homeless gentlemen and offer them each a hot dog and a beer and a Seattle Bowl tee-shirt in return for their agreeing to sit in a stadium seat for a couple of hours, they should have been prepared to do that, rather than show a backdrop of empty seats to the ESPN audience. Maybe Seattle is light on promotional expertise because it has a lot people who sell things that don't have a lot of competition, monopoly-type products such as Windows and 737s. but I can remember when some not-overly-bright people I worked for in Philadelphia were able to paper a house and put a crowd of 70,000+ into a crummy old stadium on a hot, muggy Autumn night to watch a brand-new WFL football team while at the same time the Phillies were playing in front of 35,000 (paid) at the Vet and there was a sold-out rock concert at the Spectrum - all within a quarter-mile of each other. So hopelessly naive were the promoters that they opened themselves up to national ridicule with their both-teams-on-the-same-sideline arrangement. It is the modern-day equivalent of vertical-stripes on the socks, something that just isn't done in football. Then there was the playing surface. Maybe the Mariners had something to say about leaving the infield skinned and grassless, but otherwise, it seems to me, they had six weeks to put sod down on the infield. And also to get the sod behind second base to knit. But the game was good, and if you like nice stories, you had Georgia Tech, without their head coach and miles from home in a cold, dark city, trying to prove - what? Whatever, the Georgia Tech kids and coaches did an excellent job and showed that on that day at least, they might very well have given people a glimpse of the Top-10 team that many pre-season experts had picked them to be. *********** Stanford seemed determined to show Georgia Tech that it was a power team, and the strategy worked - up to a point. Unfortunately, that point was consistently short of the goal line. The Cardinal moved the ball up and down the field, but it does help a power team when it has a way to get outside, and Stanford didn't. Stanford's brain lock when it came time to make calls inside the 10 became increasingly apparent to the crowd, until a guy behind me shouted at Cardinal Coach Tyrone Willingham, "There goes the Notre Dame job!" Georgia Tech, on the other hand, twice scored on plays that lots of high school coaches would recognize. In fact, many Double-Wing coaches have them in their repertoires. The first was Spread Lazer 29 Reach. The second would be called Spread Rip 28 Option reverse left. *********** Georgia Tech had a good game plan, and did some imaginative things on both sides of the ball. Asked if he'd done anything differently, Tech coach Mac McWhorter said afterwards, "I wanted both coordinators to call the game uninhibited." Think you'd ever hear a coach say that after a playoff game? *********** I went to the game a Stanford dad wearing a red hat, but sympathetic nonetheless toward a bunch of kids from Georgia Tech who'd lost their coach, and then been shipped a couple of thousand miles to a far corner of the country to play in a bowl nobody'd ever heard of. And then the Stanford band walked by us on outside the stadium, and I saw the sousaphone with the big marijuana leaf painted in the bell, with the slogan "This Bud's for You," and I said, "How can I root for that?" The Stanford band - what a bunch of twerps. True, they sometimes come up with some very clever themes, but they remind me a lot of Yassir Arafat. They are rude and insulting and - irrelevant. If you appreciate the atmosphere of a football game, you find yourself struck by the contrast between a handful of Georgia Tech band members - all they could afford to bring, no doubt, to a third-rate bowl - playing their tails off, time and again rallying the troops as a band is supposed to do, and the spoiled brats in the Stanford band, who seem not to be able to play much music at all, and certainly not anything that would indicate that they were at a football game. Makes you wonder why money that the football players earn should be used to pay the band's way to a game that they don't even seem to be aware of.
It reminded me of the sort of story in which a bunch of suits in New York decide to close down a plant out in the boonies. But the workers in the plant ask for another chance, and they're told that maybe if they can meet this month's production quotas... and then, they meet the quotas, and the plant is shut down, anyhow. Turns out the decision had been made weeks ago, and the workers had basically been played for a bunch of chumps. I got that same feeling watching the Georgia Tech players and coaches celebrate a well-deserved win over Stanford in the Seattle Bowl. I couldn't help thinking that there was one Georgia Tech guy who wasn't enjoying the sight - the AD, Dave Braine (great name). Mac McWhorter, it appeared, had just gone and complicated things. With Coach McWhorter in charge on an interim basis after George O'Leary's unfortunate departure for greener grass, Georgia Tech had just pulled off an emotional upset over Stanford, and the Tech players were down on the field chanting "We Want Mac! We want Mac!" On Friday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's web site was asking, "should Mac McWhorter be Tech's permanent head coach?" and by mid-afternoon, the vote was running 81 per cent "yes." Forget it, folks. Who ever cared what you want? On Saturday, Georgia Tech named Chan Gailey to be its new head coach. Mr. Braine wanted Chan Gailey. It was as simple as that. Wanted him for some time, as it turns out, despite the fact that Mac McWhorter had Mr. Braine's assurances before leaving for Seattle that no decision had been made, and he was still a serious candidate. And despite the fact that while the team was in Seattle, and Gailey's name began to surface, Braine once again met with Coach McWhorter to assure him that no decision had been made. So McWhorter, staff and kids went out on the field and played their best game of the season. Didn't matter. They were, you might say, used. Gailey had already been hired. The Tech corporate types tried to cover their tracks, but Tech President G. Wayne Clough let the cat out of the bag at Saturday's announcement of Gailey's hiring when he happened to mention that a few days earlier - on Christmas Day - his son had asked him who Tech had hired. He said he had told his son it was a secret. (Now, doesn't that sound as if he already knew something?) Why did the president think it important to keep the new coach's name a secret? Simple. That was Christmas Day, and they already had their coach, but it was two days before the Seattle Bowl, and there was still a matter of a game to play. To get the maximum out of them, it was important that Coach McWhorter still continue to be misled into thinking he was in the running and the Georgia Tech kids still be misled into thinking anybody cared about what they tmight think. The day after the game, the day after Mac McWhorter showed he was quite capable of coaching a major college football team, he was informed that he was no longer in the running. The day after that, Chan Gailey was introduced to the media as Georgia Tech's new head coach.
*********** Lee Corso, on the intelligence of Rick Neuheisel's staff: :He has eight assistant coaches with master's degrees." Me, to Lee Corso: "Are you sure?" *********** Iowa holds Texas Tech to 16 points (don't you just love it when a real football team beats a grass basketball team?) and the Alamo Bowl Player of the Game is the Iowa place kicker? I don't know his name, but I sure did like an Iowa DB wearing #33. *********** The strongest argument you'll ever hear for teaching people the history of our game... At halftime of the Texas A & M-TCU game, ESPN showed the results of a little online poll asking people to vote for the greatest Texas A & M football player ever. Ray Childress was the leader, with 27 per cent of the vote. John David Crow was second. John David Crow - only one of the best football players of all time. Yet another victim of our preoccupation with the present, with the here-and-now. One of the guys in the ESPN studio put it into perspective when he said, "if they use a computer they're probably too young to remember him." Sounds like the way the teaching of history has been trashed in our schools. Hey, history isn't about memory. Babe Ruth's fame didn't depend on people who saw him or remembered him. (Of course, the multiple-choice selection for the best player in Washington's football history didn't even list Warren Moon.) *********** You may remember my mentioning, a few weeks ago, a coaching staff that didn't seem particularly interested in hearing about a player I'd come across in my travels. I didn't mention the school. but I did mention that the hard-working staff had just completed its second-straight winless season. Okay, okay - you guessed it was Duke. Nonetheless, the AD stands firmly behind his head coach. Perhaps this will tell you something about Mr. Einstein, the Duke AD: Maryland's Ralph Friedgen (Coach of the Year) was asked how he felt about beating Duke. He replied, "I love beating people that wouldn't return my resumes or answer my calls." Anybody who's ever coached understands exactly what Coach Friedgen was saying. *********** Coach, Wanted to relay an amusing footnote about the Division 1-AA national championship game. After the Montana victory, the Montana faithful tore down the goal post as you may have witnessed on TV.. Big deal, right? Well this wasn't your average post championship celebration. In the days leading up to the game a large national trucking firm, Jim Palmer Trucking(based in Missoula, MT), sent one of their trailers to Chattanooga. After the goal post was torn down and carried out of the stadium it was signed by the participants. players, and coaches. It was then loaded on the truck and shipped back to Missoula. Its final resting spot-- the roof of Red's Bar in downtown Missoula, where it will no doubt serve as a sort of "Mecca" for Montana football fans. Make your pilgrimage to Red's, touch the goal post, and have a beer. Cole Shaffer, Vancouver, Washington (Cole Shaffer a former player and assistant of mine, is originally from Billings, Montana.HW) *********** I had the Defensive Coordinator for the Mesquite Skeeters over Thursday night for a "celebration". We had about 10 guys that have been going to the games together, and decided it would be cool to kind of honor his accomplishment for a 14-0 Texas 5A State Championship season. It was great - we had plenty of BBQ (BEEF!) and slipped in the game tape and gave David a hard time when his Defense gave up 13 points in the first half! But I got a little "down" when I was talking with him about what his plans were etc..he's obviously a good Coach - his defense was awesome! Mesquite didn't win by putting up huge nums on the board - But he was talking about the problems he was having finding a HC gig, and how competitive it was etc..So I'm sitting here doing my homework, trying to squeeze a quick 3 hrs out in a fast track winter term, thinkin' "what am I doing?". "Who the hell do I think I am, that I can break into the game at 43 years old and actually get a crack to HC?" I'm tellin' ya amigo..I was letting myself get down about the whole thing. Now don't get me wrong - You know I'm VERY confident in my abilities, and have actually been accused of being a little arrogant (yeah, buy Joan!) -- but I've been Coachin' little guys! so I started having some doubts -- then I read the note from Ron Timson -- and I just realized I'm going to have to pay my dues, but if it's worth doin', it's worth workin' for! and it IS my passion - It IS what I am supposed to be doing with my life - no doubt about it. So...18 hrs and counting ... looking for a water bucket to carry for someone! whatever it takes. Tell Ron, "Thanks". And of course, Thanks to you as well. Scott Barnes, Rockwall, Texas (Coach Barnes decided not long ago, in the middle of a very promising business career, that he wanted more than anything else to be a football coach; he's been working hard ever since, picking up all the course work needed for his teaching credentials. HW) *********** I was impressed by the job Washington coach Rick Neuheisel did in preparing the Huskies for favored Texas. I have to admit that I'd allowed my general disdain for him and at the same time my appreciation of Major Applewhite cause me to go into the game ready to root for the Horns, but it all went out the window when I saw the Huskies come onto the field and I said, "Hell, I'm a Washington coach. I can't root against Washington kids." But even then, I sure didn't want Major Applewhite to be the goat, as it appeared in the early stages might be his fate, so the fact that he finally got his shot and led the Longhorns to a great comeback win - and then graciously deflected the praise that came his way onto his teammates, and refrained from even hinting at what an ass Mack Brown had been - softened somewhat the pain of the Huskies' loss. I will leave it to Longhorns' fans to speculate as to the possible results of the Oklahoma and Colorado games had Major Applewhite been the starter. And by the way, did you see Chris Simms' face as he enjoyed a good laugh with someone on the sideline, right after Major's first interception? Granted, the TV cameras were boring in on him, but that was to be expected, because they saw a story brewing, and ole Mack should have been astute enough to have Simms standing next to him holding a clipboard, and not standing in the background with his arms folded. Maybe young Mr. Simms wasn't laughing at Applewhite's early misfortune, but he sure gave that impression. And even if that wasn't what he was laughing about, if I were the coach and we'd just been intercepted, and I turned around and saw anybody laughing about anything... ***********He may never play a game in the NFL, but... Major Applewhite can be held up to kids everywhere as an example of class and dignity - as an example of what can happen if you work hard and believe in yourself and stay positive and never quit. For the rest of his life, he will be beloved anywhere he goes in the state of Texas. What's that worth? And if money ever gets to be a problem... Hell, if Rudy can parlay that corny, highly-embellished story of his into motivational speaking gigs for thousands of dollars (and a web site selling everything under the sun, from Rudy books to photos of Rudy celebrating his "sack"), what's a real story like Major Applewhite's worth? *********** I'd love to have been at the Celina-Garrison game. I'd have loved sitting near some guys who say you have to throw to win, while Celina High School beat Garrison for the Texas Class 2A Division II state title. Combined, the two teams completed only six of 15 passes for 72 yards, but they managed to put up 76 points, as Celina won, 42-35. Go ahead and try telling me that they probably scored 77 points between them because neither team played much defense. You're wasting your breath. Mister, you don't get to the finals in any state's playoffs if you can't play defense. Celina's coach G.A. Moore, for his part, has steadfastly stuck with his 10-1 defense over the years, and he ain't done too bad with it. Celina has now won four straight state championships, becoming only the second school in state history (Sealy is the other) to do so. Celina is still working on a 57-game winning streak, longest in state history. Celina has also won 24 straight playoff games, which ties the state record (held also by Sealy). It was the sixth state title in Celina's history, and the eighth overall for coach Moore, leaving him just one state championship behind the legendary Gordon Wood. Oh, about those passing stats- Celina's quarterback threw an interception on the opening drive of the game. It was his second of the season. *********** When all is said and done, I would defy anybody to watch those Georgia Tech kids down on the field celebrating, after all the crap that they'd been put through, and call it a meaningless bowl. You might say the same thing about the kids from Toledo, Iowa, Texas A & M, Texas... I could go on. Rick Neuheisel weighed in on that subject. Remember that Washington, last year's Rose Bowl champ, had a legitimate claim to a spot in last year's national title game, with a record of 10-1 and a win over Miami, the only conqueror of Florida State. Nevertheless, Coach Neuheisel remains a fan of the bowl system. It is, he said, "the one thing that sets us apart from the other sports... I watch the NCAA basketball tournament, and certainly have a great time watching, but think about those players - they go back to their hotel room after every game and get onto film and start studying for the next game. They don't get to enjoy the city of San Diego (which, presumably, the Texas and Washington kids did) or the city they're playing in." *********** Does the Holiday Bowl ever put on a bad game? *********** Is it my imagination, or is Monday Night Football better when it's played on Saturday night?
MORE ABOUT DON HOLLEDER AND THE TYPE OF MAN HE WAS "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." The correct pronunciation is NOT "Hollander" - there is no "N". It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
|
December
31- "You don't put
morale on like a coat. You build it day-by-day."
Fielding Yost, Legendary Michigan coach
***********
Maybe you saw players in the Army-Navy game
wearing patches in honor of various military
units. Winners of the Black Lion Award are
not only eligible to wear the Black Lions
emblem shown at left, they are all going to
receive one.
*********** Norm Chow, offensive coordinator at USC, is college football's highest-paid assistant, at $225,000 a year. Yes, I know the mighty Trojan offense could produce only six points against Utah, but before we start ragging on Coach Chow about earning his money, it's only fair to put it in perspective: Scottie Pippen of the Portland Trail Blazers is paid that much per game. Whether he plays, or whether he's on the bench in street clothes, or whether he's away at the college where he "went," getting a belated degree while his team is playing an NBA game, he gets paid roughly $225,000 per game. This year, he has missed more games than he's played in. On that basis, it's a little harder to say that Norm Chow is overpaid. *********** Great Christmas story: Andy Thoms, husband of one of my wife's fellow teachers at George C. Marshall Elementary school in Vancouver, Washington, played Santa Claus for the kids at the school last week. Andy is a big guy. A very big guy. He is a former football player who stands about 6-4, and looks to be a very trim 250 or so. He also happens to be a black man, and very dark-skinned. After the kids had all had their little visit with Santa, one kindergartner, a little white girl, said to her teacher, "That wasn't the real Santa." "Why do you say that?" the teacher asked her. "Because," the little girl said, "he was too tall and thin." *********** While it lasted, it was a scenario beyond my wildest dreams... Rick Neuheisel, actually going Notre Dame! Hmmm - I guess any place that didn't insist on seeing George O'Leary's transcripts wouldn't have bothered to watch Washington play Miami. If Rick had taken the Notre Dame job, he'd have it easy now. He'd be out on the road recruiting for Notre Dame, instead of figuring out how Washington's going to avoid another ass-kicking in the Holiday Bowl. *********** Maybe it was just the "meaningless" Las Vegas Bowl, but nobody seemed to have told that to the Utah kids. Not the way they got after the Trojans. Nobody seemed to tell their coach, either. First of all, despite being the first coach I've ever seen catch a full Gatorade bath from the front, the Utes' Ron McBride seemed to enjoy the win more than any coach I've seen in a long time. He was actually carried to the middle of the field on the shoulders of two rather large young men, and when he was lowered to the ground he was all smiles. From the way the two teams went about game preparations, it was clear that Utah was taking things a bit more seriously than USC. The Trojans spent several days in Vegas. They even allowed the players who wanted to to drive there. The Utes, on the other hand, practiced in Cedar City, Utah. Cedar City is some 100 miles north of Vegas. There is not a lot to do there. There must have been a little something extra going on too, something that we hadn't been told about, based on what Coach McBride told the post-game interviewer: "These guys thought we were nothing!" he said. "They thought they were gonna step on us like a piece of dirt!" *********** Watching the sheer joy and excitement of the Utah players after their stunning defeat of USC in a supposed "nothing" bowl, announcer Gary Danielson said, "This is what college kids like to do." He meant enjoying the bowl atmosphere, playing the game itself and having fun doing it, and experiencing the sheer exhilaration of winning. And probably a night on the town to look forward to. Those kids were having fun. My son, who was watching the game with me, brought up an interesting point. He asked, "Has anybody asked the kids what they think about a playoff?" Damn! I thought. As a matter of fact, we have heard from just about everybody except the kids. Think about it... The fans want a playoff, the coaches want a playoff, the athletic departments want a playoff, the TV networks (at least one of them) would love a playoff, but- what about the kids? I wonder how they are going to like being the cash cows? I wonder how they are going to like three or four more weeks of "Great game, gentlemen... But we can't rest yet. We've got another big one next week and we've got even work to do if we're going to have a shot at the final game...." I guarantee you, there won't be any bowl parades along the way. No trips to casinos, or beef-eating contests or deep-sea fishing, either. And there probably won't be time for visits to autograph footballs at children's hospitals. No sirree. We don't have time. We've got a game to get ready for. There's too much at stake. Now, where's the fun in that? Remember where you read it first--- I predict that by the time there is an NCAA Division I-A football playoff, there will be an organization of college football players. That's right, a union. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the NFLPA has already got a plan for one in place and ready to go. The players' organization is going to demand, at the least, bowl bonuses for the players - same as the coaches all have in their contracts. And don't listen to that garbage about the players' "already getting a free education." Apart from the fact that we can already argue about how much time is left over for education anyhow, after football has taken its share of time off the top, haven't those players already fulfilled their part of the contract by playing the regular season? Isn't the present system of asking them to play even a single bowl game - an extra game for which the coaches receive a bonus but the players receive nothing more - justified because it is a "reward?" Because it is a chance to go someplace exotic and have some fun? So what would you call three or four more weeks of involuntary servitude so that everyone else can put more money in their pockets? *********** Let's see - whom to vote for? Jesse L. Jackson? Or Jesse L. Jackson? That's the choice being given some Illinois voters, as Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. is being challenged by a guy with the same name. Very clever. This used to be done all the time when I lived in Baltimore back in the 60's, and I have no reason to believe it's not still being done. They called it the "Name's the Same Game." Political opponents would try to defeat you in the primary by finding someone with the same name as you, sure in the belief that voters are so stupid that they could easily be tricked into voting for the wrong "you." If your name were Zimmerman or Young (or Wyatt) there would be a proliferation of candidates with names beginning with "A", the idea being that since the names were listed on the ballot alphabetically, people would start at the top and get tired of reading down the list and eventually vote for one of the first few entries, without ever getting to your name. And then there was the guy in East Baltimore with the then-magical name of Unitas, who kept appearing as a candidate for one minor office or another. He never won. *********** Dear Coach Wyatt; I normally try to keep from emailing you too often, because I know you get an enormous amount of correspondence, but I just saw George O'Leary's interview on SportsCenter a few minutes ago, and I wanted to know if you were as pissed off about his attitude as I was. Through the whole thing, he seemed to be saying, "I'm sorry that I got caught." There's no freaking excuse for lying on a bio. He says he never used the falsified information to advance his career, but if you drop by the following link you'll notice that on the BOARD OF TRUSTEES page for Georgia Tech University, his lie about receiving a Master's Degree from NYU sits as plain as day. ( http://www.afca.com/lev3.cfm/771 ). You know what? I watched my mom work her ass off taking 30 credit hours at a time in order to get her double Master's (Computer Assisted Education and Computer Assisted Special Education) while TEACHING FULL TIME. I have precisely zero sympathy for Coach O'Leary and his belief that, "I'm paying an enormous price for my mistake." My mother paid an enormous price for her Master's Degrees, and she sure as hell wasn't making the salary of a Division-I head football coach at the time. Try instead the salary of a grade school special education teacher. Mistake hell! A mistake is an error in judgment caused by incorrect processing of available information. This was a clear-cut case of willful deception. Not only would I not want him coaching my kids, if I had them, but I'm reluctant to send any of my players on to any program he is a part of, regardless of his ability to teach fundamental football. Notre Dame is reaping what they sowed. Davies was in the process of building an excellent program founded on hard work, discipline and HONESTY, and they fired him because his Ws and Ls were more important than the life lessons he gave to his players. How many other Division I coaches can say that 100% of their team graduated? I guess we know what's important to Notre Dame. They might as well re-hire O'Leary. Very Respectfully, Derek Wade. Tomales, California I watched the interview and I was, to be honest, reminded of the Clintons. Or Al Gore. Never forget, we narrowly missed electing a serial "embellisher." "I don't know how it got there," George O'Leary said, referring to a phony line on a resume, but reminding me of Hillary and the Rose Law firm records. "Not one thing I put on paper ever got me a job," he said. Maybe not, but it sure did look good down on paper, didn't it? Gave a guy a little extra credibility. Sorta like Al Gore telling tobacco farmers how he pulled tobacco with his bare hands, or visited Texas with the head of FEMA. Like Hillary, born and raised in Chicago but, as she told New Yorkers, a lifelong Yankees' fan nonetheless. Hey, if you didn't have any integrity yourself, you'd probably identify with O'Leary, too, the way people did with the Clintons. As a matter of fact, maybe there is even a vast right-wing conspiracy out to get George O'Leary. But then Coach Wade had to go and send me the link to the American Football Coaches Association's web site, where George O'Leary's biography is listed, because he is an AFCA Trustee. Just in case you missed that the first time, I wrote it, I'll write it again - George O'Leary is an AFCA Trustee. The organization that stands so tall for ethics in our profession, and he's a trustee, for God's sake! There on his biography, big as life (below), it lists his "M.S." from NYU. A week after the whole Notre Dame fiasco blew up, it was still there! You would think that if the AFCA is not going to do the right thing and ask him to step down as a trustee, it would at least purge his biography. Hey - we're not talking about politicians here. We don't expect any better of them. We expect them to be scum, so we're always pleasantly surprised when they're not. We're talking about a better class of people than politicians here. We're talking about football coaches, about people who are supposed to be good examples for our young men. And we're always shocked when they're not. *********** George O'Leary's AFCA Biography AFCA: Elected to Board of Trustees in 2001. Current Coaching Position: Head coach at Georgia Tech ... Has a record of 45-28 in six seasons ... Led Tech to a 9-3 record and a berth in the Peach Bowl in 2000 ... The Yellowjackets have finished first or second in the ACC each of the last three seasons ... Earned AFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors in 1998 when Tech finished 10-2 in 1998 and shared the ACC title. Previous Experience: Georgia Tech defensive coordinator/defensive line coach 1994 ... San Diego Chargers defensive line coach 1992-93 ... Georgia Tech defensive coordinator/defensive line coach 1987-91 ... Syracuse assistant head coach/defensive line coach 1985-86 ... Syracuse defensive line coach 1980-84 ... Liverpool (N.Y.) High School head coach 1977-79 ... Central Islip (N.Y.) High School head coach 1975-76 ... Central Islip (N.Y.) High School assistant coach 1968-74. Personal: Born: August 17, 1946 ... B.S. from New Hampshire, 1968 ... M.S. from New York University, 1972 ...
