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DECEMBER, 2006

America Needed a Man - And Gerry Ford Was There (See"NEWS") Why Chess is Better Than the NFL! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 29, 2006 - "A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." Gerald R. Ford   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! ALL BUT THREE OF MY VIDEOS (DYNAMICS II, III AND IV) HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD - BE SURE WHEN ORDERING TO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT DVD OR VHS - THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION. Gerald Ford - Once a coach, always a coach The late President Gerald R. Ford, shown in the 1932 Michigan-Princeton program as a sophomore center for the Wolverines   Comedians who couldn't even measure up to Gerald Ford's shadow got many a cheap laugh painting him as a clumsy oaf, but they weren't close to the truth. No matter. It merely demonstrated that in the short run, crass may appear to defeat class, but in the long run, the sort of class and dignity personified by Gerald Ford is what endures.   And remember - just like the Marines - once a football coach, always a football coach.   Gerry Ford was one of us. The late President Ford's obituaries have made note of his having been a Michigan football player, but little was written about his career as a coach. Yet President Ford's six years as a football coach at Yale would foreshadow a lifetime of leadership.   The photo shown here was cropped from a shot of the Yale staff, sometime between 1935 and 1940. The coach on the right is the legendary Earle "Greasy" Neale, then Yale's backfield coach and "chief assistant," who had already been a head coach at West Virginia and Virginia and had taken tiny Washington and Jefferson to the Rose Bowl, earning himself a place in the College Football Hall of Fame. From Yale, he would go on to coach the Philadelphia Eagles of Steve Van Buren and Company to two straight NFL titles and earn a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The coach on the left would one day become President of the United States. He's Gerald R. Ford, who died the day after Christmas, at the age of 93.   A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a starting single-wing center for three years at the University of Michigan under the great Harry Kippke (Despite popular lore, he did not captain the Wolverines), Gerald Ford coached for six years at Yale (1935-1940) as an assistant to Raymond "Ducky" Pond.   When his coaching is mentioned, it is usually explained away as a means of paying for his tuition at Yale Law School, but the reality is that following graduation from Michigan, he turned down a chance to play with the Packers for $200 a game and instead accepted the offer to coach at Yale full-time. For $2400 a year. And for that, he was also expected to coach the boxing team, despite his total lack of experience in the sport.   His intention was to coach and attend law school, but at first, the higher-ups at the Yale Law School refused to admit him, doubting his ability to handle law studies and full-time coaching as well. Finally, in 1938 they relented, and by June of 1941 he had his law degree. (He graduated third in his class.) But then, as he told John McCallum in Ivy League Football, "World War II ended my football career."   After wartime service in the Navy, he embarked on a career as a lawyer in his native Grand Rapids, which ultimately led to a career in politics.   In that other career, he became an effective leader in Congress, and a formidable opponent of President Lyndon Johnson, who once opined that perhaps Gerry Ford had played too long without a helmet!   He seemed destined to spend his life in Congress, but when the Vice-President of the United States resigned, he was appointed by President Nixon to the vice-presidency. And when the President himself resigned, Gerald R. Ford became our leader, a man who had been elected neither Vice-President nor President.   Football coaches can all relate to the toughest call a man will ever to make, the decision to grant a pardon to the disgraced Richard Nixon. The call almost certainly cost him re-election by a nation thirsty for Nixon's blood, paving the way to the White House for Jimmy Carter. President Ford's courageous decision undoubtedly spared the nation years of ugliness of a sort displayed in the Florida election fiasco of 2000.   In 1975, then-President Ford was presented the Tuss McLaughry Award, the highest honor accorded by the American Football Coaches Association, given "to a distinguished American for the highest distinction in service to others."   The McLaughry Award was first presented in 1964. In addition to President Ford, recipients have included such great Americans as General Douglas MacArthur, Bob Hope, President Dwight Eisenhower, J. Edgar Hoover, the Reverend Billy Graham, General James A. Van Fleet (also a former football coach), John Wayne, Pete Rozelle, Dr. Jerome (Brud) Holland, General Pete Dawkins (Heisman Trophy Winner), General Chuck Yeager, Eddie Robinson, Andrew Young, Roger Staubach, Stephen Ambrose, and General Tommy Franks.   When America was in need of a man, Gerald Ford was that man - a man who knew that right is right and wrong is wrong, and - knowing full well that doing the right thing would likely mean losing the Presidency - he still did the right thing.   One of his harshest critics was Ted Kennedy, yet years later, in 2001, when President Ford was given the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award by the Kennedy Family, even the Old Lifeguard himself admitted that he was right. "I was one of those who spoke out about his action then," he said. "But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right."   Said Mr. Ford on that occasion, "The ultimate test of leadership is not the polls you take, but the risks you take. In the short run, some risks are overwhelming. Political courage can be self-defeating. But the greatest defeat of all would be to live without courage, for that would hardly be living at all."   Back in March of 2001, I showed readers the above Yale staff photo along with a few clues and asked them to identify this man who is a part of football's great legacy, and these readers identified Gerry Ford, Michigan center and Yale assistant coach:   Adam Wesoloski- DePere, Wisconsin ("he was the team's most valuable player. It's never difficult to nominate a SW center for that honor".... Kevin McCullough- Lakeville, Indiana... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky ("Most people don't know of his coaching career. They only know of him from politics. A good man who stepped into a difficult situation during a time of crisis. I don't think that he has ever gotten the credit he deserves for helping his country in a dark time. He handled the situation with class and dignity.")... Mike Benton- Colfax, Illinois... Greg Chambers- Groton, Connecticut ("Being from CT you'd think I'd know about his time at Yale, but I didn't. Shame on me, a history major no less.")... Steve Davis- Danbury, Texas... Ladd Vander Laan- Grand Rapids, Michigan... Alan Goodwin- Warwick, Rhode Island ("That guy looks like Gerald Ford with hair.")... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... Scott Russell- Sterling, Virginia... John Grimsley- Gaithersburg, Maryland... Mike Foristiere- Boise, Idaho... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota... Dennis Metzger- Connersville, Indiana... Bert Ford- Los Angeles... Dave Potter- Durham, North Carolina... John Reardon - Peru, Illinois   And then there was this one, from Lou Orlando, of Sudbury, Massachusetts. Lou was a football player at Yale in the late 1970s, and, like President Ford, Lou was a center...   "...when Gerald Ford lost the presidential election to that peanut farmer, his first "public" appearance after leaving office was to accept the Chubb Fellowship at Timothy Dwight College (part of Yale's system of residential "colleges within a college." For his or her three upper-class years, every student lives and eats in his/her residential college, attends its parties, plays on its intramural teams, etc.) at Yale. He came to the school for a few days, meeting the students, and we had a reception for him up at Ray Tompkins House (the football offices). There were 5 of us on the football team that lived in Timothy Dwight, and we wrote him a letter inviting him up to our room for a beer. Never dreaming we had a snowball's chance in hell of meeting him, the Secret Service called us and told us that he couldn't come up because of security issues, but we were welcome to come down to the suite where he was staying. We excitedly and nervously all went to his room; we sat, talked, and drank a Michelob with him for about 30 minutes. When we were about to leave he offered to pose for pictures. I used to show everyone the picture: "Hey, do you want to see a picture of me and President Ford? I'm the one on the left.." Used to get a lot of laughs. This episode with President Ford and my teammates was mentioned in Coach Cozza's book "True Blue."   (In his book, Coach Cozza says that Lou and a few of his teammates "Invited him for an informal chat." Coach Cozza didn't mention the beer.)   *********** What are the odds that even one woman in San Francisco will have a firearm? What are the odds that two of them will?   Twice in his short stay as President, assassins tried to take out Gerald Ford. They were both woman wackos from San Fransicko.   *********** I'll never know why Time Magazine made all of us - me, you, the panhandlers on the street - it's "Person of the Year," unless it the knowledge that if they chose one winner, there would be 5 billion losers, and we can't have that, can we? So - TROPHIES FOR EVERYBODY!   And I'm still not sure what Dwyane Wade did to make him Sport Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, but it might have something to do with the woman he's married to.   I read an article in the paper about the way Mr. and Mrs. Wade devote their Christmas to giving gifts to poor kids. Their Christmas is all about giving, and not at all about getting.   Said Mrs. Wade to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, "People like us 'get' all the time. Constantly getting, constantly buying stuff, always getting something for free. So for the last three or four years, we haven't done the thing where we set a bunch of presents under the tree. We don't feel like there's a need anymore. Now, to be honest, we just give."   *********** Thank God for Oklahoma State and Alabama. The bowl games had given us stinker after stinker until they finally gave us a game. Career assistant Joe Kines, given the responsibility of leading the Alabama team after head coach Mike Shula was let go, certainly had the Alabama team well prepared, and it is a shame to think that he will probably be out of work. It was rather poignant to watch him point to the locker room door and tell the interviewer, "There's a championship team in there."   *********** Thank God nobody watches the NFL network. For a Kansas State fan, the walloping that Rutgers gave them was no fun to watch, and to a college football fan, the unbelievably amateurish, negative, job of that two-man broadcast crew, whoever they were, caused me to mute them and listen instead to Cal-Texas A & M. I watched the two games on side-by-side sets, and the contrast at halftime was almost painful. The ESPN crew, including Lou Holtz and Mark May, spent halftime discussing the game we were watching plus the upcoming bowl games - college football, in other words. The numbnuts on the NFL Network spent the entire time prepping us for the upcoming weekend of NFL games. Ho hum. Why in the hell anyone would allow a college game to be televised by that crew of losers is beyond me.   *********** And, finally, from the standpoint of an embarrassed Pac-Ten fan, thank God that Cal finally played up to their capabilities in a big game, as they thumped Texas A & M.   *********** Judging by the way Cal's Jeff Tedford got into Steve Levy's face after Cal, leading 38-10, scored with 28 seconds left to make it 45-10, the coach was definitely NOT pleased with his backup QB. Afterward, Tedford told a post-game interviewer that Levy had been instructed to take a knee, but instead he deliberately defied his coach in order to get a backup tailback a touchdown. Yank the f--ker's scholarship.   *********** Your "News" of 12/26 has me a bit confused. In one narrative you  lament that traditional run based offenses, while obviously  effective, don't thrill the fans and sell tickets but yet you hold  out hope that the service academies continue to demonstrate you can  win with them.   Coach, I thought I was clear enough on this point but evidently I was not - since the service academies (two of the three, at least) have been the last holdouts against the "amuse and entertain" movement, I was hoping that Air Force would continue that way (even if that means they will be harder for Army to beat than if they jump on the five-wide bandwagon).   In the same news you state that: "...I also hate watching the no-huddle, make-us-all-wait-while-you-call-a-play offenses. It's like watching a batter step in and out of  the batter's box between pitches..." Are you saying that if a college team used this style of offense with  great success it would still affect your desire to see them play in  person (ie patronize them with your ticket $$$), much the same way a  run based offense apparently affects others? Having run a shifting  offense I can vouch the threat of a imminent snap at any time is a  great weapon and is a easy way to physically exhaust a defensive line (or better yet catch them resting on their heels and run a roller  skates on marbles dive/buck) without doing anything yourself?   I consider it a pain in the ass to have to sit and wait while a team such as Troy stays at the line of scrimmage in one formation - no shifting and no motion - and keeps turning and looking over to the sideline - all 11 men, since the linemen don't have their hands down - for instructions from the coach, until finally, just before the clock expires, they snap the ball. It's not so much that they are going without a huddle - it's that they're just standing there, stalling - although I must say that as a spectator I do prefer a huddle because when a team huddles there is time to watch a replay or maybe even hear an occasional intelligent comment from the booth. Would it affect my patronage? Well, damn straight. I don't consider this mutation of grass basketball to be real football at all, and I wouldn't walk across the street to watch it. If it were a team that I liked, I guess that would make me the flip side of today's vast masses of fans who would rather pass than win.   *********** (Regarding ESPN's player introductions)   Hugh, Let's not forget that the guys that are doing these survived the "audition". Meaning they (network) took the best they could find.   Scary, huh?   Regards, Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey (Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, there was Big Bill Walton, the aging hippie, doing the UCLA intro's Wednesday night. HW)   *********** Why chess is better than the NFL...   The Indian Chess Federation banned a guy from play for 10 years after being caught cheating. It was discovered that inside the cap which he always wore, pulled down over his ears, was a Bluetooth device that enabled him to communicate with others outside the room who would feed his opponent's most recent move into a computer, then relay to him the computer's recommendation.   In baseball, cheaters get $16 million a year and the right to break records set by people who didn't cheat, but at least there seems to be some effort to keep them out of the Hall of Fame.   Yet in Pro Phootball (the "Ph" is for phony), Shawne Merriman, a guy who was suspended for four games this season after steroids were detected in his system, could very well be named Defensive Player of the Year, and only Jason Taylor, his strongest rival for the honor, seems to see the problem.   *********** Portland State's basketball program was counting on 6-9 Anthony Washington, a transfer from Washington (the University) who last year averaged 10.6 points a game as a part-time starter. But with a baby due in October, Washington dropped out of school for the fall semester. Uh-oh. No school, no basketball.   But then he had second thoughts, and after a talk with the coach, he decided to get his act back together again. First he had to get himself academically eligible, and with his scholarship gone and no more scholarship money available, he also had to find a way to pay his tuition.   He managed, somehow, and now he is eligible.   "It was a lot of work going to the teachers myself," he told the Portland Oregonian's Norm Maves, Jr. "I didn't have a coach or an academic advisor to help me. I got an idea of how the system really works."   Cool. I'll bet that's more of an education than he's gotten in all the time he's spent in classrooms.   Hmmm. Maybe the NCAA needs to pass a rule stipulating that colleges must pull all athletic scholarships at random intervals and send the "student athletes" out into the real world for a semester - to get "an idea of how the system really works."   *********** Frank Simonsen, of Cape May, New Jersey, wrote me about "the stupidity of these a$$-holes that say this is a poor offense to run at the high school level.  Their claim that it does not give a player the proper training for the next level is bullsh--.   "As you know I don't believe in keeping stats at this level.  I feel they are only good for the parents' ego.  If we did, I would bet that our two running backs (A and C) from the time we started running your system (8 years ago), are all about the same in yards gained, with the B-Back not far behind.  When we throw we spread it around.  We throw to our backs as well as our receivers, not to just one or two outstanding basketball players.    "My point is, that the "Wyatt Double Wing System" gives more kids the "hands on ball experience", needed to develop their skills at carrying and catching then any other offense.    "Just look at how many young players (in our system) start as Guards or tackles at this level, and then go on to be great running backs or receivers."   I think the big thing is that our offense doesn't get into specialization yet, so kids can move around and get experience at a number of positions, whereas with spread passing offenses there is such specialization that you are either a lineman or nothing else, a receiver or nothing else, a running back or nothing else, a QB or nothing else. In those offenses, there is almost no moving between positions. HW   *********** Troy Calhoun, the new coach at Air Force, isn't showing anyone his cards, but in talking with the Denver Post he did sound as if he could be considering a move away from the traditional Air Force triple option:   "Historically, it has been shown that the option offense has been a good way for the service academies to play successfully and win games. With all due credit, you look back and see that some of Army's really good teams ran the option. Navy has been very successful the last four years and Air Force was for a number of years. But I don't know if it's completely essential for the academies to have success. I think it's important to be somewhat fluid in terms of your approach."   *********** Reported Ken Goe, in the Portland Oregonian, back in October the president of the University of Oregon hired former Stanford athletic director Ted Leland to "evaluate the athletic department."   Good God. As a Stanford parent, just when I thought we'd rid ourselves of Ted Leland, the guy who all but destroyed Stanford football while hiding behind the All-Sports Trophy (I even forget what it's called because it only matters to AD's), I now find out that Oregon hired the guy in his new role as a consultant to... to "evaluate" Oregon's athletic department(?)   Damn. It wasn't enough that he screwed up Stanford football. Possibly basketball as well. Now he's the Trojan Horse brought inside the city gates at Oregon.   Wait a minute, I thought. Could Oregon AD Bill Moos possibly be aware that the president had gone out and hired a guy who only a couple of months before was one of his rivals - to evaluate his department?   Attempts by the Eugene and Portland newspapers to gain access to Leland's report under the state open-records law were unsuccessful, because Leland gave his report orally, putting nothing in writing. How sleazy is that?   Hmmm. So Leland left no paper trail. I suspect that, and the fact that Bill Moos has handed in his resignation, answers my question about whether Moos knew.   Better look out, Mike Bellotti. I'll bet Ted Leyland recommended that Oregon hire Walt Harris.   *********** Happy Holidays Coach Wyatt, The player whose name I purposely didn't mention in a previous email to you, I am beginning to just say to my friends that he will henceforth be dubbed as "YOU KNOW WHO", and no I am not talking about Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter!   "You Know Who" parades as an NFL wide receiver with the number 81 on his chest and back and he should have his helmet star stripped.   I was disgusted yet again with his multiple drops and when the networks show the replays in slo-mo it pisses me off even more that his drops are due to fundamental lapses such has attempting catches over the shoulder and his pinkies aren't crosses all the while his elbows are opened wider then the ball. And he wonders why he is dropping them.   Then to have a mic in his face after the game and say "what am I supposed to do when I only get a few balls thrown to me early then they (his TEAM/QB) try to feed me late and I can't get into the flow of the game."   I (me) personally have 25 million reasons to kick his a** because I am sick of his me-me they-they attitude, and all of my friends that support "our team" still support this JOKER. As I said before I have never and will never give him any respect as a man or player because he doesn't deserve it.   Not to mention he was partying with his former teammates at their hotel the night before the game. Hhhhhhmmm, I smell a rat and the rat needs to get the hell out of Big D.   There. I have vented, but I am still not liking this washed up player no matter what he does the rest of the season. I still hold HIM accountable for at least two of our losses because his catches could have been game changing back breakers.   Players play and whiners whine!   Regards, Brian Mackell, Baltimore, Maryland (You have hit the nail on the head. I couldn't believe that act of his after the game, when he wasn't even man enough to say "I sucked," and instead tried to put the blame on somebody else for simple dropped passes.   I often wonder about the stories coming from the Eagles that the "locker room" was divided between supporters of McNabb and supporters of #81. I was shocked to hear that anyone else could possibly have taken T.O.'s side, but based on how the Eagles have been doing lately (even without McNabb), I'm guessing that the T.O.-McNabb dispute was a good way of finding out who the losers were so they could get rid of them. HW)   *********** Nothing sounds more awkward than hearing a person take a common expression, one we all know, one which contains a word that may be objectionable to some people, and try to sanitize it. I happened to be listening to SportsCenter when I heard Sean Saulsbury describe the Cowboys as going "to heck in a handbasket."   *********** Dear Coach Wyatt, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Boxing Day(for the Australian wing of your family). Hope you have had a wonderful Holiday. One thing, JimTatum left Maryland for UNC, Bobby Ross also left Maryland for Georgia Tech, thus it's twice one ACC school has hired another ACC coach until the O'Brien to NCSU. Too many bowl games, but I'm enjoying watching them with my Father & brother, nothing brings a family closer than a good old fashion college football game. Have a great Holiday week and wonderful New Year. God Bless. John Grimsley, Youngsville NC at home in Gaithersburg MD (You got me on Coach Ross. I am ashamed. Georgia Tech joined the ACC officially in 1978, and Coach Ross took over in 1987. That will teach me to double-check, even the things I hear on ESPN! HW)   *********** I wanted to chime in on Minnesota's stance on not playing anyone with Indian nicknames.  North Dakota's Fighting Sioux and the Minnesota Golden Gophers have one of the best hockey rivalries in the country.  Think either one of those schools want out of THAT contract??  NOT!!  Speaking of North Dakota, last I heard North Dakota told the NCAA to go pound salt and now have their lawyers poised for a fight.  Do you think that might have a bearing on their reclassification from Division II to Division I?  Have to admire those folks though - they do have some "stones"! Joe Gutilla, Columbus, Ohio (You have a point regarding Minnesota - I did some checking, and it appears that Minnesota did NOT invoke the "no Indian nicknames" policy in ice hockey!!! HW)   *********** The greatly liberalized rules enabling blocking with the hands, which for the most part means the legalization of holding, has greatly increased the pass protecting effectiveness of the very large man, and as run-blocking becomes of little importance.   Hugh, I was reading your "News", and I think I forgot to send you and all your family a Mary Christmas wish. As you know with all the hectic activities with the Grand kids, etc, it is easy to forget (not that age has anything to do with it).   I hope you had some of your family with you (I know they are spread around pretty well) and that it was an enjoyable and happy one. On that note I hope you all have a very safe, healthy, prosperous, and Happy New Year.   I wish there was something we could do about this "Holding" but I have come to the conclusion we will just have to learn to live and deal with this somehow.   I think the thing that ticks me off the most about this is that there are two different standards for this. The officials just refuse to enforce this in a balanced fair way. They will not call holding on a pass play unless the shirt comes away from the pads. However the minute the hands just come open on the perimeter of a running play, they throw the flag.   We had some officials through the year that I felt called this in a balanced and fair way, but some that are totally out of touch. The officials killed us in the championship game. We unfortunately had one that was unreasonable, and of course it was always on a critical play that we broke for 15 or 20 yds. his ridiculous reasoning was that it was directly involved with the play. Will shit isn't every pass play directly involved with the play.   This year we will just work much harder on the old pester or as some call it the stalk block. Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey (Frank, the problem is that they have not given the defense an equal opportunity to deal with the holding. In other words, once the offensive man grabs your shirt - you're toast.   I think that if officials are going to allow offensive holding to the extent that they do, then the rules are going to have to be changed to permit defensive players to counter. I suggest that they be allowed to "strike a blow with a closed fist" (in other words, "punch" the "blocker") - just so long as the punch lands "within the framework of the body." I suggest "labonza" - the belly. HW)   Actually, there is next to zero chance of that ever happening. It all starts with the NCAA Rules Committee, but for years, their membership has been stacked heavily on the side of those in favor of passing offenses. It started years ago with just a few of them on the committee, but they made themselves heard and they gradually increased in number to the point where now they totally run the show. And with college football's popularity on the rise right now, I frankly doubt that they'll do anything that they think might hurt the game by slowing down the offenses. If anything, I think they're more likely to go in the direction of an even more liberalized approach to offensive holding. HW)   *********** I've been noticing that a lot of high school coaches imitate colleges. It looks like our local coach taped and copied his favorite college teams plays then named them to appear genius-like. I cannot understand why coaches do that. If I saw an offense I liked - and believe me I'd love to be able to run a true spread, empty backfield, West Coast-type offense. I have an ego too. But if I look at what I have, no way would I do it. I see coaches doing similar stuff all the time. Am I missing something?   You are not missing anything. In this case, you are right and everybody else - nearly everybody else - is wrong. (That's possible occasionally, you know.)   Do you think that they can make great cigars without great tobacco? It takes more than just know-how.   Even if you were a great chef, what kind of a meal could you come up with if all you had on hand was white bread and peanut butter and jelly? Sounds to me as if your only chance for success is to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.   It's great that all these guys want to copy world-famous dishes, but even if they have the recipe, they usually don't have the ingredients, and even when they do, they don't usually have the Touch of the Master's Hand (ever heard that poem?)     Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ   ARMY'S BLACK LION, MIKE VITI, AT THE ARMY-NAVY GAME... Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

Aargh! ESPN Turns the Intros Over to the Players! (See"NEWS") Will Air Force Continue to Play Option Football? (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 26, 2006 - "The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know." Harry S. Truman   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! ALL BUT THREE OF MY VIDEOS (DYNAMICS II, III AND IV) HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD - BE SURE WHEN ORDERING TO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT DVD OR VHS - THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION. From the Awards dinner in Duxbury, Massachusetts... Duxbury Black Lion Award winners present and past posed between the guest presenter, Army football player Peter Harrington, and their coach, Rick Davis. From Left to Right, Peter Harrington, Ryan Crane (2004 winner, varsity), Andrew Buron (2006 winner), Trent Smith (2004 winner, JV), Billy Breen (2005 winner) and Coach Rick Davis. Unable to attend were 2003 winners Sam Kollmorgen (varsity), and Nicky Kates (JV). *********** Coach, I just read your web site for today and I was immediately reminded of the old "roller derby" when I saw those Oregon uniforms. Also, I don't think I saw one Oregon receiver or defensive back with pants and knee pads covering their knees. I think Oregon would open itself up to a lawsuit if one of those kids hurt a knee and the parents wanted to pursue it. And I agree, it only makes you look worse when you get your butt handed to you. Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida (You nailed it!!! Roller Derby!!! I knew that this look we're getting with the knee pads above the knees reminded me of something!!! HW)   *********** Coach Wyatt: Last night, Melissa (my daughter) and I, along with an old friend from high school, attended the Packers vs. Vikings game at Lambeau Field. It's been a lot of years since I've seen a pro game in person. I'd much rather watch high school games. (No annoying 2 minute commercial timeouts.) After reading Mr. Maraniss' book and Jerry Kramer's book, I figure one should visit Green Bay at least once. I was very impressed with the crowd. Not near as rowdy as the Bear fans I remember. Also, no Chicago sports venue will serve beer in bottles to the patrons because the empty bottles are easily turned into thrown missiles and the any broken glass is hazardous. I was quite surprised to see bottled beer being served in Lambeau. But as many as I saw served, I saw no broken glass or thrown bottles. All in all, a much better behaved crowd. By the way, there is not a bad seat in the house. Even though we were close to the skyboxes, I felt very close to the action.   Finally, if you ever watch any Duke basketball games, keep an eye on Jon Scheyer. He's from Glenbrook North HS in Northbrook. I've watched the kid since he was in 9th grade, and he's doing very well at Duke. The kid is an incredibly hard worker, is the 4th leading scorer in the history of Illinois HS basketball, and led his team to the state championship his junior year. I read where Duke tests all of their athletes' cardio for how efficient they convert oxygen into energy. Young Mr. Scheyer scored higher on the test than Lance Armstrong!   Regards, Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois   *********** Has Dennis Creehan retired? Is there any team in college that runs the wing-t or any that run the double wing formation besides Navy?   Denny Creehan, as recently as this last season, was defensive coordinator of the Calgary Stampeders, where he has done a great job. I would love to see him get a college head coaching job.   Above the Division III level, there are no wing-T teams that I'm aware of, and Navy is not exactly a "Double-Wing" team, either. Navy runs a "flex-bone," which is a variation of the wishbone run normally with two splits ends and two slotbacks, and although Navy looks like a Double-Wing team from the normal TV camera angle, Navy employs unusually wide line splits, whereas we have zero or minimal splits. Navy's primary deal is to run option, in many forms, while ours is to run power and misdirection.   *********** Who is this Owens guy, #81 from the Cowboys, anyhow, and why is he playing? You mean to tell me he's the best they've got?   *********** Pete Porcelli, of Troy, New York, writes - "it's my old Arena coach's new team - maybe someone you know will try out Player Tryout - Sunday &endash; January 14, 2007 - Hit Quarters - Shrewsbury, MA   Registration 9-10 AM Workout 11 AM   This will be a tryout for the opportunity to play professional indoor football with the New England Surge of the Continental Indoor Football League. Players who continue through this tryout will be signed to the Surge training camp level and once you make the 2007 Surge team, can be paid up to $500.00 per game, plus housing and other benefits offered by the Team.   This tryout will be conducted by Surge Head Coach Rick Buffington who has assisted hundreds of players, coaches and personnel people to serious pro football positions in the NFL, CFL and AFL.   There will be a $40.00 cash fee, with the first 100 players receiving Surge Football T-shirts to be worn during this tryout and complimentary tickets to our opening game on April 14, 2007.   You must bring appropriate indoor turf shoes, be at least 18 years old and be in excellent shape to participate in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, 225 lbs bench press, vertical jump and football related drills. This workout will cover at least (4) hours testing your skills.   Any questions, you can contact Rick Buffington at buffrb@comcast.net   Directions: www.masshealthandfitness.com/   *********** Sad to see James Brown go. They say he was 73. I'm amazed he made it that far.   I one had a player on my minor league team in Maryland named Arcelius (R.C.) Lyle, a very good football player and a class act in every respect. He was not a party guy; among a bunch of guys that didn't mind drinking a beer or two, I never knew him to take a drink.   But one night, as several of us relaxed after a game in a beer joint in Minersville, Pennsylvania, there was a band playing, and for some reason, without any prompting, R.C. got up and joined the band and did the most unbelievable James Brown I've sever seen - then or since - complete with the acrobatic dancing. The whole place went nuts.   