*********** Coach, Let me begin by wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and the most prosperous of New Years. I am sitting here this morning by myself, having just read your web site, and I was just thinking how lucky I am to be a high school football coach. Then, I just began to reflect on how this happened, and thought it might be nice to share my feelings with other coaches. My first big break came when I was assigned to AFROTC duty at Denison University, Granville, Ohio. The head coach there, the late Keith Piper, offered me the opportunity to be a volunteer assistant and it led to me knowing that was what I wanted to do after I completed my Air Force career. Those three years I was exposed to helping on both sides of the ball, and then was their only scout the last year I was there. I think the year of scouting taught me more about football than anything I have ever done. I also made some wonderful friends and got some solid recommendations. I was then fortunate enough to be assigned to Rhein Main AB Germany and was the offensive coordinator for three years for the base team. This was a great experience and the guys who played there (ages 18-35) played for the love of the game. Upon retiring from the Air Force in 1989 I worked as an assistant at Bellevue West High School, Bellevue, NE and then was hired as the HFC at Bennington HS, Bennington, NE. I was hired there after they had gone 13-0 and won the state championship in 1989. The principal and Superintendent hired me even though I had no experience as a head coach, but I think my military background influenced them. I had 9 wonderful years there, made the playoffs six times, and had great kids and wonderful school and community support. It was just prior to the 1997 season there that I read your article in Scholastic Coach and realized I wanted to try the double-wing. In the summer of 1999 I was vacationing in Florida and had the opportunity to visit Tim Smith, the head coach at Umatilla HS, and this led to him offering me a job as the offensive coordinator at Umatilla. After two years Tim resigned to move closer to his home, and I was hired this past year as the HFC. This job gives me the opportunity to work with great kids, good administrators, and a solid community. It also has enabled me to be close to my in-laws and my wife's sisters, after she followed me around the world for 22 years in the Air Force. Out of all of this I have enjoyed my association with double-wing coaches for the past 5 years as much as anything. You provide a great service to all of us, and through your web site and your clinics I have met many wonderful coaches. I trade emails and tapes with many of them, and get many phone calls to discuss various aspects of the offense. It is wonderful!!! Then this past year my association with Tom Hinger and the Black Lions have kind of rekindled my relationship with the military. I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that I realize how much I have to be thankful for and I appreciate you being a large part of my enjoyment. Being a HS football coach is a great opportunity, but being a double-wing HS football coach is just that much better. Yours in coaching, Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida *********** The libs are still at it, excusing wrongdoers because... it's not their fault. A 12-year-old Beaverton, Oregon kid was arrested for threatening to bring a 12-gauge shotgun to school and kill two schoolmates. Evidently they'd been making fun of the way he dressed. But although the police took the threat seriously enough to arrest the little creep, school officials evidently didn't think if was worth their trouble to inform the parents of other kids about it. (I don't know about you, but some people might want the option of keeping their kids kids home.) But the school administrators finally did take action a day later, and it shows that we haven't been making a lot of progress - they still have things ass-backwards. They sent a letter home, but it didn't deal with pathetic little weasels who bring guns to school - it dealt with bullying. Do you see what they're getting at? It's your kid's fault if he makes fun of the way another kid dresses, and the kid blows him away. We heard a school spokesperson telling the local news media that the young lad had been "teased repeatedly" about his clothing. So, I guess we are supposed to infer, what else could he do, in the face of such vicious bullying? Couldn't wear something else - he has a constitutionally-protected right to that form of self-expression (according to the way most kids nowadays interpret the Constitution). So, you see- it's not his fault. He had no choice but to threaten to kill the "bullies." I guess if you got caught laughing at the skirted boys on the girls' field hockey team, you'd be expelled for bullying. Don't complain. It might save your life. *********** The Alabama state legislature has passed a bill calling for harsher-than-normal penalties for anyone convicted of harassing, menacing or assaulting "sports officials", which includes coaches. It applies to all levels of sports, youth to professional, and provides for penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
*********** Here is the best book on the veer I have read - "The Explosive Veer Offense for Winning Football" published by Parker and written by Jim Wacker and Don Morton...... Kevin McCullough, Culver, Indiana *********** That was pretty cool Thursday night, watching famed pianist Van Cliburn, a native of Kilgore, Texas, being honored as a Kennedy Center award winner, and then being serenaded by the crowd, including President Bush, as they sang, "The Eyes of Texas."
"Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
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A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: I was going through an old Virginia
Tech football media guide when I came across this photo
of James William Barber. It was taken in 1973, before his
senior year at Tech, when he was just 12 points shy of
becoming the Gobblers' (that's what they went by back
then) leading scorer. Although his name was James he went
by his nickname, J.B. He was a native of Charlotte, North
Carolina and attended Mecklenburg High there, where he
was MVP of the football team and a track star as
well.
*********** I almost gag when I watch the NFL promotional spot on tolerance, a thinly-disguised effort at keeping people from beating up on Arab-Americans. While I certainly do agree that by far the vast majority of Arab-Americans and Persian-Americans bear no responsibility whatsoever for 9-11 and oughtn't to be treated as if they did, I have to disagree with the two premises of the spot, spouted as they were as if they were indisputable, eternal truths: Premise Number One: "Our strength is our tolerance." To that I say B.S. We have to do more than tolerate each other. If your football players merely tolerate each other, you may not have a lot of fights on the field or in the locker room, but you will not have a very good football team. The same goes for a military unit. Ditto a family. It isn't tolerance that prompts men to die for their comrades, and tolerance isn't the reason mothers and fathers make the sacrifices they do for their kids. It is called love, and if you don't have it on your team or in your group, you can have all the tolerance in the world, but you will not be successful. You will just be a bunch of self-interested individuals who go their own way, live-and-let-live, without caring about others. Premise Number Two: "Our strength is our diversity." To that, I also say B.S. Our strength is not in our diversity. It is in our unity. Call it pulling together. Call it bonding. Call it team-building. Call it whatever you want - the people who coach football teams and lead our armed forces know that "diversity" is not something to be fostered - it is one of the things that has to be overcome if they hope to build successful units. Yes, people may be black and white and they may be Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims, but when we're trying to build a football team, those differences aren't particularly a strength . Our strength lies in our ability - and their willingness - to put differences aside for the greater good of the group. If the NFL wants to tell people not to pick on others because of their skin or their religion or their nationality, I applaud. But it should come right out and say so. We get force-fed enough of that "diversity is our strength" sociobabble by our educators and our politicians, and some of us aren't swallowing. *********** Anybody else get caught in front of the set while Marcus Allen sang, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?" *********** Looking at the helmet on that Jets' field goal kicker, whatever his name is -- don't you just wanna kiss him? *********** Football coaching is such an upwardly-striving sort of occupation that at least at the college and professional level, coaches often seem to be occupied as much with getting the next job as they are with doing the job they already have. Part of the reason, of course, is that coaching at those levels is also a very precarious profession. Often, job security is only as good as a coach's contacts. And since there are far more qualified men than there are positions for them, every assistant knows that if his boss gets fired, the entire staff will be out on the street, jobless and scrambling to find new jobs, and competing for them against dozens of other out-of-work assistant coaches. And typically, the vacant college coaching jobs are filled by people already known by the head coach. You might say that long before the yuppies gave it the name, football coaches were experts at "networking." But for those of you who are coaching in middle school and have dreams of coaching in the Super Bowl some day, listen to some sound advice from a gentleman named Ned Barnholt, CEO of Agilent Technologies, who advises his employees not to let themselves become so obsessed with career goals - on what's around the bend - that they don't "enjoy the journey." "Some people want to be CEO or CFO (Chief Financial Officer) in five years," he told The Wall Street Journal, "but I say find something you enjoy doing, and unknowingly you'll be preparing yourself for more responsibility. That's what I discovered in my career." *********** "Your comment about the soccer coaches being called by their first names struck me. Almost all my female friends at MIT play sports. They seem to call their coaches by the first name - Cheryl, Melissa, etc. I asked them about it, and they said they've grown up doing it. I relayed my stories - we didn't even call our teammates by their first names. The only reason our head coach was "Coach Rollie" was because the defensive coordinator was "Coach Mitch" - his son. (Incidentally, Rollie's nephew was the OC. Who says nepotism is bad?) My track coaches all went by last name. I think it's a girl thing - sisterhood and all that. And a thing for sports that don't have proper systems of authority. "I have two good friends who play field hockey for the Institute. (One of them has played against some of these Massachusetts cross-dressers.) Anyway, since I'm always talking about these two, my friends in the dorm decided to play a Christmas joke on me and got me a field hockey stick. I refused to touch it with my bare hands." Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts *********** I happened to catch an episode of ESPN's "The Rites of Autumn" a history of College Football. This particular episode was about the role of blacks in that history. Jake Gaither and Eddie Robinson were a part of it as were the traditionally black colleges. They dealt with Johnny Bright and the Oklahoma A&M incident and Pitt's Bobby Grier and the Sugar Bowl as well as with SMU's Jerry Levias and Hayden Fry. I had a couple of problems with the show. First off, they claimed OU's Prentice Gautt was the first black player at an all-white SOUTHERN university. Huh? Geography lessons are in order. Now this depends upon your definition of "Southern" but if you include Texas as a Southern state then it must be said that Abner Haynes broke the color barrier in Southern football in 1956 when he attended North Texas State. Texas culture complicates matters because while East Texas is really the part of the state most culturally aligned with Dixie; much of the rest of Texas can be culturally considered part of the West (and, therefore, more friendly toward integration). Being located in Denton would tend to make North Texas more Western than Southern in attitudes but various complications can foul up the whole theory. Your definition of what constitutes a "major" school also may play a part as well, but NTSU was in the Missouri Valley Conference in those days, just like Drake with Bright. Nevertheless, technically, Abner was the first black gridder at a Southern, all-white school. Interestingly, he was coached by Odus Mitchell, the guy who coached Y.A. Tittle at Marshall, Texas High School. What really got me was this story they tried to feed us about Bear Bryant. According to the program, Bear scheduled Southern Cal for the 1970 opener so that his Crimson Tide team could get its tail kicked by SC's great black players. The Bear WANTED this to happen so he could start preaching integration to the Bama backers. Bear did schedule the Trojans and Bama DID get its butt kicked as Sam "Bam" Cunningham scored four times on the Tide, but I seriously doubt Bryant was looking to get his hat handed to him. I think the producers of this thing put the chicken before the egg. Sure, Bryant later used the 1970 USC game as an excuse to integrate but the idea that he coached it that way is farfetched. The 1971 Bama team that upset the Trojans in LA one year later had one black player on the squad (I think) (It was Wilbur Jackson- HW). That was also the first game Bear used the Wishbone and there lies the real story. I guess the producers, who are always out to tell a story, felt that viewers would be more interested in one about how big name coaches like Bear Bryant and John McKay brought integration into the Deep South. The truth, that coaches like Bill Tate at Wake Forest, Doug Dickey at Tennessee, Hayden Fry at SMU and Bill Yeoman at Houston, not to mention Mitchell and Haynes at NTSU, brought about the revolution is less sexy. -- Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas (Only a damn fool would suggest that Coach Bryant would lay down, for any reason. Never forget - the major reason he was revered in Alabama - except by Auburn people, of course - was that he won. And even if he could actually have arranged a way to deliberately lose, he'd have had one hell of a secret to keep, because his players and Alabama's supporters would not have understood. HW) *********** Coach Rick Davis, in Duxbury, Massachusetts, wrote me saying that he'd missed a particular game he'd wanted to see because he was in Maine, moose hunting, and he planned to offer some moose meat to a coach in return for a tape of the game. I asked him about moose meat, and he said, "Moose meat is more mild, less gamey than venison and very lean. My dad actually shot the moose, and has over 400 lbs of meat in his freezer that he'll never get through (most of it ground into hamburg and mixed with 20%-30% pork as sweet or spicy sausage meat.. It was a 300-yard shot, from a canoe, with the wrong shoulder (although still a young guy, just turned 60 but has the Dick Clark disease and looks 40, he has a cataract in his right or shooting eye and has now had to start shooting left-handed). I got some from him over thanksgiving and we've all been loving it, spag sauce, chili, meatloaf, etc. Anyway, I'm going to a Xmas party this weekend and bringing some "bullwinkle chili". Ought to go over big with the liberals, there's bound to be a few antis there." Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts *********** Coach Wyatt, this was my first year running the DW.The boys I had (ages 11-13)were small and slow.We still managed to win our divison and make the City playoffs.I cant wait until next year and when I have a year of DW under my belt and maybe a little speed on the team.We might be another team on the Pop Warner Nationals next year.Thanks, Doug Dodge Jacksonville Florida (If you are doing the job with slow kids, that sounds to me as if you have been paying attention to the details...One of "Rumsfeld's Rules": "Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small." In football, the margin of error decreases in accordance with the talent.) *********** If there are any bookmakers out there... I can't get to Vegas before New Year's, and I am going nuts here in Washington looking at the newspaper every day and seeing that Nebraska is a nine-point underdog against Miami. Are you kidding me? Somebody, somewhere, thinks Miami will beat Nebraska by more than nine points, and is willing to bet me money that they will??? Now, I have written at some length, whining, some would say, about Nebraska's being in the Rose Bowl, and I still think that based on a s system that is supposed to bring together the two most deserving teams to play for a national title, the Cornhuskers don't belong in the game. But I still like them and I respect the program, and I have been looking high and low for one of these guys who will give me the Cornhuskers and nine points! I want all the action I can get. I will take out a second mortgage on my house. *********** Let me first set this up before I get your opinion of whether you think it is unethical or just playing by the rules. We have the lead late in the game and the clock is running...its 4th down and we send a guy in motion and the Qb uses a hard count...they don't jump. So we have one of the lineman false start instead of taking the delay of game penalty With the Delay penalty the clock will stop and won't start until the snap. With the false start we get a fresh 25 and and the game clock starts running. Tom Manning, Greenville, North Carolina That is a very interesting question. It seems to me that it is not at all like teaching your kids to rough a passer or run into a punt-return man (or cut blockers at the knees) - something that can injure an opponent - in return for being willing to take a 15-yard penalty. People occasionally take minor (5-yard) penalty in order to get a better angle for a field goal and nobody condemns that. I am inclined to think that it's similar to a basketball coach teaching his kids to foul the other team in order to try to get the ball back. If you were to tell your kids not to do that because it's just not ethical, people would think you were nuts, and you would wind up getting fired. Sound reasonable?HW *********** "I'm told that cheating to win is even prevalent in the Special Olympics where adults overstate the disabilities of athletes to get a competitive edge." Michael Josephson, "Character Counts" *********** Here at (Anonymous High School) we work hard as a staff to push the strength and conditioning, in the weight room. Well we also go down to the junior highs that feed into our school and have football players interested in getting stronger to come over to our wt. room after school and we pair them up with a varsity guy. Well to make a long story short one of the kids hurt himself - this was not even in the wt room, he was screwing around outside and broke his arm. Well Dad goes to the principal and he wants the school to pay the doctor bills. Our female principal sh-- cans the whole after-school project because she is afraid of a lawsuit. I'll tell you - a lot of work down the drain. The guy who hired me (and then left after the first year) only said do your job and don"t make the news. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (It's like Portland, where one atheist - one f--king atheist! - spent the last four years fighting the Boy Scouts because they include "do my duty to God and my country..." in their pledge, and as a result the judge threw the Boy Scouts out of the public schools.) *********** God help us all if this bozo wins. The father of a California high school sophomore is suing the school for $1.5 million because his son was cut from the varsity basketball team. The lawsuit also demands the immediate firing of the coach. The family evidently is really disturbed at having had to reshuffle their busy schedule. Here they went to all that trouble to schedule around varsity practices, and now that stupid coach goes and cuts their kid, so what else can they do but sue him? They certainly can't change their schedules around. Apparently, the coach had asked the kid to try out for the varsity, despite a policy of not allowing sophomores to do so. When he notified the kid that he was being sent down to the JV's, the kid "questioned" the coach about it. Following the "questioning," the coach then dropped him from the JV team as well. (Why do I have a picture in my head of their meeting? Why do I see the kid's body language? Why do I think I can hear his "questioning" words? His tone of voice?) The actual monetary figure being sued for is connected in some wacko way with some supposed loss of the kid's future earnings as a pro basketball player. Pro basketball player? Dad, the kid can't even make the varsity team. A high school coach, responsible for a kid's "future earnings?" Seems to me if a kid's got it, he's got it. What about the high school coach in Wilmington, North Carolina who cut Michael Jordan? Sure took a lot of food off MJ's table, didn't he? Maybe what's needed is a Million Coach March - high school coaches from all over America could fly to California to tell the lamebrains on the jury (if the suit ever gets that far) exactly how other many dizzy parents there are in American just like this jerk - just as unreasonably certain as he is that their kids will become professional athletes some day (and, of course, support them like royalty) if only their high school coaches will stop putting roadblocks in their way. *********** The boy's father calculated the amount based on the potential wages lost from his son's possible professional basketball career. The parents state in the suit that the family had already rearranged their schedules to accommodate the Varsity team's practice schedule and the the ultimate injustice, the parents were not consulted prior to the player having been cut from the team. Can you believe this sh*t, the kid was invited to tryout for the Varsity team. He wasn't told he was on the team. And even if he was, its not like he had a contract that guaranteed him a spot on the Varsity team. Talk about feeling that you are entitled to something! Since when does a coach have to consult a player's parents prior to cutting him from the team? And why would they need to do that anyway? Well, gotta run. In light of this new law suit, I've got to call my attorney. You see, I am going to sue every Div 1A school because I didn't receive a full football scholarship to any of the Div 1A schools. Heck, if I had played for a Div 1 school I would have certainly been drafted by the NFL and I would be in my 10th season by now. Even figuring conservatively and not including a signing bonus or performance incentives, I calculate that I am due something in the neighborhood of $5 million. Yeah Right! Donnie Hayes, Farmington Hills, Michigan *********** Coach, I've recently developed a fascination for the Veer Triple Option offense, and, indeed, got a copy of Bill Yeoman's playbook which he still sells for $25. I've also visited with Coach Yeoman by phone and found him to be a delight. Anyway, I very much enjoyed you recent discussion of the Veer--lots of football books talk about it, but in a very few pages, you provide the most enlightening and useful discussion I've seen. I'd like to learn more, and was wondering if you have any recommendations in terms of either books on the Veer or, more particularly, any instructional videos. I've had no luck finding any videos, and, while there are lots of coaching books on the option, Veer and otherwise, I'm not sure which if any is worthwhile. Best Regards, Steve Knippenberg, Norman, Oklahoma The problem is that since the veer is out of fashion, there isn't anything being published about it these days. But man - go back about 20 years or so and the Coach of the Year Clinic notebooks were full of stuff about it. Lou Holtz was a frequent contributor - he may have done as much as any man alive - including Coach Yeoman - to spread the word about the veer, not only because he was successful at a couple of places but because he was (is) a fabulous presenter. Anything by him that you could find would be good. One book worth looking for is Homer Rice on Triple Option Football, (Parker Publishing, 1973) by Homer Rice. His is a unique type of veer which does not employ a tight end, and combines drop-back passing with the triple option. He ran it at the University of Cincinnati. His first chapter does a nice job of telling a brief history of triple option football. *********** Okay, Okay - if you insist... If you Notre Dame guys really want Rick Neuheisel...
MORE ABOUT DON HOLLEDER AND THE TYPE OF MAN HE WAS "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." The correct pronunciation is NOT "Hollander" - there is no "N". It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
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*********** A coach wrote about the BCS's overlooking some teams with good records, such as Rice, at 8-4. Now, I am no fan of the BCS, but... Not every bowl snub is the fault of the BCS. The BCS is only committed to take the conference champion from each of six conferences: ACC, Big East, SEC, Big 12, Pac-10 and Big Ten, plus two "at large" teams, one of which is guaranteed to be Notre Dame if it finishes in the top 10. The bowl-eligibility business results from an NCAA rule requiring a team to have six wins in order to qualify. One notable exception this year was North Texas, which had a losing record but went to the New Orleans Bowl, which had an agreement to take the champion of the Sun Belt Conference, which happened to be North Texas. The real attraction to the bowl people, who need to sell tickets, and fill hotels and restaurants, is not a team's record, but how well it "travels" - how many people it will bring. And here, it is a classic case of the rich getting richer. The higher-ranked they are the better, of course - TV likes that - but Alabama at 6-5 and the assurance of 30,000 fans coming to watch is far more attractive than Rice which, although 8-4, rarely gets 30,000 even to a home game. We have come a long way from the days when bowls really were for top teams. This year, eight SEC teams are playing in bowl games. Most bowls do their matchmaking the easy way - they contract to take teams that finish someplace in their respective conference standings - so that we get to see Conference USA's third-place team against the Mid-American runner-up, but there are a few spots open here and there for "at-large" teams that are willing to buy their way in. Many schools - and Rice evidently is not one - will "buy" their way into an available bowl by agreeing to purchase a large number of tickets, knowing full well that they will never be able to resell them all to their fans. They eat the difference as an athletic department expense, figuring it is worth it as a reward, and for recruiting exposure. Often, the coaching staff has "Bowl Bonuses" in their contracts, amounting to as much as 10 per cent of their salaries, so they are not going to fight the idea. I have never been to a bowl game. The closest I have come was a Division II championship in Florence, Alabama. It was a lot of fun. Assuming that the atmosphere of a real bowl game is at least a hundred times that, I would sure look forward to going to one, if I were an alum of a good football school. (I went to Yale. Need I say more?)
*********** "Since 1979, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have been at least 23 deaths and 38 serious injuries to children when movable soccer goals have fallen on them. The most recent cases involved a 10 year old male in May 1998. A soccer goal frame fell on his head while he was helping move it. The injury left him paralyzed. In August of 1999 a 22 year old soldier was killed when a soccer goal fell and hit him in the head. He and his friends were trying to move the metal goals. There has been one fatality in this study, which involved a college athlete hanging on a soccer goal and the goal falling and striking the victim's head."
*********** Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times about interviewing Muhammad Ali, just prior to his going in to see the premier of "Ali," starring Will Smith as The Greatest. The subject of the interview got around to Islam, and heaven, and she asked him what he thought the notion that 72 virgins are waiting in heaven for Islamic martyrs? He looked skeptical. "One would tire you out," he answered. *********** When the University of Washington's official charter takes off for San Diego and the Holiday Bowl, there will be more people on board than just the players and coaches. And managers and trainers. And team doctors and equipment people. There will be members of the athletic department and other university officials, and maybe coaches' wives, and who knows? Maybe a few boosters and a politician or two. Actually, it's not unusual for a bowl-bound team to take so many people along on the junket that the school winds up banking very little money or even going into the red after all the bills are paid. But so what? Everybody has a good time, including, one would hope, the players. Everybody feels good about their team and their university, and boosters get out their checkbooks to make donations. Next year's season-ticket sales get a nudge, when fans discover that the only way to get a major bowl ticket is if you're a season-ticket holder. Recruiting gets a great shot in the arm, especially if you're a Pac-10 team and you get to practice in the warm Southern California sun, and you get to invite dozens of top prospects from football-rich Southern California high schools to drop by and watch. And there's not a penny of taxpayers' money involved. At Washington, as at most big-time schools, the football program is self-sustaining. It brings in enough revenue to more than pay its bills - it helps pay the bills of a lot of non-revenue sports, too. That means women's sports depend on the football goose to keep laying the golden eggs. But there's always somebody who wants to cut the goose open to get more eggs. Because someone filed a complaint, the University is going to have to comply with a judge's order to itemize all bowl expenses, and list all members of the official bowl party and how much (of the football program's money) is spent on each one. No doubt the information will be printed in newspapers around the state, and ignorant readers will shake their heads at the excesses, the wastefulness or the football program. How much you wanna bet the complainant was someone from the female side, upset because women's sports don't get enough of football's money? *********** The American steel industry long provided high-paying, if difficult and dangerous, jobs. The men who made steel worked hard and played hard. They chased down shots of whiskey with seven-ounce bottles of beer. And they liked their sports rough. It is no coincidence that professional football grew up in the steel towns of western Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the fact that professional football has long played its games on Sunday was as much an accommodation in the early days to the fact that its fans worked six-day weeks in the mills as it was an attempt to avoid going up against the colleges on Saturday. (It also enabled many pro teams to sneak college players into their lineups under assumed names.) But American steel companies simply no longer can pay the high wages a unionized American steelworker expects, and American steel companies can't pay the generous pensions they are contractually obligated to pay to their retired workers, and turn out steel at prices competitive with that made by foreign competitors in more modern, more efficient factories whose workers can get by on a whole lot less. Now, LTV Corporation, which once made steel as Jones and Laughlin Steel, appears ready to close shop, meaning the shut-down of mills in the Cleveland and Chicago areas. LTV is already long gone from the Pittsburgh area. In the Pittsburgh area alone, the death of the American steel industry has meant the loss of tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and, ultimately, the departure of tens of thousands of working people looking for jobs elsewhere. For many young people, it is an area without a future. It has to have an impact on the football. Western Pennsylvania has long been a major source of football talent, and, thanks to its hard-nosed culture, still manages to turn out plenty of good players. But facts are facts, and you can't argue with economics or demographics - there are kids now drawing recruiters' attention in other parts of the country whose parents relocated there from dying steel towns. ***********Hugh, My son was thrilled when he received the award at our team banquet. He has proudly framed the certificate which hangs on his wall. Glade's only eleven, but has tried to understand what the award means and why Holleder died in support of his men. The patch he received this week will be on his jersey for the 2002 season. BTW, I received little or no flack for giving this award to my son. He deserved it and I was proud to give it to him. Glade Hall, Seattle, Washington
*********** From Black Lion Steve Goodman comes this simple solution to the problem of skyjackings and the decline in air travel: Since males of the Muslim religion are not allowed to look directly at naked women, we should replace all female flight attendants with strippers. Male Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing a naked woman, and of course, every business man in this country would start flying again in hope of seeing a naked woman. We will have no more skyjackings and the airline industry will have record sales. *********** Read this week's Sports Illustrated and you'll detest the Portland Trail Blazers almost as much as I do. They are a loathesome bunch, put together by the most arrogant sports organization in all of Christendom, and then foisted on the poor rubes of our area who, until recently, thought they had a holy obligation to keep buying Blazers' tickets. The local news media have until lately cowardly ignored the high-handedness with which the Blazers' management, Paul "Richest Owner in All of Sports" Allen, Bob "Watch Me Mismanage Two Teams at the Same Time" (he is also President of the Allen-owned Seahawks) Whitsitt, and Harry "There Must Be Some Way We Can Charge Them to Breathe Our Air" Hutt, were managing to pull off the near-impossible and screw up the unscrew-uppable sports franchise. One of the jerks on the team, a guy named Bonzi Wells, is quoted in the SI article as saying, "We're not really going to worry about what the hell (the fans) think about us. They really don't matter to us. They can boo us every day, but they're still going to ask us for our autographs if they see us on the street. That's why they're fans and we're NBA players." Well. Being the astute PR people that they are, the Trail Blazers saw to it that Mr. Bonzi issued an apology. In fact, they saved him all the trouble of issuing it, and issued it for him, in his name. No one seems willing to admit who actually wrote it. Meantime, since I couldn'r care less about that pack of dogs, I am mainly bothered because I just know that for the next several weeks, we're going to be seeing Trail Blazers doing all sorts of "community service" events, cleverly staged for the eleven o'clock news to make it seem as if those guys just live to serve others. Lessee... Trail Blazers with Santa hats on - oops! Tried that already (you should see the photos in SI). Maybe Trail Blazers reading to little kids at school. Nope. Can't do that, either - schools are out until after the first of the year. Just as well - Trail Blazer Ruben Paterson is a registered sex offender in Oregon. *********** Doggone, these spread-it-out teams sure do look lame when they need to sit on a lead or punch it in. I heard the guys doing the N.C. State-Pitt game talking about Marshall's incredible comeback the night before, rallying from a 38-8 halftime deficit to beat East Carolina in second overtime, 64-61. They were saying that it was an example of how you can come back when you spread it out and throw the ball. Yeah - and when the team that's protecting a 30-point lead does the same thing. Now, I like East Carolina. And I think Steve Logan, their coach, has done a good job there (although I do wish he'd smile occasionally and look as if he enjoys coaching a game, instead of looking as if somebody just ran over his dog). But damn - ECU's first act in the second half, leading 38-8, was to throw into the flat - bingo! intercepted for a TD. They didn't learn, either. If I were a Vegas sports book I'd have been suspicious, because they kept throwing into the flat and pitching the ball on options. And then, no sooner had they finished extolling the virtues of spreading it out and throwing, than N.C. State tried to catch up, playing flag touch, five-men-out, all the way down to the Pitt one yard line. But there, with third and goal, when they lined up to try to run a real football play, they wound up looking like a bunch of guys who had just been introduced to each other in the locker room. *********** Nothing pisses me off more than people who try to take advantage. Having to merge into another lane of traffic comes to mind. The sign says "Lane Ends Ahead," so you find a guy nice enough to let you in, as a couple of ***holes continue on past you in the old lane, sure that they'll be able to worm their way in farther ahead, and, in the process, further contributing to the snarl that's holding everybody else up. Now, we're beginning to hear tales of "line rage," resulting from the increased frisking and inspection taking place at airport security positions. Looking for nail clippers and fondling female passengers takes a lot more time than running people and bags through metal detectors used to. Couldn't add more inspectors - oh, no. Even though, based on past experience, they were easy to hire and ridiculously easy to train. Instead, the airlines have merely told everyone to arrive two hours early. (For a one-hour flight yet. Bye, bye Jet Age.) So the vast majority of us sheep do exactly as we're told, and we get up at 4 AM for our 7 AM flight, and arrive at the airport in plenty of time to work our way to the front of the line at security, praying that some ***hole doesn't try to slip past the guards, causing an evacuation of the airport. And as we stand there, some other ***hole comes shuffling past us right up to the head of the line, and tries talking his way into "taking cuts," as the kids out here call it. The poor dear has to cut in. Let him tell us why: Otherwise, "I'll miss my flight." Well, tough tiddy, as we used to say. That's why the rest of us got here two hours early. And that's where our line rage begins. (Sounds like an Elvis song.) A Portland writer, Mary Pitman Kitch, addressed this issue in an article in the Portland Oregonian, asking a number of "ethicists" about the problem. One of them, a professor at Oregon State, suggested that there are those of us who feel really good about letting someone in front of us in line. She compares it to "dispensing mercy," to giving someone a pardon. I tend not to be one of those grant-a-pardon types, so I paid more attention to the professor at the University of Oregon, who pointed out that maybe it's not rightfully our pardon to give. "The hard thing is," he said, "you're making the decision for everyone behind you." Randy Cohen, who writes on ethics in the New York Times Magazine, agreed. "You can't give away something that isn't yours to give." The person trying to cut in is violating a social contract, noted Professor Kelly Smith, of Clemson University. "A line is a social agreement... the rule being that people are served in the order in which they arrive." Now, in view of the fact there is always a generational thing at play here - the ***hole is invariably a younger person, almost always male, from that generation for whom the term "sense of entitlement" had to be invented - I am able to assemble a sort of profile of the guy. I am willing to bet that he came from a family that never said "no" and never set limits or deadlines. He got everything he wanted merely by demanding it. And he came out of an educational environment in which he routinely came late to class and nothing happened, he cheated on homework and tests, he got extensions on class "deadlines" and make-ups on all tests. And, of course, his parents did a lot of his projects for him and complained to the authorities any time a teacher nailed him for any wrongdoing. I am also willing to bet that he didn't play football. If he did play a sport, it was probably soccer, where he could call his coach by his first name and show up late for practice - if he had to show up at all. (Kinda rules out any football program worth a damn, doesn't it?) By the way, five of the seven so-called experts contacted by writer Kitch said that the appropriate response to someone who wants to cut in front of you is to refuse, as diplomatically as possible. *********** Coach Wyatt, Thought you'd find this interesting. I see this type of thing more and more in our school systems. A friend of mine who is the CEO of a college in Boston calls it the "demasculization of our schools," especially here in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. Man, I long for the days when principals were old coaches/phys ed teachers/ex-jocks, i/o women who minimize sports, competition (and maybe boys in general). Some of the young boys (7th) I coach aren't angels in school, nor are they the villains that they are made out to be. I seem to be able to reach them, get them to extend themselves for a greater purpose than their own individual gain, get them to treat me and the other adults on the staff with respect, know when it's "time to go" and when it's "time to blow", etc. and I don't even have an education degree. These young men are vilified in our schools, and any behavior that strays towards being competitive, or as I might call "roughhousing" is met with larger than appropriate punishment. Well, I'll get off of my soap box. Rick Davis You are right on. The feminization of education (society in general) is resulting in demonizing of little boys. A woman whose name escapes me has written a great book on this topic. My wife is an elementary teacher, and she notices this all the time. Kids who are little monsters to her (female) associates are in her eyes just being boys, and she doesn't have near the "problems" that they seem to have with the same kids. It is a very complex problem, but at its root is feminization, and it is depriving our society of its balls. READ ON----> *********** Another friend of mine who coaches in Massachusetts said his school has a couple of boys playing on its girls' field hockey team. He says they think it's cool - they get to be big stars and they get to hang around the girls. Some of them, I'm told, even wear skirts. What makes this grotesque reverse gender-equity possible (besides feminists, liberal legislatures and wacko judges) is our emphasis on being "tolerant" and "non-judgmental," so that boys who dye their hair pink and cross-dress and think it's cool to run for homecoming queen and play on girls' teams are spared the ridicule they so richly deserve.
"Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
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A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: You might not think to look at Mel
Farr that he was ever anything other than what he is
today - one of the most successful minority businessmen
in the United States. He has come a long way from
Beaumont, Texas, where he was a great high school
athlete.
*********** Admiral Stufflebeem, the Pentagon's spokesman, said that trying to find the leaders of the Taliban is like trying to find "fleas on a dog." Admiral Stufflebeem, that is so-o-o-o-o-o insensitive. Those people are human beings, not fleas. What chance do they have for a fair trial, when one of our high-ranking naval leaders insists on dehumanizing them in that fashion? Obviously, Admiral Stufflebeem was dozing off during his sensitivity training. Makes you wonder about Operation Tailhook. Wonder if we'd be so willing nowadays to wash highly-skilled, highly-trained jet fighter pilots out of the military just to appease Congresswoman Pat Schroeder and other female members of Congress. *********** Coach - We did it. We won a provincial championship at the bantam level (14-15 year olds). We beat Parksville from Vancouver island 13-12 in the championship final. Our kids played their hearts out and I was so proud of them. As you know, this year I run the D-Wing as half of our offense (not being the head coach this year it wasn't my choice) but my unit excelled. Thier favorite play, and mine as I have told you is the 43 Tackle Trap. It was killing them. And after seeing the tape, I realize how much more we should have run it. But the sideline is sometimes the worst place for a coach to be... Also my regular C back got hurt early in the third quarter and his backup doesn't have quite the same instincts. Nevertheless, we won the game and much of our success this year was because of the D-Wing.
*********** Takes a set of stones to pull your five starters when you're down 12 points in the second half, but that's what Mike Krczyzewski did last night against Kentucky - and Duke tied it up and went on to win in overtime. Which is probably why his point guard, Jason Williams, paid him the ultimate compliment following the game: "He's one of the best coaches I've ever had."
*********** Good Morning Hugh, You have to understand that people in this part of the world live and die with the New England Patriots. They are having a surprising year and making a run for the play-offs and needed a win on Saturday against the 2-10 Bills. Although they win in a shoot out of field goals 12-9 in overtime, I was dismayed at the play calling and spent much of the afternoon yelling at the TV. On the the first drive of the game at the 50 yard line 4 th and half a yard they punted -not something a DW team would do. On three other occasions on third and three or less they threw the ball after running on the previous downs and in each case came up empty. They tried hard to lose the game and won inspite of the poor play calling a typical NFL game. At the press conference coach Belichick complained they didn't run the ball very well - they didn't because they did not try to run the ball. By the way the winning field goal was set up on a long run by Anton Smith. Goodness why do I watch! Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine *********** A reader wrote, "have you ever seen such a riot (as we saw at Cleveland) at a college game?" No. There is no question that a pro crowd is vastly different from a college crowd. It is a crowd that in many cities has become closely aligned with what it's watching: lowlife thugs, and jackasses who dance and mug and pose and taunt. And brag about making millions without having to go hard on every play. It is a crowd conditioned by WWF and Jerry Springer. Vince McMahon knew his market. So does the NFL. It is a crowd that arrives with a rock-concert mentality - the "fans" at a pro game are not spectators so much as they are participants. They see themselves as part of the show. Take a look at the costumes and the antics in the stands when the camera gets on them. Add alcohol - lots of alcohol - and you've got the recipe for some serious violence. They are throwing beer bottles instead of jumping into the mosh pit. From various reports that I get from around the country, there are very few pro games that I would recommend taking your 12-year-old to. And I sure wouldn't recommend going many places and sitting in the stands wearing the colors of the visiting team. But there are people who want no part of that atmosphere, and the NFL needs them to come to the games. That's why I have come to see the owners' pleas for new stadia with luxury boxes in an entirely new light. The owners insist they have to have them to stay in business and they always talk about the extra revenue they produce. And it is true that the money they bring in is gravy, since it doesn't have to be shared with visiting teams. But I think there's more to it than that. See, those luxury boxes protect the team owners' investments by keeping the sponsors coming to the games. Being sensible types who didn't get where they are in the corporate world by going to pro football games and getting sloshed every Sunday and throwing beer bottles at officials (or ducking the bottles thrown by others), corporate-sponsor types want no part of the unruly drunken mob in the stands. If not for the safety and security of their luxury boxes, those people would stay home. And if they were to desert the game, and take their sponsorships with them, it would be all over. HW *********** My daughter-in-law is a professional video editor-producer in Australia. She's been visiting us and although she is "on holiday" she has had to work on a few projects while here. She brought along some footage that she'd shot over there on mini-DV (says that, unlike here in the states, there is no bias against Mini-DV on the part of Australian TV people). I sat her down in front of my old iMac, gave her a book to read on iMovie2 and about five minutes' intro to the program, answered maybe a dozen questions as she worked, and in less than a week she put together a highly-professional 10-minute pilot for a show she intends to pitch when she gets back. Did it all on DV. Her finished production blew me away. Got me to realizing that it ain't the computer and it ain't the software - it's me. *********** Safest prediction of 2001: "Flanked by a gaggle of lawyers and a Madison Avenue public relations team. John Walker will soon be laundered into a clean-cut American boy who simple got off his school bus at the wrong stop." Gene H. McIntyre, of Keizer, Oregon, in a letter to the Portland Oregonian. *********** Dear Coach, My name is Phil Bolden and my former little league football coach's name, Bill Livingston, of Troy, Michigan appeared on your web-page. And I thought to myself, "Could coach Livingston still be coaching the Troy Cowboys?" And apparently he is...I played for him back in 1981 and 1982. Our squad (JV) came in second place in the league in '82 while the varsity and freshman squads took the their respective championships that year. I was one of his team captains and was through that program that I learned about pride, poise, and the spirit of leadership though example and hard work. Seeing Bill Livingston jarred memories of him as a coach and the thing he instilled in us not just as football players but as young people in America. As I think of it I still have the utmost respect for him. Furthermore I am also a veteran of the U.S. Army and served during the Gulf War and I can truly appreciate the tribute to your fallen comrade in Viet Nam and the values you speak of on your page. I don't ever remember coach Livingston mentioning being a vet. but that was some time ago...to say the least he certainly ebodied all of the characteristics. I salute the Black Lions and thank you for making a positive difference in my life. Happy Holidays! Regards, Phil Bolden, Internet Solutions Engineer, Siemens ICN, Allen Park, Michigan Dear Phil: I do appreciate your writing. Yes, that is the same Bill Livingston, and that is a wonderful tribute to him. Football is what we do for fun, but we all know that kids learn a lot more than football from a good coach. Coaches sometimes go through some agonizing times in helping kids grow into useful, productive adults, and hearing the sort of things that you wrote about BIll is our reward. I applaud you for your service. I do not want to give the impression that I am honoring my fallen comrades. I did not serve in the armed forces. I stayed home and raised a family and while others served a half a world away, in Vietnam, and so I feel that the least I can do now is use the visibility of my web site to honor those who served and continue to serve. My link to the Black Lions is through my research into the life of Major Don Holleder, an Army All-American who was killed in Vietnam. I felt it was a story that needed to be told and spread around among young football players. By happenstance, a couple of his old comrades came across my site and contacted me, and we have become friends as a result.