I've never been able to see James Brown since without thinking about R.C. Lyle and that night in a smoky joint in the coal regions of northeastern Pennsylvania   *********** When I go to a game I look at the program. A lot. It helps me get to know the players better - where they're from, what class they're in, etc. That's one way I feel cheated by football on TV - they really speed through the player intro's, and frequently hold back some of the info. They give us glossy mug shots of the players, but don't even tell us their hometowns.   And now they've taken it to a new low in viewer service with that godawful player introduction device pioneered by ESPN this season on NFL games - they pick one or two players from each team and let them mumble their way through the reading of the lineups, complete with their teammates' very cool, very inside nicknames. I've seen three bowl games already, and two of them have used it.   Can ESPN really think that its audience finds this cool?   Can't they just leave us alone in our little fantasy world in which college players really are college kids playing a game? (And that they can speak intelligibly?)   *********** Hugh, What you said about State Championship Ties was basically my words to a friend the next day after the AAAAA tie. This may be a huge surprise for those who know me, and how I view football, but I am mixed on my feelings on this. When 2 teams go through what they have to go through to be the final 2 on top and they finish knotted up. Hey… They both deserve the title.   N O W, on the other hand, an overtime or 2 would be nice too, but if it still was deadlocked, you would still have this same dilemma. The thing I noticed most was the tone of the players and coaches after the game. They were totally empty and dejected. Hey!!!   They are supposed to be champions and happy and thrilled that they just won the State Title!!!!! Hugh, I was a Co-Champion one year in a 13 year old travel league level and WE WERE THRILLED because we had just tied a team that hadn't lost in 8+ years AND WAS nationally ranked. This was a huge victory for us but the other team, though co-champions, were devastated and crying all over the place. After hearing some arguments and seeing this from a neutral place, I'm swinging towards, "there should be a single winner", but the Co-Championship thing is really a good thing in principal but a tie just won't fly well with the competitive nature of this game and how we are geared to push for the big prize. But I hear ya, I do hear ya !!!!   Just another example of how you and I think along the same lines huh???? Scary thought huh?????!   Coach Larry Harrison, Head Football Coach, Nathanael Greene Academy, Siloam, Georgia (A few years back Oregon's big-school championship ended in a tie, and they left it at that. People about had a hemorrhage, accusing the state association of playing touchy-feely and all that, and the next year the overtime rule was in place. The same thing will probably happen in Georgia.   Americans can't deal with ties. HW)   *********** I am frequently asked why colleges don't run the ball more - why, specifically, we don't see any Wing-T, Double-Wing, or Wishbone, except at the service academies.   There are many reasons, of course, but right near the top has to be the fact that colleges rely on football to keep the money coming in, and unfortunately, fans don't consider running to be exciting enough.   And this is nothing new - In looking through the Sports Illustrated of 11-21-88, I came across an article about Arkansas, which at the time was 10-0, running the wishbone. and flexbone "Unbeaten, untied and unloved, even by their own fans" was the heading.   "Since Ken Hatfield took over as coach five years ago," the story read, "the Razorbacks have played boring, grind-it-out football. Normally about 10 % of Arkansas' season-ticket holders fail to renew for the following year; before this season, about 30 % sent regrets. Despite the Hogs' success this season, Razorback fans - or nonfans - have left $500,000 worth of seats empty."   On somewhat the same subject, Air Force named Houston Texans' offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun as its head coach, succeeding Fisher DeBerry. Air Force has been running a version of the wishbone since Ken Hatfield was its coach; when Hatfield moved on to Arkansas, DeBerry, who was on Hatfield's staff, kept things the same.   It is anybody's guess what offense Coach Calhoun will run. For those who hope that he will run an option offense on the order of what the Falcons have run for years, there is this: he played quarterback at AFA under DeBerry in 1986 and was a graduate assistant assistant at Air Force in 1989 and 1990, and an full-time assistant in 1993 and 1994. And, too, there is a fact that the players on the current roster were recruited to run the option.   For those who aren't sure which way he'll go... from 1995 to 2000, he progressed from QB coach to offensive coordinator at Ohio U, and in 2000 and 2001 he served in the same capacity at Wake Forest.   For those who favor a total sellout to the pro game, there is his NFL experience - three years with the Broncos, and then this season as OC at Houston.   As an Army fan, I wouldn't mind seeing the Zoomies "go pro," and learn for themselves the sad lesson Army learned in the regime prior to the present one - that it takes pro-style talent to run a pro-style offense, and it is hard to recruit pro-style talent to a school with real academic standards. But as a football fan, and as a fan of the service academies in general, I hope that Air Force continues to show the rest of college football that you can still run the ball and win.   *********** Hello: In the late 70's and early 80's, the big guys in the NFL were 260 to 270 - I think John Matuszak was about the biggest at 275 - and they weren't too fat.    How is it that the big guys are now so obese? Wouldn't the training camps and weekly practices tend to keep the weight off? And what good is the extra weight? A heavier man would be harder to move around but would also have a harder time moving himself around. What would happen if you took an offensive line and got them into shape - would they be better? I suppose not, or that would be the norm, but I don't understand why not.   My apologies if you've answered this question already.   Sincerely,   Jim Foster, Nowra, NSW (New South Wales), Australia   ps: As you can tell, I don't know a heck of a lot about football (I grew up in Canada). But I do enjoy reading your commentary.   pps: Merry Christmas!   Nice to hear from you.   The look and the physical condition of today's offensive linemen is a function of the high degree of specialization that has overtaken the professional game and has worked its way down to the high school game.   The changing of the rules to favor the passing game has resulted in a great emphasis on passing and a lack of attention to the running game, has all but eliminating the need for linemen to do the things associated with blocking for a more sophisticated running game. As a result, they have become pretty much one-trick ponies.   The job of the offensive linemen of today, unlike the ones of the 70's and 80's, is fairly straightforward - protect the passer. Great physical size is helpful, if only because it takes a defender longer to get past the blocker. A bigger man usually has longer arms, too - the better to keep a pass rusher at bay. The fact that the greater size might limit a player's quickness or endurance is no longer the problem that it was in the 70's or 80's, because now these guys rarely have to run any distance at all. Their job on the assembly line is pretty much a one-on-one competition with a particular defensive lineman.   The greatly liberalized rules enabling blocking with the hands, which for the most part means the legalization of holding, has greatly increased the pass protecting effectiveness of the very large man, and as run-blocking becomes of little importance, his mobility and agility are of less importance than they once were.   More than anything else, the fact that simply to comply with the rule requiring shoulder pads they wear the smallest possible pads that they can find indicates more than anything else the fact that their main job is to stand erect and joust with pass rushers.   What they are asked to do is very important and quite difficult, but that is about all that they can do athletically. That they are unable to do anything athletic other than their highly-specialized job is rather evident just by looking at them. That they are in horrible physical condition can be readily seen when they sit on the sidelines inhaling oxygen, after having done very little in the way of aerobic exercize out on the field.   It bothers me because it gives ammunition to those who say that football players are not athletes, but it's obvious that the average NFL offensive lineman, at well over 300 pounds, would not last for much more than a minute in a game of basketball or rugby.   *********** Zach Randolph of the Trail Blazers isn't receiving any votes for the NBA All-Star team. He knows it's because he doesn't have the greatest of reputations, but he is philosophical about it. "I know I ain't gonna make it in by no vote," he told reporters.   *********** Re Minnesota - Do they plan on playing Illinois (The Fighting Illini) anytime soon? Tim Brown,Jackson,Tennessee   I'm guessing that they are counting on the Big, Bad NCAA to do their heavy lifting for them and force Illinois to drop the Fighting Iliini nickname and Chief Illiniwek mascot. HW   *********** With the admission by the Durham, N.C. District Attorney that his "victim" doesn't really know whether she was raped after all, the Duke Lacrosse Rape - so-called because the same DA insisted from the start that a rape had occurred - is looking more and more like something he orchestrated to play on all the old Southern stereotypes, pitting the local black community against the rich, white, college boys, in order to win election.   *********** Don't know if you caught any of the Green Bay/Minnesota game. Terrible, terrible game but I loved it when Vikings' Fred Smoot tried to do the Lambeau Leap and the fans not only pushed him back out of the stands, they doused him with beer. That was good stuff.   (I heard. It sounded like a great scene. Not worth watching the rest of the game to catch it, though. It's somewhat like sitting through a baseball game in hopes of seeing a triple play. Any more, SportsCenter gives me all the NFL I need.)   What a waste of my "media blackout" - got up early this morning and watched the Oregon-BYU game. Ugh. Ugly. I can see why they're on a losing streak. The highlight of the night was the inclusion of two flawed geniuses in the booth &endash; Ryan Leaf and Tark.   My thoughts on Oregon...   *Bellotti should be on the hot seat next year. The team is executing poorly, a bit undisciplined, and unmotivated.   *Pick 2 uniforms. One for home and one for the road. That's it. The kids can pick, I don't care, but when you're losing it looks as if you care more about the uniforms then the game. (PS &endash; I actually liked the gold helmets)   *Pick a quarterback and stick with him. And it's probably Costa or whoever that young kid is.   *Gary Crowton embarrassed himself with that exhibition of play calling. The running game was gone from the 1st series and it became "throw throw throw." Did you notice how wide open the middle was when BYU rushed? I would have started Dixon and had him running the QB draw until they stopped it.   *BYU was good but not thirty points better than Oregon. And I don't like watching teams that call so many plays from the line &endash; like the Colts.   First two bowl games of the year are 37-7 and 38-8...what odds would you get on Rice beating Troy 39-9?   Talk to you soon...love, Ed Wyatt, Melbourne, Australia (and a big Oregon fan) (I think that Nike's hands are all over this, considering that recruiting athletes is not the same thing as selling shoes, and maybe - just maybe - the uniform makeover that was designed to attract young males is doing so, but attracting the wrong kind of young males.   Is it possible that there could better football players who won't go to Oregon because they won't wear atrocious-looking uniforms like that?   I also hate watching the no-huddle, make-us-all-wait-while-you-call-a-play offenses. It's like watching a batter step in and out of the batter's box between pitches. And then there's the BYU offense, which could pretty much be played without pads. To me, there isn't much more boring than watching a guy stand there and pass the ball around. It's a lot like watching a game of half-court game of basketball.   *********** Great job as always. Man did Oregon stink up the field last night or what! (I had to keep turning my eyes away when they close upped on those uni's) I usually don't critique another coaches offense but it appears to me that the Ducks d don't have the QB to run that offense. (Certainly, Leaf #2 cannot and while I'm not big on changing someone's passing mechanics to "look right", his sidearm delivery doesn't get it done. Sammy Baugh's worked, his done not!) Just goes to prove, you need a square peg for a square hole! BTW, did Coach Bellotti looked kind of embarrassed stumbling through his halftime interview or what!Best to you and your family at this joyful time of year! Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey (Agreed that if you're going to put that QB back there in the shotgun, he had better be one hell of a passer (John Beck of BYU), or else he had better be able to run as well as pass. In the case of Oregon's two QB's, Leaf can pass (I think) but he can't run, while Dixon is inconsistent at both.   I feel for Mike Bellotti, who has proven that he is a top coach (to think that he could have had the Ohio State job!) and yet now finds his program going down the gurgler.   I date its start to the time when they recruited the kid from Fresno who was in on (notice a didn't say "a participant in") a murder of another kid. That seemed to symbolize to a lot of people their move from "building" to "maintaining", and from being the scrappy underdog up in the Northwest to a thug program with national title aspirations.   I sometimes wonder how much of it is Bellotti and how much of it is Nike-driven.   And then, there is the competition - A lot of Oregon's success came while USC was down. The arrival of Pete Carroll at USC and Jeff Tedford (his old OC) at Cal hasn't helped Oregon. HW)   *********** There was an article in a recent Yale Alumni Magazine about the Yale 8-man crew which won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1956.   Boy, talk about a total team sport - ever seen a star in an 8-man shell? And talk about a sport unmarred by today's ugly professionalism - when you're rowing your ass off, to the point of complete exertion, who is worried about trying to impress the scouts?   Rusty Wailes, one of the members of that crew, and also an Olympic gold medalist again in 1960, was a Seattle native who died back in 2002, Ironically while he was out rowing on Lake Washington.   A year before he died, he told Peter Mallory, who is writing a book on the history and evolution of rowing, "Anything worthwhile in life, you pay for in advance. Anything that is not worthwhile, you can get in the twinkling of an eye."   On the subject of the value of sport in his life, he said, "I have often been asked whether winning a gold medal was worth it. I have replied, 'I learned more about myself and my fellow men in six minutes of rowing than I did in four years at college.'"       Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ   ARMY'S BLACK LION, MIKE VITI, AT THE ARMY-NAVY GAME... Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

I'd Hate to Play for TCU! (See"NEWS") Oregon- Nike's Lab Rats! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 22, 2006 - "Blessed is he who has found his work." Thomas Carlyle   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! ALL BUT THREE OF MY VIDEOS (DYNAMICS II, III AND IV) HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD - BE SURE WHEN ORDERING TO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT DVD OR VHS - THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION. MY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS WISH FOR FOOTBALL COACHES EVERYWHERE (First printed in 2000, and printed every Christmas since): May you have.... Parents who recognize that you are the football expert; who stand back and let you coach their kids; who know their kids' limitations and don't expect them to start unless in your opinion they are better than the other kids; who don't sit in the stands and openly criticize their kids' teammates; who don't think it's your job to get their kid an athletic scholarship; who schedule their vacations so their kids won't miss any practices; who know that your rules apply to everybody, and are not designed just to pick on their kid... A community that can recognize a year when even Vince Lombardi himself would have trouble getting your kids to line up straight... Opponents who are fun to play against; who love and respect the game and its rules as much as you do, and refuse to let their kids act like jerks... Students who want to be in your class and want to learn; who laugh at your jokes and turn their work in on time... Freshmen who listen carefully, hear everything you say and understand all instructions the first time... Officials who will address you and your kids respectfully; who know and respect the rulebook; who will have as little effect on the game as possible; who will let you step a yard onto the playing field without snarling at you... Newspaper reporters who understand the game, always quote you accurately, and know when not to quote you at all... A school district that provides you with a budget sufficient to run a competitive program... A superintendent who schedules teachers' workdays so that coaches don't have to miss any practices... An athletic director who has been a coach himself and knows what you need to be successful and knows that one of those things is not another head coach in the AD's office; who can say "No" to the bigger schools that want you on their schedules; who understands deep down that despite Title IX, all sports are not equal... Assistants who love the game as much as you do, buy completely into your philosophy, put in the time in the off-season, and are eager to learn everything they can about what you are doing. And if they disagree with you, will tell you and nobody else.. A booster club that puts its money back into the sports that earn it, and doesn't demand a voice in your team's operation... A principal who figures that when there is a teachers' position open, the applicant who is qualified to be an assistant coach deserves extra consideration; who doesn't come in to evaluate you on game day; who makes weight-training classes available to football players first, before opening them up to the general student body; who knows that during the season you are very busy, and heads off parent complaints so that you don't have to waste your time dealing with them; who can tell you in the morning in five minutes what took place in yesterday afternoon's two-hour-long faculty meeting that you missed because you had practice... A faculty that will notify you as soon as a player starts screwing off or causing problems in class, and will trust you to handle it without having to notify the administration... A basketball coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't discourage them from lifting, or hold "open gym" every night after football practice... A baseball coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't have them involved in tournaments that are still going on into late August... A wrestling coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't ask your promising 215-pound sophomore guard to wrestle at 178... A class schedule that gives you and at least your top assistant the same prep period... Doctors that don't automatically tell kids with little aches and pains to stay out of football for two weeks, even when there's nothing wrong with them... Cheerleaders who occasionally turn their backs to the crowd and actually watch the game; who understand the game - and like it... A couple of transfers who play just the positions where you need help... A country that appreciates the good that football - and football coaches - can do for its young men... A chance, like the one I've had, to get to know coaches and friends of football all over the country and find out what great people they are... The wisdom to "Make the Big Time Where You Are" - to stop worrying about the next job and appreciate the one you have -... Children of your own who love, respect and try to bring honor to their family in everything they do... A wife like mine, who understands how much football means to you... Motivated, disciplined, coachable players who love the game of football and love being around other guys who do, too - players like the ones I've been blessed with. A nation at peace - a peace that exists thanks to a strong and dedicated military that defends us while we sleep. Merry Christmas.   And permit me to add one more wish for those coaching brothers who are "between positions" at this time of year - May your Christmas joy not be dimmed by the fact that you have been turned out, and instead brightened by the belief that your next job is just around the corner - and it will be a far better one, anyhow!   *********** I had a great exchange with Don Shipley, of Washington, DC. whose Dad, Dick Shipley, was my coach when I played semi-pro ball in Frederick, Maryland in 1968-69...   Thought you'd enjoy this item from my Today in Sports History calendar. Something tells me that growing up in Philadelphia, this was a seminal moment in the dawn of your years as a sports fan, just as the 1968 Falcons were for me.   12/19/48: Playing in a blizzard at Shibe Park, the Philadelphia Eagles win their first NFL title, 7-0, over the defending champion Chicago Cardinals. Steve Van Buren scores the game's only touchdown on a five-yard run in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals fail to penetrate the Eagles' 30-yard line all day.  NFL commissioner Bert Bell declined to consider postponing the game, even though weather forecasts indicated the storm would worsen during the day.  Yard-line markers were estimates at best, and players from both clubs actually spent time before the game with the grounds crew, helping to remove the snow-covered tarp and bales of hay that had been put down in a futile attempt to keep the field dry.   Believe it or not, I do remember that day. My beloved Iggles had lost to the Chicago Cardinals the year before. To a Philly kid who believed that they were unbeatable, that 1947 loss was very hard to take, so the 1948 win was especially sweet. I still have a photo in my rec room of the 1948 Eagles, autographed by defensive tackle Jay MacDowell and captain Al Wistert.   Snowy championship win in '48, rainy one in '49.  Then along came the Browns...   Interestingly, with all the other games that are called watersheds in pro football history, not nearly enough recognition is given to the Browns' opening-game win over the Eagles in 1950. After all the talk about how the Browns wouldn't have it so easy now that they had to face some real competition, the NFL was rocked when their defending champions not failed to give the champions of the old AAFC the much-predicted beating, but actually took quite a thumping themselves.   It was, I would argue, a more significant event in the league's history than the Jets' Super Bowl win over the Colts.   Completely agree with your take on the 1950 Browns-Eagles opener. Equally overlooked is how the Browns' willingness to have black players on their team was such an important part of their success. I'm sure you remember the story about how Greasy Neal dismissed the Browns as a finesse team after that game, and when they met later in the season, Paul Brown ran the ball every single play of the game to prove him wrong.   In the weeks leading up to the game, Brown would motivate his players by telling them, "just think! Only ------ days until you get to tackle the great Steve Van Buren!" (Van Buren was hurt and didn't play a down in the game.)   *********** Coach - the only thing I can think of, is Frank Broyles the coach and commentator that exemplified common sense, must of lost it pulling that stunt off with the rebellious parents, Jesus he must be losing it in his old-age   Coach - the Harrington Kid (West Point football player and Black Lion Award presenter at Duxbury, Mass.) was an outstanding player at Salem High, and comes from a very distinguished North Shore Football Family, His grand father, Father, and Uncles were all outstanding players at Salem High and his father and uncle have been long time successful assistant coaches on the North Shore ( Salem,Beverly,Bishop Fenwick I believe )   Coach - When will it dawn on those F**king stupid Irish Bastards that Run B.C. that the ACC move was just not that Bright, They should of stayed in the Big East where the playing field is a little more level and never out of reach if you go in a dip ( especially in terms of Football revenue, and Facilities )   A ) The have been screwed over Now Two years in a row with the Bowl selection process and have been given the Sh**t end of the stick twice   B ) For the first time since 1956, An ACC school hires another coach from another ACC school ( Do the other ACC schools really Look at them as "legit" member ?) and to make matter worse O'Brien says to the Boston Globe B.C. is everything N.C. Sate is Not, he rattles them off - Private,Catholic,Northeast,Urban. O'Brien was one of the proponents behind the move, To O'Brien's credit he inherited a complete Mess from the Henning regime and put B.C. back on solid footing, these B.C clowns were lucky to have him, I can't blame him for making the Move, The Sports Columnist from Lawrence Eagle tribune was praising O'Brien, and said BC should be grateful for having him, and these are the same Alums,and Fans that gripe and moan that there going to a 2nd tier Bowl, and when only 6000 show up they wonder why they don't get the more lucrative bids but his best line was something along the lines, If BC ever did make it to a major Bowl game ( Sugar,Orange,Fiesta ,Gator ) there would not be enough runway room at Logan for the all Planes that would be taking off to make it to one of those major bowls   C ) and finally I'm No F**kin genius, but when will it dawn on B.C. they just inherited the fiscal issues Miami had well being a member of the Big East, ( especially for the Non-revenue sports )   see ya next week coach - John Muckian Lynn, Massachusetts   *********** Hugh, The guy that gave you stuff on this (Stanley Ridgeway's article on football) is full of sh*t. Fact of the matter is, we did win the war with the then Iraq (government). What we are having trouble with is the leftover Islamic militants, which there are a boatload of in most every country comprising the mid east.   Typical lib. Knows what Katie has to say but not the facts. God forbid they take a long term view of the situation.   Here's something for you Coach.   At Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of meeting a young man who recently married my wife's niece. He's 25 and was in a special ops group in Afghanistan and Baghdad a couple of years ago. Now, I do alot of reading (my wife thinks I do too much reading as I can get uh, "cranky" about some of the things I read) when it come to Iraq. I feel quite confident that based on what I've read, we've found enough evidence to prove that Hussein was constructing biological and nuclear weapons. What's nice about the husband of my wife's niece is, he confirmed it because he was there and worked in a group that took some of this stuff out. He's amazed that there has been virtually no publicity about the findings which include nuclear weapons grade equipment and sarin gas. This gets to my point about the short sightedness of libs and the media. If there is not a bomb with "Meant for NYC" scribbled on it and looking like it was ready to be loaded into the belly of a C-130, they don't recognize it as a threat. He also told me that we knew the Soviets helped get the stuff out of Baghdad ahead of our invasion.   Also, he's a Democrat from Ohio and doesn't care much for George Bush. It's interesting to me when I meet midwesterners who say they are democrats. They would be considered republicans if they lived here in NJ.   Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey (You're dead-on about the left not perceiving any real threat to us, and I think that when the terrorists do nail us, which is inevitable, given the liberal myopia, the lefties will blame the Bush administration (even if they're out of office by then) for (1) not doing enough to prevent it, and (2) enraging the "Arab Street" by our handling of detainees and our flushing the Koran down the toilet. Even though the latter has been proven untrue, everyone knows that Bush Himself would have gladly done it if given half a chance.   I think America would be in much better shape if we could amend the Constitution to prevent states that border on oceans (I know, I know - I live in one) from sending representatives in Congress. I am undecided about how to classify the Gulf of Mexico. HW)   *********** Coach Wyatt: I don't know if you've seen the latest Sports Illustrated issue, but there is a small article on the Pop Warner Football Championships and the growth this organization has seen in recent years.   While I do not agree with everything that Pop Warner has become, I did find it enjoyable to read this article, which featured a team that runs the double wing. The first thing that caught my eye was a picture that showed this team running a play. I immediately recognized it as Tight Rip Lead Criss Cross 47-C. I wish I could get our tight ends to shoeshine like the tight end in the picture!! The article went on to quote Tim Brown, former wide receiver of the Oakland Raiders, as saying that he was amazed at how the kids could remember so many plays, because it was "complicated" stuff they were running. The author even went so far as to call the double wing "archaic". Call it whatever you want…those kids running that "archaic" offense won the title!   Scott Lovell, Alta High School   Alta, Iowa (I can't believe this - my SI doesn't have that page. I know that they customize issues based on certain readership preferences, but this is ridiculous! Grrrr. And, no - I don't much care for the Pop Warner-NFL-Disney Axis of Evil. Call me a curmudgeon if you will, but at least I can see the signs of the Big Football taking over our sport where others only see trips to Disney World for the kiddies to play in mini-Super Bowls.   Now that I have seen the article, though, it really is quite a tribute to the winning team from Gastonia, North Carolina, and its "complicated" Double-wing offense. HW)   *********** With the "resignation" if Air Force's Fisher DeBerry, it has been suggested by certain Air Force people that he is the best Service Academy coach ever.   I had to beg to differ. In my opinion, the best service academy coach ever is (was) Army's Colonel Earl Blaik. And it's not even close.   If only by virtue of the great number of men who served on his staff and went on to become head coaches elsewhere - at a time when staffs were small and a head coach rarely had more than four assistants - Colonel Blaik belongs among the greatest of all college coaches:   Paul Amen... George Blackburn... Chief Boston... Eddie Crowder... Paul Dietzel... Bobby Dobbs... Sid Gillman... Jack Green... Andy Gustafson... Dale Hall... Tom Harp... Herman Hickman...Eddie Hirshberg... Stu Holcomb... Frank Lauterbur... Vince Lombardi...Johnny Sauer... Dick Voris...Murray Warmath... Bob Woodruff... Bill Yeoman   Dietzel and Warmath went on from Army to win National Collegiate Titles (Dietzel at LSU and Warmath at Minnesota), and Gillman and Lombardi went on to win professional championships (Gillman with the Chargers, Lombardi with the Packers). Lombardi, of course, won two Super Bowls.   The 10 greatest college coaches I have known in my lifetime were Wilkinson, Bryant, Parseghian, Hayes, Schembechler, Paterno, Royal, McKay, Leahy and Blaik (in no particular order).   Fisher DeBerry, although an excellent coach, doesn't make my top 30.   *********** Coach, Another report from "toyland". A follow-up to my discovery of no "offensive lineman" football cards. My son (age 10) owns Madden '06 video game for his handheld Nintendo. I was left waiting for him and his mother at the mall recently and decided to pass time playing his game. I discovered some interesting things I wanted to share:   After EVERY run play or completed pass play, the offensive player with the ball stands up, spreads his arms out with hands down, starts tuning his head side to side while nodding it up and down in a cocky manner. One can almost hear him saying "yeah, I'm bad! I'm bad!". Remember, this is after EVERY run play or completed pass play. The guy could be tackled for a one yard loss and he pops right up and does his "I'm bad" routine. Not only is this a terrible thing to display on a video game for kids &endash; it takes entirely too much time and makes the game a lot longer than it has to be.   After a touchdown is scored the player dances around as if his shorts have caught fire and he's trying to become the first human to achieve flight without the help of an airplane.   Pass plays outnumber run plays by about 5 to 1.   Finally, You'll be happy to know that I took the Titans and whipped the Patriots (the Titans having a much lower team "power" rating). How? I simply ran the entire offense out of the GOALLINE formation &endash; similar to "TIGHT". Ran a lot of QB keepers up the middle (averaged 5 yds) much like a wedge play. Ran fullback dive and a halfback toss play that I called "POWER" in my sick Double-Wing mind. I had three guys rush for over 100 yards and racked up over 500 yards RUSHING. I threw the ball 3 times, completed 2 of them for TDs. On defense mostly ran the GOALLINE defense which gave me an incredible pass rush and seemed to clog up every run gap. Time of possession was ridiculously in my favor. Final score 58-17. When my son returned he was in disbelief that I beat the Patriots so soundly with the Titans. He asked me how I did it and I told him, "Simple, I just ran the same offense that we ran this year". He,he.   Chris Dikos, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania (Yeah - but Bo-o-o-o-o-oringgggg! HW)   *********** As one who knows what it is to sit and wait and hope during a blowout, and never get in the game... I wouldn't want to play for TCU.   It was the first bowl game of the seasons, the Something-or-other Poinsettia Bowl, and the Frogs were about done thumping Northern Illinois. The score was 37-7, and they had run up 437 yards in total offense, while holding Northern Illinois - and its outstanding running back, Garrett Wolfe - to just 56. Northern Illinois was no threat to score - their only touchdown had come on a return of a blocked kick.   Yet when TCU went on offense with exactly seven minutes left, its starters were still in the game.   I'm not complaining about it from the angle of running up the score. I'm thinking about those poor chumps who evidently weren't good enough to be entrusted with a 30-point lead and seven minutes left to play.   Just one question - since went along on the bowl trip to San Diego, did they also have to be in their rooms by curfew, the same as the starters?   *********** And then there's the University of Minnesota, which has announced that its teams will not play North Dakota in sports contests because of a school policy that "discourages" scheduling games against schools with American Indian nicknames and mascots. (North Dakota, in spite of the best PC efforts of the NCAA, chooses to remain "The Fighting Sioux.")   