Add to them Dick Jauron, who went to Yale, in New Haven, and you have an amazing contribution by a state with only Division I-A football school (UConn, which has been taking its lumps as a newcomer to I-A). *********** So now that Notre Dame has shown such reverence for the truth by nailing George O'Leary, isn't it about time to kill the Rudy story, that phony feel-good tale that Notre Dame has been all too willing to go along with because it enhances the ND image? Go to the Web and find out how many people have been gulled by the movie into believing that that's exactly as it happened. And while it's open season on embellishment, let's go after hyposcrites, too - how about the President of ND who lied to Gerry Faust? According to Faust, he was told, "Win more than you lose and don't cheat and you'll be here a long time." He won more than he lost (33-26) and he didn't cheat - but he didn't last a long time. Ditto Bob Davie.
*********** Thanks for all the useful information and helping our first year double wing team to a 5-3 season. Coach Ed Bishop, Avon N.Y. *********** Hugh- I was wondering if you could post on your web page that I am looking for two coaches. We have teaching openings in PE and English for next year. The salary for a starting teacher is 38,000 plus 4544 for a first year coach. Good benefits plus they get to work with the DW. Thanks...Jon McLaughlin, Rich Central High School, Olympia Fields, Illinois (If you are veterans of this site, you know that I have worked at Rich Central myself, and you know of my high regard for RC and its people. I can personally vouch for it as a good place to work. The administration is excellent, the facilities are top-notch, Jon McLaughlin and the rest of the guys on the coaching staff are great to work with, and I love the kids. If you are interested, contact Coach McLaughlin at: Rich Central High School, 3600 203rd St, Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461 or call 708-679-5894) *********** I only asked Santa for 1 thing this Christmas. Jim Fisher's 2001 Christmas List 1. August Thanks Santa. JIm Fisher, Newport, Virginia *********** Has any college produced as good a trio of tight ends as Washington, with the Rams' Ernie Conwell, the Saints' Cam Cleeland and the Steelers' Mark Bruener?
Q: Why do so many American children play soccer? A: So they don't have to watch it. Submitted by Larry Hanson, Sports Editor of the Rochelle, Illinois News-Leader "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
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*********** I don't know how many of you read this when I printed it last week, but in light of recent events, it is instructive. I had mentioned that General Jim Shelton, one of my inspirations for the Black Lions Award, had been a Little All-American at Delaware. (I recalled having seen a magazine article to that effect, or so I'd thought.) Jim, though, was quick to write and correct me: Hugh: It was a thrill to see your writeup about the Black Lion's patch, and it's always nice to see one's name in print, however, I was not an All American or Little All American at Delaware. I was mentioned on a pre-season All American Checklist in my junior year(1955) and got torn ligaments in my ankle in the third game of the season and sat out the rest of the year. In my senior year I was selected to the Weekly All East team twice and was selected on the All ECAC team at the end of the 1956 season. I was a Delaware pulling guard and linebacker for three varsity years and snapped most all punts and extra points but I wasn't selected for Little All American. I was never in the same league with the guys who made All American from Delaware but I'm very proud to have been a part of that special bunch of guys who played Delaware football. Black Lions. Jim Shelton, Englewood, Florida (The real ones don't blow their own horns. HW) I immediately thought of this when I read about George O'Leary's "mistake." I am an old hand at the fibbing that goes on in sports, and I learned long ago to be suspicious of credentials. As the coach and general manager of a semi-pro team, I would marvel at the guys who were constantly contacting me for tryouts, telling me they'd played football at this or that college, or they'd been to this or that NFL camp. Generally, it was a harmless way of trying to puff themselves up so I'd give them a look. I guess if never occurred to them that I would check on them, but I had my ways. It usually just took a phone call to somebody I knew. The fibbing took another twist when it came time to list players in our game programs - we'd pad the height and weight, and occasionally, uh, embellish their experience, but only when we figured there was no way anyone could check. I mean, in those days, who in Hagerstown, Maryland could possibly know how long a guy had stayed in the Cleveland Browns' camp - if, in fact, he'd stayed at all? One of the most famous minor league teams of all time, The Pottstown (Pennsylvania) Firebirds had a very good offensive lineman named Leo Levandowski, who had been knocking around the minor leagues and hadn't gone to college at all; when the club PR guy said it would look bad in the program to list only his high school experience, Leo jokingly suggested that they say he went to Harvard, so for several years, Leo Levandowski was the only Harvard man in America playing pro football (such as it was). Another non-college player was listed in the Firebirds' program as having played for the "University of Bologna." But who was hurt? It was, after all, show biz. In George O'Leary's case, though, a lot of people have been hurt, including the family that he said he was originally looking out for when he embarked on his self-embellishment. I read what he said and I wanted to say, Hey! Goddamnit! I had a family, too! I had to wait until I was 38 years old to become a high school coach, because I had a family to take care of, and I couldn't afford to drop everything to get the teaching certification I needed. Lying about my credentials, or forging a diploma, were never options. Above all, my wife would have left me and my kids would have been ashamed of me, and I couldn't have dealt with either one. (I must admit that it does kind of piss me off that George O'Leary just went ahead and claimed he had a Master's degree, and got away with it all these years, without having to take all the bullsh-- education courses I had to take to get mine. At the very least, as penance, he should have to take 60 hours of education classes.) But what really mystifies me is how George O'Leary could have allowed the deception to go on, long after it had outlasted any usefulness it might have originally had. Once he had demonstrated at Georgia Tech what a good coach he was, who cared whether he had a Master's degree from NYU? Who ever cared how much he had played at New Hampshire? (Quick! Tell me - where did Gary Barnett, Mike Bellotti and Nick Saban play their college football? How many letters did they win? Who cares?) Stranger still, how could his agent have allowed it to continue? (That's another story waiting to be written: all these big-time guys have agents now. Strike you as funny that the field hands - the players - get canned for having agents, but it's okay for Ole Massuh to have one?) He could merely have done what Brian Dennehy's PR people did and expunge the record, clearing up the revolting matter of his being given credit in his official biography for having been wounded in combat while serving with the Marines in Vietnam. Mr. Dennehy, if innocent of the deception himself, apparently had done nothing to discourage it, but since it was exposed, the biographies have all been changed, to read, "Brian served in the Marine Corps. but never engaged in battle," or "It has been widely reported that he was wounded during two tours in Vietnam, but in fact he was never sent there." Bingo. Case closed. Apparently, though, Mr. Dennehy, who is soon to play Bobby Knight in a made-for-TV special, hasn't seen the need yet to correct the biographies where they still say that he went to Columbia on a football scholarship. (It always sounds more macho to claim the football scholarship than merely to say, "he went to Columbia.") Lemme set that one straight right now: Yes, he went to Columbia. Yes, he played football. We played freshman football against each other when I was at Yale. (No, I was not a star.) I remember him. He was the biggest guy on their team, and a decent player. But part of the Ivy League agreement in effect then was that there were to be NO athletic scholarships. None. Not even for Brian Dennehy. And lemme tell you this, too - Columbia was bad. Really bad. So if it turns out, 45 years later, that they were handing out athletic scholarships back then while no one else was, how come they sucked? Jim Shelton and other combat veterans don't appreciate people falsely claiming to have served in combat. They know the hurt and anger that real soldiers feel when someone dishonestly claims honors that rightfully belong to those who risk death. Jim Shelton didn't have to correct my misstatement, but he did.
*********** If only Dan Issel had called the guy a stupid mother-----er, or an ignorant Monica Lewinsky, or a dumbsh--. If only he'd just gone up in the stands and beat the living sh-- out of the smartass punk who sat up there, secure in the belief that he could yell "You suck" at the Denver coach and get away with it untouched. If only Dan Issel were a rapist, or a repeat drunk driver, or a wife-beater or a habitual drug user or the father of seven or eight illegitimate children by five or six different women. He would be excused. If only he'd lied about sex. But, no - he had respond to the guy by calling him a "Mexican piece of sh--." Now, based on what little we know about the guy, Issel may be right on the mark with the "piece of sh--" part, but he had to go and throw the word "Mexican" in there, and now people want his head. Such is the state of sensitivity in today's America. No excusing Dan Issel's stupidity. He should have known better. He is a grown man who makes his living managing men of different races, and performing in front of people of assorted racial and ethnic groups, and he has no right to insult any of them. Certainly, there must be consequences for his actions. There already are financial consequences. He has been handed a four-game suspension without pay for his stupid, insensitive remark. But firing him isn't going to help the matter. It may cause others to watch their mouths, if that is the only objective, but it isn't going to do anything about the basic problem of using a person's identity as an insult. If Dan Issel were drinking too much, he'd be headed in for treatment. Caught snorting coke? Same thing. If he had slapped the guy, he'd be headed for anger-management classes. Drunken driving? Traffic safety classes. Spousal abuse? Marriage counseling. Do you see where I'm headed? None of those things would be considered his fault! Suppose we were to approach this situation the same way. Let's suppose that after an extensive examination, famed psychiatrist Dr. Wyatt (who bills $500 per hour, incidentally) has diagnosed Mr. Issel to be suffering from RSD, or Racial Sensitivity Disorder. (You laymen call it ignorance, but you don't make $500 an hour.) My experience has been that people who make such comments often have not associated closely on a personal or professional basis with anyone from the group they have insulted. I think that a major part of the problem is people today living in separate worlds - "communities" as the social scientists like to call them - isolated, often by choice, from the rest of America. The unfortunate result is that there is less and less interchange - and understanding - between the different groups. We're not getting anywhere with this splitting of Americans into identity groups, unknown to each other, with the suspicion and name-calling that that can lead to. We're certainly not going to get anywhere by appeasing so-called "community leaders" who call for Dan Issel's head. They would rather have the problem than the solution. If racial intolerance were to end tonight at midnight, they'd all be out of work. Rather than firing Mr. Issel, I prescribe treating his RSD with what I call Familiarity Shock Treatment. It is based on my observation that it is far more difficult to use terms of racial disparagement when one has friends and associates from disparate racial and ethnic groups. I recommend that Mr. Issel set out to cure his RSD - and at the same time attempt to heal whatever wounds he's caused - by making an honest and open effort to get to know some real Hispanic people. Not the self-styled "community leaders" with their own power agendas, but ordinary working people. Denver has lots of them. Let him get to know some of them on an everyday basis - maybe meet with them for breakfast or take some of them to dinner once or twice a month. Go to church with some of them. Visit them on the job. Offer clinics for Hispanic youth coaches. Spend his off-season coaching a team of Hispanic kids - baseball, basketball or football, it doesn't matter. (But no camera people, please. None of this made-for-TV feel-good business, none of this NFL-United Way stuff on the news every night. It has to be sincere and it has to be secret or - my research shows - it won't work!!) The Denver Nuggets, the Denver community, and Mr. Issel will be better for it. For Familiarity Shock Treatment to work, however, it is going to take open hearts rather than vindictiveness on the part of Denver's Hispanic "community." It is going to take a willingness on their part to understand that his kind of RSD - ignorance, laymen - is treatable, and that they are part of the treatment. I am optimistic that they will take part. Did I mention that the time I spent writing this proposal is billable? *********** The Australian version of the Dan Issel story, as reported by Peter FitzSimons in the Sydney Morning Herald, involved a cricketer named Shane Warne.
*********** Hi Coach! Just thought I would let you know that I am still alive and kickin'- (bad word!) We suffered through a sub-par year ended up 6-3 regular season then got beat in the first round of the playoffs by eventual state champions Marshfield 31-21.Score was 14-14 in the 4th quarter- 3 critical errors finished our season. Marshfield cruised through the rest of the tournament virtually unchallenged. Chuck Raykovich, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin *********** Don't want to date myself but I missed the 1963 Bears team by 8 years, but I heard they were pretty nasty on both sides of the ball. I think George Halas would be very proud of this team as well. Although, I heard up until 1979, Halas would not negotiate with agents and was still closing contracts with handshake deals. Imagine the look on his face if he had to deal with Kevin Brown of the Dodgers, when he asked for a private jet to take his family to home games?? Halas would have jumped over the desk and choked him to death. Bill Lawlor, Hoffman Estates, Illinois *********** Hugh; I have a question and a request. Did coach John McKay formally of USC pass away late this summer? The reason that I ask is because his name came up the other week in Louisville. We were sitting in my room after dinner on Friday evening of the state football championships. Several of my retired colleagues and I were sitting around (with adult refreshments) discussing football. We started out dog cussing the sorry state of "chuck and duck football" taking over Kentucky. We switched to college football when Toledo and Marshall came on TV. My friend coach Mcdonald said, that coach Mckay died this summer. Nobody else in the room could confirm coach Mcdonald's statement about coach Mckay 's passing. I would like to nominate him for a Legends column. I don't know how many games he won at USC. I know that he was very successful. We won't talk about his stint at Tampa Bay in the pros! The first football book That I ever purchased was his book. It was my bible as a young middle school coach. It is still in my library. I loved his press conferences after games. He may have been the most quotable coach of all time. My favorite quote is "I always wanted to be a good guy coach,somewhere between Woody Hayes and Mother Theresa---a prison guard with a loving heart." He always cracked me up. Thanks. David - Coach McKay passed away in June- I wrote an article about him on June 11 ( JUN 01) *********** George Young, the guy who built the Giants into a Super Bowl team through his drafts, trades and hirings, died a few days ago. He made it to the top of the football heap in a way that few people do, jumping from high school coaching directly into the NFL. He was a Baltimore native who played football at Bucknell and had a cup of coffee with the old Dallas Texans, the predecessors of the Baltimore Colts. (Who, if I may editorialize as an ex-Baltimorean, were subsequently kidnapped in the dark of night and spirited off to Indianapolis, where they haven't done squat since.) I first heard of him while I was living in Baltimore and he was coaching at Baltimore City College, which, despite the name, is a high school. His teams were very good, six times winning the MSA title, which at that time was the Baltimore area's share of the state championship. One of his better-known players was a young black man named Kurt Schmoke, who played quarterback for him at a time when few young black men played quarterback for predominantly-white high schools in that area; he would go on to Yale and to a distinguished career in politics that would culminate in his becoming the first black Mayor of Baltimore. Another was Barry Levinson, movie producer who so vividly portrayed in "Diner" the Baltimore of his youth. In 1968, Don Shula, then coach if the Colts, offered Coach Young a position with the organization as a scout. He followed Shula to Miami, where from 1975 to 1979 he served as the Dolphins' Director of Pro Scouting. In 1979, he was recommended by Commissioner Pete Rozelle to the feuding Mara family, owners of the Giants, as the person to bring order to the chaos that had overtaken their organization. That he did. Health problems led to his retirement from the Giants in 1998, but he remained as active in the game as his health allowed by serving as the NFL's Senior Vice President for Football Operations. He was a bright guy whose interests went way beyond football. I once saw him quoted as saying he wouldn't read a book that didn't have an index. He had a master's degree in history from Johns Hopkins and one in educational administration from Loyola of Maryland, and had planned to make education his life's work until he got the call from Don Shula back in 1968. "If Don Shula hadn't come along," Young recalled, "I'd still be a teacher and still be with people who discuss books and ideas all the time." *********** Nice of the NCAA to schedule the Division I-AA title game for 5:30 PM Friday. That's Eastern Time. On the West Coast, it's 2:30 in afternoon, right smack in the middle of General Hospital. Thanks. *********** Doggone! I didn't finish they story. I wrote that Coach Mike Pucko from West Boylston, Massachusetts High, had done something that other coaches might find interesting. I wrote that he'd sensed a disconnect between the kids of today and the great legacy of the game they are playing, so he dug into his own pocket and bought 42 copies of "When Pride Still Mattered," David Maraniss' great biography of Vince Lombardi, and handed them out to every member of next year's team. But what I failed to write was that before practice starts next summer, Mike is going to meet with his players, and each is expected to give him a report on the book - oral or written - and what it has meant to him. *********** Great Division III title game. Mount Union, the Boston Celtics-Montreal Canadiens-Green Bay Packers- New York Yankees of college football, won another one, but not without a great fight by Bridgewater College of Virginia. Bridgewater has had some bad teams over the years, but when I was coaching in Hagerstown, Maryland, I had two or three Bridgewater kids play for me, and they were tough hombres. The thing I like best about Division III is that when it's an Ohio team against a Virginia team, it's pretty much Ohio kids against Virginia kids. When it's a Washington team against a Minnesota team, it's Washington kids against Minnesota kids. A little like the old days - let's lace 'em up and see who's better. Mount Union's Chuck Moore is one heck of a running back - tough, agile, and fast, as he showed when he broke through the line on a trap, ran through two arm tackles, and outraced everybody to the goal line, 96 yards away. He was this year's winner of what the announcer guys called the "Division III Heisman Trophy," which is not fair, because at the Division III level the outstanding player award does not go to one of the guys with the best PR campaigns behind them. As ESPN announcer Rich Waltz told us all, the award is called the Gagliardi Trophy. But he didn't do his homework. He took a stab at it and missed, mispronouncing it "Gug-LARD-i." C'mon, Richie - this trophy honors a real live person! An active coach! He's only the winningest coach in college football history - John Gagliardi of St. John's, in Minnesota. His name is NOT pronounced Gug-LARD-i. Or Gag-lee-ARD-i. Or, as Italians would pronounce it, Gahl-YARD-i. Try Guh-LARD-i. That's what they say in Minnesota.
*********** going Duck Huntin with my pastor in a few minutes!(note time of mail- 2:47 AM) don't ya just love a pastor that played QB in high school, brags about knockin' out a safety in a playoff game, and will go duck huntin' with you? The D Coordinator for the Skeeters goes to church with me, so our Pastor has made all the Skeeters playoff games and was actually going to San Antonio but for the fact he had to do a wedding tonight! You'd love this place. You should have been there when he was telling us about knocking out that safety! we were at the second Skeeter game, and it was me, him, my assistant Coach(played safety for TTech) and another buddy that goes to church with us and played LB at Colorado State and with San Diego Chargers. So here's our 170 lb pastor tellin' us about how he was playing QB in a Wing-T offense, and was leading rusher..blah..blah..and had heard all about this "bad" safety that played for Grapevine...so when they see Grapevine in the playoffs, he takes the ball around the left side and sees this saftey break down to make a tackle(by this time he's rolling full speed about 30 yds down field) so he lowers his head(I told him, I told him) and runs right over this safety and knocked him stone cold out ..and out of the game..and Rockwall wins..that's his story, and he's stickin' to it..The three of us gave him so much crap about being a pastor and LYING! No way a QB knocks out a DB..QB's are just like kickers...we just rode him hard..and he's STILL catching crap about it...but knowing this guy, I don't doubt it for a second! *********** Now you know why I don't coach there any more... A former assistant told me about running into an athletic director with whom I once found myself unable to work.. He is a soccer guy - trust me, that is not a good thing if you are a football coach - so although his football team is having a good deal of success, and starting to get kids out for football in record numbers, he doesn't seem to be enjoying it. "He keeps getting more kids out for football," the AD complained about the current coach, "And I keep having to buy more helmets." *********** "FIRE VICTIMS LEAP FOR THEIR LIVES," read the headline in the Vancouver Columbian. I read on. With the kind of creatures known to live in Vancouver, Washington, you never know what the real story's going to be. I quote from the story: "Susan (Last Name), 15, and her boyfriend, Thomas (Different Last Name), had to jump barefooted from a burning second-floor apartment to save their lives Wednesday evening. I'd love to hear the excuse she gave when she failed to turn in her homework the next day. Yeah, right. Like she goes to school. Not when she can be home with Thomas - wherever that is now - making little babies. *********** If you've ever suffered through a losing streak, while people who've never played the game got cheap laughs at your expense, you can appreciate the Lions' Johnnie Morton, telling a post-game interviewer yesterday, "I want Jay Leno to kiss my a**!"
MORE ABOUT DON HOLLEDER AND THE TYPE OF MAN HE WAS "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." The correct pronunciation is NOT "Hollander" - there is no "N". It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
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*********** "Coach!! Hot Flash! Check out the "Bin Laden" tape. Bin Laden states a room full of his IDIOTS exploded with cheers when they heard the news of the WTC destruction. He states-- "LIKE WHEN YOUR SOCCER TEAM WINS". Lite a fire under this one!!!!" Chuck Raykovitch, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Hey! How many of you guys saw this? Cheering? At the deaths of thousands of Americans? The same way you would when your soccer team wins? Huh? How many Americans can identify with that analogy? Now, granted, I knew Osama and I came from two different worlds, but this really sets us apart.. As a matter of fact, maybe a great way to begin culling out suspected terrorists from ordinary Americans would be to ask people, at random, "Who's your favorite soccer team?"
*********** Andy Driver, an official in North Carolina, wrote to question something I'd said in regard to the "Talking Play." This is what I'd said: If you try it, remember that the QB can't put his hands under center first; if he does, he is not permitted to move away from there until the ball is snapped. Andy wrote to say that he takes pride in knowing the rules, and he is unaware of any such prohibition, and can't find anything about it in his rule book. Uh-oh. Neither can I. A quick call to Steve Miletich in Vancouver, Washington, whom I keep on a generous retainer as my personal consultant on rules and officiating, confirmed what Andy Driver had told me: I gave you incorrect information. I apologize, and I thank Andy - and Steve - for setting me straight.
*********** Tomorrow, Mesquite High School will be playing in a state championship game for just the second time in school history. In 1974, Mesquite lost to Brazoswood in the state finals. Since then, Mesquite has grown to have five high schools, but the town has yet to win a state title in any team sport besides cross country. "Our football team understands that they're playing not only for ourselves but for all the other guys who graduated from Mesquite High School and played football and never had this chance," Mesquite coach Steve Halpin told the Dallas Morning News. "They're aware what it means for this community and especially this school to bring home a state championship. "It's our time."
*********** Both major polls ranked Oregon second, only to Miami, yet the BCS ratings, thanks largely to the counterweight provided by eight different computer rankings, have Nebraska in second place. Just in case you happen to like the idea of the BCS ratings being driven in large part by computer nerds who, I'd venture to say, don't know as much football as the average sportswriter (which isn't saying much), consider this: as late as the end of October, one of the computer guys, David Rothman, had Grand Valley State ranked 18th. In the entire nation. Among Division I-A teams. Grand Valley State. Good team. Nearly beat North Dakota in the Division II final. But 18th? In Division I-A? And they're entrusting a so-called "National Championship" to the likes of David Rothman? *********** Hugh, I hope all is going well. A couple of things, thanks for the 44 base lead. Also I watched the 4a Oregon high school championship last Saturday on fox net. It only took one series for me to see who was going to win this game (McNary High, of Salem) Another spread it out and throw it versus a team that ran basic power/lead/counter. It doesn't take a genius. Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho *********** Coach Wyatt:We had a good time installing the double wing this year. Your tapes, playbook, and website were very useful tools. We have two questions for you. #1 What are the pages for the no huddle and the new not in the playbook information that you listed on the website? #2 When /Where are your 2002 clinics going to be held? (does that qualify as three questions?)We thank you for your insight and look forward to hearing from you.Jerry Lovell and The Bellevue East (NE) Coaching Staff, Bellevue East HS, Bellevue, Nebraska *********** Coach, I am wanting to see if you know of some college programs that run the DBL wing like we do? I know Georgia Southern runs the dbl wing formation but not the offense like you teach it. Are there any NCAA Div. 2 teams out there using this? I may have the opportunity to go to a D-2 school and I think this offense could be good there. Thanks for your help again and I will talk to you later, Mike Beam Rock Creek H.S. *********** Please do not accuse me of making this up. The trustees of the Portland Fire and Police Disability and Retirement fund - the people who are supposed to be watching over what happens to the money - voted 7-1 to pay $205,000 of fire and police pension money to get a person to walk away from the Police Bureau and drop a disability claim. The person underwent a sex change (in Portland they prefer to call it a "gender change") operation three years ago, while a police officer. (Diversity takes many forms on the West Coast, guys.) But the change required the person to switch locker rooms, and evidently someone wrote something on the new locker. Imagine that! The person never actually saw the locker, but nonetheless claimed to have been traumatized by the incident and by the resultant investigation. Now, he/she gets to ride off into the sunset and enjoy his/her new life as a man/woman with $205,000 burning a hole in his (or her) pocket. (I have been using the term "person" because I still can't figure out which way the change went, but I have my suspicions. The person's name is Damon Woodcock.) *********** Dear Coach Wyatt - My 14 year old son, Justin, received the Don Holleder Award from his football coach in Sudbury, Ma. a couple nights ago. Thanks for telling a hero's story and for holding him up as an example to my son and the other boys on his team.Take Care- Jo Fullerton, Sudbury, Massachusetts *********** "In response to that "Soccer Guy" who wrote you that letter, I would very much like to volunteer to play on your football team against his soccer team. Although it would definitely be more fun to play the football game first and see how many of the soccer players were left to play the soccer game, I don't know that it would be that much safer for them to play soccer first against a bunch of football players. I am almost ashamed to admit this, but last year one of the coaches in our organization asked me if I wanted to play on an indoor soccer team and since it was winter time and there are no flag football leagues in the area, I figured it would be a good way to stay in shape through the winter and said yes. Well, I hadn't played soccer since my 5th grade PE class (26 years) and within the first 15 seconds of our first game, I scored a goal. Trust me, the game is not that difficult. I finished the season with my fair share of goals and did have a good time. I got to stay in shape and the guys on the team were a good group of guys, but the game is just not that intense. I got several warnings throughout the season for "rough play" and could never figure out exactly what they were talking about since it wasn't like I was going around knocking people down. And if people aren't getting knocked down, how rough could the play be? Anyway, I'm all for the soccer guys vs. the football guys football game. If they think anything that happens on the soccer field is rough, they would be simply mortified the first time one of their guys got pancaked by our team's B-Back (You were planning on running the DW, right?)! Regards, Donnie Hayes Farmington Hills, Michigan *********** Hugh, Got a good laugh out of the "how low can you go" letter from the derelict in Pennsylvania. You hit the nail on the head with all of your comments throughout the letter. Way to go! Joe Gutilla, Minneapolis *********** "What a friggin' pussy! He lives in Pennsylvania and can't find a place to play football? He's either a liar or a dumb ass. My money says he's a dumb ass liar.....and a puss." Jim Fisher, Newport, Virginia *********** Coach, I enjoyed your comments interjected into the email from the soccer lover. It got me thinking about my son's middle school. The school just opened and this was the first year for their football program. While football is extremely popular in this part of the country, the school systems don't spend the necessary monies to put in good football fields. They hope parents will rally and come up with funding. The school field my son's team played on was atrocious. The field was clay, rocks and clumps of grass. We had a rock picking party and removed what we could. It was really not a safe playing surface, but since they couldn't find another facility, they still played their home games there. Boys soccer season starts at the end of football and uses the same field. They played one game and found another facility because the field was not up to par for soccer. While the field was not in good shape, no one was injured because of it. The soccer guys couldn't handle the adversity of playing on a rough field. They also did nothing to help improve the situation and just bailed out to greener pastures. Greg Stout, Thompson's Station, Tennessee *********** Although I was very disappointed with UT's defeat on Saturday, I was glad to see the controversy inspired by the BSC choice to play Miami in the "championship" game. To cap off this college season, I think Nebraska will defeat Miami and Oregon will defeat Colorado so that the final polls will be split on who's number 1. Then, very credible arguments will be made to abolish the BCS and, in lieu of a playoff, revert to the old bowl system. Regardless of what the powers decide, college football will continue to be superior to the pro game. By the way, I passed the IHSA referee exam and I'm now certified to officiate high school games. Even if a coach doesn't want to officiate, I think it is a good idea to study for and take the exam because you attain a greater understanding of the rules than if you simply read the rule book. I'm sure glad you gave equal opportunity to the soccer geek. But they really are easy to refute, aren't they? Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois (He sounded like most soccer people - naive and uninformed and convinced that they are at the center of the universe. They whine and complain and spend all their time begging for money and wanting right now what football has had to work for years to build, and they allow their kids to act like jackasses and then can't imagine why football people ridicule them the way we do. HW) *********** Mike Pucko and I were talking about his season at West Boylston, Massachusetts High, and his plans for next year. Although a veteran assistant, Mike had just finished his first year as head coach there. With the help of offensive assistant Scott Anderson, he'd installed the Double-Wing, and after the usual early snags - including a not-so-usual first-day-of-practice dispute with a girls' youth soccer coach over the rights to the field. - things settled down, the kids played well, and the offense generated yards and points. And now Mike is really pumped about next year. They will be stronger; the kids are already working hard in the weight room. But Mike has done something else that other coaches might find interesting. Sensing a sense of disconnect between the kids of today and the great legacy of the game they are playing, he dug into his own pocket and bought 42 copies of "When Pride Still Mattered," David Maraniss' great biography of Vince Lombardi, and handed them out to every member of next year's team. *********** Knute Rockne is said to have used all manner of artifice to motivate his players. He sat on the supposed George Gipp deathbed request for years, waiting until just the right time (turned out to be halftime against Army) to tell it to his players. His cleverness seemed to include, on occasion, uh, fibbing. I recall reading somewhere about his telling his team one time that his little son was very, very ill, and couldn't come to the game, but the one thing that would cheer the little lad up would be a Notre Dame victory. Bam! Out through the locker room doors they charged, out onto the field, loyal sons marching onward to victory! And there, on the field after the game, all smiles, was little Rockne, waving a pennant and shouting, "Daddy's team won! Daddy's team won!" Hey - it worked. (It probably didn't hurt that Rockne was a brilliant coach and that he had very good players.) I was reminded of this when Todd Bross, of Sharon, Pennsylvania, wrote to tell me that Washington, Pennsylvania finished 15-0 and won the state Class 2A championship running the Double-Wing. The "Little Prexies" (so-named because the teams of Washington and Jefferson college, located there, are the Prexies) defeated previously unbeaten Pen Argyl, 19-12. "They ran a lot of 88/99 Super G, 2 Trap at 3, 6/7 Dive and some 47/56 Counter," Coach Bross wrote, "as well as mixing up with some passes in a cold, rainy contest with an undefeated opponent. The winning touchdown came on a 6 Dive with Wedge blocking...4th and goal at the 1 foot line halfway through the 4th quarter. They ran mostly out of Spread, with some Slot. The Trap (my favorite play in the offense) worked great in the 2nd half and produced some big runs, while the Power consistently gathered 3-5 hard yards." So what's this got to do with Rockne? Join us in the Washington locker room at halftime, with Washington trailing, 12-6. Washington coach Guy Montecalvo, an excellent coach whom I've spoken to about the offense, decides he isn't about to see his seniors go out on the losing end after all the effort they've put into it, so he reaches back for a little extra motivation... There in the locker room, at halftime of the state championship game, he told the kids and his assistants that this would be his last game - that after 22 years as Washington's coach, he was hanging it up. This was it. As you might imagine, it was a highly emotional moment for all. Kids looked at each other in shock. Assistants grew weepy. I've already told you the final score, so you know that his kids were fired up enough to go out and do the job. And then, during a Pen Argyl timeout in the game's waning moments, he went out onto the field and told his kids that he had, uh, fibbed. Said he was only joking about retiring. "Yeah, I lied to them," Montecalvo told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mike White afterwards. "This group of 21 seniors had worked inordinately hard. It would've almost been unfair for them had they not triumphed here. Now, in Washington County and Greene County history, they have a chance to be folk legends." I can't help thinking - what if they'd lost? *********** Hey Coach, As you know I have come to the defense of attorney's and Huskers before. As a defense attorney I just cannot help it. I wanted to comment on a couple of NEWS articles on your website. 1. Eric Crouch did thank his teammates upon winning the Heisman. I was surprised that he did not publicly thank Turner Gill, former Husker great and the QB coach who not only coached Eric, but Scott Frost and Tommy Frasier! 2. I agree that Eric may not be a great off the field role model. However, he is with the mother of his child, he is by all accounts an excellent father, and will be getting married after the season is over. He may have screwed up (pardon the pun!) but at least he stepped up and is taking responsibility like a man should. Not a lot of other sports stars can be given that kind of credit. 3. You know how I feel about Oregon State; but, Oregon is a class act. I am so sick of hearing Gary Barnett and Colorado fan whine about how unfair things are. THEY LOST TO FRESNO STATE! THEY HAVE TWO LOSSES! GARY BARNETT WAS ONE OF THE BIGGEST SUPPORTERS OF THE BCS ORIGINALLY! I will be rooting for my Huskers, but Oregon got screwed. At least they are not whining. I guess they are just concentrating on kicking Colorado's ass. I think Nebraska or Oregon can beat Miami. If you think Nebraska's run defense was bad against Colorado, wait until you see Miami. Miami has NO run defense! Nebraska has the #1 rushing offense in the country and the #1 pass defense. Should be a good game if they do tackling drills for the next month. Hey, do me a favor. Send a copy of your tackling video to Lincoln! I'll pay you back later! 4. I have talked via email with Coach Bruce Eien a number of times in the last few years. He is a good guy and pretty good coach. When I first saw his STOPPING THE DW article I fired off an email to him. He was responding to a request from another coach that asked how to stop the DW. He was mainly concentrating and the POWERS and the limited system Markham runs. He has stated that the D would not work against a DW team with superior athletes. He was also not familiar with your multifaceted DW attack and admitted it did not appear it would work against your system. I do not know if that is the article the NEWS item referred too, but Bruce has since removed the article from his website after getting beat-up (via email) by a lot of DW coaches. Jim Haney, Houston, Texas (Lots of good points. I have said right along that Nebraska may be the best team in the country, BUT - the best team doesn't always win the NCAA basketball tournament, either.
Q: Why do so many American children play soccer? A: So they don't have to watch it. Submitted by Larry Hanson, Sports Editor of the Rochelle, Illinois News-Leader "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
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Thanks
to Al Andrus - Salt Lake City, Utah
A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: He was a National Coach of the Year and later Executive Director of the American Football Coaches Association. He is a native of Arkansas who served as a medical corpsman during World War II, and following his return from service and a stopover in junior college, he played at Kentucky for two years under the great Paul "Bear" Bryant. He's shown at left as a young assistant at LSU some time between 1953 and 1961, at the school where he go on to succeed the head coach and stay on as head coach himself for the next 18 years. LSU was the only head coaching job he ever held; he remains the winningest coach in that school's history, compiling a record of 137-59-7, with only one losing season. He had six 9-win seasons and five 8-win seasons. Before the days when some conferences send six or seven teams to bowl games, he took the Tigers to 13 bowl games and won two conference championships. He coached 17 All-Americans. His one failing at LSU was the same as that of many coaches in his conference - he couldn't beat his old college coach, going 2-14 against him. Following his "retirement" from LSU, he served as executive director of the Tangerine Bowl, and then as executive director of the AFCA.
Fox Sports World televised the USA-South African Rugby match in Houston Saturday. I didn't go (had to do some work and was, frankly, pretty keyed up about the title game to get up any extra enthusiasm for Rugby). Something like 15,000 showed up for the match at Robertson Stadium. Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas *********** I mentioned that Oregon State's kicker was a Yooper (from the U.P. - Upper Peninsula - of Michigan) and I got this back from Adam Wesoloski, in Menominee, Michigan. "I just heard a story from my wife's uncle who used to drive truck up to those areas. They have second floor doors because of the snow depths. They'll put boards down and plow that level. Unreal. It gets that high in some of those areas. Lake Superior never freezes so you get the lake effect snows." *********** Coach, On three to four occasions over the years, I had the opportunity to hear Coach Bill Yeoman speak at different coaching clinics on his veer offense and was always impressed with his knowledge of what he was doing as well as his humble, "down-to-earth" approach of the game of football. I also found it interesting that your quote from last Monday's (December 3rd) NEWS was the following: "Gentlemen do not cheat, nor do they decieve themselves as to what cheating is." (Walter Camp). I heard Coach Yeoman speak shortly following his dismissal from Houston for "coaching improprieties" or whatever the NCAA term is when they can't think of any other word that would be a synonym for "caring", "responsibility", "parenting", or something of that nature. Coach Yeoman stated that he was guilty of giving players money and did not hide that issue from anyone including the NCAA. His reasons were simple: If he recruited a player and that player (or his family) needed financial assistance, he would provide them with the needed resources although it was always something minimal. Now, "minimal" to most anyone else ($50 or less) might be something maximal to a different person if it meant that a family was not going to be able to eat, pay their overdue electric bill, get back home to attend the funeral of a close relative, etc. It appeared to me that Coach Yeoman was not helping out "free loaders" but rather those football players who truly needed assistance. As he stated at the clinic, he had taken an "oath" to the parents of his players that he would watch over them just as a father or mother would. He would do all that he could to make sure they made good decisions, that they would get to class, and graduate. However, he was going to let them grow as people. That meant some growing pains might result. Because he was more interested in making sure his players understood the committment one must make when they were in a position of authority (aka "coach" or "parent"), Coach Yeoman modeled the behaviors he wanted his players to have. According to Coach Yeoman, "Coaching is a calling." Without a doubt, Coach Yeoman answered that call. I am sure much of his sense of right and wrong had to do with his education at West Point with their motto of "Duty - Honor - Country". It is too bad the NCAA can't hire retired, high quality, solid citizen people like Coach Yeoman to spread the good word of what coaching is about to young men and women who are interested in becoming college coaches. Coach Yeoman never deceived anyone, including himself, ". . . as to what cheating is". I have admired him for a long time and am excited that he was last week's "LOOK AT OUR LEGACY" individual. Thanks and keep up the great work. Mike O'Donnell, Pine City, Minnesota *********** Sad notes from a BIG Tennessee Vols fan: "I was worried when Fulmer, Travis Stephens and John Henderson were at the college football awards and Josh Reed accepted his award from Baton Rouge. That was the night I e-mailed you that I was worried." Jim Fisher, Newport, Virginia *********** "I watched part of the Heisman award last night. I'm not against such awards, but they really get carried away. What really bothered me was that the winner, Crouch, never said a word of thanks about his teammates. He even thanked the sponsors, but never spoke one word about his blockers or other teammembers. The hype is so big these guys forget who really got them there. That's what we need to get back into the game! Maybe I just missed it and I shouldn't judge the guy too harshly however, the focus should be on what "we" did together, not what "I" did. I think coaches should be very sensitive to this so that their players ALL go away with that attitude---I think it might have helped Ryan Leaf." Jim Shelton, Englewood, Florida I didn't hang around long enough to hear his speech.