Hold the civil rights awards for Minnesota for the time being. What great sacrifices are the Gophers making, anyhow, in dropping North Dakota from a volleyball or cross-country schedule? It's no big matter of principle to take a stand when it doesn't cost you anything. Our politicians do that all the time.   My hope is that I live to see the day when Minnesota is faced with the choice of whether to play for a national championship (and the multimillions the go with it) against the Seminoles of Florida State, or to refuse to play the game because FSU has both an American Indian nickname and a mascot.   *********** Hello Coach, This is Richard Payne from Orem, Utah. I just read your post that you are from Philadelphia. I grew up there also and then moved out to Upper Darby. You are correct, we lived and breathed sports. We played football on the concrete playgrounds and the small grass strips next to where the ELL stopped. If it was Hockey then it was the Flyers, Baseball it was the Phillies in Connie Mack Stadium. Norm Snead at QB for the Eagles, Hal Greer, Wally Jones and Wilt for the Sixers. What I remember most and what shaped me when I played is how physical we played every sport as kids. I have traveled around and lived near or in other cities and they did not come close to what I grew up with.  When I moved to another state I was often accused of playing to hard, I never could understand that. Also we often played with guys a lot older than us. If we dropped a pass we were given a demerit. They would hold their fist six inches from our shoulder and give us a shot. We learned that there was no excuse to drop a pass. Just part of it I guess. Thanks again (In the Philly I grew up in, the worst thing you could be accused of was not hustling - not giving it everything you had. It took me a long time to understand that although I was not atypical of the people I grew up playing with and against, in the more laid-back West I was something of a misfit. Philadelphians do not tolerate slackers on the field or the court, and it has often been difficult for me to deal with slackers in a time and place that values tolerance about all else! HW)   *********** I saw a movie today. I wanted to see Rocky Balboa... but Mom said no, so we went to the 2 dollar movie theater and she and the boys watched Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead mans Chest, and I saw a movie I heard about on the news called Facing The Giants , a very low budget film with no stars in it - amovie about a football coach who is coaching at a small Christian school in Georgia, and they start off 0-3 and his world is crumbling in on him, and he basically lets God come into his life and into his players. I don't know if you have seen it, but I really enjoyed it, and believe it or not I was the only one in the theater. Very Inspirational, and yes maybe corny, but I felt good about it, and not one cuss word!!!! But it does bring up things like loyalty and honor and commitment - you know, the things other people feel are dirty and inappropriate. Take care and say hi to Connie. Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho. (Very sad that you were the only person getting that message! HW)   *********** What price nannying?   Since the Seattle public schools, as part of their "nutrition policy" decided two years ago that they'd throw junk food out of school cafeterias and offer students healthier food, annual revenue is down more than $100,000 from last year, as kids leave campuses at lunch time to buy their junk food elsewhere...   And the school district is out another $340,000 a year - money that mostly went to athletic programs - as a result of the cancellation of its contract with Coca-Cola.   *********** Don't know what you thought of Oregon's yellow (?) helmets, painted with a rare paint made from a pigment extracted from the sweat glands of a hamster-like mammal found only in the higher elevations of Tibet...   Okay, I lied about the rodents. And actually, so far as I know, no animals were injured in the making of the paint, which - this is true - is very expensive and hard to make, and is supposed to make the helmets' color look different depending on your point of view. (Actually, I thought they looked like they were chartreuse.)   If you just arrived on the sports scene, Oregon's uniforms are a byproduct of Oregon's symbiotic relationship with Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike, whose founder, Phil Knight, is an Oregon grad and a big benefactor of the University. Especially its football team. ("The best owner in college sports," is what then-UCLA coach Bob Toledo jokingly called him.)   Oregon's um, "unique" uniforms, designed by Nike after allegedly polling young males to determine what they like, have been the subject of a lot of talk, much of it unfavorable. Yes, they may have helped attract players to Oregon, but in view of the way those players have played the last couple of years, the question is inescapable: are the players that those godawful uniforms attract the kind you can win with, or is there a certain narcissim about them that lends itself to NBA-like underachievement?   Besides, have you seen what those kids wear when they're not playing football? And you'd let them design your uniforms?   Maybe you think a rapper should sing the alma mater at graduation?   Portland Oregonian columnist John Canzano doesn't see the Nike-Oregon relationship in a very kindly light. He even mentions rodents.   In a column Tuesday, he referred to Oregon, with all its uniform redesigns, as "Nike's personal laboratory rat."   My feeling on the subject of gaudy, ostentatious uniforms has always been that you'd better win first before getting even thinking about fashion.   Or, to put it another way - as Rip Engle, Joe Paterno's predecessor at Penn State (no, Joe Pa did not start football there) once said to a young assistant named Paterno who suggested tarting up the Penn State uniforms: "How is it going to look when you lose?"   Oregon's play against BYU Thursday night answered that - like your ass was just spanked.   Oregon might reflect on that - and get back to playing football.   *********** The average - average - major league baseball player's salary is $2.7 million - that's $2,699,292 - up a full nine per cent from last year. The Yankees' average salary was $6.95 million.   I'm hurrying out to the ballpark to buy a ticket to opening game. I mean, damn - after seeing what Stan Musial and Ted Williams were able to do for under $100,000 a year, I can't wait to see what guys being paid that kind of money are capable of doing!   *********** GENDER TEST FAILED - An Indian runner who won a silver medal in the women's 800 meters at the Athens Games failed a gender test and was stripped of the medal. Santhi Soudarajan, 25, was tested after the race Dec. 9 in Doha, Qatar. Patrick Cox, Tolland, Connecticut (This sh-- gets weirder all the time. The AP ran a story about a guy in Seminole, Florida who is arguing that he shouldn't have to continue paying $1,200 a month alimony to his ex-wife now that she has undergone a sex change and is legally a man. HW)   *********** As evidence of the growing mutual respect between Black Lion team Kansas State and the real Black Lions - the 1st Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment, which is training hard in preparation for potential deployment - this past weekend, 15 Kansas State recruits and their families paid a visit to nearby Fort Riley, home of the Black Lions, as part of their official recruiting visits.   What does it say about K-State coach Ron Prince, a football coach who will take his recruits and their parents to an Army base to show them what real warriors are all about?     Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ   ARMY'S BLACK LION, MIKE VITI, AT THE ARMY-NAVY GAME... Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

Stanford Hires Harbaugh! (See"NEWS") Ann Arbor Repudiates Bo! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 19, 2006 - "Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race." William Ewart Gladstone, English statesman   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! ALL BUT THREE OF MY VIDEOS (DYNAMICS II, III AND IV) HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD - BE SURE WHEN ORDERING TO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT DVD OR VHS - THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION. *********** Good Morning Hugh, It was nice talking with you this week and I should call more often. I am looking forward to the new Virtual Clinic. My next purchase is to get the DVD version of the Dynamics of the DW. I have worn out my VHS copy.   Very nice tribute to the folks of Harrington and the Worcester family. Harrington is a very small town in what we call the Down East section of Maine. It is east of Cheryfield (home of former major leaguer and scout Carlton Willey) located on Route 1 in the North East woods of Maine. Good solid people with old fashioned conservative values. Those wreaths sell for ten dollars apiece in Harrington so you can see the monetary value of a donation of 5000 of them -- something those people probably never even considered. They just wanted to do something to honor those fallen soldiers.   Merry Christmas to you and the family!   Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine   *********** Hugh, It's been confirmed. It's Harbaugh at Stanford. I just posted a quickie article on the Daily website. I have a good feeling about this - can't wait to ask him how Bo influences his coaching style. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California. (I think this is a really good call. Jim Harbaugh's pedigree is good - His Dad Jack was a career coach, including two years as DC at Stanford and many years as DC for Bo at Michigan... Mike Gottfried's his cousin... He played at Michigan for Bo, played for Ditka with the Bears... He paid his dues - he spent 15 years in the NFL as a QB, but in his free moments he worked as a volunteer assistant to his Dad when he was head coach at Western Kentucky. In three years as head coach of D-IAA U of San Diego, he was 29-6, and he won 27 of his last 29... HW)   *********** Speaking of Bo... Ann Arbor, Michigan School Board adjusted their panties and put on their lipstick and voted to name their third high school Skyline High School, rejecting a proposal to name it for Bo Schembechler.   "Skyline?" That's original. There's only about a dozen of them around the country. Why didn't you just name it "Rainbow," you buncha pussies?   *********** Let me get this straight... Terrell Owens gets fined for spitting in a guy's face Saturday night --- and he appeals?   What a lowlife. The guy has absolutely no shame. Fined? He should have been banned from the league for such a disgusting act. This is the same NFL, understand, that likes to tell us about how it supports youth football - and then it allows one of its players to portray football as a game in which moral weakings spit in other men's faces.   Back when the game was played by real men, I can't imagine a guy spitting in another guy's face and ever surviving to play another down of football.   *********** Coach Wyatt, I received your materials yesterday. Everything looks to be in great shape. I love the DVD look. I only had a couple free minutes yesterday, so I threw in the Virtual Clinic DVD for a quick look. You should really teach football history as a college class. I definitely would have minored in that! How did you ever make time to learn so much about the history of the game? I cannot wait to watch and learn from you and your videos. Thanks again.   Barrett Brenner, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (I appreciate the compliments.   I was fortunate to grow up where I did - in Philadelphia, a city which still respects its history, no doubt because so much of our nation's history was made there, and a city which has always been passionate about sports. Growing up, we had a lot of teams to follow and we had a lot of local sports heroes to worship, and good sportswriters to tell us about them.   My football education started early, with a brother nine years older than me who was an absolute football fanatic. He had all the old Street and Smith's magazines (man, wouldn't I love to have them now) and he'd let me look at them and he'd tell me about this guy or that guy, this team or that team. This would have been around the end of World War II, around the time of the great Army teams of Blanchard and Davis, and I would have been six or seven.   I was hooked, and I never lost my interest in the game.   My college degree is in history, and I find myself fortunate that my formal education meshes so closely with my love of football. HW)   *********** Bill Murphy, youth coach by day and Chicago cop by night (or vice-versa) wrote to tell me that the CPD refused to allow the show COPS to shoot in Chicago, but they did allow on short segment when some Swedish police were visiting-   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqvJ7Xr6xHU (it's not for the squeamish)   *********** Fisher DeBerry "resigned" last week (or did he "retire?") as head coach at Air Force. It's rumored that he may have been offered an ultimatum by the AD to fire some assistants, and coach DeBerry, being a man of integrity, chose instead to fall on his sword.   There are those who say he is the best service academy coach ever. I personally contend that Army's Earl Blaik is one of the greatest coaches ever, and in a class of his own. But whatever happens, Air Force is going to be hard-pressed to find a man of his integrity, intensity and all-around football savvy.   As an Army fan, I am hoping that they will junk the flexbone and go to a five-wide, spread-it-out philosophy. (Army did that a few years ago, and set an NCAA record by going 0-13. They are still trying to dig out from the mess.)   *********** Regarding the NFL Network...   It's worse than you imagine. I get the NFL Network with my cable subscription. So, last night I tuned to the NFL Network to see the game since there were no High School games on at that time.   Scrolling across the top is a message saying something like, "You are not getting the NFL game. If you want to receive the NFL games, call (number) or go to (website) and complain with your cable provider."   So, apparently, not only do the cable companies have to get NFL Network, they have to pay extra for the games. If I wasn't sick in bed, I would have called the number and said they should NEVER pay the extortion. Jody Hagins, Summerville, SC (Big Football is so used to rolling over anything that gets in the way of its drive to monopolize football that it's really fun to see it run into an obstacle. As detested as cable companies are, it really tells you something when people start siding with them against the NFL! HW)   *********** This came off the Internet, and supposedly was sent to Maryland's Senator Paul Sarbanes by one of his constituents... Dear Senator Sarbanes,   As a native Marylander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.   My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.   Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.   Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her sc hool applications, as well as "in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.   Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.   If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.   Thank you for your assistance.   Your Loyal Constituent   *********** If the people you were going to visit told you they'd just lost their power, and might not get it back for a week, would you still go?   I didn't think you would. Neither would I.   Except that this was my son-in-law's 40th birthday, and my daughter had been planning a huge surprise party for him, including flying his mother, his sister, and three of his best buddies up from Texas - and it was the least my wife and I could do to drive a couple of hours and take our chances in a cold home without lights. Or TV. Or Internet.   The storm that hit the Seattle area with heavy rain before and during Thursday night's Seahawks' game followed up with enormous winds that began before midnight and lasted most of the night.   The Pacific Northwest rarely gets hit hard by weather, but this SOB really hit. All over the area, trees were uprooted or snapped off, downing power lines and crushing cars and homes. They were uprooted because the heavy rains that had soaked the ground for days made them pushovers. And they were snapped off because they are tall and lean and, increasingly, they stand alone.   Nature knew what it was doing when it grew those giants trees in groves, but there never was a developer who couldn't improve on nature, and so the trees have been thinned to make room for the houses that have swept their way through what used to be forest. And now, trees that once stood together with their mates and took the best that nature could deliver, stand isolated, like lone sentries, unable to withstand gale force winds. (There's a football lesson in there about hanging together.)   When big-ass trees come down, power lines are sure to come down as well. And they did, all over the Seattle area. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, more than 750,000 customers in the Puget Sound area were without power, and as the power crews got to work, it became obvious that in the area to the east of the metro area - where my kids live - it was going to be several days before they could flick on lights again.   It's rare when a major daily newspaper fails to publish, but so extensive was the power failure that neither Seattle paper, The Times or The Post-Intelligencer, published on Friday, although technically, The Times did get 13,000 copies of an early edition off the presses before the power failed. The last time The Times failed to publish was in 1953, and the last time the P-I missed was in 1936. In both cases, strikes were responsible.   Oh - and I suppose it can't hurt to tell you this... Do NOT bring the outdoor grill into the house to try to cook or keep warm. And do NOT bring the generator inside, either. (And if you keep the generator in the garage and the garage is attached to the house - keep the garage door open wide. And even then you're not totally sure of proper ventilation if the wind is blowing into the garage!)   And, uh, stay away from downed power lines...   And when you hear that a storm is on the way... have plenty of flashlights and batteries on hand, as well as candles and matches.   Have a portable radio on hand - The Eton FR300 Emergency Crank Radio sells for about $50. It runs on batteries but it also has a little hand-crank that enables you to generate enough power to keep it running for some time between crankings. And in addition to pulling in AM and FM stations, it also gets the audio from local TV stations - you'll find that to be very helpful in emergencies, because most commercial TV stations have much larger news-gathering staffs than even the largest of radio stations)   Cordless phones aren't worth a damn with the power out, but sometimes an old cord-type phone will still work. Cell phones are great, but charging them can be a problem. My son-in-law, who happens to work in Microsoft's Windows Mobile area, had a state-of-the-art phone that gave him Internet access - a big help when people are coming in from out of town.   In the absence of a generator, a power inverter that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter will provide all the juice you need to keep your cell phone(s) charged. But go easy on the gas, for reasons explained below.   And fill a large cooler with ice.   Have sleeping bags.   Even consider getting a room at a nearby hotel. But move fast - other people have the same idea.   And if you go out to eat, expect to see lots and lots of other people   And fill the gas tanks (for some reason, the people who are smart enough to manipulate us into war into the Middle East haven't yet figured out that it would be very helpful in cases of power outages to have generators on hand to power the pumps. I mean, are they afraid they'll burn too much gas?)   And speaking of gas... if you're still in the process of designing your custom-built, $500,000 home, consider having at least some of your things - furnace, hot water heater, fireplace - fired by gas.   *********** Maybe you've seen the Pizza Hut ad: "Honey! The Pizza Hut kid made a mistake again! I got three medium size pizzas for the same price as those other guys!"   (See, the guy gets extra pizza because it's part of a special offer. But he doesn't know it - he thinks he screwed the delivery guy, and he's not about to tell him. I mean, what the hell - a free pizza is a free pizza! And this isn't the first time, either!   Cool. "Hey, honey - the blind guy at the cash register gave us a 20 dollar bill in change and doesn't even know it! It's our lucky day!"   Wouldn't want to do the honest thing and tell him he made a mistake now, would we?   *********** A blogger named Chicagoist predicted it back in February...   Anyone want to make a prediction of the crime and cheesy nightclub that'll be the scene of the next Tank Johnson run-in? Chicagoist predicts assault and battery after hitting a patron at the Leg Room.   Chicagoist got the name of the club wrong, and he missed on the crime, but he didn't miss by all that much.   Tank Johnson, Bears' nose man, was at a Chicago nightclub (why don't these guys just do what the old-timers did and drink beer in bars?) where a fatal shooting took place just 12 hours after Johnson had "apologized" to teammates and family for his third arrest in the last 18 months.   The guy shot and killed had been arrested on a drug charge a day earlier, during a search of Johnson's house. He sometimes referred to himself as Johnson's "bodyguard." (Excuse me, but a 6-3, 300-pound NFL defensive lineman needs a bodyguard?)   Johnson's most recent arrest came when police seized six unregistered firearms during the search, including two assault-style rifles (an AR-15 and a .223 caliber) and three powerful handguns - a .44 Magnum, a .50 caliber, and a .45 caliber.   In February of this year, Johnson was arrested after giving a Chicago officer a bit of an argument when the officer ticketed him for leaving his limo in a restricted parking area. Johnson reportedly told the officer, "You ain't the only one with a Glock. If it wasn't for your gun and your badge, I'd kick your ass."   We'll never know, because in the scuffle that ensued, the officer called for assistance, and managed to mace Johnson and cuff him and send him off to the clink. Later, charges were dropped.   In June of 2005, he was arrested for illegally possessing a firearm, and placed on probation.   Meanwhile, Johnson's teammates have been speaking up on his behalf.   "He's really a good guy," said Bryan Urlacher. "He got himself in a bad situation. I don't think it;s as bad as people are making it out to be. He's a great guy."   Well, sure he is. A 6-3, 300 pound guy with an arsenal like that? Helluva guy. Good man. Great teammate. What's not to like?   *********** A friend of mine was offered a job coaching the offensive line at a high school, but after meeting with the OC, he has some serious reservations. Said that the terminology was very complex, and the guy handed him a thick playbook on which the OC had made a notation that once they learned a little more about what their kids could do, they could expand it!   I know him well, and I know he understands that it isn't what's in the playbook - it's what you can teach to your players. As all good coaches realize, there are lots of piss poor teams in the NFL, and they all have thick playbooks.   I think that Vince Lombardi had maybe a dozen running plays, and probably not that many pass plays. Certainly, he was smart enough to have had many more plays - but he knew he didn't need any more.   His players executed the hell out of what plays they had, and to Lombardi, it really didn't matter if you knew which play they were running, because he really believed that if his guys executed it properly, you couldn't stop it.   Lombardi wasn't interested in showing anybody how f-king clever he was. He just wanted to beat your ass.   And that's why he's an immortal. He stands above so many of the others because he was totally focused on the mission. Today's coaches, with their ten-man staffs, are so wrapped up in trying to show everyone how clever they are that they overlook the necessity of teaching blocking and tackling and drilling on proper execution of plays, even at risk of boring the players. Not Lombardi.   *********** I think the wall along our border will finally get built when suburban parents realize that after years of shuttling little Tanner and Tyler and Skyler to their elite soccer practices, after all those private lessons and camps, their little darlings are being beaten out for positions on the high school team, and on the post-season all-star team, by kids named Juan and Diego and Carlos. Kids with surnames like Escobar and Izquierdo and Mejia.   I got a big kick out of seeing the Oregon soccer all-star teams. The two largest classifications, which tend to be made up of urban and suburban schools, had their share of kids with Hispanic names (but no black kids, by the way) but the impact of the Hispanic kids is really dramatic in the smaller classifications, whose teams are predominantly small-town and rural: On the Class 4A (third-largest) All-Star team, seven of the 11 first-teamers were Hispanic.   It is quite possible - likely - that many of these kids are here illegally, but in a state where not even the police can ask, who is to know?   Leave it up to soccer parents. They are so politically connected in America that it will be all over once they launch their March on Mexico!   Meantime, in every classification, the girls' All-Star teams were made up entirely of kids named Courtney, Sara, Ellie, Lindsay Shannon, Samantha, Kristen, Ashley, Katie, Kaitlyn, Amanda, McKenzie, Melinda and Brianna.   *********** Coach Wyatt, Long time no talk.  Hope all is well and Merry Christmas.  Just wanted to let you know the Georgia AAAAA State Championship finished in a tie.  Apparently since 1946 that is the way the State of Georgia has been doing it.  Since then, there has been 7 before this year.  There was also a tie in the AA title game also this year.  Being the first time in State history that there were 2 ties in the same year.  Thought you would like to know.  You can check out more at www.ajc.com then go to the sports page. God Bless,   Coach Dave Fleming, Atlanta, Georgia (I know that this is going to sound un-American, but I'm not sure that I feel all that bad about a tie, once two good teams have gotten that far. These aren't pros, who are fighting over the winner's share of a purse. These are high school kids, and they're playing for a plaque that probably costs the state association a couple hundred bucks at most. HW)   *********** Just stumbled on your site looking for information on the single wing. You are clearly a premiere authority, coach and trainer on football. However, I think you got off base when you printed the Ridgeway article written in Spring 2003 about Iraq. Clearly Ridgeway and his crowd were and are full of crap. It's a disservice to your status in the football world to be associated with such a lowlife. The man could not have more wrong about Iraq if he tried. NAME WITHHELD   While you are entitled to your opinion regarding Stanley Ridgeway, I did not and do not see the article you refer to (May, 2003 - "The Secret of American Foreign Affairs") as being "about Iraq," as much as it was about the fact that we are a nation with stones because our game is football - American football, and not futbol.   I did not, by virtue of my reprinting one article, "associate" with Dr. Ridgeway or endorse any other stand he may take. Our views intersected on that one article in May 2003 and I have had no dealings with him (or with his "crowd") since then.   But if I were to choose to do so, it would really be no concern of yours, and my life would continue to be rich and my status in football would remain unchanged, notwithstanding your disapproval of my "associations." Let me point out that there is no cost to you for anything I print on my site, and if you choose to peruse my work you are simply going to have to deal with the bad as well as the good. Consider that to be your subscription fee.   *********** It must run in the family... Jim Mora, Jr., whose father, shooting from the lip a couple weeks ago, referred to Michael Vick (who happens to be Mora, Jr.'s quarterback) as a "coach-killer," told a Seattle radio station last week that if the University of Washington job ever came open, he'd be first in line to apply.   Now, Mora, Jr. went to Washington, where his dad was once an assistant under Don James, and maybe he would be a good coach there, except for a couple very important details - (1) He already has a job in Atlanta, and I rather doubt that Arthur Blank, the owner of the Falcons, wants his coach to be announcing publicly that he covets another job; and (2) Washington already has a coach, a guy named Tyrone Willingham, and it is considered dreadfully poor form for a coach to express interest in a job that another coach already holds.   Young Mr. Mora apologized, of course, once it was apparent that his remarks were being taken the wrong way, and said he was just joking. Right. Just joking. It's Open Mike Night at the John Kerry Komedy Klub.   *********** Just so you know, the next time you buy a ticket to an NBA game, that one of the teams may crap out on you at some point. Knicks' coach Isaiah Thomas said that his players only started the brawl the other night out of frustration over the Nuggets' continuing to pour it on after "we had surrendered."   How do you like that? An NBA team whose coach admits that it gave up What a team. What a coach.   *********** Great news today. Enjoyed the picture of the "' Hood". (Sorry, couldn't resist!)   Also, how long do you think it will take the tv types to figure out that there is no way I will pay to watch the NFL on Thursday nights but might pay to watch a college game?   Regards, Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey   *********** What gets me is the way the Title IX zealots scream and holler for scholarships for women but don't seem to give a rip when they've given to foreign women ahead of Americans.   They are not concerned about equal rights for our little girls. They are like jealous little sisters, who just can't stand the idea of the boys having a thing that they don't. Even if they don't really want it.   It is Aesop's Fable of the Dog in the Manger.   Despite several attempts to bring itself into compliance with Title IX requirements by showing that the gender balance of its student athletes reflects that of the student body as a whole, Clarion University, in Pennsylvania, announced that it was dropping men's cross country and indoor and outdoor track. The decision will affect about 25 male athletes. Clarion's student body is 61 per cent female, but only 41 per cent of athletes are female. University President Joseph Grunenwald said that adding women's sports, facilities and scholarships had had only a slight effect in trying to bring about Title IX compliance.   Thanks, President Bush.   You came into office saying that you would revisit Title IX, and you set up a blue ribbon commission to "study" it. But in reality it turned out to be more like a "pink ribbon" commission, populated with feminists and wishy-washy administrator types, and when it appeared that there might be even slight revisions to the Soviet-like requirements of Title IX, the feminists screamed bloody murder, and as a result, despite what you may have read to the contrary, Title IX emerged stronger than ever.   The insanity of the whole deal is that schools, facing the simply fact that there aren't enough women in their student bodies capable of or interested in competing at the college level, find themselves trying to achieve the dreamy-eyed goal of "proportionality" by doing such insane things as cutting men's sports on the one hand , and recruiting female athletes from foreign countries on the other.   Thanks, President Bush.   *********** With these great lower-division championships, more calls for a IA playoff will fly. Last week, the NCAA came out with an opinion calling for the disbanding of male practice squads for women's basketball. It was a defensible proposal, but with ridiculously feministic/man-hating reasoning behind it.   So I say to the anti-BCS playoff advocates: Do you really want these people administrating the playoff? Because that's who it will be, if you get rid of the Bowl Alliance/BCS that is so cursed by sportswriters. And all that money that goes to the teams and conferences that deserve it will be spread down to soccer and crew for girls who have never rowed, and hokey ads about "student-athletes." And what's good for the game will be passed by - D3 has expanded its playoff to 32 teams.   ps. Mike Gottfried just said he saw better fundamentals in the D3 game than he's seen all year in Division I. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California (Mike Gottfried is right. Just like the pros, major colleges are increasingly try to do it with smoke and mirrors at the expense of fundamentals. HW)   *********** Meantime, the lunatic fringe of the feminists in sports is trying to stop the practice among top-level women's basketball coaches of having their teams scrimmage against men.   It's not a secret that the Tennessees and Dukes and other top women's programs find that male players - good basketball players, just not quite good enough to play for their mens' varsity teams - provide the women's starters (especially the big girls) with a quality of opposition that the second-string women simply can't.   Uh-oh, say the Equal Rightsters - this is unfair to those second-stringers - those girls who sit the bench during practice because the boys can give the starters more opposition. Forget the fact that because of NCAA regulations, the men aren't getting anything at all material out of this - they are doing it simply because they like to play basketball (and maybe they like hanging around the girls). And forget the fact that those second-stringers have scholarships. How do you think they feel, seeing men do their jobs?   So now a group of women wants the NCAA to put a stop to this practice. It doesn't matter that Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Duke's Gail Goestenkors think it's a good idea. What do they know about what's good for women's basketball.   *********** Hugh, All this going down in Fayetteville - Mustain's mother releasing press statements, meetings between Nutt and parents, "we're used to 60 catches a season," and a kid deciding to transfer - is dynamite. I find this quite worrisome for the sanctity of coaches' authority. We already saw Dirk Koetter get rolled by a parent and then get fired. Great.   Don't worry too much about the Big Fellas. College coaches are well paid to put up with the kind of sh-- that HS coaches have been dealing with for years. And college coaches have agents and long-term contracts with generous buyouts. HS coaches, on the other hand, go year-to-year and can be "nonrenewed" (fired) without cause whenever it suits their administrators.   *********** As evidence of the growing mutual respect between Black Lion team Kansas State and the real Black Lions - the 1st Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment, which is training hard in preparation for potential deployment - this past weekend, 15 Kansas State recruits and their families paid a visit to nearby Fort Riley, home of the Black Lions, as part of their official recruiting visits.   What does it say about K-State coach Ron Prince, a football coach who will take his recruits and their parents to an Army base to show them what real warriors are all about?     Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ   ARMY'S BLACK LION, MIKE VITI, AT THE ARMY-NAVY GAME... Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