*********** "Saturday night I was at a basketball game and was talking to the sophomore coach between the sophomore and varsity games and his team had just lost. He said, no joke, "We need to rid this program (basketball) of these soccer players. When they have some adversity, they just quit." The soccer team won just three games this season. The football went to the semifinals. The sophomore basketball team is terrible (made up of about six soccer players) and the varsity basketball team (five of the top six players were on the football team and all were starters in football) has won its last four games by 38, 25, 37 and 18 points. Coincidence? I think not. Down with the evil game." NAME WITHHELD *********** I have said for some time that I thought Eric Crouch deserved the Heisman Trophy. I still think so. He's a worthy recipient. But, dang, guys - I swear I heard somebody say something about the winner being a "role model?" Eric Crouch by all accounts, lives with his girlfriend and their daughter. Sorry - the kind of people I want as role models for kids are the kind that marry the mothers of the children they make. You have heard me from time to time ragging on the distressing example of pro athletes and their out-of-wedlock children. Most of the more prominent such athletes seem to be black, which tends to promote a certain unfortunate stereotype. So come on, now - fair's fair. Eric Crouch doesn't get a pass because he happens to be a white kid from the Midwest. Do your little girl a big, big favor, Eric - and marry her mother. *********** Just to show you how much I honor diversity and multiculturalism, I thought I'd pass along this note from an admirer: Dear Coach Wyatt, First, I would like to say that when I was growing up, there was no place for football in my area. The only sport that was around for me to play was soccer. (Good lord, man! In America? Why didn't you call us?) Secondly, I cannot believe that you would even stoop as low as you did (You don't know me, so you have no idea how low I will stoop when given a chance like this) when you placed that picture (Osama in a plane, dropping soccer balls on a stadium jam-packed with real, red-blooded, football-lovin' Americans.) on your web site. It is very disrespectful and classless (much like the sport of Football itself) to even think that a soccer fan, player, or coach would even allow someone to place a soccer ball on a football field. (That's funny. Most places I know of, the soccer weenies whine and complain until they're finally allowed to play their games in real high school football stadiums, where all two dozen spectators - mostly close relatives - can sit in real grandstands 'n' everything. How else do you explain those worn areas down around our three-yard-lines?) Having that picture on your web site shows me that football is a weaker sport and you need to have the soccer balls placed out there to prove that football is not a wussie sport. (Okay, Tough Guy. Tell you what - You give me a half-hour to get a football team together and you can have a week to get a soccer team together. And then we'll play. We'll play a game of soccer and a game of football. Fair enough? Hint: you'd better hope you win the toss and get to play soccer first.) Thirdly, everyone knows that it takes more smarts to play soccer, there are no set plays in soccer, you have to develop the plays as you go, thus making it a more creative game. (Uh, help me here - which sport evolved from which, Einstein?) Lastly, since we know that you have to be smarter to play soccer than football, then you know that the individual flying the airplane must have been a soccer player and not a football player. No football player would be smart enough to operate such a highly advanced piece of equipment. (Hey- if you guys are so frigging smart, why can't you come up with a way for your sport to pay for itself?).Well, thanks for your time and reading of this e-mail. Sincerely, Steve Chandler, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania (Thank you, Steve, for setting me up.) ***********"A beautiful NFL Moment yesterday. 4th and about a football on the Packers' 46 or so and the Bears go for it. Uh, oh. The wonderlicks in the booth, Troy Boy, Moose and Dick Stockton get all in a tizzy about going for it on 4th down. It was funny. "If they don't make this, they will lose the field position battle, etc.." They might have been hyper-ventlating, maybe it was the brats (For you outsiders - that's short for bratwurst, Wisconsin's state meal. HW). C'mon, I know of HS coaches who go for it on 4th down on their own 35 yard line and at much longer distances." Adam Wesoloski, Pulaski, Wisconsin *********** Coach Mike Lane writes from Avon Grove, Pennsylvania, regarding the "Genius" Defense: "Can you also say 'unbalanced?' Slip in an Over Tight/Under Tight formation and what you have created is a nice bubble to execute 6/7 - G plays. "Or better yet, like we talked about the other day, shift into a "Rambo" formation and watch that coach begin to stare at the field like a deer in the headlights!!!" (Assuming he figured out you were unbalanced, he would either have to dig those tackles out of their A gaps, blowing the basic premise of the defense, or take a hellish pounding. HW) *********** Chuck Culpepper, a columnist for the Portland Oregonian, says that now that Nebraska has been given what rightfully belongs to Oregon or Colorado, the very least the Cornhuskers can do to show their gratitude is to beat Miami so that the winner of Oregon-Colorado can claim a share of the title! *********** My son was watching the Rams-49ers game Sunday, and he called in to me to tell me that he'd just seen the Rams pull a play in which the QB, Warner, appeared puzzled and walked away from center, whereupon the ball was direct-snapped to the running back, Marshall Faulk, who picked up a first down on the play. I understand the Steelers did something similar a week ago. I was reminded of a letter I got a few weeks ago from Mike Lane, in Avon Grove, Pennsylvania: "Coach Wyatt, Yesterday at the end of our pre-game practice our offensive 8th grade boys had the biggest chuckle of the season. I said to the boys " Hey guys, do you want to really freak the defense out?" And of course they did. I said "Let's put the Quarterback in motion to the right (Quaker) and then direct snap the ball to the B-Back and run the wedge" Well the laughter that came out from the huddle was the best. We ran the play and did a pretty good job of executing it as well. The players just thought that putting the QB in motion was the funniest thing that they ever saw. "I have to admit, I was in tears laughing also. It was pretty funny to see the defense react to the QB going in motion. It was a good note to end practice on before a big game the following day." It is an amusing play. It is also an old play. Very old. Before the NFL broadcast guys go nuts telling us how "innovative" and clever those coaches are, you should know that in 1939 it was considered ancient. Read what Dave Nelson wrote about it in his great book on the evolution of football's rules, "The Anatomy of a Game": "In 1939, Zuppke's last year as coach at Illinois, his winless team defeated undefeated Michigan, 16-7, scoring the winning touchdown on the ancient 'talking' play. His quarterback (that would be his single-wing blocking back. HW) turned and walked toward the fullback, pretending to explain the play, and then the ball was snapped to the tailback, who scored. He was up to his tricks and stretching the rules right up to the end of his career."
*********** "the guy who wrote the site about stopping the DW plays a markham guy from wasco who only runs 4 plays not the multi-facet version you run. he also has better athletes and usually wins that division. keep up the good work Bruce Eien, Los Angeles visit Coach Eien's site at http://members.xoom.com/bcwarrior/ - (pay no attention to what he says about how to stop the Double-Wing) ********* "Well we are back from Fla. We lost our opening game to the defending National Champs from California, the Oak Grove Red Devils. We had them on the ropes for most of the game. They tied us in the 4th quarter and eventually we lost 22-16 in double overtime. The boys gave it all they had. We were a little limited in the 2nd half, our starting QB/ middle backer got injured right at the end of the 1st half. But that was no excuse we still moved the ball and just did not put them away when we had the opportunity. "We played in the consolation bracket and beat a team from the Chicago area, the Naperville Redskins 14-12. Guess what Coach, they were a double wing team as well. That was the 1st time we had to play against it. They ripped a couple of Criss Cross plays off on us!! You know we see that everyday at practice and it still came back to haunt us!! Well the team definately represented well at the Pop Warner National Championships. "I was reading your news this morning and saw that wide tackle six article. Our last three games we faced that exact defense and we won two out of three. It shows you how much teams respect the super power. Naperville(The other Double wing team) used it on us. We pounded them with 5X lead / 4X lead. We also just adjusted our super power blocking and ran it well. We doubled on the Def. Tackle on the ends head with the end and wingback and kicked out the Def. end with the B Back. We drove the ball pretty well most of the day. The only thing that stops the double wing coach is just another team that is bigger, stronger and faster with a good coaching staff, plain and simple!!! Thanks for all the help." Coach Ken Brierly, Chariho Cowboys, Carolina, Rhode Island (Two consecutive New England championships and two consecutive appearances in the Pop Warner National Championships ain't bad. HW)
MORE ABOUT DON HOLLEDER AND THE TYPE OF MAN HE WAS "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." The correct pronunciation is NOT "Hollander" - there is no "N". It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
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A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: He was a National Coach of the Year and later Executive Director of the American Football Coaches Association. He's shown at left as a young assistant, some time between 1953 and 1961, at the school where he would go on to succeed the head coach and remain as head coach himself for the next 18 years. It was the only head coaching job he ever held; he remains the winningest coach in that school's history, compiling a record of 137-59-7, with only one losing season. He had six 9-win seasons and five 8-win seasons. Back when it was actually tough to get into a bowl game, he took his teams to 13 bowl games and won two conference championships. He coached 17 All-Americans. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
*********** I have derided Miami for its cupcake schedule, and mockingly asked how the Hurricanes had managed to overlook scheduling UConn. Well, doggone if UConn alum Alan Goodwin didn't write from Warwick, Rhode Island to tell me that I was a year off - that next year, the big game will actually come about. The Huskies are on the Miami schedule. Okay, we've had our laugh. Before anyone else is tempted to pile on UConn, Dave Solomon writes in the New Haven Register that he can argue that the Huskies (2-9, with wins over Rutgers and Navy) were "a heartbeat away" from a Rose Bowl matchup with Miami. This year. "It's pretty simple really if you pay close attention," he writes. "Connecticut beat Rutgers; which beat Buffalo; which beat Army; which beat Tulane; which beat TCU; which beat Louisville; which beat Colorado State; which beat Utah. "Out of breath yet? "Bear with me a sec longer. Utah beat Indiana; which beat Wisconsin; which beat UCLA; which beat Alabama; which beat South Carolina; which beat Arkansas; which beat Auburn; which beat Florida. "Florida, No. 6 in the country, lost a 34-32 heartbreaker to Tennessee, which probably kept the Gators from meeting in-state rival Miami for the national championship on Jan. 3. "It was that close for the Huskies." *********** Coach -- another great day of writing on your part today -- The "lesson" on the veer was awesome, and a question I've had as well -- heck, I've got so many questions I wonder if I'm kiddin' myself thinking I can Coach at the high school level! (not really -- I'm just arrogant enough to think I'll be successful) The note from Coach Timson was one of the best I've read in a long time! and just goes to show you what kind of guy Ron is! First, he has the stones enough to hire a guy like that without being intimidated by his experience, but most importantly he is looking forward to the season so he can learn from him! That is LEADERSHIP in my mind...Hire guys better than you, no egos, everyone working together (gung ho, as Coach Timson would say). And a head Coach who is looking forward to learning from his assistants! How many guys have you worked for who thought they could learn something from you? They are far and few in between, but I'll tell you one thing -- the few that have this mindset are the successful ones!! Scott Barnes, Rockwall, Texas
*********** From an "e-mail from Osama" sent to me by Scott Russell, in Potomac Falls, Virginia: "we've heard that there may be American soldiers in disguise trying to infiltrate our ranks. I want to set up patrols to look for them. First patrol will be Omar, Mohammed, Abdul, Akbar, and Kevin... " *********** Coach Wyatt, Enjoyed reading your news for December 4th. I've been saying for a long time that Coach Brown refused to break a recruiting promise with what he did making Chris Simms a starter over Major Applewhite for no apparent reason. Actually, being an Aggie fan, I appreciated it because I think Applewhite was the far superior QB but unfortunately for us Ag fans, it hasn't mattered much over the past couple of years as the Longhorns have been a little too good for the Ags even with Simms as QB. On the subject of Simms/Applewhite, how about that Simms exit? He hurt his throwing hand falling on the turf on his last turnover? Hello, does anyone think that looked fake beside me? Wow! Disagree with you on Miami. Yes they have a few "cream puffs" on their schedule (including most of their conference) but then again, most of the top ten does. I normally don't like to say a Florida based passing team is the best in the country for the simple fact that if they had to play in Happy Valley, Lincoln, Ann Arbor or any other place that has "real" weather, (outdoors) during November or December, their pass happy offenses would slow down quite a bit. However, after watching Miami in person this year, I think they have a legitimately solid team top-to-bottom on both sides of the ball regardless of where or when they play. (Then again, if the Green kid is playing when they played BC, you never know.....) Finally, the BCS has always been a bust! It's no different than the Global Warming bs that has been foisted on society! (sorry for that coach, I come from a family of meteorologists who know better!) If Tennessee loses to LSU and forces the fiasco you mentioned, the computer programmers will add another "fudge factor" equation to the solution to cover their butts! They need to do what we did at the D3 level (any every other level and sport) and that is have a playoff (using the bowl format) to drill down to the eventual winner. Will some people gripe if they don't get selected? Sure, but you'll always have that. Anyway, as usual, enjoyed your site again! Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey *********** On Wednesday, the powers that be decided to have a faculty meeting at 3 pm on the threat of Anthrax at RC. There is no threat but they want to be prepared. I am supposed to be in the weight room at 3. I figured the kids would be ok if I was a few minutes late. Well...the meeting went to 3:40. I figured the kids would leave, be messing around in the halls, or screwing up the basketball practices. We usually do plyos on Wednesday....they need me to run those and organize them. I was wrong! I walked out the meeting and into the hall...No kids.....Into the gym....No kids??? Back towards the weight room.....there all 50 of them were....DOING PLYO's on their own. Next year's seniors got the weight room open by Katie, got the medicine balls from the gymnastics coach, got the plyo boxes from Katie's room, organized the groups and stations, got a stop watch and then started without me. I was amazed....all the kids were working their tails off...many drenched in sweat. How do you think we will be with that type of leadership next year???? Jon McLaughlin, Rich Central High School, Olympia Fields, Illinois (As many of you know, I am well acquainted with the kids at Rich Central, having worked two-a-days there this past season. They are losing a great senior class that did a great job of leading. This year's juniors are talented. If they can develop as leaders, too, RC will have another good team. HW) *********** Hugh, there was a lot of resistance to the double wing this year. We had a couple of high school coaches on the freshmen squad and one loves the wide open passing game. Others thought I couldn't run it this year, because I didn't have the talented team I had last year, et cetera. Anyway, the freshmen head coach phoned me. Our freshmen and JV teams lost in the Superbowl, but we won. He said "You won all arguments winning that game." To remind you, we beat a team that scored 260 & gave up none. Everybody from our teams watched the varsity game. They were really impressed at how we kept the ball & beat that other team into exhaustion. Hugh, I can't believe that others, even high school coaches, can't see what I see. We didn't go to the double wing out of desperation; we were already champions. Anyway, I hope to see you in the spring. Merry Christmas! Bill Livingstone, Troy, Michigan Cowboys. *********** Gordie Elliott was fired by the University of Puget Sound, north of us in Tacoma. His record there, in eight years, was 16-57. Wait a minute, though - he didn't exactly take a hot program and run it into the ground: he went 5-4 in 2000, UPS' first winning season in 12 years. Gordie is a UPS grad, a very good man and a very good coach, hard-working and imaginative. He was an assistant at Fresno State before moving into our area and coaching first at Camas High School and then at Vancouver's Columbia River High School. I went up against him several times when he was a HS coach, and I sent a few kids on to play at UPS. But any coach who takes over is going to run into real problems with the UPS admissions department and its Ivy-League aspirations. For years now, Gordie's kids have been lining up across from better players who couldn't get into UPS. Frankly, I thought he'd have left years ago in frustration, but lately I'd begun to assume that since he was an alum, he would hang in there out of a sense of loyalty until retirement, giving them the program they seemed to want. Right across town is Pacific Lutheran, a Division III power year after year. I can remember when UPS and PLU would play and they would pack the Tacoma Dome (10,000+). PLU has decent academic standards, too, but somehow it gets talented kids without, so far as I know, admitting any real knuckleheads. Whoever gets the UPS job had better take on this issue now, or he will fail, too. Meantime, if Gordie Elliott wants a high school job and a high school is looking for a great coach, he is the man. *********** Coach Wyatt, After putting the kids to bed last night, I broke out the Dynamics IV tape for some late night Double Wing viewing. I forgot how much great stuff was on that particular tape! All of the Dynamic tapes have been great, but I especially found this one quite interesting. I loved the "Rambo" 5-1 unbalanced set that unfortunately Ridgefield used to chew up your LaCenter defense that year. You have to admit that was some pretty slick stuff. I was taking some good notes after watching that! Any chances of a Dynamics V being produced? Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania Dynamics V is on the to-do list. That doggone 5-1 is a nasty thing to spring on someone who just knows that he has the scheme that will once and for all kill the Double-Wing monster and has worked and worked to prepare for that one double-tight set. Go to one of those web sites where the geniuses tell you how fantastically successful they've been against the Double-Wing, and see what they say about adjustments to other formations. HW. *********** Evidently Washington Huskies' tight end Kevin Ware had to get rid of some of the pent-up aggressiveness left unused from the Miami game. Either that or he was celebrating the fact that he survived the cross-country ass-kicking the Hurricanes administered, but he is accused of assaulting a campus police officer and may not play in the Holiday Bowl. Aw. c'mon Rick - he made a mistake. And besides - who are we to judge? *********** Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said Georgia players' stomping on the "T" logo at midfield of Neyland Stadium after Georgia's first win in Knoxville in 21 years "wasn't very good." A scuffle broke out between the two teams and a few punches were thrown before the players could be separated by coaches and security personnel. "I'm sure Richt (Georgia Coach Mark Richt) will talk to his team about that," Coach Fulmer said. "We've won a lot of games, and a lot of them have been on the road. We really don't try to disrespect our opponent that way. I thought that wasn't very good." Richt said he didn't see the fight or the postgame celebration following Georgia's last-second, 26-24 win. "There were probably some guys doing it," Richt said. "I'm not going to deny that. We don't want to be known as a team that's going to go stomp on logos." That was several weeks ago, but the example, as they say about a news story that won't die, "had legs." It could be said that Auburn lost to LSU because its players chose to dance on LSU's "Eye of the Tiger" before their game last weekend. Because of the SEC's wish to nip brawls in the bud by penalizing such pre-game antics, LSU started the game by kicking off from the 50. LSU successfully onside-kicked, drove in for a touchdown, and went on to win 27-14. A bit to the north of Baton Rouge, a big high school game between two heated rivals in a New England state ended with members of the victorious visiting team dancing joyously at midfield, leading the home team's players - and a few of its coaches - to interpret the celebratory dance as a defacing of their logo. Dejected and angry at having been defeated, they were not about to stand by and accept peacefully what they saw as disrespect on top of defeat. A bit of an ugly scene ensued, followed by days and days of nasty charges and countercharges in the local newspapers. It was a scene that not so long ago, no one could have imagined. Now, it's just one more thing for a high school coach to have to worry about. I would remind those $300,000-a-year college coaches that high school kids are getting those ideas someplace... *********** I heard the Army QB in a pre-Army-Navy game interview last week say that he had a chance to come back and serve as a GA (graduate assistant - sort of an intern coach) at Army next year, but he turned it down because he wants to serve in the armed forces. *********** I don't want to say that Tennessee's loss was predictable, but it came just a week after the Vols' monumental defeat of Florida. Even college kids are still kids, and coaches know that it is very hard to get kids up for two big games in a row. Which is what makes Colorado's back-to-back wins over Nebraska and Texas so impressive. *********** It always ticks me off when people disrespect football at any level below the very elite, and I was treated to three excellent examples of this:
"Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." The correct pronunciation is NOT "Hollander" - there is no "N". It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
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This is not a stupid question. The veer is an offense, a formation, and a play, or, actually, a couple of plays. It was invented by Bill Yeoman, in 1965, while he was head coach at the University of Houston, and it is still often referred to as the Houston Veer. It introduced to the game of football the concept of a triple option - the idea of reading (eliminating the need for blocking) two different defensive people, and doing one of three possible things depending on what those two defensive people did. The Houston Veer is now often referred to as the "split-back" veer, because in the original "veer" formation, the two running backs were split - one behind each guard. There is normally one tight end as shown above, but sometimes two. Sometimes the wide receivers are deployed in a "pro" set as shown above, but sometimes both wide on the side opposite the tight end, in a "twins" formation. It attacked the 5-2 defense so in fashion back then by taking large line splits, widening the defensive tackles and then diving a back inside one of them. For example, in its simplest form, running the "true triple option" or "Inside veer" play to a tight end side... The back on the playside would dive, and the far back would sprint to playside as an option pitch man. They would double the nose man, and the playside offensive tackle would release inside to block the inside LBer, much as he would on our trap play. The defensive tackle was left unblocked out there, and the idea was for the QB to extend the ball into the dive back's pocket while "reading" the defensive tackle. That dive hit fast! Unless the DT crashed down to tackle the dive, the QB had a "give" read, and he gave the ball to the dive man (Option "1" in the diagram). If defenses couldn't stop this play, it was lights out. They would see an awful lot of that dive for the rest of the game. It was not uncommon in the early days of the veer to see a dive back run a long sprint to the end zone untouched. But if the tackle did close down to stop the dive, that took care of him without anyone having to block him, and the QB pulled the ball out of the dive back's arm-over-arm pocket and kept it, continuing on down the line to his next "read", on the defensive end. The defensive end had also been widened by a rather large split by the tight end. The defensive end was left unblocked, just like the defensive tackle, The Tight end would release outside the Defensive End, and "arc block" (the "arc" describing his path) whoever was responsible for tackling the pitch man (the strong safety - "SS" - in the diagram) should the QB pitch the ball. The wideout on the playside would "stalk" block the corner back. That means he would release hard off the ball, "pushing" the corner (who was responsible for covering him in the vent of a pass) until he broke down (showing that he recognized that it was a run) and then he would break down, too, and "stalk" the corner, or as Darrell Royal said, he would "play cutting horse", staying between the defender and the play. The QB, meanwhile, would option the DE. If the DE attacked him, he would pitch (option "3"), but otherwise he would turn up in the seam created between the defensive tackle and the defensive end (option "2"). The backs line up behind the guards because if they were to line up any wider, it would be difficult to get into a good pitch relationship with the QB on an option play to the other side. The line play of a veer team is aggressive. The linemen are up on the ball with a lot of weight forward in their stances. Many veer coaches have advocated four-point stances. A good veer attack is obviously quarterback-intensive, with all the risks that implies, and even with the talent, it takes a lot of work. There is a lot of precision involved - precise line splits, and precise "tracks" for the dive backs to run (since the QB never looks at the dive back - right from the snap he is watching that defensive tackle, and he has to be able to depend on that dive back being at the precise place at the precise time). You won't be successful running the veer if you are not a detail person. The play shown and described above is very basic. As defenses adjusted to cope with the threat of the triple option, veer teams had to devised all sorts of blocking schemes to cope with them. It is a series offense, in which a defense stacked to stop one particular play can find itself vulnerable to another play that starts out looking just like it. Some of the plays that complement the inside veer and make up the total veer attack are:
A University of Texas assistant named Emory Bellard (pronounced Bell-ARD) came up with the idea of lining up three backs in tight and running the triple option, and the wishbone was born. Coach Bellard "broke the bone" when he coached at Mississippi State and introduced the "wing-bone", moving one of the halfbacks up to a wing formation and frequently sending him in motion. The wishbone concept is still alive, and still effective where it is run. It pops up occasionally in the form of a Stack-I, and a sort of Power-I formation called the I-bone. Air Force and Georgia Southern still run it, but mostly from a spread formation. The triple-option from the wishbone was hurt at the high school level by legislation outlawing blocking below the waist. At the college level, it has been hurt by a number of factors, including the tipping of the game's rules in favor of the passing game, and the same pro influence that drives high school and youth Double-Wing and Wing-T coaches crazy.