The Arkansas AD Acts Like a Chicken Principal! (See"NEWS") A Maine Man Honors Heroes at Arlington! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 15, 2006 - "Who dares think one thing and another tell, my heart detests him as the gates of hell." Homer, from The Iliad   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! ALL BUT THREE OF MY VIDEOS (DYNAMICS II, III AND IV) HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD - BE SURE WHEN ORDERING TO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT DVD OR VHS - THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION. THE BLACK LIONS' BLACK LIONS!   Coach Wyatt, Attached is a photo of The Britton-Deerfield Football Black Lion Award winners. They saw how you put the pictures of the winners in the News and were hoping to see themselves there. JV winner, Dan Stahl is on the left and the varsity winner, Jake Diver, is on the right. That's me in the fancy sweatshirt in the middle. Thanks so much! Black Lions, Sir! Roger Doorn, Britton-Deerfield Football, Deerfield, Michigan (Nice sweatshirt. Britton-Deerfield, a co-op team representing two small Michigan high schools, plays as the Black Lions. HW)   *********** As evidence of the growing mutual respect between Black Lion team Kansas State and the real Black Lions - the 1st Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment, which is training hard in preparation for potential deployment - this past weekend, 15 Kansas State recruits and their families paid a visit to nearby Fort Riley, home of the Black Lions, as part of their official recruiting visits.   What does it say about K-State coach Ron Prince, a football coach who will take his recruits and their parents to an Army base to show them what real warriors are all about?       *********** Should we really be paying any attention to wide receivers? about anything?   It isn't bad enough that Terrell Owens has "authored" a series of children's books, one of which is entitled, "Little T.O. Learns to Share." (To which I reply, "Since when?")   But now former wide receiver Chris Collinsworth is featured in last week's Sports Illustrated as part of "Coors Presents - Playbook for Parenting."   The fact that Coors (remember the "Twee-uns?") is telling us something about parenting should tell you something right away, but if you don't read any further, you'll miss this priceless piece of parenting wisdom from an ex-wide receiver that really sheds a lot of light on what's wrong with our society today: "I'm constantly talking with my kids," writes Collinsworth, "but I try not to force-feed them. I believe God instills in all of us the knowledge of what's right and what's wrong. So I think my children already have all the answers they need. I just want to help them reach their own conclusions."   Already have all the answers they need, do they? Apart from the rather shaky theology behind his reasoning, at least by raising kids his way he can always blame God when they "reach their own conclusion" that it's "right" (not "wrong") to rob a liquor store.   *********** I didn't even know that there was a such a thing as artificial salt until I read that 17-year-old soccer star Freddy Adu was just traded to Real Salt Lake.   *********** Hi Coach Wyatt, I'm writing to let you know how we did this year. We went 6-1 in regular season play league champions (the loss was 8-6 we had 4 fumbles and two ints. and outgained them 232 to 48) but to say we learned a lot in that game is an understatement. We went 3-0 in conference playoffs with combined scores of 84-16 and are Conference champs. Then 3-0 in regional play combined scores of 110-30 and Regional Champions. We then went to Florida for the national championships and lost both games 8-24 and 16-28 (we were winning both games at the half and came home with 478 yards of offense in our pockets with only three touchdowns to show for it and were forced to punt once in both games! Redzone became the drop dead zone) We finished 12-3 claiming fourth in country for Division II Jr. Midget but that is not really true because there is a second division II bracket we don't get to play plus all the other youth programs that don't participate at all. I am very proud of players and coaches for the commitment and hard work.   P.S. Coach we went no huddle the whole year and only had about five procedure calls. We also ran super-powers out of spread and killed guys Kevin from Montebello calls me an Idiot but if you run XX enough the "9's" stop coming and we get the center down to the "4s". We also added some of Coach Speckman's stuff (Willamette Univ. Fly offense) to the offense which went great and threw quite a bit for being DW I think it is a great offense to throw out of - we have all the mismatch advantages of being spread without losing the power run game. Also we had 10- 12 kids touch the ball every game the only reason we wouldn't have 12 every game is because I would forget to get the ball to the 2nd team X and Y sometimes.   P.S.S. for any coach who thinks he may have a disloyal parent or coach - if the thought crosses your mind, then it's true! Get rid of his butt and don't look back - you can always replace a player or find another loyal coach or do it yourself. Parents are a pain in the backside no matter what you do - some of them are just waiting for you to lose so they can talk crap. They would be happy as long as their kids are getting the touches and they can blame the Coaches for the losses. I probably shouldn't complain - I had 31 kids and only 2-3 jackass parents but that's more than enough.   P.S.S.S. Coach thanks for everything I'll see you at both clinics this year.   Thanks, Jason Arellanes, Hacienda La Puente Pop Warner, Le Puente, California   *********** My daughter, Julia, writes from North Carolina...   OK, so I'm driving Connor (my 9-year old grandson) and his friend Huntley to basketball practice and Huntley says, "Some people say there isn't a Santa Claus. What do you think about that?" So I give my standard "All I know is people believe in Santa Claus, presents appear under the tree from Santa, and it's all really special and it works for me. What do you think?" He and Connor both thought that made sense. Then Huntley said, "Well, some people say that parents are actually the ones who do it. But there's no way my parents would get up in the middle of the night and wrap presents and all" to which Connor heartily agreed, saying something about how we don't wake up for anything.   So the good news is, they still believe. The bad news is, they believe - because they think their parents are too lazy to pull it off!   *********** Saturday, for the first time ever, California is going to conduct state championships in three classifications- four of the six finalists - DeLaSalle, Orange Lutheran, Cardinal Newman and Oaks Christian - are private schools.   *********** Properly promoted (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), this sumbitch could sell out the O.B.....   The football series between Florida International and Miami, marred this year by a bench-clearing brawl that led to the suspension of 31 players, will continue in 2007.   *********** Phil Knight, founder of Nike and such a big donor to Oregon football that Bob Toledo, while at UCLA, called him "the best owner in sports," was asked if he ever tried to make any coaching suggestions. "Every now and then I give Mike Bellotti a play," he said, "but he hasn't used any of them. The time he starts taking my advice on what to do in football is when I quit donating." The people of Harrington, Maine haven't forgotten our heroes... Thursday, just as they've been doing since 1992, they laid the wreaths in Arlington National Cemetery, where so many of America's military heroes (including our own Don Holleder) are buried.   The wreaths - 5,000 of them - are donated by the Morrill Worcester, owner of the Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, and since he first came up with the idea as a way of making good use of a surplus of wreaths, it has become a production involving volunteers in Harrington, who spend an entire Sunday putting red bows on the wreaths and then loading them on a truck for the trip south.   This year for the first time in 2006, the Patriot Guard Riders (a motorcycle and motor vehicle group with over 65,000 members nationally, dedicated to patriotic events and escorts) escorted the tractor-trailer, with anywhere from 50-300 vehicles joining in the procession.   On Sunday night, the caravan made it as far as Freeport, in southern Maine, the home of L. L. Bean, where the mail-order giant hoisted a "Traditional Maine Bean Dinner."   On Monday, the caravan made it to Westerly, Rhode Island, and on Tuesday to Trenton, New Jersey, before arriving in Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening.   Once at Arlington, the laying of the wreaths began early Thursday morning.   "That first year," Mr. Worcester says, "there were just a few of us, and it took us five or six hours to get them placed. This year, we had extra help and got done in about an hour."   Adds Mr. Worcester, "We couldn't do anything in this country if it wasn't for the people who gave their lives to protect us. It's a great honor to be able to come here and pay our respects." God bless Mr. Worcester and the people of Harrington, Maine and the volunteers who lay the wreaths. *********** When Jim O'Brien left Boston College for N.C. State recently, it was only the second time in 50 years that an ACC coach had moved from one conference school to another. (In 1956, Jim Tatum left Maryland to go to North Carolina.) *********** Lamar Hunt, rebuffed in his attempt to secure an NFL franchise in Dallas, wound up joining with others to form the American Football League. They called themselves The Foolish Club. Hunt's father, legendary Texas oilman H.L. Hunt, at one time was the richest man in the world. The story, which may or may not be true, went that after the WFL's first year, old Mr. Hunt was told that his son had lost $3 million in his new venture. "At that rate," Mr. Hunt supposedly said, "He'll be broke in another 50 years." *********** Bastards. The NFL Network wasn't able to intimidate cables systems around the country into carrying its inferior product - bad games that look and sound as if they were produced in the early days of color TV - at a premium price, and after it became known that a couple of bowl games are going to be shown only on the NFL Network, and one of those games involved Rutgers, the feces hit the fan in the New York-New Jersey area. New York and New Jersey politicians, seeing a chance to make points for themselves without having to raise any taxes, loudly denounced the NFL Network for denying Rutgers fans their God-given right to watch their team in a bowl game. So this past week, just to show that the NFL folks are not the greedy money-grubbers that most people think they are, the NFL Network announced with quite a bit of fanfare a cool promotion called "Free Week." For one week, it announced, it would provide free access to subscribers to Cablevision and Time Warner Cable. And by sheer coincidence - imagine! - it is the very week that Rutgers and Kansas State meet in the Texas Bowl and Minnesota and Texas Tech meet in the Insight Bowl. But not so fast, my friend... Maureen Huff, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, said Thursday that the offer applies only to subscribers in the New York area. Fans elsewhere in the country - likely to be fans of Kansas State, Minnesota and Texas Tech are SOL. "They haven't extended an offer anywhere else," Huff said. "I'm not sure why." NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky said the network is offering a free preview to New York-area subscribers "to appease the New York residents who don't have a choice." "There's a lot of high-rises and apartment buildings in New York that don't have the ability to get service," he said. As for Time Warner customers elsewhere getting the network, he said the decision is up to Time Warner Cable - not the NFL Network. The NFL Network is available in roughly 40 million of the nation's 111 million homes with televisions, mainly through satellite providers. Time Warner says that the NFL Network is asking for too much money to carry it. (Not to say that the NFL Network's power play may have gotten the NFL in deep water, but Thursday night's game in Seattle was played in one of the nastiest storms we've seen in years; "drainage problems" caused "bubbles" to grow under the playing surface, threatening a postponement of the game) *********** More on the subject from espn.com (which, it should be said, has a dog in the fight)... NFLN Update: They are rending garments and gnashing teeth at NFL Network headquarters in California, as NFLN has now broadcast three Thursday night games and all have been duds. NFL Network was banking on outraged viewers calling their cable carriers to complain about the fabulous games they missed. Instead, so far NFLN games have been ones you're glad you missed. That will change at some point. There will be an NFLN thriller, and then the cable carriers and the league's network will get their heads together and agree on a reasonable price that allows NFLN to go mainstream.   But the fact that NFL Network game broadcasting has begun with a whimper rather than a bang makes it time to start thinking ahead to the next decade, when the league's current deals with ESPN, Fox, CBS and NBC expire. The NFLN live-game slate is an experiment; several influential NFL owners want the experiment to lead to the league taking over its own broadcasting in 2012, cutting out the established networks. My guess is that if this happened, it would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, starting the seemingly invincible popularity of pro football into a cycle of decline. Several NFL owners labor under the mistaken impression that all ESPN and the other established networks are doing is "carrying" NFL contests, adding no value to them, and so they believe the NFL itself should broadcast its own games and keep all advertising and cable revenue. This view is shortsighted. Today, ESPN and its established-channel competitors present NFL games on independent networks organized under journalism standards. That makes the games both more credible to viewers and more exciting. It's exciting to watch a game on ESPN or CBS in a way that will never happen with NFLN. The NFL Network does some things well for a project that's only in the third year, but it's always clear you are viewing an in-house corporate promotion channel. If in the future the NFL was broadcast entirely on an in-house corporate promotion channel, viewer interest would decline. Specifically, the NFL seems insufficiently appreciative of how much value has been added to its product by ESPN. There's a zany energy about ESPN no in-house broadcasting will ever offer. ESPN made it OK to be a total sports nut, OK to obsess about fantasy stats and the draft, OK to watch sports news during breakfast, OK to tape an hour of NFL highlights and review them slo-mo, OK to say to yourself "I live in the sports artificial universe, and I like it there." At the same time, ESPN made it OK to make fun of sports -- you can only enjoy the sports ecosphere if you admit to yourself it's fundamentally silly. (In literary terms, you need "ironic detachment.") The NFL never would have reached its current position of popularity and income without ESPN or something very much like ESPN. For the NFL to suppose the league can someday go it alone in broadcasting, generating viewer interest unassisted, is classic obliviousness. "We've got all these golden eggs, why do we need the goose?" The NBA once thought it was invincible, and its ratings have fallen off the cliff. Constantly TMQ reminds: There's no law of nature that says the NFL must remain so popular. ***********Coach, This is the response from Peter Harrington (#93, DT). He helped me present the Black Lion award last year and will be able to do it again this year. I'm very excited about it as you can imagine. He doesn't live close by either, Salem, MA which must be at least an hour, hour and 15 minutes away from here. It's pretty awesome that he's giving up some of his precious Christmas holiday time to do this. Thought you'd be interested. Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts Mr. Davis, I don't know if you got my previous email but I would definitely like to attend the banquet on Sunday. If you could just provide directions and a phone number for you to be reached at I will be there with bells on. Respectfully, CDT Peter Harrington, USCC, C-4 '07 Go Army Football!! *********** I am all for affording qualified black men the opportunity to be college head coaches. Two of my favorite college coaches are black men - Tyrone Willingham at Washington and Ron Price at Kansas State. Whenever a college head coaching job comes open, qualified applicants who happen to be black should be given the same opportunity as whites to interview and get the job. But first - where are all those black coaches who should be getting interviews? Very simply, many of them are not in the pool from which big colleges hire - they are coaching in historically-black colleges or, increasingly, in the NFL. I think it is disingenuous of those who decry the big colleges' lack of black head coaches to have overlooked the role of the historically-black colleges in this situation. Those colleges represent at least a couple hundred coaching jobs, and they are filled mostly by black men. At the same time, though, historically-black colleges also represent a career backwater for a football coach. They are all small colleges, and the longer a coach stays on the small-college career path, the less likely he will be to be considered for a job in a large mainstream school. At some point, those coaches have to break away and start on the big-college career ladder. Then there is the NFL, which often reaches into the historically-black colleges to identify promising "minority" coaches and groom them for bigger things by providing them with internships. This is of course a nice program, but it is no more than enlightened self-interest on the NFL's part, as many of those coaches wind up with jobs in professional football. And once they get on the NFL gravy train, they are not likely ever to return to college coaching. I simply don't think it is reasonable to insist that there aren't enough black coaches being interviewed for college jobs without at least acknowledging the sizeable number of black coaches who pursue their occupation outside the mainstream colleges' talent pool. *********** A sprinter named Ruqaya Al Ghasara from the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain runs wearing a white "hijab" (scarf) covering her head. It has a Nike swoosh on it.   ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPRINGDALE CRYBABIES... it is the story of the three freshmen from Springdale, Arkansas who evidently didn't like the way they were being used at Arkansas (Coach Houston Nutt, who discovered earlier this season that he could win a lot of football games by letting Darren McFadden run with the ball, has not been throwing the ball as much as they had been led to believe). So, just the same as they would have done if their kids were in high school, the parents went over the coach's head - to the AD. And he granted them a meeting so they could whine about "the direction of the program." There is a bright side to the story - it is conceivable that there could be a national reaction to these selfish parents that might empower coaches everywhere to tell selfish parents to f--k off. On the other hand, if a college AD doesn't have the spine to tell them that, it isn't going to empower gutless high school administrators, is it?   Never mind.   *********** Coach Wyatt, Holy Cow! Check out this article! www.wholehogsports.com/adg/175675/   Especially look at the last line of the article. Wow, there's no "I" in team, huh?   John Zeller, Tustin, Michigan   http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/175675/   *********** Coach Wyatt, Hope you are well. I'll write you another note later but just read this article about Arkansas football and it shocked me. Parents meeting with the AD! In college! Here is the link. You may already have it but it's news to me. John Grimsley, Youngsville NC   *********** By now the story out of Arkansas about the parents meeting with the AD - and he with them - unbeknownst to Arkansas' coach Houston Nutt, has been all over the sports shows. What high school coach is shocked, except for the news that parents now have the effrontery to take their problems to a college AD? Or that the AD listens to them, instead of telling them to take their f--king kids and hit the f--king road?   Every high school coach has been through something like this - mommies and daddies crying to the principal, who, thankful that it's not his scalp they want, revels in the role of Mr. Nice Guy as he nods his head and smiles and listens to their grievances about the coach.   It was only a matter of time before this stage-parenting made its way to the AD's office.   It really is a warning sign to coaches everywhere when Frank Broyles - a former coach himself - will meet, behind his coach's back, with disaffected mommies and daddies. He said they just showed up at his office unannounced and, not wanting "to be rude," he met with them. And gave them an hour of his time so they could tell him their concerns about the direction of the Arkansas program. Right. If you think that athletics directors have that kind of time on their hands, I have nice Rolex I'd like to sell you for only $20.   Now, those parents were obviously too fixated on their sons' careers to think about the timing of all this, but Frank Broyles surely should have been smarter than to listen to their whining without his coach being present.   It's been 30 years since Frank Broyles was the coach at Arkansas, but it sounds as if he's never fully come to grips with that reality. My guess is that he expected Houston Nutt to have another losing season this year, after which he'd have been able to fire Coach Nutt and hire the new coach - Gus Malzahn, maybe, the kids' high school coach who inexplicably was hired this year as the Hogs' offensive coordinator? And then, with a stableful of talent on hand - including the favorite for the Heisman Trophy - his new coach would win in his first season, and AD Broyles would look like a genius for making the hire. Unfortunately for Broyles, Coach Nutt upset the applecart, and won. Big.   And now, with the Arkansas program at one of the highest points in its history, he allows overbearing parents to air their selfish grievances and overshadow the team's success.   I admired Frank Broyles as a coach and liked him as a TV analyst, but this act of outright treachery could - should - cost him his job. And then Arkansas can make Houston Nutt the AD - before he jumps to Alabama.   *********** Meantime, as we bury 80-year-old men who went off as 17 and 18-year-olds to fight the Japanese and Germans, what are we to think of Arkansas freshmen who'll let mommy and daddy do their fighting for them? Is there a man out there reading this who wouldn't have left town if his parents had ever done that? Is there any hope of defending our way of life when even college football players are such pussies?   *********** Not that I'm for a return to hazing, understand, but this Arkansas crybaby sh-- never would have happened in those dear, dead days when seniors let freshmen know, from Day One, exactly what their place was.   *********** Even a major college coach whose record is 10-3 has parents going behind his back (or over his head - choose your metaphor) because he doesn't throw the ball enough - or to their kids enough- to suit some them.   Listen to this father. (Bear in mind that his kid is a college freshman.)   "Our boys are used to catching 60 passes a year," Rick Cleveland said. "They want to go to a college where they get the same opportunity... They are team players... but they're saying, 'Hey, I don't know if I'll be happy being in this offense, catching 10 balls a year or 15 and blocking 90 percent of the time.'"   *********** That's Mt. Hood, Oregon, from our deck. Mt. Hood's been in the news lately because there are three climbers up there and now one's been able to find them.   Out here, they say that if you can't see Mt. Hood... it's raining. And if you can see Mt. Hood... it's going to rain.   Mount Hood is about 50 miles east-southeast of us, as the crow flies, and I took this shot one morning last week, during a spectacular sunrise.   Yes, that beautiful sunrise means it's going to rain, and sure enough, a day or so later, the weather turned bad. Down here, it falls as rain, but up on Mt. Hood, with an altitude of 11,000+ feet, it falls as snow. We haven't seen Mt. Hood for almost a week now (yes, that means it's been raining) , so you know the snow has been piling up. There are at least seven feet on the SOB by now.   We're looking at the north face, which the three lost climbers tried to ascend. Unfortunately for them, the day that I took this shot would have been a much better day to try climbing it than the one they chose. As I write, it is raining down here and snowing up there and the wind is blowing in gusts of 40 mph down here and 100 mph up there. I don't want to sound callous, but people around here know better than to try climbing Mt. Hood in December.   *********** Do these NFL announcers ever actually watch the game. Thursday night, Seattle's Jeramey Stevens jumped up and caught a pass in the end zone, and Bryant Gumbel started telling us that it was because Stevens is 6-foot 7, blah, blah, blah. Except that, although Stevens did jump, he caught the ball against his chest. A man 5-foot 7 could have taken it away from him.   *********** Hello Hugh...... Merry Christmas... .hope you and your family are in the holiday spirit and that all is well your way.... sunny and 51 degrees right now.. does not even seem like the month December here... .we had a lot of snow and cold weather last week.... .all gone as of today.... we are all fine... daughter is finished today and will be home and then son is finished next Tuesday and will be home.... running is going well........ we have a new coach at Hiram College..........our defensive coordinator got the job... he is cleaning house and starting fresh.... another coach and myself were asked back.... I am going to be coaching the offensive line.. helping with special teams and most likely do the conditioning program with the plyo's..... ladder drill.... hurdles....all the fun stuff which I enjoy... my son lettered as a freshmen... he started the second half of the season at center after beating out the senior captain....so proud of him.....we have an unofficial recruiting day coming up this Saturday with other 60 recruits and their parents coming in.....going to be a BIG day on campus..... I am looking forward to it all.. .how about TROY SMITH from Ohio STATE??...... we are so happy here..... he was in Cleveland yesterday back at his high school...... Coach Ginn Sr (his coach, and dad of Ted Ginn, Jr.) is a great guy...... we know each other and we always talk when together..... usually at track meets in the spring...... well.... just wanted to keep you informed of things my way..... PEACE and GOD BLESS..... Michael Glodowski, Cleveland, Ohio   *********** Todd Dodge, highly successful coach at Texas' Southlake Carroll High, has been named head coach at North Texas.   Now, I'll admit that I don;t know the first thing about Coach Dodge, but I am willing to bet that his high school success is due in some part to having some very good kids. It ain't necessarily going to be that way at North Texas.   Without even getting into the fact that certain high school coaches find themselves in situations that are simply more conducive to building winning programs than others, college recruiting can bring any coach to his knees. Think that competitors won't be telling kids about the chances they'll be taking going someplace that just hired a high school coach?   When the subject of a high school coach making the jump to college is mentioned, everyone thinks immediately of Gerry Faust, who despite incredible success in high school was not successful at Notre Dame. And how much tougher is it going to be to persuade good players to go to North Texas than to Notre Dame?   There is quite a difference between coaching 17-18 year-olds who live at home with both parents, and whose class attendance and off-the-field activities you can fairly easily monitor, and 21-22 year-olds who live God knows where and may or may not be attending class at all. (I won't even get into some of the things college athletes do in their spare time.)   And then there is the matter of staffing. I hope that Coach Dodge can pull it off. But I doubt that he can do it with his current high school staff, which means there is the potential of falling prey to the sort of palace intrigue a new coach can run into when putting together a brand-new staff with college coaching experience (some of whom may see their boss as a Harry High School guy who doesn't really know his way around college ball).   *********** Back in 1986, when I was interning at LSU, the AD was incensed when he was contacted by a coach's agent. Said he couldn't imagine such arrogance, and said he wouldn't hire anybody whom he couldn't deal with man to man, face to face.   Now, of course, it's commonplace for coaches to have agents, and when a coach says that he never talked with the people from such-and-such a college, he isn't necessarily lying. Not technically, anyhow. He probably didn't. But his agent did.   Also, a lot of times when you see certain names mentioned as "candidates" for a job, those names are being thrown out there by agents, trying to keep their clients' name sin play, whether or not they really are candidates.   What I find really hilarious is that now even assistants have agents. WTF!?!   *********** Paul Arizin, whom I remember from by boyhood days in basketball-crazy Philadelphia as a star player at Villanova and then for our hometown Warriors (let's not get into all the moves that cost us the Warriors and replaced them with the 76ers), died Tuesday in Philly at the age of 78. He was selected as one of the 50 greatest NBA players of all time.   He once scored 85 points in a college game, and was the fastest NBA player to reach 10,000 points.   He played only two games of high school basketball before being cut as a senior, and he didn't even go out for the team until he was a sophomore at Villanova. But by then he'd grown to 6-4, and he'd played an enormous amount of basketball in gyms around a city where the competition was fierce. And he had that jump shot.   Playing in church and intramural leagues in low-ceilinged city gymnasiums that often doubled as dance floors, he developed a low-arced, one-handed jump shot that was exceedingly rare in that pre-World War II era.   "It was strange how I developed it," he once said. "Because they held dances in those gyms, the floors would be very slippery. I couldn't get my feet set under me to try some of my shots, so I started shooting with my feet off the floor."   "It's not very often you get a chance to interact as an adult with someone who had been your hero as a youngster, but I got that opportunity when Paul and I played on the Camden Bullets," Sonny Hill, an icon of the local basketball community, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.   "I used to listen to Warriors game on the radio," Hill added, "and I just identified with Paul Arizin. It was an era of set shots and one-hand stabs. He was one of the first to use the jump shot. And to this day, Paul Arizin's jump shot remains one of the classic jump shots in NBA history."   His first pro team included Jumpin' Joe Fulks, believed to be the originator of the jump shot Mr. Arizin would master. Center Neil Johnston joined the Warriors a year later. Subsequently, Mr. Arizin teamed with several of his peers in this basketball-rich city's hoops pantheon - Wilt Chamberlain, Tom Gola and Guy Rodgers.   Now only Gola, who is in poor health in Florida, remains from that potent Philly foursome.   "I just loved playing basketball," Mr. Arizin said in a 1998 interview. "It's hard for me to believe that I'm in Hall of Fames with people like Wilt because I never ever imagined that was possible when I started playing in all those dark little gyms."   "Paul Arizin was also one of Wilt's idols," Hill said.   Paul Arizin spoke at Wilt Chamberlain's funeral.   He played his entire career in and around Philadelphia, and was such a Philly guy that when the Warriors moved west in 1962, he stayed east. He was 34 years old, but he still played three more seasons of basketball for the Camden Bullets of the Eastern Basketball League. (If you knew anything at all about Camden, New Jersey, you would pay your compliments to the person who came up with that nickname.)   While playing with the Warriors in 1960, he went to work with IBM as a sales rep, and stayed with the company until he retired in 1985.   He lived in the same house for 52 years. And he was a man of faith. Said his son, Mike, "My dad was a daily Mass-goer since his boyhood... every day, come rain or shine, work or travel... every day."   Wrote Mike Arizin in a tribute to his dad, "He said to me many times that his NBA career came at the right time, and that that he was so glad he was not playing now, when the primary motivations were fame, fortune and accolades...all things that my Dad had no time, whatsoever, for. It just was not who he was."   Here's what really stood out in his obituary: in his second season as a Warrior, he led the NBA in scoring. But with a war going on in Korea (the Truman administration insisted on calling it a "police action," but everybody else in American knew exactly what it was), he joined the Marines and served two years in Korea before returning to pro basketball.   Is there one guy in today's NBA who could even make it through Marine boot camp?   ARMY'S BLACK LION, MIKE VITI, AT THE ARMY-NAVY GAME...     Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

K-State Recruits Visit the Black Lions! (See"NEWS") Bob Toledo, a Good Man, is a Head Coach Again! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 12, 2006 - "Give me a choice between an outstanding athlete with poor character and a lesser athlete of good character, and I'll choose the latter every time." Tom Landry   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! ALL BUT THREE OF MY VIDEOS (DYNAMICS II, III AND IV) HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD - BE SURE WHEN ORDERING TO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT DVD OR VHS - THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION.   *********** As evidence of the growing mutual respect between Black Lion team Kansas State and the real Black Lions - the 1st Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment, which is training hard in preparation for potential deployment - this past weekend, 15 Kansas State recruits and their families paid a visit to nearby Fort Riley, home of the Black Lions, as part of their official recruiting visits.   What does it say about a football coach who will take his recruits to an Army base to show them what real warrriors do?     Black Lions Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Pat Frank wrote me to say, "Coach Prince is the real deal - I want to train the Wildcat Team and have them become 2-28 Infantry and fight on our flank!! Ron Prince saw the partnership with 1-28 Infantry and 1ID as a unique aspect of playing at KSU - a special teams event.   "I have watched him closely since he arrived - very impressed, that is why we pursued KSU Football to partner with the Black Lions - he is all about Team and Leadership (comes from having a father as an NCO and from a hard working Midwestern Family), he takes the field with the Team and departs with the Team, ensures that university traditions are upheld (alma mater), is a tremendous spokesperson, builds the next generation, makes players work - not handing out towels to guys with big egos - its about more than football"   I can't think of any higher praise for a football coach than to have real warrior, a real leader, speak of him in the way LTC Frank, a real warrior, speaks of KSU Coach Ron Prince.   Coming soon - look for the IRON LION COMPETITION!!!   With their giant Grizzly mascot in the background, Wichita Northwest High in Wichita, Kansas, honored Luke Mueller at their recent awards ceremony, and on hand to help make the presentation was a genuine Black Lion from Ft. Riley, Kansas, Captain Sean McCoy. There to see their son honored were Luke's parents, Debra and Paul Mueller. In his letter of nomination, Coach Jonathan Thompson noted that Luke, a wide receiver in 2005, could very well have been All-City at that position that season, but losses to graduation necessitated moving him to corner. Added Coach Thompson, "He developed into a sure tackler and leader of the defense. He did come in some games at receiver and made some key catches.He also returned kickoffs and punts.He made it to every summer workout. He was often the one who called other guys to get them to workouts when they missed. He led by example and also was a vocal leader." (You are invited to send a photo or two of your Black Lion Award presentation!) *********** Just about four years to the day after he was given the shaft by UCLA, Bob Toledo, a very good man in my book, is back as a head coach at Tulane.   His last time as head coach was back on December 9, 2002, when UCLA's athletic director, a petty tyrant named Dan Guerrero who had been on the job at UCLA for just five months - he'd come to UCLA after working at two athletic powerhouses that didn't even have football - Cal State-Dominguez Hills and Cal-Irvine, the latter a place that takes its sports so seriously that its teams are called The Anteaters - let him go.   His team had gone 7-5. They were 7-3, but they lost their last two games, to USC and Washington State, both of them BCS teams and Pac-10 co-champions.   In all, UCLA played eight bowl teams that season. (It would have been nine, except that Cal was on probation and had to stay home.)   I like Bob Toledo. I have worked with him at summer camps, when we had the quarterbacks. I know he is a good guy, and I believe he is a decent guy. He has paid his dues. He told me of the time he was head coach at University of the Pacific, when he took his team to South Carolina to get their brains beat out in return for a big check. They were on a tight budget, so after the game they got on the buses and went straight to the airport for the flight home, where each kid was handed a box lunch from The Colonel.   There is no question he can coach. He ended the 1997 season with 10 straight wins and opened the 1998 season with 10 more.   But his stay at UCLA was star-crossed. That 20-game winning streak was ended at Miami in an end-of-season game that was originally scheduled for the start of the season but was postponed because of a hurricane. UCLA's season had in effect already ended, capped by a big win over crosstown rival USC, and almost anyone could have predicted what was going to happen to it. Miami wasn't very good at the start of the season, but by the end of the season, the Hurricanes were a lot better, partly because they had discovered Edgerrin James, and they beat the Bruins. Even so, it was a 49-48 thriller, which the Hurricanes won in the last minute.   Bob had well-publicized problems with players who used phony handicapped-parking permits so they could park closer to the practice field. Not to excuse what they did, but if you don't know LA. you can't appreciate the desperate things people will do to find a parking space. In 2001, he lost the services of DeShaun Foster, perhaps the best back in the country at the time, in midseason, when Foster was discovered to be driving a vehicle "loaned" to him by a UCLA booster, and the NCAA suspended him.   And then there was Cory Paus. Paus, UCLA's starting quarterback, we had gotten into a couple of drunk driving scrapes but never told Coach Toledo about them. The news finally came to light just before the USC game. Paus still started, but UCLA lost, 27-0.   In 2002, UCLA was picked to finish sixth in the Pac-10. When Paus went down in mid-season, Toledo was forced to go with freshmen quarterbacks, but somehow, despite the two end-of-season losses, the Bruins managed to finish fourth.   Let this be a lesson to you guys who think you can save the world, or even one head-case quarterback: Paus, when asked to comment on Bob Toledo's firing, was said to be "barely able to contain his glee." He said, "I support the decision." What a turd.   Wrote T.J. Simers in the Los Angeles Times, back at the time "Toledo got the bum's rush in the end, and he deserved a lot more for the entertainment his teams provided each Saturday, and the way he conducted himself through both the highs and the lows of it all... The whole thing is a farce, of course, and right now I'm talking about the state of college athletics because of what has happened to a truly decent man, who exceeded preseason expectations, guided his team to a 7-3 record only to lose two in a row to a pair of the BCS final eight and then lose his job."   Welcome back to the job, Coach Toledo. *********** Hugh, One comment... Coach Rodriguez... What ever happened to your word???? If these coaches can't give it , what do you expect from your players? Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho (I guess he is staying after all, but only because WVU matched Alabama. But it doesn't matter to me - as you said, he gave his word! It's a major part of what's wrong with America today. HW)   *********** Am I losing my mind? Rodriguez says he's going to stay at WVU as long as they'll have him, but then Alabama offers to pay him $2,000,000 - plus pay $2,000,000 to buy out his contract at WVU, plus pay some $2,000,000,000 to settle with Mike Shula - and he's as good as gone to Tuscaloosa, when at the last minute he decides his heart's in West Virginny after all. Actually, not after "all," but after they up the ante for him, after having just given him an extension back in August.   And to think I heard Paul Maguire on TV babbling about Rodriguez' "loyalty" to his alma mater and his home state.   Yeah, loyalty.   I still think they might have been better off with $2,000,000 in Alabama's money in exchange for releasing him from his contract.   *********** I doubt that Alabama will have any problem coming up with the money to hire the right guy. Why, I read a report that said that the Alabama athletic department brought in $23,784 last year through off-season rental of Bryant-Denny Stadium.   It didn't say how much they made from bake sales and car washes.   *********** The Rodriguez tale reminds me of the old story about the guy who walked up to a very nice-looking woman at a fancy affair and after a drink or two with her said, "I find myself attracted to you... would you go to bed with me for a million dollars?"   "Yes, for a million dollars, I would," she said.   "Well, then," the guy said, "Would you go to bed with me for twenty dollars?"   "What?" she huffed. "What do you think I am, a whore?"   Replied the guy, "We've already established that. Now, we're just negotiating."   *********** 16 MILLION DOLLARS FOR BARRY BONDS TO PLAY IN SAN FRANCISCO AND TAKE A SHOT AT HANK AARON'S CAREER HOME RUN RECORD!   DAMN! 16 MILLION DOLLARS!   That's insane. Look, I know that the guy's a creep and all that, and he's unworthy of a shot at Aaron's record, but give the guy a break.   16 millions dollars? He shouldn't have to pay San Francisco that much money just to play baseball! There's got to be some team out there that would have taken less.   *********** One reason Michigan should NOT be in the national Championship Game They didn't even win their own conference.  How can all these people even consider them for the National Championship game.  BTW, I would LOVE to see it be a hard requirement...  it would force Notre Dame to choose...  all the money for themselves or join a conference and play a REAL schedule. Jody Hagins, Summerville, South Carolina   I, too, am somewhat in favor of that conference championship requirement. At this point.   But the BCS definitely isn't.   You will remember, though, that the BCS didn't let it prevent them from putting Nebraska in Rose Bowl to play for the "national championship against Miami a few years ago.   Colorado, winner of the Big 12 after beating Nebraska in the conference championship game, got sent to the Fiesta Bowl to play Oregon (#2 in both bowls), but #3 in the BCS formula.   I guarantee you that if there were an eight-team playoff, six spots would go to the six BCS conference champions. NBC Dame would get its automatic spot, and that would leave one spot, to go to...? Boise State? or Michigan. Who do you think? Money talks. Bye, bye, Boise State.   Some of the basketball people remember what it was like back when only conference champions got tournament bids, and typically three or four ACC teams that were far superior to most conference champions got left out.   Oh well. I love the arguments. And I hate the idea that someday somebody might try to tell me, "they won the playoff, and that settles it."   Admit it - you're glad Florida's in there because you know that they were lucky to beat Carolina! And I don't blame you!   *********** Photos from the National Football Foundation's recent College Football hall of Fame Inductions http://www.footballfoundation.com/news.php?id=1049   *********** If you think that high school games on TV are cool, especially those between some of today's "super teams", consider what Joe Henderson wrote in the Tampa Tribune:   A game in 2005 between Hoover, Alabama and Ponte Vedra (Florida) Nease was seen in nearly 1 million households, a prep record for ESPN.   That came with a price, though. Nease, which plays Plant High today for a state championship, was recently fined $20,000 by the FHSAA for violations that included recruiting a student-athlete to move to the school district from Virginia.   "That guy came to Nease because he saw them play that game against Hoover," said Sonny Hester, the FHSAA associate commissioner for eligibility and compliance.   "He was recruited by television."   *********** Washington State's basketball game against Idaho the other night didn't start until almost 10 o'clock - 9:54 to be exact. Afterward, WSU coach Tony Bennett called it "Coaches Against Narcolepsy."   *********** For most of the game, Florida's 5A title game between Lakeland and St. Thomas Aquinas was a dozer. It was 21-0 Lakeland at the half, with no signs that the game wouldn't coninue along that course.   Lakeland, with Chris Rainey having run for over 200 yards, led, 21-7 with about five minutes left to play, when Rainey ran a buck sweep to the right and broke a long touchdown run to make the score 28-7.   Big mistake. In retrospect, he should have stumbled after making five yards. Five yards at a clip and Lakeland might have been able to run out the clock.   Instead, St. Thomas Aquinas returned the kickoff deep into Lakeland territory, and score to pull back within 14.   And then they onside-kicked. And recovered. And scored, to make it 28-21.   And onside-kicked again. And recovered again. And scored again - to send the game into overtime.   The Lakeland victory in overtime was anticlimactic.   *********** In Oregon 6A football, Portland's Jesuit High School fell a bit short of its 60-point-plus performances of the previous two weeks, scoring just 56 points against its opponent, Beaverton Southridge, to win the state title.   It's not as if they didn't try to score 60.   Leading 35-0 at the half, they didn't pull their starters until 6:43 remained in the game. (I later read that they had 40+ seniors on the squad. Wonder how the coach explained that one.)   Jesuit blitzed throughout the third quarter, and with the score 49-0 and 2:18 left in the third, their starting quarterback threw for a touchdown (his third of the night).   God, I'd love to see that Jesuit coach spend just one game with a team of minimal talent, and having to play against a coach like himself.   The irony is that much was made during the game telecast of how Jesuit tries to instill humility in its students. Evidently it's a lesson that doesn't extend to the football field.   *********** Think our game doesn't have a few things that need fixing? The Oregon Class 5A championship was won by Corvallis over West Albany on a field goal in overtime. The Player of the Game was the f--king Corvallis kicker, who made two extra points and one of two field goal attempts.   *********** Great sports satire from thebrushback.com---   COLUMBUS, OH--The BCS title game is still a month away, but it looks like the Florida Gators have already won. That's because the Ohio State Buckeyes, the number one team in the nation, have unexpectedly forfeited the game in order to avoid facing the wrath of the mighty SEC, the toughest conference in all of college football.   "As you all know, the Florida Gators hail from the Southeastern Conference, a powerhouse conference that is the toughest, grittiest, and most talented in all the nation," said Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel. "As good as we are, we're not stupid enough to put ourselves in the potentially embarrassing situation of having to face the SEC champion. We're a good team, but the SEC plays on a whole different level as the rest of the nation. In fact, I'd like to someday be an SEC coach, though I probably wouldn't cut the mustard because SEC coaches are hard-nosed warriors and I'm kind of a dork."   Tressel also pointed out that Florida spent its season playing against other SEC opponents while Ohio State played against teams from the inferior Big 10 conference.   "We've never seen a team like Florida before," said Tressel. "We have not had a taste of SEC football at all. The best team we've played this year is Michigan, and those guys are from the Big 10, which is like the SEC Jr. Florida, on other hand, has played Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia. Read that list again. You think we could have handled all those teams? Not likely. And I don't even want to think what an SEC defense would do to our poor little Troy Smith. Bye bye Heisman, hello full body cast. No thanks. We'll skip the game and live to suck another day."   www.thebrushback.com   *********** For some time now, our two area newspapers have occasionally run expanded obituaries of local people. I suspect that it's part of a national trend. They're almost biographies, and I find them interesting because they give us inside look at the lives of normal people of no great renown whom we never would have known anything about.   This past Saturday's feature in the Vancouver Columbian was headlined "The Perfect Husband." (Of course, my wife gave me a little grief about that heading.)   Turned out the guy had been married four times, and his fourth wife talked about how devoted he was to her: "He sold his pickup so be could buy a car, because he couldn't take me out in his truck."   I immediately became suspicious. What kind of man would want a woman who wouldn't ride in his truck?   And then I knew I would never measure up, when she gave him the highest praise some women (not mine, fortunately) can give a man: "He never even watched sports. He was the perfect husband."   *********** Hugh, I sent a short congratulations note to Mike Viti at the Military Academy. Today he replied back to me, shows what a class guy this young man is. Also one of my coaching friends here in Boise (he actually took the Wood River Job in Sun Valley 2 years ago), anyway his 2nd son is a freshman (plebe) at the Military Academy and I asked Mike Viti to check in on him if he could. His response was he would take care of that. Just thought you would like to hear that. Take care Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho   *********** I have two good TX H.S. Football coaching avoidable blunder playoff stories you'll appreciate - I'll send them later this evening. The first is a 5-A undefeated vs undefeated story: a fake punt with under 2 min to play on their own 38 - while they were ahead by 5, and a Class 4-A team down 9 in the 3rd qtr with first and goal at the 1 with four straight incomplete passes because, hey, we're an athletic Spread offense team and don't 'need' (have not planned for) any short yardage running game. Guess which teams lost each game? Mark Bergen, Keller, Texas   *********** Three weeks or so ago the only thing standing between UCLA coach Karl Dorrell and the angry mobs who wanted him fired was the AD that hired him. Since then, he's beaten USC, and now I see him mentioned as having NFL potential   And then there's Mike Riley at Oregon State. Back in mid-season fans and media types were calling for his head, and suddenly he turned up as a finalist at Arizona State.   *********** Coach- We had quite a bit of success running superpower in our semi final game against Limon. Using mostly Tight 88 and 99 superpower, TE dump pass off the superpower and fullback dive, we beat a team that had won three straight Colorado 1A state championships and a 50-0 state record winning streak. By the time their prolific offense took the field after having to stop our big backs, they were exhausted. A great win!   However, we faced our nemesis in Akron HS in the finals. They controlled the clock and wore us out with their single wing attack and won their third state championship, each one has been against us.   John Nichols, Lyons, Colorado   *********** Hugh, How are you? Forman football finished up with a winning season. We lost our last game to our league champs 24-6, but my kids put in a tremendous effort against a very good team. We were down 18-6 to start the 3rd quarter and came out in the stack and started to move the ball until we fumbled it away. We continued to move the ball but fumbled it away a couple more times. My center was trying to gut it out with an injured hand, which botched a couple of snaps. I can't really fault the kid for trying to be a warrior out there; it was poor coaching on my part to not get him out.   I have received a lot of compliments from folks here concerning the Black Lion Award. For our kids here, who struggle mightily with academic and other issues, playing on a team and learning how to be a team player is so important in their overall development and future success.   Following your news over the past few weeks I have some thoughts on the whole college "coaching carousel" First of all, I think the NCAA should mandate that no coaching changes be made until after the season is fully over i.e. after the BCS championship game. This type of NCAA mandate is certainly more appropriate than their ridiculous nickname policing.   As one who got really turned on to college football as a kid watching the 1979 Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Penn State, with my two older brothers rooting for PSU, I, of course, started pulling for Bama and have had a soft spot for the Crimson Tide ever since, I was very glad to hear that Rich Rodriquez is staying put at WVU. I see a good trend happening here with him and Greg Schiano staying true to the programs they are building.   As for Bama, I cannot understand why they screwed Mike Shula the way they did and then basically asked Rich Rodriquez to walk out on WVU in the same manner that Dennis Franchione walked out on Bama for Texas A&M. Mike Shula took over at Bama with the program under a cloud after the Mike Price debacle and numerous NCAA sanctions. Shula does a decent job rebuilding things, even produces a 10-2 season, but then gets fired before the sanctions have run their course...and he's one of their own! Good luck finding a proven winner...hey come to think of it, Mike Price is a proven winner!   What coach in their right mind would take that job? Sad state of affairs down there.   I trust you saw last night's tilt between Montana and UMass. Great atmosphere there in Missoula...I just wish we could have seen a little snow. I loved the way UMass ran the ball to maintain possession and win that game. I was also impressed with their screen and play-action passing. If Montana could have had a better ground game I think they would have won. We'll see how the Minutemen (excuse me out of deference to the NCAA I'll go with Minutepeople, or better yet, Minutepersons, although that type of human particularity might possibly cause offense to the esteemed members of the animal kingdom with whom we share this fragile earth, so I'll go with minutebeings) fare in Chattanooga.   Take care Hugh and I wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!   Sincerely, Sam Keator, Litchfield, Connecticut   (It is interesting that you note the irony in Bama's trying to do to WVU exactly what aTm did with Coach Fran. I enjoyed the UMass-Montana game, too. I once had a chance to broadcast a Portland State game at Montana. It's a great college atmosphere. As you know, Montana is a huge state, and people come from all over the state to Grizzlies' games. I enjoyed watching UMass win, because I saw them play at Army last year, and most of those guys, including the QB Coen and the running back, Baylark, are back this year. And I really liked their coach, who knew I was an Army rooter but very graciously let me watch their Friday practice in Michie Stadium. HW)   *********** Coach Wyatt &endash; I really don't understand why people are upset with the campaigning that Urban Meyer did to suggest that UF should get a shot at OSU. The fact of the matter is that the BCS is an imperfect system that relies far too much on subjectivity. I would go as far to say that Meyer should be APPLAUDED for his efforts to work the system. His job is not to ensure the selection process is "fair". His job is not to make sure that other teams that are COMPETING with Florida get an equal look. His job is to do whatever he has to do, within the rules and guidelines of the current system, to get the best opportunity for his program. Lloyd Carr is a heck of a coach, but he missed the boat on this one. If I am a Michigan fan, the question I am asking is…why WASN'T Coach Carr campaigning more? Why WASN'T he doing all he could to convince and encourage voters that UM should get a second shot? IMO, Urban Meyer should be commended for recognizing what the BCS REALLY is…a student council election…voting for the homecoming king and queen…a popularity contest. Did he break the rules? Did he do anything illegal and unethical? I don't believe he did. What Meyer did was recognize the inherent weakness of an unsound system and exploited it.   Sounds to me what good football coaches do!   Thanks, Chris Dertz, Eastland-Pearl City Wildcats, Illinois   I respectfully disagree.   The SEC voluntarily entered into the BCA, and Florida as one of its members agreed to accept the BCS decisions.   Urban Meyer stepped outside the chain of command. He wasn't part of the BCS agreement but his AD (his boss) was, and it is his AD's job to make statements regarding the fairness of the system.   I think it is a coach's job to advance his team's prospects on the field of play, and I think Urban Meyer's statements bordered on the unethical.   *********** Coach Wyatt; Thought you might be interested in this article I ran across on single platoon football: http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=1055. I wonder, would you favor a return to limited substitution and who would you select for that team?   Being from Texas, I could see slotting Tommy Nobis in at one guard position and maybe replacing Lou Groza with E.J. Holub who played two-ways for the KC Chiefs. Also, I think I might have to find a spot somewhere in there for Earl Campbell. Gordy Lockbaum also came to mind.   This (single platoon ball) is a subject that should be discussed more. It saves money, humanizes the game, empowers the players and equalizes things a bit better.   Thanks, Jim Stovar, Houston   I do wish that football would somehow return to the days of two-way play, but even though it makes a lot of sense economically, I doubt seriously that we'll ever see it.   For one thing, requiring offensive players to play defense, although allowing for cost savings with smaller rosters, will mean that coaches will do what they did back in the two-way days - they will start their 11 best defenders, and then do the best they can with those guys on offense. The inevitable result will be less "exciting" play from the fans' point of view (mainly less passing, since very few of today's QB's could play defense). Live attendance will drop and so will TV ratings, and with them the dollars that drive the programs. No AD in America, already under stress to pay for women's programs, wants to consider doing anything that would drive dollars away, even in return for big savings.   Coaches would of course raise hell, since today's bloated staffs could easily be could be cut in half. Imagine - head coaches would have to go back to coaching!   I think the biggest argument would come from civil rights groups. In relation to their percentage in the overall population, blacks are "over-represented" in major college football, so by simple mathematics any reduction in the size of college rosters would affect blacks more severely than whites. And the cuts in coaching staffs would obviously result in fewer opportunities for black coaches. Civil rights groups would see that, and someone would undoubtedly bring up the "r" word and call any proposal to revert to two-way play as "thinly disguised racism."   As for my selections --- I would have to go way back, because there really aren't that many guys in the NFL - not on the offensive side, anyway - that I can project as two-way players. There are a few wide receivers who are tough enough to play defense, but I don't know where we'd put them on offense. There are a few tight ends and running backs who could play both ways, but few quarterbacks (Favre reminds me of the old two-way players).   Some of the names they tossed out, such as Deion Sanders, had to be jokes, because Sanders' tackling was a joke. Defensively, he was purely a coverage specialist. There wouldn't be much need for that specialized skill - not at the expense of giving up a tackler.   Lawrence Taylor? A "linebacker" who was mostly known as a pass rusher? Hell of an athlete, but will he play offense? Maybe tight end, if he can stay clean (remember, he's got to play both ways). For that matter, where does he play on defense? We can't use pass-rushing specialists.   There is no question that if we were to set up a game between any defensive unit in the NFL and any offensive unit - both units having to go both ways - it would get ugly fast. The offensive unit had better win the toss and take the ball, because I would give it one possession and then it would be all over. Ever noticed the way those 300-pound offensive linemen come off the field after three stinking plays and have to sit there huffing oxygen? Imagine if they had to stay on the field and play defense, too!   I have long maintained that I could take any NFL defensive unit and put together an offense running my Double-wing and we would cream the defensive unit in a two-way game. Anybody who had ever been to one of my clinics knows how I feel about Ray Lewis as my B-Back! (In fact, I think we could put together a decent goal-line offense for regular league play!)   I think one of the best things about returning to two-way play would be the respect that today's players would gain for the players of 50 years ago, and the respect coaches would gain for the offenses of those times!   (In these days of hooksliders, one of the things that people never take into account in rating the greatest quarterbacks of all time was that John Unitas played safety in college, and was considered a killer.)   *********** The four smallest schools in Division IA - Navy, Rice, Tulsa and Wake Forest - are all playing in bowl games.   *********** There is a great ad campaign being run right now by a product called Combos. It features a bit of zany cross-dressing reminiscent of Monty Python - big, burly Dad wearing a dress and a wig - and asks, "What your mom would feed you if your mom were a man?"   *********** ANYBODY ELSE SEE THE CHARGERS RUN A WILDCAT PLAY SUNDAY?   *********** Referring to the Connecticut law prescribing jail for the 17-year-old guy who, uh, "knows" a 14-year-old, Tim Brown writes, from Jackson, Tennessee...   In 1976 and 1977 this was referred as a "5 and 10." 5 minutes gets you 10 years.   So in a way we were counseled by our peers.   (Wonder how many of today's boys know what "jail bait" means? HW)   *********** One of the interests I find in your offensive sets and plays is the Wildcat offense.  The ingenuity of allowing the center to keep his head up and being an actual blocker makes the offense more advanced than the real old school single wing but still allows you to run all of the same plays of the double wing.  Although I will be buying your playbook and video soon I still want to ask if a coach were to only install the wild-cat offense should he still teach everything the same as teaching the double wing or would there be more plays to be run out of the new set?    The short answer to your question is that I think you can run my Wildcat system without first going through the process of teaching my base system with the QB under center.   But I don't think that you could do it without a thorough understanding of the terminology and numbering and all the fine points of the line play. It's really the line play that enables us to do so many things with so many different backfield (and end( sets.   *********** I was transferring some old Portland State tapes over to DVD and I enjoyed an occasional look at some of those games, for which I was the color analyst. It took me to some interesting places - Missoula, Montana, to play Montana, Stockton, California to play Pacific (which has since dropped football), to Macomb, Illinois to play Western Illinois, and to Kingsville, Texas, to play Texas A & I (now Texas A & M Kingsville).   I got to see some pretty good players, too, including John Randle, Heath Sherman and Johnny Bailey of Texas A & I and Bryan Cox of Western Illinois. The PSU Vikings were pretty good. Their head coach, Pokey Allen, was the sort to give his coordinators plenty of rope, and his offensive coordinator, a guy named Al Borges, took advantage of the opportunity and ran one of the most imaginative offenses then being run at any level. (Al Borges is now OC at Auburn, and recognized as one of the best in the business.)   One of the Vikings was a tight end named Ted Popson, who went on to play a little in Canada, and then came south and got in five years in the NFL.   There is a story about him and a Dallas company named SCA Promotions, which put on sports contests.   Back in 1998 or thereabouts, SCA put together a promotion with sports bars around the country to try to get fans to stick around for the second half of "Monday Night Football" games: at each bar, a fan would be selected at halftime to win $10,000 if the second-half kickoff was run back for a touchdown.   In all, there was about $500,000 at risk around the country on the night when Kansas City's Joe Horn returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.   But, no -. holding was called on Ted Popson, at that time backup tight end and special team performer for the Chiefs. No touchdown, no payoff.   "Ted Popson," an SCA executive said "happens to be SCA's favorite football player of all time."   ARMY'S BLACK LION, MIKE VITI, AT THE ARMY-NAVY GAME...     Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