*********** Yeoman is an enthusiastic guy. It comes out in his speech which is fast and liberally peppered with "gosh darns," "holy cows and "I'll swears." About 12 years after he stepped down as coach, he was hired to do the color commentary for Cougar football radio broadcasts. You really had to hear these broadcasts to believe them. First of all, the term "homer" does not begin to describe yeoman's approach to every contest. The guy was solid Cougar red on every play. Moreover he was a FAN and he made that abundantly clear by forgetting himself and unabashedly cheering each great Cougar effort and loudly moaning every time disaster befell them. Typically the broadcasts would go like this: Play-by-play man: "Cougars have the ball, first-and-ten at their opponents' 45-yard-line. Jones is under center, strong right, I formation ..." My first experience with yeoman's brand of partisan style came as my brother and I were making our way home from Austin after a Longhorn game. The hour was late but we managed to tune in a UH game broadcast from the West Coast. Oh my God. We were doubled over with laughter the whole way home listening to yeoman live and die on each snap of the ball. With Bill at the mike, the whole game was an epic Greek tragedy. I don't know who was more exhausted at its conclusion: the players, the play-by-play man, old Yo himself or my brother and I who had practically laughed ourselves into the twilight zone. Bill Yeoman was a hell of a football coach and, in my book, an underrated one as well. He was the father of the Veer which helped give birth to the Wishbone. Growing up in the Houston area, I went to UH games and those Cougar teams could be devastating. We ran the Veer at my high school and yeoman recruited a number of the guys who played there.
*********** Now, don't get me wrong... I think Seattle is a great city. It is a trifle too expensive for me to ever consider living there, but it is a neat place to visit. In the summer, it enjoys one of the most pleasant climates on earth - warm, but never hot, and dry. It is clean and bright. There are no slums to speak of - certainly nothing like you'll find in Eastern cities. Look in almost any direction and you're liable to catch a view of a snowcapped mountain or Elliott Bay. There are great stores and restaurants and - amazing - people still walk around downtown at night. BUT... If I didn't live there, and I were a football player, I'm damned if I'd want my school to accept a bid to the Seattle Bowl, requiring me to spend the Christmas Holidays in dark, dreary, rainy Seattle. (I didn't say anything about the winter weather, did I?) Who in his right mind ever thought that all a bowl game that couldn't make in in Hawaii needed was a new home in the wintry Pacific Northwest? I heard the game's PR guy on TV, saying that they had more than 20,000 tickets sold. What he meant was, "sold." Georgia Tech and Stanford were each sent 7500 tickets with instructions to either buy them or sell them. Georgia Tech's AD was quoted in the paper as saying he doubted whether more than 1,000 Tech fans would make the trip. Stanford's fans are so rabid that 17.500 of them made the 10-mile trip down the peninsula to watch the Cardinal play at San Jose State last weekend. That's assuming that there were no San Jose State fans at the game. Otherwise, a lot fewer than 17,500 Stanford fans cared enough to drive a short way to watch their team. Think they'll make it to Seattle? Do the Georgia Tech or Stanford kids want to go there? Did anybody bother to ask them? Who cares what the players think, right? Yeah, who cares what the players think? Who cares about players who want to play in a bowl game, either? UCLA players say they do. They finished 7-4, good enough for most teams, but they've had a rough year, including a star tailback accepting a "loan" of a Ford Expedition from a booster, a starting QB with a drunk-driving conviction that he didn't bother telling anyone about, a depressing loss to archrival USC, and now, after finishing on an upbeat with a win over Arizona State, they say they have something left to prove. But the school turned down a bid to play in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise. (Don't knock it - nice little city.) UCLA officials say it's "too costly." They say it'll cost 'em $300,000 to send the team to the bowl, and they just don't have it. I say B-S. If you're the AD at UCLA, and you can't make 10 phone calls - local calls - and come up with the $300,000 without leaving your chair, you ain't jack. I say B-S. What's really happening is that the kids on the UCLA football team - the ones who didn't lie and cheat - are being spanked and sent up to their rooms without their supper, because they were bad boys - they dared to disappoint all the big shots with their high expectations. I say B-S. Win or lose, those kids busted their buns for that athletic program this year. Through their efforts they helped bring in a lot more than $300,000 that's going to be spent on other non-revenue sports. In fact, they brought in a lot of the money that pays the salaries of the suits in their athletic department. And they wanted to play more football. It's too late now, of course. Clemson got the bid. *********** I wanted to tell you about an assistant I just hired. I had his son on my staff this year, and the father coached at one of the other schools in our district. I have known him for all the time I have been in Florida, but really never thought I would be able to add him to my staff. His name is Bill Peck, and this will be his 50th year in coaching. He was the head coach at Middle Tennessee State and also coached at Northern IIlinois, along with stops in states like New Jersey, Nevada, and many more to numerous to mention. He is a living encyclopedia of football information, and stories of all the places he has been and the people he has met in football. I just talked to him on the phone and the school he is teaching at honored him at their monthly staff meeting for 50 years of marriage, 50 years in coaching and education, and he recently celebrated his 75th birthday. He is going to be coaching our defensive backs this coming season, but I am sure he will contribute much more than that to our entire staff. This was the first year since his son has been coaching that they were not on the same staff, and he had watched us quite a bit on film and talked to Bill, Jr., about what we were doing before he indicated to me that he would love to move to our staff if we had an opening. Well, I had left one supplement vacant, waiting on someone I considered the right person. I think I have really found him. He is just such a humble, mountain of knowledge about football, that he will have a positive impact on our program and our kids I am sure. His comment to me when we talked was, "I will be the most loyal assistant coach you could have, and I will do whatever job you ask me to do. I just want to continue to coach as long as I think I have something to contribute." I was in awe of that statement, and just hope that in the next 20 years, (when I reach 75 if I am that lucky) that I will have the energy and zest for the game that he still has. I think this may be one of my most rewarding years in coaching, and I am going to learn everything from this man. Just thought you would enjoy hearing this story.
Dear Steve: I do not normally have the time to engage in dialogue about a position I take, but this one I can print. First and foremost, a playoff won't prove a thing. Just like basketball, it would produce a tournament winner, but not necessarily a national champion. Please don't tell me that the NCAA basketball tournament proves, once and for all, which is the best team. UNLV once went an entire season undefeated and lost in the NCAA final. One game out of what - 30? And that means they're not the best team? No, it doesn't. Not the tournament winner is all. Otherwise, you relegate your regular season to just being a runup to your tournament, and you will wind up like the NHL or NBA. I think the lack of the finality that a playoff would bring keeps college football alive that much longer in the off-season. Suppose we just had the bowl setup, without the BCS garbage. You might hear me saying afterward that I think Nebraska is the best team in the country. You sit there and say, Nebraska? Colorado beat them by 26 points. And I say, one game! One game! Here, lemme buy this one. I don't think arguing about who has the best team has ever done me or anyone else any harm. Some of us have bought this "ultimate" game garbage, which is purely a fantasy spun by TV because they can sell the hell out of the idea. But as Duane Thomas once said about the Super Bowl, "If this is the ultimate game, then why are they going to play one again next year?" A football playoff is a made-for-TV event, and screw the fans. Bowl games are fun trips for a team's fans, and a reward for its players and coaches. When would their reward come in a playoff? As it is now, fans save all year for their bowl trip, but now, with a playoff, they couldn't possibly afford to go to all three of their team's games (assuming an 8-team field). Which game should they go to? The first? Or should they take their chances and book their tickets to the semi-finals? Or finals? What if their team doesn't make it that far? Or, what if their team wins, and they want to go to the next game - you ever seen the price of airline tickets bought on six-days' notice? This isn't basketball, where a large crowd is 20,000 people, and between the four teams in a regional tournament and some of the locals you can fairly easily sell that many tickets. This is 70,000-80,000 seats that have to be filled on short notice by fans who won't know until less than seven days in advance that their team is playing. You realize what an undertaking it is now to fly the fans of both teams to the Rose Bowl, when travel professionals have had weeks to handle the preparations? Check the attendance at the Division III, Division II and Division I-AA championship games. Those fans all have to get there on short notice. Smaller schools, yes, but more often than not the championship game attendance is much smaller than a normal crowd at one of the participants' home places. Unless it is played at Marshall and Marshall is in the game, it is nothing exciting. Oh, I see. To eliminate the logistics problems, we can play all but the last game or two at someone's home field. Brilliant - just like the NFL. Send your team to play its game at Tennessee. Or Penn State. Or Miami. Or Nebraska. Or Florida State. That's fair. And we'll determine home field advantage how? You say, through a rating system, using a combination of the AP poll, the USA Today-Coaches poll and several computer rating systems? Hmmm - maybe we could just buy the BCS program. It's already demonstrated its effectiveness. Bowl games are memorable and cap off a successful season. Playoffs diminish the significance of everything else - seen what's been happening to "minor" bowl games since the BCS started blowing up the Tostitos Bowl as the be-all and end-all? Are there ever any memorable quarter-final playoff games (except for those won by the "ultimate" winner)? Soon, the regular season itself will be minimized (can you say NHL? Can you say NBA?) and we will start hearing the wiseass talk show guys referring to "meaningless games." Meaningless? Maybe to you, genius - but not to the people the game is played for. I worry about the huge sums of money that will wind up in the hands of the corrupt and privileged few, as happens now in basketball. You think Conference USA and the Mid-America and the Mountain West get screwed now? Just you wait. Finally, my objection to a playoff is that every playoff team but the "ultimate" winner ends its season with a loss. Trust me or anyone who has been in that sort of situation - it is a real downer, undeserved after a great season. It is not a reasonable way to end an otherwise successful season. For what? So that bozos who never played the game can sit and watch the "ultimate game" for three hours, and then switch channels and move on to the next sport and forget about college football? I really don't give a rip about an "ultimate winner." I could care less about the colleges making more money. I care about preserving the college game. I think it is the greatest sport there is. If money is the problem, they could go back to one-platoon football in a heartbeat and save a ton of money.
*********** "I have my doubts about Miami and its schedule (Rutgers? Troy State? Temple? West Virginia? What's the matter - couldn't find a open date to play Connecticut?)." That game is scheduled for next year, Coach. Seriously. Should be a great one. Alan Goodwin, Warwick, Rhode Island
*********** Steve Weick, of Salem, Massachusetts, sent me a newspaper clip from Massachusetts, telling about Everett High advancing to the playoffs, and adding, "I get a kick out of the statement "old-fashioned double wing offense". Some of these sports writers just know about Pro-football and pass, pass, pass, pass." Slow start dooms Eagles EVERETT -- There was nothing left for St. John's Prep to do but tip its hat to Everett last night. And that's exactly what the Eagles did, giving credit where credit was due. Everett played almost a mistake-free game, covering all three of its fumbles, and dominated the trenches with an old-fashioned double wing offense that churned out 371 yards rushing. The Prep had 72. (I have spoken in the past to John DiBiaso, the Everett coach, and he has some of my tapes, and I hope he has benefited from our exchange of ideas, but in all fairness, he was doing some Double-Wing stuff before we ever spoke. HW) *********** "Coach Paterno insists on wearing that purple and black jacket alot. I've never understood that one. "If Navy would have run the ball on first down following the turnover, they could have run out the clock. I don't remember Army's timeout situation, but I do remember thinking that an incompletion might cost them. "That UT tailback is good, but now I'm kind of hoping that Michigan gets Florida in the Citrus Bowl. That was some ugly tackling." John Zeller, Sears, Michigan
*********** Jay Stewart, Southern Garrett High School, Oakland, Maryland, writes... In regards to 20-yr-old American /Taliban (oxymoron) John Walker: "I want to give him a big hug, I also want to give him a little kick in the butt for not telling me what he was up to and not getting my permission, because I would not have given him permission to go to Afghanistan," Father of John Walker 1. Maybe it is a little too late to put a boot in this kid's ass. Where has he been the last 20 years? 2. If he had gotten his fathers permission, would that justify his actions? 3. How can any grown man trivialize the whole situation with such a lame statement? He makes it sound like the kid sneaked out to a keg party. Bill Jones, a family friend in San Rafael, California, described Walker as a "very sweet, unassuming, very spiritual young man -- rather frail, not an All-American football player or anything like that, certainly not a fighter." 1.Maybe if he were a football player, or a participant in any type of team sport, he would not have been so frail and he would not have been led by the nose hairs into a psychotic religious organization to find a sense of belonging. 2.Some of the most spiritual people I know are involved in Football and other sports. 3.It is obvious that he indeed was a fighter against the USA, just not a very good one. This is TREASON. The punishment for this action will not be a "little kick in the butt". I sincerely hope that a CIA operative has a chance to "interview" him at length in the hopes of gaining information. Thanks for listening. (It is time that the "America is Evil" gang realize that we are serious about this. No more of this "He made a mistake!" horse manure. And no circus trial, either, so that the precious little darlings from our prestige universities can hold protest marches outside the courthouse. I actually heard the honorable Patrick "Rambo" Leahy, super-patriot senator from Vermont, visiting the Peoples' Socialist Republic of Portland this past week to give a speech or some damn thing, saying that Traitor Walker should be brought to the United States and put on trial. See, unlike 80 per cent of the American people, Comrade Leahy is opposed to the idea of military tribunals. And he is pouting because he wasn't consulted. (Can anybody figure out why? Comrade Leahy would prefer the American "justice" system, in which Alan Dershowitz and Johnny Cochrane will defend young Mr. Walker in front of a hand-picked jury of imbeciles; a citizen's committee will be formed to investigate charges that the arresting officers handled Mr. Walker unnecessarily roughly; and videotapes of him firing at Americans - and the AK-47 he was holding - can't be admitted into evidence because they were taken from him forcefully, without a proper search warrant.) Actually, I heard the best suggestion of all on Rush Limbaugh's program (ohmigod! Wyatt listens to Limbaugh!) - since young Mr. Walker was engaged in atrocities in their country, simply turn him over to the Northern Alliance and the tender mercies of their justice system. I'd like to see Rambo Leahy try to intimidate those guys. They'd deliver a well-deserved boot to his rear end. HW)
Q: Why do so many American children play soccer? A: So they don't have to watch it. Submitted by Larry Hanson, Sports Editor of the Rochelle, Illinois News-Leader "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
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A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Bill Yeoman (pronounced "YOH-man") is
soon to be inducted into the College Football Hall of
Fame, along with Grant Teaff and Barry Switzer.