Has Ron Zook Forgotten Where He Coaches Now? (See"NEWS") A New Source of Revenue... Why Not Sell Coaches??? (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 8, 2006 - "If I quit coaching, I'd croak in a week." Bear Bryan (who announced his retirement on December 15, 1982 and died on January 26, 1983 - one month and 11 days later)   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-D VD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNE-UP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. EXTRA!!! SEVERAL OF MY VIDEOS HAVE JUST BEEN CONVERTED TO DVD --- THEY ARE PRICED THE SAME AS THE VHS TAPES, BUT THERE WILL BE A $10 "TRADE-IN" CREDIT OFFERED TO ANYONE EXCHANGING HIS ORIGINAL VHS TAPE (MUST HAVE ORIGINAL LABELS) FOR THE DVD VERSION. THOSE VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE IN DVD ARE (1) DYNAMICS OF THE DOUBLE WING; (2) INSTALLING THE SYSTEM; (3) A FINE LINE; (4) SAFER AND SURER TACKLING; (5) PRACTICE WITHOUT PADS FULLBACK MIKE VITI NAMED ARMY'S 2006 BLACK LION     *********** In doing a little research on Mike Viti, Army's Black Lion, I came across some interesting stuff about his high school wrestling career in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, as you may know, is one of the top wrestling states. Something rather significant, I think, is the note that although he was undefeated his senior year, he was unable to participate in the district and state tournaments.  • Team Captain 2003-2004 • 112 Career Wins - 5th Most Winning Wrestler In The History Of Berwick Wrestling • 100 Career Wins On December 27, 2003 • Undefeated Senior Year - Unable To Compete 2004 Post-Season Due To Injury, • State Medallist - 7th, 2003 IPA AAA State Championship Tournament, 215 lbs • Runner-Up, 2003 NE AAA Regional Championship Tournament, 215 lbs • District Champion, 2003 District 2 AAA Championship Tournament, 215 lbs • 5th Place, 2002 NE Regional AAA Championship Tournament, 189lbs • Runner-Up, 2002 District 2 AAA Championship Tournament, 189lbs • 3rd Place, 2001 District 2 AAA Championship Tournament, 152lbs • 2nd Team, 2004 Pennsylvania All-Academic Wrestling Team • Second Team, 2003 Pennsylvania All-Academic Wrestling Team • First Team, 2002 Pennsylvania All-Academic Wrestling Team *********** Seasons Greetings Hugh! I hope all is well up there in the rain. We could use a little down here on the central coast of Ca.   I had a question as to your philosophy on the coin flip. Back in the day we wanted to win the coin flip and receive the ball. I still like the idea of taking the opening drive and making a statement. Shoving the ball down their throats and getting up on an opponent sure instilled confidence in the team and deflated our opponent. The past few years all I have witnessed is teams "deferring". I guess I'm missing something here...........  What is your take on the coin flip?   Have a great Christmas! Mike Norlock, Atascadero, California   Since I began running the Wing-T, and I realized our offensive potential of taking the opening kickoff and putting on a seven-minute drive to start the game, I have always wanted the ball.   I understand people's reasoning in wanting to get their defense out there first (and still make sure they get the ball to start the second half), but when you play a possession game based on a ball-control offense, as we do, you want the ball. Anywhere on the field. And in these days of lightning-fast offenses that can score anywhere, anytime, I don't care where the ball is. I just want to be on offense and hang onto the ball and keep their offensive stars on the sidelines.   The few occasions when I have not chosen to receive were when there was an unusually strong wind blowing from one end, and we wanted to start the game with the wind at our back. *********** 2006 - Mrs. Thompson is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison.   Hugh - FYI...Mrs. Thompson will have to register with the state for the next ten years as a Sexual Offender - a modern day scarlet letter.   Bill Murphy - Chicago Police Department   *********** I was reading your Internet humor piece, just after reading in the local paper about a fairly new law in CT. The law states that if a girl under the age of 16 has sex with someone their senior by 2 years or more, the person is charged with being a sex offender in CT. Soooo......   Scenario: Johnny takes Mary out to a movie on his 17th birthday in Connecticut. Johnny is a Junior and Mary is a Freshman. Mary is 14. Johnny and Mary have sex in the back seat.   1973 - Johnny and Mary get married in 1977 and are still married in 2006.   2006 - Johnny is arrested and charged with being a sexual offender, and has to register as one with the state.   (The judge stated that she feels the law is harsh, but there is no latitude and the law is the law, young men need to be counseled about the law to avoid having this problem.)   Rich Golden, Montville, Connecticut   *********** BASED ON REPORTS FROM THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS THAT WEST VIRGINIA'S RICH RODRIGUEZ IS GOING TO ALABAMA   To think that we sit there and listen to big-time college coaches and actually believe their lines of horsesh--.   Just a week ago, Rich Rodriguez was aw-shucksing over rumors that he might consider leaving West Virginia for, say, Alabama.   Rodriguez, who was 49-24 in six seasons at West Virginia, said it was his intention to stay at WVU the rest of his career - "if they'll have me."   You could just hear him - Aw, shucks, fellas... I'm a West Virginia guy, born and raised... Right here in these hills and hollers.. Why, my daddy was a coal miner, blah, blah, blah... I'm fixin' to stay here as long as they'll have me, blah, blah, blah.   The whole bit.   I loved it, because he and WVU were a perfect fit - he really was the right guy for the job. I swallowed it all.   So did my wife. She loved his statement, and decided to root for WVU against Rutgers on the strength of it.   And now, a week later, Rodriuez is set to become Alabama's new coach (as long as they'll have him).   Maybe he was miffed when WVU refused to up the ante to keep him - hey - maybe he did just sign a contract extension last summer, calling for a raise to around $1.1 million a year, with the possibility of another $400,000 or so in bonuses. That doesn't mean they can't renegotiate. Those ungrateful wretches!   Boy, is my wife pissed at being conned.   Apparently Alabama has a lot of bucks to throw his way, because before he even gets a dime of their money, they're going to be sending $2 million West Virginia's way - that's the amount of the buyout if Rodriguez leaves before August 31, 2007.   Come to think of it, maybe this isn't all that a bad deal for West Virginia. Think of it - TWO MILLION DOLLARS! And they don't have to share it with anybody! Hell, that's better than their share of the money from all the Big East bowl games combined!   Maybe the newest revenue source for colleges below the elite level will be developing coaches and then selling their contracts to the deep-pocketed predators of the college football world.   *********** BASED ON REPORTS FROM THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS THAT WEST VIRGINIA'S RICH RODRIGUEZ IS GOING TO ALABAMA   Half-hearted congratulations to Rich Rodriguez. If the reports are true, you have made an Auburn fan out of me.   Since the great Bear Bryan retired following the 1982 season, Bama has had six coaches. In the years since 1996, though, they've had three (four if you count Mike Price).   The three guys who followed the Bear did pretty well, by the standards of most schools: Ray Perkins, who succeeded Coach Bryan, had a .677 winning percentage in his four years there; Bill Curry succeeded Perkins and went .722, in three years, going 10-2 his last year there, but he was a Georgia Tech guy, so...; and Gene Stallings, not an Alabama guy but a Bear Bryan guy and one of the Junction Boys, succeeded Curry and went .810, and got the Tide their last national title...   But Stallings retired after the 1996 season, and in the 10 years since, Bama has had three coaches - Mike DuBose (a Bama guy), Dennis Franchione (not a Bama guy) and Mike Shula (another Bama guy).   Three coaches in ten years. Two of them were fired, and one of them - Franchione - lit out after two seasons when Texas A & M came calling. Who knows if it was the money of it he just wanted out of Tuscaloosa after finding out what it was like to work for those people.   Rich Rodriguez evidently looked at Alabama and saw a great coaching opportunity.   They haven't made me any offers, of course, but I'm not sure it isn't a coaching boneyard.   Coach Rodriguez, no matter what you do at Alabama, you will never be The Bear. On the other hand, if you had stayed at West Virginia, you might have become Their Bear. Granted, a man;'s gotta eat, and it's hard to live well in Morgantown, West Virginia on a mere million dollars a year, but there's worse things than being revered by the poeple of an entire state. Your native state at that.   You will soon enough find out what it's like to be hated by half the people of a state - they're the ones who root for Auburn. And don't always count on the ones who root for Alabama to love you, either.   *********** (Regarding the fact that the Rutgers bowl game, much to the consternation of New York/New Jersey are fans, is going to be on the hard-to-find NFL network) Something tells me you'll be discussing this in the NEWS, but I think the NFL is committing a huge boner with this Rutgers flap. When I lived in Boston, every Pats game was on TV. ESPN let the local non-affiliated network buy the feed and broadcast it by antenna. But the NFL Network, which broadcasts the Texas Bowl, blames the cable providers for not overpaying to carry their signal.   First they try blackmail on Thanksgiving, now they seek to alienate NY/NJ folks who want to watch the local team's best season in 30 years. Even the honorable Sen. Lautenberg got involved. Not to mention the NFL appears to be the Emperor with no clothes - their network sucks, and with ESPN's wall-to-wall coverage a second-rate product isn't going anywhere. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California   Actually, every bit as bad as the Texas Bowl having to settle for the NFL Network (which is a bit like putting something on cable TV back in 1970) is the BCS selling out to Fox, turning over college football's biggest show to a totally-pro network that thinks we all crave snazzy graphics and guys like Jimmy Johnson in the studio. Wait till you see what happens to college football when Fox gets through with it!   *********** Do they actually pay these guys?   (1) The Browns' receivers. They can't catch a damn thing. Did they all grow up playing soccer?   (2) The guy who calls the Browns' plays. They struggled to gain 50 yards rushing. yet on one 3rd and eight, they ran off-tackle. Oh, oh - see (1)   (3) The Browns' #92, Ted Washington, listed in the roster at 6-5, 365. I think that "365" may be short a couple dozen pork chops. It says he is in his 16th year. I honestly don't know how he was earlier in his career, but Thursday night against the Steelers, he was easily the worst defensive lineman I have ever seen in an NFL game. In a college game, for that matter. I hate to get personal, but that man's pulling down a paycheck and passing himself off as a professional football player. Can't the Browns see this? Do they think that their fans can't? I can't believe they actually cut players and kept him.   *********** Three-part question from a youth coach after his first year... I thought our main problem with the powers were that my A and C backs would run very shallow and never obtained that great angle to burst through the hole.  Also, this didn't allow the lineman enough time to lead for the backs.  The tackler would mostly come from the playside LB position.   If your playside wingback is double-teaming with the TE, that guy is the responsibility of the pulling backside linemen. They apparently are not turning up and in. The other clue that this is happening is that the linemen don't seem to have "enough time." That is because if they don't turn up and inside, they will be in the way.   What angle or aiming point do you recommend for the A or C backs on Powers? and if that angle is deeper (without using the RIP or LIZ motion), will the back side end be able to slice in and make the tackle or should I run more Powers than Super Powers to slow him down?   The aim point is the heels of the B-Back. If the end is able to catch you man, you need to get a faster man. That is one reason why we run shallow.   With the 38, do you ever give it to the B back, or do you just simply call a 3 wedge or run a 2 trap at 3 with the 38 motion after?   The companion plays are 3-base and 3 trap at 2   *********** A reader wrote me, asking what he might do to get somebody interested in employing an offensive idea he had...   I wrote back... I suppose that you could have some success on the forums.   Otherwise, I don't know of too many people willing to take a chance of running something unproven. Remember, practice time is finite, and in order to add something to an offense, you have to take something out - or just get by with fewer reps of every play. And then you have to run it in a game in place of something proven.   I have been very lucky in my career in having been in two places which enabled me to do this sort of stuff - the first was when I started out, in minor league football, where I had some very talented players, some of whom had just been released from NFL camps, and it was only natural to try different things with those guys. ("Hey - let's see how this looks!") If it didn't look good in practice, out it went.   The second was when I coached in Europe, away from the meddling of the parents and the scrutiny of the news media. My own players didn't realize that some of the stuff I was doing was experimental - I guess if that had been America I'd have been sued for using them as guinea pigs.   That was where I was able to experiment and discover that I could tighten down the splits and move my B-Back up closer and still run my Delaware Wing-T offense.   And so, after proving it on the field in Finland, when I came back to the US I was able to convince my buddy, Ossie Osmundson, (who was already running my Delaware Wing-T system) that it would work. If I had just said to him "Here's something I saw - why don't we try this?" without any proof that I could actually make it work, I doubt that that would have convinced him, because he was already doing a good job of running the Wing-T as it was, and he wasn't looking to change. Fortunately, with all the terminology already in place, it was an easy transition, and in his fourth year of running it, he won a state championship. (Interestingly, although he ran Double-Tight/Double-Wing for at least six years after I left him, Ossie couldn't break one old habit, and always continued to refer to his Double-Wing as the "Wing-T.")   I would say that your best shot is to get a team of your own, or else get a job as an offensive coach and convince the head coach to let you run it.   *********** There's Jim Tressel, who is catching hell because he didn't cast his normal weekly ballot in this past week's USA Today-Coaches Poll. He simply abstained. Up until this ballot, the final weekly ballot of the year, coaches voted in secret, but by agreement, the final ballots were made public. Tressel's catching hell because, with Ohio State's spot in the "national championship" game locked up, he didn't want to vote for either Florida or Michigan for the number 2 spot and risk having to play against the one he snubbed. I'm not sure that the Michigan people understand, and that's something he's going to have to live with every time he plays Michigan. Not that he hasn't been doing pretty well against the Wolverines, and not that that rivalry can become much more heated.   And maybe someone can tell me what Oregon's Mike Bellotti could have been thinking (or drinking)? Two weeks ago, his Ducks lost a tough one to Oregon State. Oregon State, recall, was one of just two teams to defeat USC, and just this past week, the Beavers pulled off the near-impossible and beat Hawaii (sorry - Hawai'i) in Honolulu, to finish 9-4. Two of their losses were to ranked teams Boise State and Cal. Their season was good enough to get the Beavers the Number 24 spot in the AP Poll.   They were one spot lower in the USA Today-Coaches Poll, however, possibly because Mike Bellotti left them off his f--king ballot entirely.   Stupid, stupid, stupid. For years to come, Oregon State teams will take this one onto the field with them whenever they play Oregon.   *********** Coach: Good day to you sir. Be gentle in your response, and haven't ever felt the need to say this to you ever, in all the years, but I totally disagree with you on this topic. I'm just old high school football coach, so what do I know, but.......We got jobbed! Let's see. Michigan was down 35-31 with a few minutes to go in the game and on 3rd and 15, and that POS ref calls a helmet to helmet late hit as Troy Smith is scrambling for his life AND out of the pocket. Replies showed it to be bad wimpy ass bad call. This game was in Columbus, by the way, the toughest place to go to in the country. Have you ever been to a game there? It is a vicious home field advantage OSU has. People from Michigan who go to that game, stop in Toledo, trade their car in for a cheap rental and go from there. It's just not safe for us there, during that week, and day. If that homer ref doesn't "decide" to decide the game with that horrendous call. UM gets the ball back, and in my unbiased opinion (lol), marches down the field and wins the damn game. Tougher schedule. Tougher conference. Coach, you've been on the left coast too long. Even Ohio State had some close games this year in the Big Ten. It's a brutal, unrelenting conference. As far as the Ball State game goes, being close and all that. Carr played his second teamers for most of the game, especially on D. Unfortunately, and I think he regrets it now, because it lost us "style points." He knew it was his last chance to rest a lot of guys, and he did.   I don't know how anybody really knows who the better conferences are, but until we get a playoff, this substantive crap will continue. Florida, who will get killed by OSU by the way (they haven't seen that kind of talent and speed this year in the SEC, guaranteed), should have lost to South Carolina, if not for two blocked kicks, one x-tra point, and one short field goal towards the end of the game (17-16) score. Barely beat a 500 level FSU team, and beat Arkansas in the "title game." Arkansas, who had no QB, and their best player, McFadden, was barley able to walk after sustaining a high ankle sprain right out of the gate that night. Arkansas, who is a gimmicky kind of team, like, say a Northwestern in the Big Ten. I'd like to see a SEC team, or a Pac Ten team come up here in November, or USC here in January for a football game and get throttled by three or four Big Ten teams, with some of our home field weather, instead of us having to play on their "home field" every time we make a bowl game. Think about that. Every time we make a bowl, we have to go play on somebody's home turf. Why can't there be a cold weather outside bowl game? I hope you are right about Florida winning, and Michigan nailing USC, or vice versa and getting a split, but I don't see it.   Lastly, my ranting will finish with Gary Danielson, who resides locally, had not better show his mug around town for a while. To say he is a hated man in these parts right now is not a strong enough statement. The way he shamelessly touted Florida as the deserving choice probably swayed a lot of voters with his late night, fourth quarter bluster was an absolute disgrace!   Keep up the great work, Coach. God Bless and Merry Christmas!   David J Livingstone - Troy, Michigan - Troy High School   I will be gentle. I like Michigan. I like everything they stand for. I like Michigan A LOT better than Florida, and I like Lloyd Carr A LOT better than Urban Meyer.   I know that OSU had a huge home-field advantage, and I know that Michigan could have won, and all along I had no problem with the idea of a rematch.   And then USC lost and I was faced with the choice between a rematch and a fresh matchup, against a team that plays exciting football, and a team that had put it on the line in a conference championship game, and I went with the latter.   I do question the wisdom of Gary Danielson's being caught up in the excitement of the moment. He should have been more reserved, I think.   I also question the idea of coaches voting, since it is in their interests to get their conference team in the final game, and thereby bring in more money - A LOT more money - to all the conference members.   So all seven of the SEC coaches with votes - Croom, Fullmer, Miles, Nutt, Richt, Spurrier and Tuberville - voted for Florida, while the Big Ten split 4-1, with Tressel abstaining. Carr, Hoeppner, Smith and Tiller voted for Michigan, while Zook voted for Florida. Now, why would a Big Ten guy vote for the team that fired him a couple of years ago? I know, I know - he recruited some of those Florida kids, and he still loves them (even if they did get him fired). But you know, I'm just cynical enough to suspect that there might even have been something in Zoo's severance agreement with Florida calling for him to vote for the Gators in cases like this. Think that's far-fetched? We're talking megabucks here, and short of murder, nothing is unthinkable. In fact, after a few more years of this, even murder could be acceptable. Thank God the Russians don't play college football. So , what if Tressel were to have voted - he wouldn't dare demean his own league by voting against Michigan, would he? - and Zook were to have voted for Michigan?   Could that have tipped the scale, at least in the USA Today-Coaches Poll?   Blame Tressel and Zook as much as you blame Gary Danielson. Actually, blame Tressel. At least Zook and Danielson had opinions. By weaseling the way he did, Tressel screwed the Big Ten. He owes them big time.   PS - Former Washington State coach Jim Walden, a Mississippi native who now lives in Spokane and does color on the WSU radio games, votes in the Harris Poll, and he said that he had Florida FIRST on his ballot! Said that in his judgment, there's no way Ohio State (or Michigan) could make it though Florida's schedule without picking up at least two losses. (I assume he means Florida's conference schedule, because I really do think that Ohio State and Michigan would both made it past Central Florida, Western Carolina and Florida State without losing)   *********** There is a HUGE deal going on right now in Lakeland, Florida, where the local high school team, ranked fourth in USA Today, is getting ready to play Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas Friday night in the state 5A championship game.   For a while there, Lakeland thought they might have to play without star running back Chris Rainey. Rainey, who has already committed to play for Florida, has rushed for 2.163 yards and scored 29 touchdowns this season, and last week, in the semifinal win over Daytona Beach Mainland, he had the best game of his career, rushing for 326 yards and scoring three touchdowns.   Tuesday, a story in the Miami Herald about the Lakeland team included statements by Rainey about receiving sports gear and jewelry from a Lakeland clothing vendor in exchange for his autograph.   He also told of receiving cash from an unknown elderly lady who approached him in a restaurant.   "I didn't even count it,'' he said in the story. "When I walk around, people are buying me food, giving me money. I'm like, damn, I'm glad I'm Chris Rainey. It's real nice to be me.''   The state association, the FHSAA, alerted to the story, was immediately on the case.   Bylaw 11.9.1 of the FHSAA rules handbook states that "a student may not participate in an athletic activity of the Association unless he/she is an amateur. A student who has accepted remuneration, gift or donation for participation in a sport is . . . thereafter disqualified for further participation in that sport in high school for a period of one year.''   Lakeland's AD originally poo-poo'd the story.   "We talked to Chris and he said he didn't say stuff like that,'' the AD said.   Uh-oh. Rule One in dealing with kids - don't automatically believe him unless you know him well. Really well. Really, really well.   See, when the head of the FHSAA contacted the Miami Herald's Executive Sports Editor to verify the authenticity of the quotes attributed to Rainey, he was told, "We stand by the reporting in the story. It's all on tape.''   Oh.   The kid wasn't available to comment, but Hey, his attorney said (this is a high school kid who already has an attorney!), maybe he did say what they have him on tape as saying. But, see- he was only joking! You know how kids are! Especially Chris! Is it his fault those guys in Miami don't understand his sense of humor?   At last report, the Polk County School Board, of which Lakeland High is a part, had cleared Rainey to play in the game. Meanwhile, the FSAA continues to investigate.   My suspicion is that the clothing vendor, the old lady in the restaurant and the lawyer are all jockeying to become the kid's agent.   *********** (This letter may apply to other coaches out there who might be wondering if it is "too late" to nominate a Black Lion Award winner from their team)   Hello Coach Wyatt, I am contacting you regarding the Black Lion Award and wanted to know if it wasn't too late to submit a player from Archbishop Curley?  If it isn't then I will draft the summary of this young man and get that to you ASAP.   Brian Mackell, Baltimore, Maryland   It is not too late and we would be honored to be represented at Archbishop Curley.   E-mail us your letter of nomination. Please be sure that the letter is thorough and covers all the bases - leadership, courage, self-sacrifice - and the reasons why your Black Lion measures up. Brag a little. If he's a Black Lion Award winner, he's earned it!   *********** Coach, Thanks for pointing out the Army Youtube videos yesterday. They also have a bunch of Army and Navy spirit spots on there. They're one of the things I enjoy about Army-Navy football games.   I was able to focus on Cadet Viti at Saturday's game. He ended up with career highs for both carries and yards, and made some very tough yardage. Despite being a lifelong Navy fan thanks to my father's service (and a Notre Dame fan thanks to his college career there on a Navy ROTC scholarship), I found myself rooting for Army. I like the underdog. For those of us who don't have a direct connection with either program, I don't know how anyone can root against either of these teams (or the Air Force or Coast Guard Academies for that matter).   Jim Runser, Westminster Wildcats Westminster, Maryland   *********** Coach, Some Bad news from Murray County Central. We had a late start due to ice last Monday, the night of our banquet, and we lost our starting center in an automobile accident around noon. You just never know when life is going to throw you a curveball. Chris Samuelson was a Jr. starter, and a great student. We put him to rest last Thursday, and it was one of the hardest days of my life. Great kid, fantastic work ethic, and always knew when to crack that joke to relax everyone. He will be missed greatly. Holding our awards program this Sunday, and it will be very hard to get through. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.   Chris Davis, Murray County Central HS, Slayton, Minnesota P.S. Anthony Gleis, 2005 Black Lion Award winner from Murray County Central has just received 2 separate nominations to the Naval Academy. As a former Air Force Officer myself, he is the type of young man I would want covering my six. (It all seems so bittersweet that the wonderful news about Anthony Gleis is overshadowed by the horrible news of the loss of Chris Samuelson's life. I know that coaches everywhere join in extending our sympathies and prayers to Chris' family and to the entire MCC football family. Including his coach - not everyone realizes how hard a tragedy like this touches a young man's coach. I'm sure that you will soldier through your banquet. No doubt someone will find a way to employ it as something of a time for remembrance. HW)   *********** I think that Stanford football is so far down in the dumps that Stanford needs to make a WOW hire - an already-successful coach who is well-known. Somebody to get people excited. Somebody to make them say, we got HIM? WOW!   Hey Stanford - Do you want to win? Do you want to restore excitement to Stanford football?   My suggestion?   Dennis Erickson.   Don't laugh. You said you wanted to win, didn't you? And at the same time restore excitement to Stanford football?   Guaranteed - Hire Dennis Erickson and you'll to do both.   And if the wine and cheese guys bring up his DUI while he was coaching the Seahawks?   Give them the line Lincoln gave people, when he remarked that Grant, despite a "drinking problem," was his fightingest general.   He said maybe he should find out what brand Grant drinks - and send a case to all his other generals!   *********** Right now I have just two teams in Texas that I know of.   One is a small HS in East Texas named Joaquin, and the other is Laredo Martin.   Joaquin (1-A) made the playoffs again this year, and Laredo Martin (5-A) just had its first winning season in 11 years, made its first playoff appearance in 15 years, and had its best season record in 38 years!   The potential is untapped.   *********** Harrison's "Spread offense" looks like this in 13 games:   Rushing Yardage: WB Zeb Duvall 1,402 yds... WB Casey Dove 886 yds... FB Chris Eddy 774 yds... WB Dustin Bashore 696 yds... WB Chance Rhodes 306 yds/// QB Jimmy Easley 709 yds. passing (we rarely threw it) but we could.   Sprinkle in some JV yards and there is your "spread" - as in "Spread the Wealth"   2006- total yards was 5,120 yards. We have a 3 year total of: 14, 904 yards and 1,346 points. 2004 State Runner-Up & 2005 & 2006 State Semi-Finalist.   Just thought you'd like to see what this goofy offense can do when a bunch of undersized, scrappy and big hearted country boys from Georgia get it going.   thanks Hugh!   Coach Larry Harrison, Head Football Coach   Nathanael Greene Academy - Siloam, Georgia   (Hahahahahaha! That's great! There's the answer when they tell us we need to "spread it out." We tell them, "We don't spread it out - we spread it around!" HW)   *********** Coach Wyatt: Just wanted to tell you that your DVD is great. Couple of questions....   I'm curious if in that 99 season, if you saw your QB getting sacked much. It looks like it was tough to get at him w/ those close gaps. That's been one of our biggest problems.   Ed Torres, College Station, Texas   The short answer is that we seldom get sacks because (1) we throw in running situations, so most of our passing depends on the element of surprise, (2) defenses understand that the very defensive aggressiveness that creates a good inside pass rush plays into the hands of a trapping running game, and (3) We try to create situations of conflict on the part of outside rushers so that they have several things to contend with besides rushing the passer; (4) our very tight line splits make it easy to teach pass protection and very difficult for defenses to blitz.   Given proper line technique, which isn't that difficult to teach, the main occasions we get sacks are when the QB does something wrong, which usually entails either not throwing it within the time allotted (we are very specific about this) , or not understanding where his launch point is. Both of those are a matter of coaching.   *********** Former coach, now principal Jim Ferdon writes from South Carolina:   Coach, Even though not involved as I would like, I still get to make "suggestions".   We are an "I" and "Spread" look on offense; ran a version of 47-C and C-Screen left from those looks in the 1-A state championship game. We won 22-21 against a fine Chesterfield team coached by former Gamecock QB Steve Tanneyhill. Our school is 7-years old and won the 2-A title in 2002 and the 1-A title this year in 2006 (12-2).   Still have the itch and just wanted to share.   (Isn't it nice to have a principal who knows and loves football but still knows his place and is happy to make an occasional "suggestion?" Even better, you could have a principal who is your offensive coordinator, such as Jack Tourtillotte, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. HW)   *********** Coach Wyatt- I just took over as the OC for a DWing school this past season.  The school has had good success with the base offense, but we are looking to expand on the base.  We would like to find a way to be multiple and be able to throw the football more than 5 times per game (we've got a couple of young promising QBs).  I saw your article on the Wildcat formation and would be interested in any information you might have on running the offense out of other formations than the base 2TE/2WB.  Do any of your materials speak specifically to this topic? Thank you for your time.   Sincerely, Mike Drake, Longmont High School, Longmont, Colorado   Congratulations on your new job.   I would like to stay in one formation and run one play (off right tackle) until the cows come home, but that is not real, and so I run a lot from formations other than base double-tight/double-wing.   Over the last couple of years, I did an analysis of formations I ran from, and found that we didn't run from double-tight/double-wing more than a third of the time. About another third of the time we ran from a different front - unbalanced, one or two split ends, one or two flexed ends - and another third from a different backfield set - Wildcat, split backs, I, Stack I, Single Wing, one or two backs flanked.   The beauty is that we can run our core package of running plays from a great variety of formations without screwing around too much with our offensive line. The integrity of the offensive line and our blocking system is the key to it all.   To have a base in the system, you first need "Dynamics of the Double Wing."   Then, you would have a better understanding of my "Virtual Clinics", 1 and 2. I also have a direct-snap video, including Wildcat, nearly ready for release (it still needs audio) as well.   *********** Coach, We just concluded our season this past Friday in the state (Maryland) semi finals (second best season in school history). Although we were beaten, by a good football team, 28 - 13 this season was a great turn around from last year when we went 3 -7. This year we ended 8 - 5 and were region champions. At one point during the season we were 2 - 3 but managed to win 4 of 5 down the stretch to qualify (barely) for the playoffs. This included knocking off, in our last game, a team that had beaten us 51 - 0 the year before. The only thing I did to motivate the team was show them the video of last year's game first thing Monday and that was all it took.   We had a great week of practice and beat them 23 - 20 on a last second field goal. On our last drive we completed a 35 yard pass down to the 14 yd line then ran the wedge three times down to the three. Had the first field goal blocked, but they roughed the snapper. Had a second chance, but had to wait about fifteen minutes because they had an injured player. Here is where good assistant coaches really help out. I was out checking on the injured player and my assistants had the field goal team lined up on the side practicing their blocking. We made the second one.   Our first playoff game we played Queen Anne's who were 10 -0 at the time and played very well against a disciplined and hard nosed team and we won 20 - 12.   Our second game was against Wicomico (11 - 0). They have three d - 1 players. Again we played very disciplined and had great special teams play (kor for td, blocked punt for safety , blocked extra point and a forced fumble on the last kickoff). However we were still down 19 - 14 with 2:26 to go and had 4th and 7 from our own 41. We ran a hook and ladder for the td.   Hadn't shown it all year and they were caught completely off guard. We forced a fumble on the next kickoff and ran 4 wedges for a first down (250 lb full backs are nice to have), took a knee and went home.   The players have really started to believe in the system.   Thanks for you help this past season and I look forward to seeing you at your clinic in Philly in the spring.   Russ Meyers, Head Football Coach, Southern High School, Harwood, Maryland That is a wonderful story of a great season and a great turnaround. I congratulate you.   It takes a lot more than an offensive system to accomplish what you did, so I applaud the coaching that had to take place - on both sides of the ball.   You have done a great job of introducing our ugly Old School Offense to some people that had never seen it before and some who probably still don't know what it is!   Hope to see you in Philly.   *********** Coach, I used Tivo quite a few times on Saturday when I saw Mike Viti's uniform. Incredible that an award we give our players is the same award Army gives one of their own. I am humbled.   Is there any chance that the Black Lion organization would be willing to issue a poster that could be distributed to schools that participate? Something with Don Holleder's story, the type of player that fits the mold, etc., that could be put up in the locker room or weight room to remind players throughout the entire year what it is all about. I know it would be more work for somebody who is already busy to put together, but it would also serve as a type of shrine to what is good about high school football.   Have a great day and Merry Christmas,   Todd Hollis, Head Football Coach, Elmwood-Brimfield Coop. Elmwood, Illinois (Wonderful idea! HW)   *********** Coach- Such BLASPHEMY!!!! Michigan is the most deserving team of a shot at tOSU in the national title game.   Reasons why-   1. No lobbying by Coach Carr (Urban Meyer is a WHINER!)   2. Went to tOSU and lost by 3 (even the oddsmakers say 3 points is an automatic for home field advantage) thus they are dead even. All that and they played with the distraction of Coach Schembechler's death.   3. I want a Big 10 school besides tOSU in the title game. (UM of UW will be fine)   4. Did I mention I hate Urban Meyer?   Viti is a STUD. I was impressed with him against Navy. He was a MAN. Too bad they do not have 11 of him.   Hope all is well with you and Connie!   Brad Knight, Holstein, Iowa (Even your friends turn on you when you step into this BCS mess. Why can't they just settle this on the field? Nyuk, nyuk. HW)   ***********Coach Wyatt, I'm gonna send an order for the new virtual clinic and the DVD + new playbook version of "Dynamics." I now have well over 200 football coaching videos (not counting the "highlights" I have from other coaches). "Dynamics of the Double Wing" is THE BEST coaching video I have ever seen... without question.   I doubt I will "rebate" my original VHS tapes. There are lots of "memories" related to those videos. I sat out in the hammock on our porch every night, well into the AM hours, watching those videos over, and over, and over, and over. The manner in which you "teach" the kids in "INSTALLING" taught me a TON about how to interact with players. Anyway, I'd not get rid of them for any price.   Thanks! Jody Hagins, Summerville, South Carolina (The "rebate" Coach Hagins is referring to is my soon-to-be-announced "trade-in" policy in which we will allow $10 off the price of any videotape now redone in DVD if the original tape is returned to us as proof... HW)   *********** Coach, I made the mistake of looking at the "Tidesports.com" forum for thoughts on the future hire to run the U of A football machinery. Obviously, I have my hope (Paul Johnson), and my pick is as good as the next guy right now.   Many of the posts, however, are made by people who haven't stabilized their medication in some time. You must know what I'm talking about.   **There are people who would rather lose football games by passing than win using any other sound method of moving the ball.**   Forget the posters who think Bob Stoops is going to leave Oklahoma for a free car wash every other Thursday with purchase of one car wash at regular price. This is expected and easily discounted.   There are those,however, who think that the new coach's 100 new pass plays from 250 new formations will be somehow DIFFERENT from every other coach's 100 new formations and 250 new formations.   AND THIS WILL BE OK BECAUSE IT IS MODERN.   Beware what you wish for. You may get it! Charles Wilson, Seminole, Florida (Paul Johnson is being thoroughly trashed and thrashed on the Bama boards.   I can remember when all Bama fans cared about was winning.   Now, they still want to win, but they're becoming just like the pro fans who sit in their luxury boxes eating their bacon-wrapped prawns and sipping champagne - they want to be entertained, too.   The PRO-stitution of college football proceeds.   Can you imagine those fools yelling at The Bear to open it up?   I can just see some big guy turn around and say, "You stupid sonsabitches! I don't see no Namath or Stabler down there and I guess Coach Bryan don't either! So whyn't you just shut the f--k up?" HW)    *********** An interesting exchange with Craig Torres, a Rutgers guy from Flemington, New Jersey... Good morning coach, I was reading your news this morning and loved the piece about Saint JoePa fearing a strong Rutgers. It's fairly well known among us older fans that coach Paterno, in addition to advising Coach Schiano against a move to RU, also strongly discouraged Dick Anderson from taking the head job at RU in 1983 (side note: an Anderson led RU would later manage to beat #15 PSU on their homecoming in 1988). As great a coach as he is, I am no fan of Joe Paterno. There are many reasons, but I'll just say that Joe Paterno is no friend of Rutgers, and leave it at that.   Joe always got good players out of Jersey, and I have noticed that there haven't been as many NJ kids in the Penn State starting lineups lately, so Coach Schiano's progress at Rutgers is obviously having an effect.   I'd like to think that Rutgers rise is directly responsible for Penn State's decline in recruiting NJ, but I think that moving to the Big 10 had a bigger effect. PSU was, throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s the beast of the east (Pitt's late 70's / early 80s teams notwithstanding) and had their pick of any player(s) they wanted from NJ for years. Penn State's recruiting has steadily decreased in NJ since they left for the Midwest. Paterno still cherry picks one or two from NJ every year, but nothing like in the past. He has been able to make up for it by tapping into the Ohio and Midwest talent pools which Big 10 affiliation has opened up for them, but they'll always be second fiddle to OSU and UMich in those areas. Overall I think moving to the Big 10 was a good move for the school as membership in that conference, more than any other, brings things above and beyond football to the table. However, I believe that if PSU football fans are honest with themselves, they would agree that they are not the program they were back when they were an eastern power. One school that HAS been seriously affected by the rise of the Rutgers program is Syracuse. As much as PSU cherry picked South Jersey talent back in the day, Syracuse had carte blanche to North Jersey talent. With the rise of Rutgers, they are having trouble landing the recruits they would normally have had their pick of, but they don't have the alternate sources to find recruits that PSU does. As a prime example, in years past, Brian Leonard and Ray Rice would both have been Orangemen and bedeviled my Scarlet Knights for 4 years. It is my opinion that the slide of Syracuse is in no small part due to their inability to recruit NJ in recent years and I don't see a coach with California roots (Greg Robinson) changing that situation anytime soon.   *********** Coach, Just a note to thank-you for your influence over the past few years running the Double Wing, currently at Holy Name High School in Worcester Massachusetts. Last Saturday, we won our second consecutive Massachusetts Division 2 Superbowl, going 12-0 in the process. After success at the Central Mass Pop Warner level, we were told the offense would not work at the high school level, after success at the Division 3 high school level, we were told it would not work at the Division 2 level. In 2 years at that level we went 22-2, including 6-0 over division 1-1a teams.   Thanks again, hope all is well,   Scott Anderson, Offensive Coordinator, Holy Name High School, Worcester, Massachusetts (Congratulations to Coach Anderson and Coach Mike Pucko! Holy Name has become a Central Massachusetts power, thanks in part to what they've done with their "Pop Warner offense." I was at their previous school and I encountered a little bit of the negativity   *********** Regarding the now-vacant Stanford coaching position, Christopher Anderson writes from ground zero -Palo Alto, California - Quotes from AD Bob Bowlsby. Sounds like he means business.   I think probably the most critical assessment I had to make was: 'Does investing another year present the likely possibility of making substantial improvement?' If I couldn't answer that affirmatively, which I ultimately didn't, then I ultimately felt like it was better to make the change now than wait more time.   While we have the benefit of a very large scholarship endowment and some other sources of revenue, football continues to be very important for us. We generate a lot more money from football than from any other element of our program.   I've said before, the Stanford program is an absolutely terrific program in so many ways, but I think it's hard to declare yourself the best of the best in the country when you don't win consistently in the sports that people covet, like football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball and some of those where the fan support is really substantial, plus the media coverage and all of those things that go along with it.   The last game against Oregon State, we probably had 12,000 people in the stands.   The additional piece of that is that we have to have the right people on the staff. Then we have to keep them here.   I don't know what the going rate is, per se, but we're going to try to find the right candidate first. Then worry about the compensation.   (on retention of current assistant coaches)"That will be up to the head coach."   But ultimately, when it's all said and done, I'll (as opposed to a committee) make the hire with input from a variety of sources.   *********** Christopher Anderson also wrote that he sent a congratulatory e-mail to Mike Viti, and here was his report back to me:   Hugh, The reply came in 12 minutes. What a guy. I want to tell him he doesn't have to call me sir.   I think it's all part of showing anyone respect until they absolutely prove they are undeserving of it.   Incidentally, I have found that in dealing with an irrational parent, continuing to call him "Sir" can be a great tactic because, being an a**hole (and sometimes a drunken a**hole at that), it totally throws him off-balance to be any shown respect, however superficial it may be. I once had a guy confront me outside the lockerroom at halftime of a game, and by the time we were done with our "conversation", he was totally frustrated, and said, "Will you please stop calling me 'Sir'?"   I told him, "I'm sorry, sir - that's just the way I was brought up."   It wasn't a pleasant experience overall, but my assistants and I laughed like hell about it later.   *********** I've seen a "no talent offense" in one of my old clinic manuals, but I've never seen a "no talent defense." (Wonder what that guy did to stop people?) *********** COOL! I HAVE MY OWN PAPARAZZI!!! Ryan Miller, a Farmers Insurance agent with whom I coached for two seasons at Madison High, in Portland, sent me these shots of a day in the life of a youth football coach... Coach, I was reading your news section and came across the story of Coach Dogg. Thought you might like to see these pictures. A group of agents from Farmers had been in LA visiting the home office and were getting ready to fly out of Burbank airport when Snoop was arrested. Two of the agents (Josh Wong and Tawnya Landis) had their picture taken with him just minutes before he was arrested. What happened was a black car pulled up and angle parked along the curb. Two large men got out of the car. The small female police officer in the picture approached them to tell them they had to move the vehicle. While doing so, she smelled the marijuana and searched the car. As you know, they also found a gun in the car and arrested Mr. Dogg, the registered owner of the car.   Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

Army's First Black Lion is Somewhere in Iraq! (See"NEWS") BCS - The Final, Absolute, Unvarnished Truth! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 5, 2006 - "I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them... That's all the powers of the President amount to." Harry S. Truman   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS - WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   AND AS ANYONE WHO HAS ATTENDED ONE OF MY CLINICS KNOWS, I MAKE AMPLE USE OF VIDEO CLIPS.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS LAST ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO TAKE DOWN EVERYTHING!)   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95. FULLBACK MIKE VITI NAMED ARMY'S 2006 BLACK LION   Army football coach Bobby Ross announced following Wednesday's practice that Army's 2006 Black Lion is Mike Viti (pronounced VEE-tee) . I couldn't be more pleased. In a season that hasn't always gone as the Cadets had hoped, Mike, a 5-10, 245 pound fullback from the storied football program in Berwick, Pennsylvania, has been a consistent tower of strength. ESPN commentator and former coach Bill Curry made special note throughout the season of Mike's blocking, and on the few occasions that he has carried the ball (whatever happened to giving the ball to the fullback, anyhow?) he has been a load to bring down. Not a bad receiver, either. But mainly, Mike Viti is a blocker, and even against Texas A & M and Notre Dame, he has been a force.   Let me put this in a way coaches will understand - Mike Viti is a STUD.   All season long, my friend Doc Hinger and I have remarked that based on what we saw on the field, Mike Viti would have been our Black Lion, but you can't make that selection based only on what you see on the game field - the Black Lion has to be a special guy on and off the field, including practices.   It was with great pleasure that I learned that in the opinion of his coaches Mike Viti is as good a team man as he is a player.   Mike follows Will Sullivan and Scott Wesley as previous Army Black Lion Award winners, and he is the first non-senior chosen for the award, which is selected annually by the coaching staff just prior to the Navy contest.   Mike underwent arthroscopic knee surgery 10 days prior to the Black Knights' season opener against Arkansas State, but despite playing with chronically aching knees and a number of other injuries throughout the season, he started all 12 games. Third on the club in rushing and fourth in pass receiving, he averaged 4.6 yards per carry, and 6.1 yards per catch.   "We had a very difficult decision to make as a coaching staff," said Army head coach Bobby Ross. "The coaches had to go through about four rounds of voting because there were so many worthy candidates for this award. But we got the vote right. Mike is very deserving of this award. He is the perfect choice to receive the Black Lion Award in my mind."   Look for Mike, #33, in Saturday's Army-Navy game. He'll be wearing the Black Lions patch on his jersey. Navy has won the last four games, and is heavily favored to make it five in a row, but if every Army player gives it the same effort as Mike Viti will, the game could go either way.  *********** For what it's worth... On Thursday, I sent an e-mail to Mike Viti congratulating him on his selection as Army's Black Lion. He was a little busy over the weekend with the Army-Navy game, but first thing Monday morning, there it was - an e-mail from Cadet Mike Viti, thanking me for my note.   That may not seem unusual to you, but in a world in which it sometimes seems NOBODY bothers to thank others - not the lout at the store who hands you your bag full of merchandise that just cost you $100, not the flight attendant who can't even uncross her arms and stop talking to the flight crew long enough to thank you for just spending $700 to sit for six hours in their flying cattle car - West Point people (and I assume I could say the same for Annapolis and Air Force people as well) stand out, because they still practice the basics of civility.   I have never done even the slightest little thing for one of those people that hasn't occasioned a prompt "thank-you" from them. (How many times have you sent a wedding present and never received a thank-you note? Wouldn't you at least like to know that they received the f--king fondue pot?)   Is someone, somewhere spreading the idea that real men aren't polite?   Trust me - military men are real men. They could run into your average major college football thug on the street and, even spotting the guy a weapon, hand him his ass and change.   But they don't make a show of it. Instead, they act like gentlemen. They have, and unfailingly use, what I used to tell my high school kids was the gift that kept on giving - good manners. And that's why I had no compunctions whatsoever about correcting my students - embarrassing them, if need be - when they came up short in the manners department. I told them that somebody needed to teach them these very important life tools, and I accepted that responsibility. Not that I didn't take my history and geography lessons seriously, but I used to tell them that long after they forgot the lessons I was trying to to teach them, they'd be well served in life if they'd just remember to say "Thank you," and "Please," and "Hello," and "Good-bye," and "Excuse me," and to use people's names and look them in the eye.   Think about this, fellas, the next time you talk about how you're using football to prepare kids for life... are you really helping them to be successful? Do you accept your responsibility to give them one of the most important tools you can give them - good manners? Or are you so interested in not hurting their feelings, of being "nonjudgmental", that you're unwilling to deal with bad manners?   (If you'd like to send a congratulatory e-mail to Mike, his e-mail is Michael.Viti@usma.edu (I know he'd appreciate it, and I bet he'll write back to thank you!)   *********** Want to see what being an Army football player is all about?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn8fglyXURc&NR (ARMY)   *********** Coach Wyatt, Hope to make this brief. I have been going to Army football games for over 20 years now. While sitting in the stands at yesterdays Army-Navy game my family sat next to people who wore a black loin hat. The gentleman leaned over and mentioned to look at a particular player and his emblem. Well while searching the net today I came upon this great award. I'm very active in our HS booster club and would like to enroll the Sterling Silver Knights for 2007. Please tell me what I have to do and I promise that I will help keep the Black lion award moving forward. Chris Merulla, Somerdale, New Jersey Dear Chris, If it was who I think it was, you had the great pleasure of meeting some of the very best, and I know that they were very proud of Mike Viti, Army's Black Lion, just as they were of Army's two previous Black Lions, Will Sullivan, now deployed in Iraq, and Scott Wesley, serving until the end of the year as a graduate assistant on the Army football staff.   For information about the award, go to the Black Lion Award Home Page   For further information, click on "FAQ's" or go to the FAQ's page - http://www.coachwyatt.com/BLfaq.htm   And if you have any further questions after that, I'll be happy to help.   If a booster club wishes to sponsor the award at a school, I'm sure that the coach would approve, because it motivates young men to be the kind of player every coach would like to have more of. We do ask that the team be made aware of the award, and that the award be presented in a public forum such as the team banquet or a school awards assembly. We ask that the coach (and/or his staff) select their Black Lion, and that the coach write the young man's letter of nomination (if he can get someone else to write it for him, that is fine, too, but it should be his thoughts, and he has to sign it as his). Best, Hugh Wyatt   *********** While many other D-IA college players from 2004 are doing end zone dances in the NFL and getting into fights with police outside nightclubs at 4 AM, Will Sullivan, Army's first Black Lion, is in Iraq, in a fight of another sort entirely.   Will's mom, in Atlanta, wrote that Will's sister, Karen, got a phone call from him last week after 25 days without any word from him.   Will said he was "somewhere in Iraq." He has been promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and he has 26 men in his platoon, assigned to patrol for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices - think "homemade bombs"). They are on patrol for a week at a time, then they are able to go to the FOB (Fixed Operating Base) for 24 hours, during which they get a shower and try to catch some real sleep in a real bed.   He said that each time he's gotten to the FOB, there has been a communication blackout, and he hasn't been able to send or receive email.   He said that missing this year's Army-Navy game will make him appreciate next year's game all the more.   And, wrote Mom, "The only thing he requested was prayers."   If you know any young person who's over in Iraq or Afghanistan, I hope you include them in your prayers. And include Will Sullivan.   And if you don't know any young person over there, still pray for the ones who are. And include Will Sullivan.   Will's address if you care to write (those guys LOVE to get mail!)   1LT William Sullivan   2A, 1-7, 1BCT, 1CD   APO AE 09398   *********** Full disclosure requires me to say this: I am not the world's biggest Urban Meyer fan, and I do NOT particularly care for Florida.   But... Florida has earned the right to play Ohio State.   I'm not arguing here about the strength of the SEC, although I do believe that top to bottom, it is the strongest.   But if it were the Big 12 champion or the ACC champion instead of Florida, and they had only one loss, I'd put them ahead of Michigan.   If the Big Ten doesn't like the fact that Florida can move ahead of Michigan while Michigan has done nothing to hurt itself, I'd just say that it's time for the Big Ten to add a 12th team and play a conference championship game.   There has been so much damage done to good teams by conference championship games that when a good team wins one, I think it is entitled to receive a push.   Besides, I think that Florida is better.   I think the BCS is looking for trouble if it lets another team that finishes second own conference in the championship game ahead of a similarly qualified conference champion.   And I do think that Florida is an exciting team with the ability to beat Ohio State. (On the other hand, Ohio State may very well be good enough to trounce Florida.)   *********** When my wife hard me say (apropos of Michigan) "You shouldn't be in the final game unless you're a conference champion," she said, "Good! Then Notre Dame can't be in it."   *********** Consider THIS...   Florida beats Ohio State - but not by much...   USC hammers Michigan (or Michigan hammers USC)   If those things were to happen, I think we could easily wind up with a split.   Cool   The USA Today-Coaches poll will have to go with the Tostitos champ. The AFCA (proud member that I am, it hurts me to say this) sold its soul on that one and pledges its vote to the winner of the "national championship" game.   But the AP is not bound by any such pledge, and its voters could go against the winner of the BCS-rigged championship should the above results happen.   Cool.   *********** I love these fools who keep saying we should "settle it on the field." They're the media types whose lives are so hum-drum otherwise that they also like earthquakes and automobile accidents. They're the bozos who play videogames and watch NFL Phootball and Jerry Springer.   "Settle" what?   They say they want things "settled on the field" - they don't want polls and computers deciding who'll play in the final game. But if they get their hallowed playoff, how the hell do they think the teams will be chosen for the playoff?   An eight-team field? Who would we leave out of it? Notre Dame? They're currently ranked 11th in the BCS, but being the darlings of NBC, they'll almost certainly be given a spot in the final eight if they finish as high as 12th in the final polls.   Wisconsin? Sorry. We know you're 11-1, but we've already taken two teams from your conference. And we need the room for Notre Dame.   Forget Auburn. Same problem as Wisconsin. We've already got two from the SEC.   (As it is, can't you just hear the squeals from other conferences when they realize that half the teams in the field are from just the SEC and Big Ten?)   Hey, something's got to give - we've got to get somebody out of there to make room for Notre Dame. And Wake Forest is the ACC champion and they're only ranked down around 14th. Uh-oh. Oklahoma's not in the top eight, either, and they're the Big 12 champion.   Uh, Boise State... I know you're undefeated and all that, and I know that under the old system you had yourself a nice date in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma, but good God, man - we're talking playoffs here, and you're from the WAC!   Hey! Wait! I've got it - we expand the field to 16!   (Minor problem - who's got the time and money to follow a team wherever it plays , buying airline tickets on less than seven days' notice, for four weeks?)   (Minor problem: Since USC would have won its conference - and its spot in the playoffs - three weeks ago, last Saturday's USC-UCLA game would have been exciting, but of no bearing on the playoff scene. I believe the pro announcers call games like it, with good reason, "meaningless games." What's that? You say they'd still be playing for seeding? Home field advantage? Whoa. Just like the pros do it! That'll add a LOT of excitement to it.)   Expanding the field to 16 would make room for Wisconsin and Auburn! And Boise State! Virginia Tech, too, which in this week's USA Today-Coaches' poll was ranked ahead of Wake Forest, its conference's champ.   Also Texas. Damn good team, Texas. Perfectly capable of winning it all. Wouldn't that be something, if 9-3 Texas - which didn't even make it to its own conference championship game - beats undefeated Ohio State (wait- wouldn't that be a "rematch?") in the Tostitos Grand Final MegaBowl, played the week following the Super Bowl?   It could happen. In the football of today, a team that finishes 16th in all the polls following a 12-game regular season - a Texas, certainly - is quite capable of getting hot and winning out.   And the media guys think that football fans are going to accept that? a team with 3 losses? as the "true national champion?"   When that day comes, the colleges will finally have been completely recast as the junior varsity version of the NFL.   *********** One final word (for now) about the BCS-   Given that conferences already shown on numerous occasions that they have the power to stifle coaches who say the slightest things detrimental about officials...   And given the enormous sums of money involved in the BCS...   Isn't it time that conferences told their Urban Meyers that nothing good can come from their commenting on the BCS and that if they wish to coach in a bowl game they will refrain from commenting?   *********** Especially considering the emotional pit he had to be in, and considering that fact that those a**holes from the network insisted on interviewing him before they interviewed victorious coach Karl Dorrell, I think that Pete Carroll showed admirable dignity and class in handling the fool questions.   *********** UCLA did a great job, and proved once again that if you are a betting person, you should always bet against a college team coming off a big win. Of course, if you'd bet against USC after they beat Oregon, you'd have lost money on the Cal game. And if you bet against them in the Notre Dame game after they'd beaten Cal, you'd have lost. But after three weeks of "must win" games, it was almost inevitable that UCLA, coming off a buy week, would play at a higher level of intensity, and they did.   *********** Watching the Oklahoma-Nebraska game, I had to laugh at the two schools using Yalies in their "commercials." OU President and native Oklahoman David Boren (Yale '63), did the stand-up narration for the OU spot, and native Nebraskan and entertainer Dick Cavett (Yale '58) did the voice-over for Nebraska's spot.   *********** Leave it to ESPN... There's a minute to play in Saturday night's Rutgers-West Virginia game, and WVU, trailing 23-20, is on the Rutgers 10 - and those idiots from ESPN ask us, "IS IT MONDAY YET?"   (Like in their wildest dreams they could script an NFL game as good as that one.)   *********** Sure starting see a lot of "shotgun" formations configured to look very much the single wing. Just a couple of things missing - very important things...   (1) Centers aren't nearly good enough to snap the ball to anybody other than the guy directly behind them.   (2) The line play is very primitive by the standards of any good high school wing-T, Double-Wing or Single Wing team.   *********** The recently-elected Governor of Alaska is 42-year-old Sarah Palin.   A relative newcomer to politics, she credits her sports background with preparing her for the job she faces:   "I've said this before, that everything I ever needed to know I learned on the basketball court, I learned as the captain of a basketball team. All about setting goals and working hard and having self-discipline and knowing what strengths were in team members and then assembling those team members and tasking the team to fulfill missions. That's what you learn in sports."   *********** Once you get down inside the last couple of minutes, the manipulations of a pro football team's offense in order to be the last one to kick the field goal become downright excruciating. With kickers making field goals at a roughly 80 per cent rate, where's the suspense?   Sunday, the TV gods were nice enough to waft us from the Titans-Colts game, won by a last-second 60-yard field goooooooooal, to "bonus coverage" of the Browns-Chiefs overtime, just in time to see former Oregon State QB Derek Anderson, lead the Browns into position for - you guessed it - - a last-second field gooooooooooal.   Out here in the Northwest, where they assume that we must just love those Bay Area teams, our version of Chinese water torture was having to watch every last f--king second of the extra-long 49ers-Saints 34-10 thriller before they could switch us - 30 minutes late - to the much-hyped Giants-Cowboys game. (Following a commercial break, of course.) We arrived just in time to see the Giants score the first touchdown, with 4:57 left in the first period. (Followed by a commercial break, of course.)   A little more real football took place, but its chief purpose was to set us up for the excitement of watching a 40-year-old "Cowboy" named MarTEEN, who hadn't kicked in a couple of years, keek a last-second field gooooooooooal to beat the Giants, essentially nullifying everything that all the real football players had done up to that point.   But wait - that wasn't all! There was still Football Night in America! Those of you on the East Coast who stayed up to watch the end of the Seahawks-Broncos game - one for the ages - were rewarded by (you guessed it) - another last-second field goooooooooooal.   Be still, my beating heart.   *********** In perusing a high school forum, I came across a group from one school berating their rivals at one of last weekend's games because the rivals' team didn't - gasp - "take a knee" while an injured opponent was lying on the ground and being tended to. Am I missing something here? Is this a new football ritual? Shouldn't somebody be lighting candles, too?   *********** Watching the excitement of West Virginia's triple-overtime win over Rutgers (sorry, NFL - you're really going to have to come around to using that overtime instead of that glorified coin-toss you call "sudden death" but which most of the time is better called "Keek-de-Goooooooal." Don't worry about people accusing you of stealing the idea from the colleges - surely your PR guys are clever enough to come up with a way of claiming that it was really your idea in the first place.) made we shake my head at what had happened to the Big East since BC, Miami and Virginia Tech bailed for the higher prestige of the ACC. This year, the ACC was so pathetic that its conference champion, Wake Forest, is ranked no higher than 14th in the country ( a gross injustice to Wake, in my opinion). Meantime, the West Virginia-Louisville-Rutgers round robin captured the imagination of football fans everywhere. I still find it hard to believe that the Big East's salvation would depend not on traditional powers Syracuse and Pitt, but on Rutgers, a former walkover, and Louisville, a former Conference-USA member.   *********** Phil Sheridan writes in philly.com that Rutgers' Greg Schiano was also once an assistant at Penn State, and he and Joe Paterno became so close that Paterno once advised Schiano not to take the Rutgers job.   Was it because JoePa saw Rutgers as a graveyard, a place that had already swallowed up former Paterno assistant Dick Anderson?   Or, Sheridan suggests, did Paterno foresee the day that Schiano would turn things around, and start grabbing off home-state New Jersey talent in what was once prime Penn State recruiting turf?   *********** Hi Coach Wyatt, I sent my money in on Friday for your Virtual Clinic 2. I really enjoyed your Virtual Clinic 1, it is a great idea for people who can't come to the live clinic. Regards, Ronald Singer, Toronto   PS In our league we can't shoeshine with the Tight End,we can only block below the waist from tackle to tackle.(not an area, but specific players, tackle to tackle) We are working on pulling the Tight End and keeping the tackle in to block. What do you think about this plan?   I'm not sure that you can make it work, but that would be one option. If you find that it works, you will be able to pull both guard and tackle, but you will only be able to do so if you have a tight end on the backside.   Or, you have the option of pulling both G & T and having the TE "pull-hinge." With Canadian rules requiring the defensive line to play a yard off the line, your TE is probably fast enough to do this legally - to pull, plant and whirl around, and cut off a man in a "4" technique.   Another option is to use "O" blocking, pulling only the guard (with the tackle and - if there is one - the tight end "pull-hinging"). The drawback is that you don't have the tackle as an escort. The benefit is that you can run this with or without an end there.   A final option is to have everyone block down along the line of scrimmage. I don't prefer this angle blocking as a steady diet because it means that you can't get a double-team at the point of attack, and wherever possible I'd like to have that.   I think that if all things were equal, I would probably go with the "O" block.   *********** Sent to me by Paul Hoch in Stockbridge, Georgia (Now why do you suppose he thought I'd think it was funny?)   Because of the climate of political correctness now pervading America, those of us in Arkansas and Missouri will no longer be referred to as HILLBILLIES.   We ask that you now refer to us as OZARK-AMERICANS.   Thank you!   Now if you'll excuse me, I got possums to fry.   *********** Hi coach,   I am sending you a check for the 2 Virtual Clinic DVDS. They will be my Christmas present from my family.   While reading a coaching book, I found a quote that I thought you might enjoy. It really gets to the crux of why we love sports and coaching.   "I always turn to the sports page first. The sports page records peoples' accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures." Earl Warren   I hope to be able to go to one of your clinics in 2007. I think it is only 10 hours driving time to get to Denver. I just need make the commitment and put it in my schedule.   Have a wonderful Christmas.   Sincerely,   Marlowe Aldrich, Billings, Montana (Great quote! What a shame about Earl Warren as a Supreme Court justice. I do understand, though, that he was a big sports fan, so that's in his favor. HW   *********** Things can always change, of course, but it doesn't sound as if Wake Forest's Jim Grobe is going anywhere.   He said this week, "Our coaches are happy, ... our families are happy in Winston-Salem ... and our players like playing in the program .... There is nothing I can foresee that could possibly make me want to leave this place."   *********** The NCAA is about as bad as it gets in terms of thought control through speech control. The NCAA tells schools that they can't call themselves Indians, or Warriors, or Fighting Sioux, and it insists on referring ad nauseum to scholarship athletes who can't even speak an intelligent or intelligible sentence as "student-athletes," as if repeating a lie makes it the truth.   Its latest is this comical renaming of D-IA and D-IAA football as "NCAA Bowl Division" and "NCAA Playoff Division."   So far, it ain't working. The D-IAA playoffs (oops! Sorry- NCAA Playoff Division playoffs) are now in the third round, and in a town (Portland) that has a good team (Portland State) in a good D-IAA conference (oops! Sorry- NCAA Playoff Division conference) - the Big Sky Conference - all the headlines Sunday referred to D-IAA playoffs.   *********** One thing to be said about the kind of money coaches are making at once-poverty stricken programs is that it really makes things tough on those places known to football people as coach killers (with apologies to Jim Mora and Michael Vick). Places such as Alabama and Miami, despite their past national championships and their potential for future titles, do not exactly have guys tripping over themselves to coach there.   Put it this was - if you're Greg Schiano and you're already making a million dollars a year at Rutgers and you have your program almost where you want it and alumni tripping all over themselves to shake your hand and ask what they can do for you... why would you go to Miami?   And seeing the way potential candidates for the Alabama job are already being ripped to shreds on the Alabama forums - Hey, guys! They aren't even your coach yet! - I have to wonder why anybody who's already got a good job would want to step into that situation.   *********** Hey Coach ... Justin Boice from up here in Seattle. Thought I would update you ... my brother's team Cascade Christian won the 2A State Championship yesterday running pure double wing. It was pretty cool.   I did double duty again this year coaching QBs for the Inglemoor Varsity and my son's 10 - 11 year old team. Our little guys made it to the Championships running the Double Wing, but lost to Bellevue at the big game. It was a lot of fun seeing these kids pick it up.   Hope your season went well. Enjoy the Holidays. All the Best, Justin C. Boice, Seattle, Washington   *********** Walt Harris is gone from Stanford, along with some of the stench left by an athletic director - now departed - who made a buddy hire and then, after reluctantly having to fire the buddy, followed that up with another buddy hire. Bring back Stanford football!   