***********
I am taking the advice that I give to my kids at the
start of every season. "There is no such thing as a dumb
question at football practice, if you're confused, then
there are probably 5 others that are confused as well." I
played football for 15 years and have coached for 6, been
to high school and college clinics throughout Illinois
and read hundreds of football books in my life and I
still don't understand exactly what VEER means. I always
hear people talk about running the veer, or veer blocking
or that they run a split back veer or the veer option. I
don't want to sound ignorant, but is there a specific
VEER OFFENSE or is this a generic term used by coaches
across the country for different schemes they use. Don't
want to waste your time, but I was sincerely curious and
always trying to learn. Thanks
*********** Count on Jim Mora to get fired some time soon. It is going to come down to him or Peyton Manning, and that ain't gonna be a tough choice. I have always liked Jim Mora, but he is paid several hundred thousand dollars a year not to do things that any high school coach paid a stipend of $3000 has the sense not to do, and he really crossed the line with his petulant public ripping of his quarterback. I was shocked, frankly, that in a league where coaches routinely make excuses for rapists, wife-beaters, drug-users and accessories to murders, Jim Mora chose to lay into one of the few people in the NFL who can consistently be held up as an example to young players. I am not a pro coach and never will be, but I have always made it a basic principle never to publicly criticize any player for his performance. I think it's a basic principle of the loyalty that a coach owes to his players. It has always pissed me off when some right-out-of-journalism-school reporter has pointed fingers by printing kids' names - the one who made a bad snap, or fumbled, or dropped a pass - and I've told them so. There's only so much space on that sports page - use it to give credit. Yeah, the public has a right to know who screwed up - and any time they want to exercize that right, all they have to do is go to the game and see for themselves. And where my quarterback is concerned, criticism is even more taboo. I not only don't criticise him, I don't even correct him in front of the other players. And I don't allow anyone else to do it, either. I go ballistic if a quarterback throws a wobbly pass and some wiseass goes "quack! quack!" Believe me, when you do or say things to publicly embarrass your quarterback, you erode his ability to lead, but you will wind up eroding yours, too. *********** Some day, maybe football will have a Major Applewhite Award. It will go to a dedicated, gifted team player who has demonstrated the ability to play and lead - and win - but who for various reasons known only to the coaching staff - and carefully kept secret from the public - is removed from the lineup in favor of a more highly-publicized rival; who nevertheless continues to work hard and support his rival; who, knowing that he is able, with one whining interview, to split his team in two, never does or says anything negative about the way he has been treated; who keeps himself sharp and ready for the moment when he might summoned, on short notice, in the heat of battle when things are going against his team, to go in and save the ass of the same coach who benched him, and picks up right where he left off, just as if none of the indignities he'd suffered had ever even happened. Come to think of it, maybe we should make him our Black Lions Award winner for the University of Texas. *********** And along those same lines, I am proud of the way Drew Bledsoe has handled Bill Belichick's decision to stick with Tom Brady, even after Bledsoe's return from an injury. I know he is well paid, but he has an ego same as any other professional quarterback, and he knows he has the power to speak out intemperately and divide his team, and the access to the news media to do just that, any time he might choose to do so. That he continues to support Tom Brady is to his credit, and tells us more about him than any passing stats. *********** The news of Bob Davie's firing was in our paper Monday morning. Down at the bottom of page seven of the sports section. Did you get that? Were you paying attention? Page seven! Notre Dame fires its head coach and the story is buried! What's that tell you about what's happened to Notre Dame football? There was a time when Notre Dame was considered such a big job that when it came open - sometimes long before - names like Don Shula were mentioned as possible candidates. Now no one seems to want to come right out and say that it's just not that great a job. Figure it out. If you're the kind of man they need to hire this time - a head coach with a proven track record, not a bright young assistant who's expected to learn on the job - you don't need it. There are lots of schools that can pay you as much, and offer you as many perks, and give you as long a contract and as good a chance to win, without near the goldfish-bowl atmosphere, the alumni and media looking over your shoulders, the pressure to coach a certain way and act a certain way. (Notice how the wiseass Lou Holtz that so many of us admired became somber and serious the instant he became the highly-visible spokesman for Our Lady?) Look - Frank Leahy was one hell of a coach, but he had an unlimited supply of great players at a time when there were no limits on scholarships, allowing Notre Dame to stockpile players of such talent that the Irish second-stringers were good enough to have finished in the top ten; when the influence of the Roman Catholic Church was so strong that every young Catholic boy in America aspired to play for Notre Dame; when Notre Dame was the one place a kid could go to and be on television nearly every week; when, to top it off, the Notre Dame schedule would occasionally have a chump or two on there. Nowadays, scholarship limits make excellent players available to the people the Irish have to play play every week; good Catholic kids no longer are made to feel they will be excommunicated if they go elsewhere; the Irish are still on TV every week, but so's everybody else - the Notre Dame game is one of eight or nine games on every fall Saturday; and the combination of the desire of Notre Dame to reach out to its national constituency and play games all over the country as well as the pressure of NBC to keep its ratings up has pretty much requires the Irish to play good teams week after week. The interesting thing about the great Notre Dame tradition is that it has not been so great that an ordinary coach could come in and still win merely because it was Notre Dame. The Notre Dame tradition really is a story of four eras, built by five coaches: Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz. (A lot of people tend to forget about Devine, but he was 53-16-1 in six years, with a national championship in 1977.) Parseghian and Devine coached back-to-back, so I include that as one era. Otherwise, between each of those four eras, there have been prolonged slack times presided over by coaches who for one reason or another were not able to measure up to the extreme demands of the job. And then, along would come a saviour - always a person who had had head-coaching experience elsewhere: Leahy at Boston College, Parseghian at Miami and Northwestern, Devine at Missouri and Green Bay, Holtz at William and Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas and Minnesota. Notre Dame must do the same this time, and hire an already-successful head coach. Notre Dame is not a job for a bright young assistant who comes highly recommended and interviews well and is expected to win while learning the job. Whoever takes the job is going to be faced with a rebuilding project of enormous proportions. The tradition may be there, but to today's kids, it's history. It's been years since Notre Dame finished in the top ten, and it's going to take a lot of hard work to get it back up there. It is a grinding job that has taken its toll of the best of men. Rockne was killed in a plane crash, but Leahy, Parseghian and Devine were burned out by the experience. Only Holtz survived Notre Dame to coach again. *********** Wonder what the Big Ten and the Pac 10 think about their decision now. They sold the Rose Bowl to the BCS for a bag of beans. So now the Rose Bowl, the "Grand-daddy of Them All," their post-season reward for more than 50 years, will be moved from New Year's Day, in return for a handful of dollars and a place at the BCS table. The kids' table. The one in the other room. Out came the next-to-last BCS rankings, and once-beaten Pac 10 champion Oregon is behind once-trounced Nebraska and twice-beaten Colorado. Once-beaten Illinois is way, way back in the pack, behind twice-beaten Florida and twice-beaten Texas. Neither Oregon, the Pac 10 champion, nor Illinois, the Big Ten champion, will get a sniff at the "National Title" game. So what's the point in belonging to the BCS club? I have my doubts about Miami and its schedule (Rutgers? Troy State? Temple? West Virginia? What's the matter - couldn't find a open date to play Connecticut?). Miami trounces bad teams and struggles when it has to play decent teams on the road. But Miami gets in there because it's unbeaten. Zero losses trumps one loss. But if that's the case, then shouldn't one loss trump two? Shouldn't Illinois and Maryland be ahead of Texas and Florida? Where is twice-beaten Stanford, loser only to two ranked teams? As it stands now, Tennessee, which earned its right to second place, will play Miami if the Vols defeat LSU this weekend. Okay - fair enough. Tennessee beat number-two ranked Florida, and will have beaten SEC West champion LSU to get there. But what if Tennessee should lose? Nebraska, for God's sake, is sitting there in BCS third place, waiting its turn in the barber's chair. To qualify for next-up for the "National Title," evidently all the Cornhuskers had to do was a couple of things related to their posteriors: get their asses kicked royally the last time out, then sit on 'em last weekend, while all the other contenders were playing. How can this be? Nebraska may be overall the toughest team in the United States, but how in the hell can a team that doesn't even make it into its own conference championship game sit home and watch the game on TV and then leap over both of the teams that played in it - one of which beat it, the week before, by 26 points? How, in the name of BCS integrity (bzzzzz - sorry - my oxymoron detector just went off) can Nebraska be ranked ahead of the Colorado team that shellacked it just a week ago, when everything was on the line? (Did you say "strength of schedule?" By that did you mean Cornhusker wins over Troy State? Baylor? Kansas? or - sorry, Irish fans - Notre Dame?) You wanna see the BCS implode? You wanna see it lose whatever credibility it still has? Watch what happens if Tennessee should lose to LSU, and then Nebraska - routed in its last outing - plays for - and wins - the so-called "National Title." There will be a lot more barroom debates than there ever were back in the pre-BCS days of Bowl games only, with half the people going home happy. And, unfortunately but rightly, there will be even louder calls for a winner-take-all playoff. WHAT IF? What if the suits of the Big Ten and Pac 10 hadn't sold out? What if it were still "our champ against your champ - New Year's Day - Rose Bowl?" Couldn't the Oregon-Illinois winner just stand aloof from the mob and call itself "National Champion"? Aren't any of the Big Ten-Pac 10 AD's kept awake at night by the guilty thought that they screwed their champions out of a legitimate claim to the "National Title?" ONE THING TO BET ON: Oregon and Colorado will NOT play each other in a bowl game. The BCS can't risk it. That's because, in the event Nebraska should win the "national title" in the Tostitos Bowl, the Colorado-Oregon winner would be the real national champ. *********** I have been trying to jump to my death since last Saturday night but my house is only a single story and all I have to show for my efforts are a busted ankle and some bruises. I really hate to criticize Chris Simms. By all reports he is a great kid off the field but after his performance in the Big 12 Championship game he needs to sit on the bench. I think Ron Franklin said it best in this morning's Houston Chronicle: "Simms hasn't gotten better, he's gotten worse, and he has disappeared in every big game. I think Mack has a real headache coming next year, because if he's going to play like this in every big game, they've got trouble." Remember, Franklin lives in Austin and used to be the radio voice of the Longhorns. "...I was one of his proponents and had been until about midseason when I kept looking at the tape and saying, 'You know, the kid is not getting better. He's doing the same things over and over. Why isn't someone telling him?'" Bottom line: Without Simms' turnovers, Texas is Big 12 Football Champion today. This Simms/Applewhite fiasco/soap opera has exposed a serious flaw in either the character or critical football thinking of Mack Brown and it causes me concern for the future. As an Orange bleeding fan, I just can't take much more of this expletive deleted. The higher you climb, the further you fall and the more it hurts when you land. Take it from me. Maybe that watertower will do? Oh well, hello Culligan Holiday Bowl! Maybe we can beat Skippy Neuheisel's boys. That kid who swiped the first interception was Aaron Killian from up the road here at Kingwood High. I covered him there and recall a conversation with a friend and fellow sportswriter who said CU got a good one. I think the Buffs were the only ones to recruit Killian. Interesting fact: Besides Killian, the Johnson kid who picked Simms off is from San Antonio Jay High School, the DE who sacked him forcing the fumble is DeAndre Fluellen from Houston Forest Brook High. Gee, thanks guys, who you playing for next? OSAMA BIN LADEN? Damnit. Yeah, coach, bad decision to go for the block, but -- damn -- he just barely missed it. Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas *********** "Two more observations about this weekend's college action: 1. Colorado's first TD--3rd and 6 from the 8. Texas puts in nickel personnel, Colorado stays with two tight ends and runs Power (and scores). Contrast that with: 2. Tennessee plays TWO down linemen on defense a good chunk of the game, each in a 5, 7 or 9 technique with nothing but LB and strong safety types from B-gap to B-gap. Florida continues to chuck the ball downfield instead of running it right down the throat of those defenders in two-point stances. I'm sure Tennessee felt they could get away with it because they were confident Florida wouldn't run at it enough to hurt them. Incidentally, love the idea about a team needing a winning conference record to qualify for a bowl. Love your site, keep up the good work." Dennis Croskey, Kearney, Missouri
I guess I still live in the golden past, back in the days when I could call a Don James at Washington or a Rich Brooks at Oregon and get right through to them. Not because I was anybody special. Because I was a high school coach, and high school coaches were important to them. Or at least they had a knack for making us feel as if we were. The good ones, I suspect, still do. So after working several camps this past summer and coming across a certain kid who has excellent grades and whose college football potential is impressive, I called the football office at (highly selective Division I-A school once attended by one of my kids) and introduced myself as the dad of a grad, and a football coach besides, and said that I wanted to talk to a coach about a kid I'd seen. (Since I am a Yale alum and also the parent of four kids and therefore, technically a "representative" of their "institutions" as well as mine, I must restrict my recruiting to offers of new Lincoln Navigators for the kids and lucrative executive jobs for their dads.) The young lady who answered the phone did a masterful job of making absolutely certain there was no way I was going to talk with anyone knowledgeable or helpful. She said I would need to talk with one particular coach, but after I said that would be fine with me, she told me he actually wasn't available. I then asked to speak to another coach - any other coach - but she told me they were all in meetings. And then, rather than offer to take a message from me and have someone call me back, she asked me if I wanted to leave a voice mail message. No, thank you, I told her. I've been through that voice mail crap. Have you? This seems to be every big shot's copout nowadays - "leave a detailed message and I'll get right back to you." Right. How many of you have gone that route? Any of you still waiting for one of those people to "get right back to you?" I can remember when real football coaches actually answered phones. Hey - I was just trying, in my small way, to do them a favor - to tell one of the sorriest football programs in all of Division I-A about a good kid and a good football player, with good grades whom they wouldn't know anything about because he's from a part of the country they don't normally recruit. Now, with nine full-timers on the staff, plus part-timers and graduate assistants, you would think there would be one football guy available at all times to field a call like that. They talk about how important recruiting is, and how much money they have to spend to keep up, and then when someone calls to tell them abut a kid, they're too damn busy sitting in a meeting discussing the best way to line up for stretching to come to the phone. I apologized to the young lady for making the mistake of thinking they might be interested in a kid who could probably play for them. And for even thinking about disturbing the busy, busy coaches. I did close, I must confess, by adding that I was beginning to see why they are as bad as they are. Now, that football program was - is - at the point where I would have thought that they would kiss a high school coach's tail end to get the phone number of a decent player. Instead, I came away with the impression that they seemed to consider it their job to ward off anyone who might try to interest them in a player other than one already on their list. To that extent, I would say they have been highly successful. Now, (highly selective Division I-A school attended by one of my kids) is a great school, and I love it dearly. I have not mentioned its name because those assistant coaches do have families who depend on their jobs, and, as careless as their dad's boss is in running the program, they are all going to be fired soon enough, anyhow. Or should be. They just finished up winless, for the second year in a row. Worst of all, based on attendance, nobody seems to care. I suggest they hire Don James or Rich Brooks. *********** Coach: Thanks for your help this season. My 8th Grade team ended up 5-1 and outscored the opposition 248-62. Scoring over 40 points a game in 8 minute quarters requires a potent offense and your Wildcat look was the answer for us. Next year we are going to use your I formation as the talent is better suited for that. John Braganini Kalamazoo Christian Middle School, Kalamazoo, Michigan *********** JUST IN CASE PEOPLE THINK ALL A HIGH SCHOOL COACH CARES ABOUT IS WINNING... I got this several weeks ago, but decided to give it a little age before publishing it. It came from a friend who coaches at a large high school in a medium-sized western city. (As you can see for yourself, he is not in California.) Last Fridays game was tough in that it was homecoming and senior night. We introduce the players along with the Parents. What killed me is we had one mother show up late and was drunk off her ass. Another player's dad shows up and the Kid hasn't seen him since he was 10. He was also drunk off his ass. Talk about a three ring circus. 2 players stayed at my house Friday cause they didn't want to go home because their Mom's boyfriend was beating on her at home before the game and also later in the stands at the game. They didn't know what they would do if he showed up at the house. So they stayed with me and my wife was gracious enough to let me do that. It was tough- It took me back to those 10 years in the inner-city of California. NAME WITHHELD *********** Coach, This offense is a scream. Never have I watched football and laughed so hard, out loud in my life. I had my wife cracking up. Not because it is absurd, but because of its unique effectiveness. When we saw that wedge moving down the field like that , I was on the floor. I've been coaching youth ball around the 13-14 year old area for 25 years and have had great success, even with the tired and the poor teams I would take, but this thing of yours has me agog. This is my final game this week and we have a medium good team to play. We just pulled off a huge upset last week with the mother team which we broke off from. We are the step children but we smacked them 36-20. I already share allot of the philosophy and techniques in the DW offense but the differences in this approach has me excited. Monday I put in a small series of this and coached it up one day, and it looks great. Wednesday I may add a play or two more since this isn't far from what we already do. I have to keep my terminology cause of the lack of time but next year, I may commit completely. Thanks a million Larry Harrison, Atlanta *********** The Heisman nominees have been named, and I'm sorry David Carr, Fresno State's quarterback, is not one of them. The kid is very good, and he put up some respectable numbers. He is married, with a little boy, and during the Fresno State-Wisconsin game early this past season, they did a telephone interview with his wife, Melody, as she watched the game with her family back home in Bakersfield. The interviewer tried to bait her into telling the national TV audience "something he wouldn't want them to know," but she wasn't biting. Instead, she offered, "David is a man of God. He's a loving husband and dad." *********** I have a son that plays high school football and loves playing middle linebacker. the one problem: he weighs only 150 pounds and cannot seem to gain weight. he has good speed (last clocked at 4.78 forty). We need to help him gain 25 pounds and keep or improve his speed. What foods would you concentrate on? What type of weight training and how many days would you train? Thanks for your time (Name Withheld) I appreciate your question, but in such matters I am hesitant to give advice without knowing your son or his coach. I would urge your son to talk to his coach. I would be surprised if his coach doesn't offer some sort of off-season lifting program. Getting their kids to participate in such a program that is basically voluntary is often a real hassle for coaches everywhere, and I'll bet your son's coach would be willing and able to help him. I do think that it would be a great start. *********** Coach, I must thank you again for all your help, we were 26-4-1 in 3 years with the double wing. We were lucky to get the tie. The 4 losses were my fault. The double wing NEVER let us down. I won't get to run the double wing next season. I will be joining the HS staff here in Craig County. My primary responsibilities will be with the JV team. We will be running the single wing. Looking forward to the new challenges of the new job. I will be at the Durham Clinic. I want to keep my double wing knowledge as fresh as possible. Jim Fisher, Newport, Virginia *********** Josh Simpson of Southern Alamance High School in Graham, North Carolina, wanted to play football. I say good for him. Problem was, when he made this decision, he was in East Africa, In Kenya, where his parents were serving as Baptist missionaries. After nearly 10 years overseas, and with his senior year approaching, he had a few requests of his parents. "Josh said there were a few things he wanted to do before he got out of high school," his father told Jeff Wyrick of the Burlington Times-News. "He wanted to be a normal kid and do things like drive a car and get a job. And play high school football." So his folks moved back to North Carolina in July, and Josh immediately approached the Southern Alamance coach, Tony Perrou, about turning out for the team. It probably didn't hurt any that Josh is 6-3, 244, so coach Perrou gave him the okay. For a kid who had never played the game before, progress was about as expected. "I was surprised at how fast the game moves," he said. Regardless, he got a chance to live his dream, something he couldn't have imagined happening less than a year ago. "It's amazing," he said. "It's like my dreams are coming true. … By all means, I shouldn't be here."
MORE ABOUT DON HOLLEDER AND THE TYPE OF MAN HE WAS "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." The correct pronunciation is NOT "Hollander" - there is no "N". It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
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*********** My son is involved in sports television in Australia, and as we sat and watched a little - very little - NFL on Sunday, he said that Australians get one or two NFL games a week, and although they seem to be catching on to the sport, there are a few aspects of the American pro game that clash with Australian culture: they think the games go on too long, they think that there are too many breaks and that the breaks are too long, they despise the boastfulness and the self-celebrations any time an NFL player makes it through a play without having his shoes come untied. And they are mystified by what they call the "God-botherers" - the guys who have a good game and then tell the interviewer afterward, "I'd like to give all the credit to God." *********** And you wonder why some of us don't trust the "American justice system" to try Osama bin Laden. Darrell Russell of the Oakland Raiders missed the first four games of the season for some sort of drug-related violation, and now he could be sitting down for a spell after having tested positive for Ecstasy. Could be. The positive test calls for a suspension, but he was still playing Sunday, because thanks to the %$#@ing NFL Players Union, he was able to appeal his suspension. Next, an arbitrator will hear his appeal, so don't be surprised if he's still playing next week. Maybe he'll even pay a visit to your kid's classroom, reading a book to the kiddies, just like the NFL self-promotions we see on TV. (Maybe he'll tell the arbitrator that he didn't know Ecstasy was banned - he looked on the banned-drugs list and didn't see anything under "X.") *********** My apologies to all you Garth Brooks fans out there, but I am growing weary of the Dr. Pepper "country jamming" commercial, the one with all those gen-u-wine country folks stompin' 'and pickin' and jigglin' out on the front porch, that I would like to see the doofus from the other Dr. Pepper commercial - the one who squirts foaming Dr. Pepper all over Santa Claus - bring along a case and pay them a visit.
*********** Scott Barnes writes, from Rockwall, Texas - Could you imagine doing the "human scoreboard" thing today?? You'd end up in fired, sued and dragged through through the streets by the liberal press. Coach Barnes enclosed a "newspaper article," of dubious origin: The days when a showman like Maryland coach Tom Nugent would actually do such a clever thing (he said he got the idea from a newspaper reporter) were the early days of soccer-style kickers, when it was still all right for everybody to ridicule them (as I still do). The intrusion of soccer-style keekers into our game was just another unintended consequence of unlimited substitution, which began creeping back in in 1960 - first one player at a a time, then two, and by 1965 was full-blown. It not only allowed for platooning, and coaches sending plays in, but also non-players deciding football games.
***********Notre Dame of West Haven, described by several Connecticut papers as "bigger, stronger and faster," proved nearly unstoppable, as 5-10, 216-pound fullback Michael Penta carried 32 times for 258 yards..
*********** They've been listening to you - CBS's Tim Brando said this of Virginia Tech's bobbled two-point conversion pass: "I don't know what's worse - that he dropped it or got up and claimed to have caught it." Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts *********** Coach- Went to the Double Wing last year. 2 conference championships and lost in the state semi finals this year. It has really made a difference. The kids love it. Started to run 88 super power keep following a rocket motion. We faked the rocket and the QB just keep coming around and ran the 88 super power keep. The DE and outside linebacker were so preoccupied with stopping the Rocket our QB ran right by people. Didn't know if you have ever tried it thought I would share it with you. Thanks for all the support. I have asked a number of questions and I appreciate the quick response I always get from you. It is really appreciated. Coach Dan Lerum, Durand High School, Durand, Wisconsin *********** The dreaded end of another season has come upon us. Last Sunday was our last game of the 2001 season. Valley Stream Green Hornets 11Yr. old team Finished off on top 18-0. It's been an unbelievable season with a 5-2-1 record, both losses were a total of 7 points. I think I could have made a few adjustment that would and should have turned those 2 games in our favor. Oh well It was a learning experience for all of us.I wont do that again.I've learned how important those PAT's are. I know we blew those with poor play calling. My Son, Michael got discharged from the Army and is living in Boston. I thank god he got out before 911. anyway- But was able to come down to NY to see a few games. He has played and Knows Football and says that our WD offense is fun to watch. I agree, but more fun to coach, and the kids love to run it. would you believe that I am thinking about next year. looking forward to getting "installing the system" tape I've put that on my Christmas list. ho ho ho. and planning for next season. Coach thanks for all your help. Next time you hear from be I will have chase my Black Lions Winner. Sonny DiGregorio, Valley Stream, New York *********** Coach,Well, I finally got things "wrapped-up" on our first season of the Double Wing. Thought I'd take a moment to share the stats with you. Season record 6-4. First home playoff win (37-0) since 1987. First section semi-final appearance since 1987. Second consecutive year we played for a conference championship. Offensively we had 175 first downs (17.5 per game); 432 yards passing on 74 attempts (43.2 per game); 3,206 yards rushing (320.6 per game); 3,638 total yards (363.8 per game); and 40 TD's. Not bad for the first time out!I know 6-4 doesn't sound too impressive but this is the second year in a row BSM has had a winning season, and running the DW was the biggest reason we were able to do this. I believe the DW has given us the best chance to continue our success and make a serious run at the section championship next year. I honestly feel that if we had continued doing what we did last year we would have struggled. This offense is the most personnel friendly offense I've ever been associated with.What's most exciting is we only scratched the surface this year. With a year of the DW under our belts now we can "open it up" a little next year. Can't wait for the clinics, and look forward to troubleshooting some things with you. Thanks a bunch.Joe Gutilla, Benilde-St, Margaret's High School, Minneapolis ***********Say What? "Many players do not care to wear head protectors of any kind as they interfere to some extent with hearing, are warm, and add weight to the uniform. Others will not play without them as they claim a head protector gives them more confidence, saves their head from many hard jolts, and keeps their ears from becoming torn or sore. I do not encourage teir use, nor do I object if the players I am coaching prefer to wear them. I have never seen an accident to the head which was serious, but I have many times seen cases when hard bumps on the head so dazed the players receiving them that they lost their memory for a time and had to be taken out of the game, and I believe that the men who carry the ball would do well to wear light head protectors to guard against such temporary injuries." Glenn S. Warner, "A Course in Football for Players and Coaches," 1912, Carlisle, PA
MAKE SURE A PLAYER ON YOUR TEAM CAN EARN THE BLACK LION AWARD! "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
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