Fortunately, I think the decision is in good hands, if they'll let the AD make the call. The new AD is Bob Bowlsby, who came over from Iowa, and he knows a thing or two about what it takes to build a big-time program. My top two choices - Dick Tomey, now at San Jose State, a class act and a proven winner in the Pac-10, and Jim Harbaugh, who has done an exceptional job at lower-level, non-scholarship (think Ivy League) San Diego. (Not San Diego State.) *********** In discussing my point that it would take a lot for an Alabama or an NC State to hire Navy's Paul Johnson...   Don't forget Paul Johnson was the OC at Hawaii when they threw all over the place (the time before now, when they throw the ball all over the place.) He had an interesting interview recently where he said "If we had Brady Quinn, it'd be pretty smart to throw the ball wouldn't it...but we don't have Brady Quinn." He is tagged as an option guy, but he's probably got quite a library himself. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California   Yeah, but if he had Brady Quinn, he wouldn't be running the option, which means he wouldn't be Paul Johnson, would he? He is tagged as an option guy because he is an option guy. And a very good one. As an option coach, he is a proven winner. As a passing-game coach, he is an unknown. Translation: great coach that he is, as an option guy, Paul Johnson is not in a position to recruit a Brady Quinn, and that's what scares the pants off the people who hire coaches.   *********** Coach - On Sunday, November 17th we had our first annual Queen of Martyrs Wildcat Team Party, and it was a great time. The kids loved it, and the only regret was that I was not able to have a team party least year, my first year as the Head Coach. I truly felt bad for my former players who were not allowed a team party or team awards. So the first thing I did as an Athletic Board member was to get the party approved, and the awards allowed to be passed back out.   You can not imagine how happy I was when 16 out of my 17 players showed up for the party. In fact, one of the players came in all the way from Iowa were he had moved. It was a great gesture by these fine young men to show up, and it really meant a lot to me. We set up a table of Wildcat Alumni - and it will be a tradition that I plan on keeping. I hope it showed the parents how committed all of the coaches are to all of our players; the past, the present, and the future.   As far as the party, again it was a great time. The kids got a "keg" - root beer of course, and they loved it. We had two guest speakers for the day. The first, Sheriff Michael Sheahan, the retiring sheriff of Cook County, and on the day of the party, a newly retired Big 10 Referee. Mr. Sheahan was also my football coach in grade school, and I lived with his family after the death of my parents before I moved. He truly is a great man, and he gave an awesome talk to EVERYONE about the pitfalls in life, the danger that is out there, and how football is a sport that can keep young men out of the trouble. After 14 years as the Sheriff he has seen a lot of wasted talent sitting in the cells - and I think my kids understood his point. He also talked about his 25 years as a Big 10 Referee and then opened it up for some questions, which were the best teams he ever saw, (last year's Ohio State team, USC two years ago, and the Kerry Collins-led Penn State team). Also asked was who w ere the toughest coaches he had to make calls against (Bo Schembechler, Joe Pa, Jim Tressel, and John Robinson) and finally who were the best players he ever saw (KiJana Carter and Desmond Howard).   Our second guest speaker, and another highlight of the night was retired Chicago Fire Chief Ed Enright. I opened up with the joke "What do Chicago Firemen and Chicago Policemen both have in common? .....They both want to be firemen". Ed liked it, but I did make certain that I said that EVERY firemen I have ever talked to all have said that Ed Enright was one of the finest bosses they ever worked for. He is held in high regard by a lot of men on the South Side of Chicago, and his money is no good in even a lot of more pubs then he'll ever visit. Ed talked about being in Vietnam, the need for team work, and how it relates to football. He also brought his uniform and still had every one laughing when he told the story about his "socks still fitting".   It was an awesome night, and it concluded with Ed, myself, our two previous Black Lion Award winners (Frank Renardo and Pat Golden) and this year's winner, Terry McMahon, taking some photos and all enjoying a fresh draft root beer.   *********** She was talking about English soccer players, but the Queen of England could have just as easily been talking about your average NFL player when she bestowed knighthood on David Richards, chairman on England's Premier League and remarked, "Football's a difficult business, and aren't they prima donnas?"   *********** A great man has returned to college coaching with the announcement that Fred Goldsmith, former coach of Rice and Duke, has been named coach at Lenoir-Rhyne.   Former head coach at Rice and Duke, coach Goldsmith comes to Lenoir-Rhyne after a year with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. before that, he spent five years as head coach at Franklin (North Carolina) HS.   Coach Goldsmith's record is impressive.   After coaching in high schools, he moved to the college level in 1974 as defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. FAMU was the nation's only undefeated team in 1977 and was named Black College National Champions that year. The Rattlers won the first-ever D-1AA National Championship in 1978, and led the nation in scoring, rushing and total defense.   For two seasons - 1982 and 1983 - he was assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Air Force Academy, when the Zoomies won their first Commander-in-Chief Trophy, presented to the winner of the service academies' round-robin.   He was assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Arkansas from 1984 to 1988, during which time, the Hogs made five bowl appearances.   As head coach at Rice from 1989 through 1993, he took the Owls to their first winning season in 29years, and in 1992 was named Sports Illustrated National Coach of the Year.   As head coach at Duke from 1993 to 1998, he led the nation in football graduation rates four times and was named ACC Coach of the Year and Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year in 1994. He led the team to the 1995 Hall of Fame Bowl, one of Duke's two bowl appearance in 30 years.   I met Coach Goldsmith during Duke's spring drills several years ago, and he couldn't have been more hospitable. Even though practice was going on at the time, we had a great talk about the Double-Wing, as he had once been a wing-T coach, and he told me that in his opinion the major reason the service academies were the only teams left running option offenses was that their alumni only wanted to win. Unlike alumni at other football schools, they didn't demand that they win and be entertained, too.   Coach Goldsmith made one mistake at Duke, and I'm sure it cost him. He made the mistake of giving a female named Heather Sue Mercer a shot at placekicker, a gesture that may have seemed noble at the time but got him and Duke caught in a sex discrimination suit under Title IX when she claimed that she was cut because she was a female. Yeah, right.     Photos from the Queen of Martyrs team party, Chicago:   Above: Coach Bill Murphy and Black Lion Ed Enright with Queen of Martyrs' three Black Lion Award winners: From Left, Frank Renardo (2004), Bill Murphy, Terry McMahon (2006), Ed Enright, and Pat (2005)   At Left: Black Lion Ed Enright, Coach Bill Murphy & Black Lion Award winner Terry McMahon with Ed's Vietnam Uniform.   (How about you? e-mail a photo from your awards presentation to coachwyatt@aol.com)     *********** If I sat through that entire Chuck D routine at halftime Monday night without getting up to go to the bathroom, does that excuse me from having to watch any of "Ali Rap" on Saturday night?   *********** Coach Wyatt, The first major snowstorm of the season has blown through the midwest...SNOW DAY! I'm loving the three day weekend!   First. I agree with one of your readers about the Sun Coach. Those WERE sweat pants he was wearing. My sons and I were cracking up. He looked like a guy playing in a touch football game at the old high school on Thanksgiving Day. I've been interested that there seem to be more coaches wearing a tie on the sideline. That is a sharp look, but so is a nice polo or pull over with the school logo. Does the Sun Coach get evaluated by his...Oh no, what am I thinking!   My favorite time of the year is approaching...Bowl Season! I'm fired up, more bowls than ever this year. As for my Wolverines, what a great season. Too bad they had to run into Troy Smith, er, I mean Ohio State. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a rematch(duh) but I also wouldn't mind seeing Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Losing to Ohio State is painful, and it's not that I think we WOULD lose, but the thought of losing TWICE to them in 51 days...I don't think anyone in Wolverine nation really considers that possibility. Regardless, Go Blue!   The Arizona State situation was intriguing to me because of the flap between quarterbacks Sam Keller (whose dad played at Michigan) and Rudy Carpenter. Koetter has announced Keller as the starter after spring practice. Carpenter, apparently thinking that he had outplayed Keller, asked Koetter for a meeting. Following the meeting, Koetter said he would reconsider. Then Koetter called a meeting of the "Leadership Council." According to the article I read, the council informed Koetter that they thought Carpenter had earned the right to start. Koetter decided to go with their recommendation. Letting the inmates run the asylum! Keller then transferred. I made a mental note last summer to pay attention to this situation.. Of course, Carpenter struggled and the season blew up in their faces Unbelievable. John Zeller, Tustin, Michigan (Oh, how I envy you the snow! As I recall the ASU QB controversy, it seems to me that at that "meeting" between Rudy Carpenter and Dirk Koetter, Rudy's daddy was also in attendance. It also seems to me I remember an earlier story about Rudy's daddy taking an, uh, "active" role in his career. But I could be wrong. Maybe some reader can straighten me out. HW)   *********** West Carteret High, in Morehead City, North Carolina, had its Black Lion Award presentation recently. At left, that award winner Mike Harris and Coach Beau Drake. Among the many nice things Coach Drake wrote about Mike in his letter of nomination, he said, "Mike played offensive guard and defensive line for the Patriots this year. Mike is a leader on and off the field. His leadership has been positive from day one. Patriot football stresses 'servant leadership.' This means that instead of yelling at people to do something you do it with them and serve others.   Mike has a way of leading by example, instead of just barking orders to teammates... When we were in a game and needed a critical first down, we always ran the ball right behind Mike!"   *********** Big weekend, college wise...though I intend to go to a few of our championship games this Saturday and won't be around to watch most of them. There's a coach from Windham H.S. who is in his 31st year there and is in his first championship game this year (they've made the semis a few times, but never advanced to the finals). I have known and respected him since the early 1990's when he was the wrestling coach there and I competed against them while at Manchester High. They were state and New England champions in 1992 (the last CT team to win the NE Tournament). And we were pretty damned good, too. Our matches were always close and certainly intense. They won in 92, we tied in 93, and we won in 94. ALWAYS in front of a packed house...Hard to do in CT.   Anyways, Coach Crudden is a true winner in every capacity and commands total respect from both players and coaches alike. He's a wing t guy and they run it well. It's funny how you pull for certain coaches, even though they were the "enemy" at one point. I'll be in the stands rooting for him on Saturday afternoon.   Speaking of people in the stands rooting...we had several conference coaches in our stands on Tuesday. Most of them called out to me before the game started to let me know they were with us. And, of course, the DWer's were there. What a gesture of sportsmanship, camaraderie, and respect. I wish we could have done better for them.   Pat Cox, Tolland, Connecticut   *********** Several coaches I know have run into Catholic school powerhouses - and lost - and they've asked me about my thinking on the public vs. private issue. They were not whining, but they asked if this was a nationwide phenomenon.   I told them "Yes."   Yes, they have an advantage that most public schools can't overcome. And, no, there is scarcely a metro area anywhere in the US that doesn't have at least one Catholic HS with a very good football team. In Oregon, for example, just last week in a state 6A quarterfinal game, Portland's Jesuit High beat the state's #2 team, Eugene's Sheldon High - 65-7. And this past Saturday, in a state semifinal game, Jesuit beat Canby, 63-21.   And the damnedest thing is, for the most part they just line up in the I and blow people out.   But I am not one to join the chorus claiming that their superiority is due to recruiting.   It does vary from place to place, of course, and I know of a few places where certain Catholic schools are very aggressive in going after 8th graders, but what I've seen mostly is parents who want the best for their kids and believe that they have a better chance of getting it at a Catholic school, where - let's admit it - the academic standards are generally higher and, since they aren't forced to keep a bunch of knuckleheads warm and dry, the discipline is stronger as well. In other words, from what I've seen, Catholic schools don't have to go out and get the kids. The kids come to them.   Many of them come, to be sure, in the hope that they will play on a winning sports team, which will likely get them more recognition. That's understandable, too.   Given kids whose families have aspirations for their kids and stay on top of them to produce, they immediately start out with an excellent chance to have a good team. Not that ambitious parents don't create problems of their own, but that's another story.   *********** An Oregon alum named Pat Kilkenny came up with $1.8 million walking-away money for Ducks' AD Bill Moos.   The deal stipulates that for 10 years, Moos can't take a job at any BCS school west of the Mississippi.   Kilkenny, a San Diego insurance executive, said, "I'm not sure it's my favorite thing to spend money on, but I think it helped facilitate a happy ending for all, and that's what we were shooting for."   *********** For this you get rid of a friend? Brian Billick took over play-calling from his (supposed) friend Jim Fassel, but he couldn't come up with a single touchdown against Cincinnati.   *********** I think one of the absolutely worst rules they've passed in the last several years has been the one allowing a coach to call a timeout. I've seen far too many times when a play has actually been under way only to be blown dead because a coach apparently requested a timeout from the official standing nearest to him. At the very least, once the center puts his hand on the ball, there should be no timeouts allowed.   *********** Maybe it's because of all their Thursday night games on TV, or maybe it's because their athletes, while very good, are not good to the point that they're obsessed with "playing on Sundays," but I have come to the conclusion that I really like the MAC.   *********** I believe it was Mark May who said, "I don't know that Charlie Weis has beaten a quality team."   *********** "It's Thursday!" they tell us, but don't bother to call your cable system to complain, and waste your time or money going out and getting a dish just to watch NFL Thursday night games on the NFL channel. The picture quality is so bad that it looks as if it's actually a second-generation VHS tape; they evidently have a shortage of cameras, so we fail to see key replays; Bryant Gumbel should never have returned to the booth; and we have all seen enough in-studio teams to know a second-rate one when we see it. For this, the NFL wants cable systems to pay them 70 cents per subscriber - per month?   *********** This is what you call arrogance, and it's typical of the NFL, which thinks the world is ready to drop what it's doing to watch 300-pounders push each other around... A guy named Mark Waller, who has something to do with marketing the NFL overseas, said, "If we can be successful in the US, the world's most competitive market, there's no reason why we can't compete elsewhere."   Uh, Mark - wasn't our brand of football sort of invented here? Nearly 150 years ago? And how many years did it take the NFL to be accepted as on a par with college football?   And tell me once more about how well the NFL in its various forms has gone over in Europe? You know - where they tried and failed in Scotland and England and Spain, and where now, except for one team in Amsterdam it's pretty much a German deal...   *********** What did you think of the NFL officials pants last night in the Seattle vs Denver game. I thought they looked like a group of prisoners on a road gang. All the tradition is going to the birds. It took me quite a while to get use to the officials down here in high school wearing shorts for most of the HS season. Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida (It's not acceptable to use the word "gay" in a derogatory sense, so you won't catch me doing that... but I know some high school kids who wouldn't use my restraint. I was also reminded of hockey officials, except for that sweet stripe down the trousers! I just think it's one more way that Big Football intends to distinguish itself from all other football, and establish itself as the ONE TRUE FAITH - the ONLY football there is. HW)   *********** Internet humor... Subject: How times have changed   Scenario: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.   1973 - Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, then goes to his car and gets his to show Jack.   2006 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.   Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.   1973 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends. Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled.   2006 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.   Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.   1973 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Principal. Sits still in class.   2006 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.   Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.   1973 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.   2006 - Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by a state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself, and their Dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.   Scenario: Mark has a headache and takes some headache medicine to school.   1973 - Mark shares headache medicine with Principal out on the smoking dock.   2006 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.   Scenario: Mary turns up pregnant.   1973 - 5 High School Boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers.   2006 - Middle School Counselor calls Planned Parenthood, which notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state over and gets an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge. Mary is given condoms and told to be more careful next time.   Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.   1973: Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.   2006: Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he can't speak English.   Scenario: Johnny takes firecrackers left over from the 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.   1973 - Ants die.   2006 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.   Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Thompson hugs him to comfort him.   1973 - In a short time Johnny feels better and goes on playing.   2006 - Mrs. Thompson is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison.       Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners

Army's Black Lion is a Real STUD! (See"NEWS") Tulane's Strange Way of Thanking Chris Scelfo! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11) My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me December 1, 2006 - "The most valuable gift you can give anyone is your time" Woody Hayes   IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS --- WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" - THE 3-DVD VERSION OF LAST SPRING'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SHIP NEXT WEEK.   IF YOU DIDN'T GET TO ONE OF THE CLINICS, IT IS A MUST. IF YOU DID GET TO ONE OF MY CLINICS, THIS ONE WAS THE CULMINATION OF EVERYTHING COVERED IN ALL THE PREVIOUS CLINICS. (AND EVEN IF YOU WERE THERE, YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLE HAVE TAKEN NOTES FAST ENOUGH TO GET EVERYTHING!)   IT IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE DOUBLE WING THAT I HAVE DONE, AND IT DEALS NOT ONLY WITH THE NITTY-GRITTY OF THE BASICS BUT ALSO WITH THE MOST RECENT ADVANCES OF MY SYSTEM.   IT RANGES FROM A "TUNEUP" ON THE OVERALL BASICS, TO COVERING NOT ONLY FINE POINTS OF THE CORE PLAYS - POWER, WEDGE, COUNTER, TRAP, SWEEP, "G", AND ROLL OUT AND BOOTLEG AS WELL AS THE NEW "800/900" PASSES - BUT ALSO VARIATIONS OF THOSE PLAYS FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMATIONS SUCH AS SLOT, SPREAD, AND STACK.   WEDGE REVERSE, QB REVERSE AND 66-G ARE JUST A FEW OF THE PLAYS SHOWN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS.   IT RUNS FOR NEARLY SIX HOURS AND IS PRICED AT $69.95, BUT IF IT'S PURCHASED ALONG WITH THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC" SET OF 3 DVDS, THE TWO SETS (SIX DVDS TOTAL) WILL COST ONLY $99.90 TOGETHER (WHICH WORKS OUT TO JUST $49.95 EACH). IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE FIRST "VIRTUAL CLINIC," YOU MAY PURCHASE "VIRTUAL CLINIC II" FOR THE INTRODUCTORY PRICE - THROUGH JANUARY 1 - OF $49.95.   FULLBACK MIKE VITI NAMED ARMY'S 2006 BLACK LION   Army football coach Bobby Ross announced following Wednesday's practice that Army's 2006 Black Lion is Mike Viti (pronounced VEE-tee) . I couldn't be more pleased. In a season that hasn't always gone as the Cadets had hoped, Mike, a 5-10, 245 pound fullback from the storied football program in Berwick, Pennsylvania, has been a consistent tower of strength. ESPN commentator and former coach Bill Curry made special note throughout the season of Mike's blocking, and on the few occasions that he has carried the ball (whatever happened to giving the ball to the fullback, anyhow?) he has been a load to bring down. Not a bad receiver, either. But mainly, Mike Viti is a blocker, and even against Texas A & M and Notre Dame, he has been a force.   Let me put this in a way coaches will understand - Mike Viti is a STUD.   All season long, my friend Doc Hinger and I have remarked that based on what we saw on the field, Mike Viti would have been our Black Lion, but you can't make that selection based only on what you see on the game field - the Black Lion has to be a special guy on and off the field, including practices.   It was with great pleasure that I learned that in the opinion of his coaches Mike Viti is as good a team man as he is a player.   Mike follows Will Sullivan and Scott Wesley as previous Army Black Lion Award winners, and he is the first non-senior chosen for the award, which is selected annually by the coaching staff just prior to the Navy contest.   Mike underwent arthroscopic knee surgery 10 days prior to the Black Knights' season opener against Arkansas State, but despite playing with chronically aching knees and a number of other injuries throughout the season, he started all 12 games. Third on the club in rushing and fourth in pass receiving, he averaged 4.6 yards per carry, and 6.1 yards per catch.   "We had a very difficult decision to make as a coaching staff," said Army head coach Bobby Ross. "The coaches had to go through about four rounds of voting because there were so many worthy candidates for this award. But we got the vote right. Mike is very deserving of this award. He is the perfect choice to receive the Black Lion Award in my mind."   Look for Mike, #33, in Saturday's Army-Navy game. He'll be wearing the Black Lions patch on his jersey. Navy has won the last four games, and is heavily favored to make it five in a row, but if every Army player gives it the same effort as Mike Viti will, the game could go either way. *********** Coach, We finshed 11-0 and won our 11 y/o division championship. Other than a few fumbles along the way I believe we got stopped on downs 5 times all year. We only punted twice. 7 different kids scored a TD. 5 had multiple TD's. I drop down next year and start all over with my 7 y/o son. I feel as I learn more I can teach more effective. I'm hoping to catch one of your clinics this spring. The timing has been bad the last 2 years. I'll send you a DVD when completed. Lots of Over/Under Slot G-O Reach after a steady dose of the Powers & Wedges. Talk to you soon. Coach Dan Knab, Holbrook, New York   *********** Local sports columniost and old friend Nick Daschel wrote a column basically suggesting that Urban Meyer shut up about Florida's place in the BCS, pointing out that Florida, like so many SEC teams, has gone outside its conference and played - softies. Central Florida? Western Carolina? (Are you kidding me? Playing a I-AA school the 11th game of the season?)   Pope Urban's whining seems to be aimed at USC, but Nick notes that USC, instead of going the playoff route and padding the schedule simply to make the tournament, the way the basketball teams do (and Florida did), went out and drew up an out-of-league schedule that could position the Trojans to be number one: Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame. Has anybody in the country played a non-conference schedule like it?   As Nick points out, most of the SEC teams have been something of a pre-season joke - the SEC elite (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee) played 24 non-conference games this season, and all but two were at home. And one of the two "away" games was Tennessee at Memphis!   Florida, he notes, has been particularly adept at avoiding the non-conference loss: Florida has not played a non-conference game on the road since 1991 (at Syracuse).   I do think that the SEC may be the toughest conference, but it is not as tough as its supporters would like us to believe. I often think that people extend the incredible passion of the SEC's following to incredible excellence on football.   Nick Daschel points to the SEC's 22-20 record in bowl games since 2000.   I think that top to bottom, the SEC is tougher than the Pac-10, mainly because of Stanford, but otherwise, until Washington lost Isaiah Stanback, I didn't see any Vanderbilts or Mississippi States in the Pac-10.   An interesting thing that Nick mentions is the way we get all excited, along about October 1, about how many SEC teams are undefeated. We somehoe ignore the qualit of the opposition, and look at all those unbeaten teams and marvel at the fact that none of them will get through the season unbeaten because - everyone repeat after me - the SEC is so tough!   So how come, if other leagues are softer than the SEC, only the Big Ten and the WAC had unbeaten teams?   Urban Meyer? If he'd stick to coaching and stay out of politicking, maybe he'd have beaten Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida State more convincingly and he wouldn't have to whine about the BCS.   *********** Coach, Hope your Thanksgiving was nice and you had a chance to get together with family. I want to update you on a tournament in Fla. that Chuck Rossetti (Double-Wing, Plymouth, Mass.) took his team to....they got no respect being from NE and all...but they won their division, beating a very well coached team from IL 20-0, then teeing off on a very big and athletic team from Columbus, OH, 52-12. The OH team had a 260-lb kid and a 190-lb kid (our league's weight limit is 155lb). More to come on that, but I wanted to run a few things by you.   I think that choosing the Black Lion award winner is going to be the hardest decision yet. I always get input from my coaches (individually so they don't feel awkward if they want to pick their own son). One thing I'm having them do is to pick their top 2 to 3 choices, thinking that if there is a common player, then that will be a good choice...I've heard from 2/4 coaches so far, and none of their 6 choices has been the same player, and they're all great kids, and none of them are players who I had on the top of my list. I'm not sure if it's going to be clearer once I get feedback from the other 2 coaches....the good thing is that there are a large number of potentially deserving boys, but this is also the problem.   I must admit up front that I have a bit of a bias against any boy who might be my MVP type of player, usually a back who scores a lot etc. (we don't give out any other award except the Black Lion, so I'm speaking of a hypothetical MVP). Or another way to put it is that I have a bias towards giving it to a lineman/unsung player, etc. This year, my FB/DE was unstoppable, he worked hard in the weight room and speed training all summer, and was the most determined player I had...he probably led the team in tackles, despite playing a non- traditional DE position (I have LBs on the TEs, and a DE rolled up into an 8 tech). In the Jamboree, he took over the game...in Plymouth's last 8 plays, I think he made 7 unassisted tackles (he wrong-shouldered the LG on a 56C, spun around and made a great tackle on the A back who was trying to bounce outside), and they didn't run to his side every time either. He was not to be denied and he was the player who bounced the 4 base outside to score to win the game. He's a quiet, intense sort of kid who I guess led by his sheer will to perform at the highest level possible on every play. I guess I should also say up front that we really didn't have a kid who would shout out and take over a huddle, etc., what you might expect from a typical/traditional captain, and I think that this is in part a function of the age of the boys (7th grade), not wanting to stand out in that way....that's not to say that we didn't have leaders who the kids looked up to, but it was more for their intensity on the field.   I have a quiet unassuming LG/part-time LB who played every position in preseason, never complained, worked very hard, did whatever we asked him to and hustled, hustled, hustled...you'd love to have 20 of these kids (well, I almost do). Then there is a LE who is not a very good athlete, small, timid, etc. but who played beyond his ability, earned a starting position (but still subbed out a fair amount), was smart, knew everyone's assignment, helped out, etc., never complained, and who on most teams, would have been run out of town b/ c he was so timid (but he still did a good job in our system). I have a number of other kids who are also deserving. I guess I'm asking for some advice on how you or other coaches you know of go about selecting their Black Lion award winner....in past years, it's been difficult (well, last year Billy Breen was a clear winner), but mostly it's been down to 2 kids who really stood out, then me agonizing for a couple of nights about these 2 kids. This year it's a little different in that there are quite a few deserving kids, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.   NAME WITHHELD --- The fact that the Black Lion Award is not an MVP Award does not mean that your MVP should be disqualified. Truthfully, if your MVP is also your Black Lion, and you can provide the evidence, you have the ideal Black Lion. Don Holleder, remember, was an All-American. By all accounts of the men who played with and against him, he was a STUD. I don't see the Black Lion Award as a "Most Improved" award, and I don't see it going to the good kid who had no talent but "never missed a practice," or "never complained." These things have nothing to do with leadership. The Black Lion is looked up to. Sat the bench and never complained? Finished all the drills? That's not what the award is about. It is not a feel-good award, and it is not a good-conduct ribbon. The Black Lion is a STUD. (See Mike Viti, above) Black Lion is looked up to. The Black Lion doesn't have to be vocal, but when he does speak, it's like the old E. F. Hutton ad - people listen. Sometimes, you don't even realize what a leader a kid was until he gets hurt and without him, the team is rudderless. To me it is that B-Back, hands down.   *********** Hi Coach, I thought I let you know real quick about a major f..k up of German jurisdiction.   Maybe you heard about Robert Hoyzer, a soccer referee, who was paid by betting agencies to have a certain influence on soccer games as high as the first Bundesliga.   A court sentenced him to 2 years and 5 month in prison for it.   But now the Bundesgerichtshof, the highest court in Germany, seems to overturn that, because there is no law which forbids his actions. Of course it is highly unethical but as a matter of fact it's not a fraud.   Can you believe that? Its a green card for cheating!   Oh, how I hate soccer.   BTW do you remember when West and East Germany was still separated, they called West Germany the BRD? The Bundesrepublik Deutschland...   Believe me there must have been a spelling mistake, because BRD means Bananarebublik Deutschland.   And I saved the best for last. Because he is certainly not welcome on any soccer team in Germany, there are rumors he becomes the kicker for the Berlin Adler (American football team).   UNBELIEVABLE   All the best to you and Connie   Mathias Bonner, Hagenah, Germany   P.S.: I am very interested in the second virtual clinic tape. When do you start to ship it?   *********** Noted youth football coach Calvin Broadus, aka Snoop Dogg, was arrested Tuesday for investigation of illegally possessing a handgun and drugs as he left NBC Studios after performing on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," police said.   Police seized a handgun and some illegal drugs,.   Coach Dogg was arrested for investigation of being a convicted felon (he has a rap sheet as long as your arm) in possession of a firearm, possessing cocaine, transporting marijuana and having a false compartment in his vehicle.   Two acknowledged gang members who are associates of Coach Dogg also were taken into custody.   The arrests stemmed from an investigation that followed Coach Dogg's arrest back in October when police at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport said they found a gun and marijuana in his car.   Oh - and back is September, Coach Dogg was arrested at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana for investigation of carrying a deadly weapon.   Coach was convicted in 1990 of cocaine possession, and then was charged with gun possession after a 1993 traffic stop. Facing a possible three years in prison, he pleaded guilty in exchange for three years' probation and - get this - a promise to make "anti-violence public service announcements."   He was acquitted of murder in 1996 following the death of an alleged street gang member who was killed by gunfire from the vehicle in which he was traveling. ("Hey, man - who you shootin' that gun at? Don't you know you could get us all in trouble?")   Now, what does it say for the mothers of America that they will let their little boby boys play football for a guy like that?   *********** Hard luck coach of the year has to be Tulane's Chris Scelfo. Tulane, if you didn't know, is located in New Orleans, and following Hurricane Katrina, Tulane's students and Tulane's athletic programs were scattered to the four winds.   Forget about getting a team ready - Coach Scelfo was charged with having to find, on very short order, Å a place to practice and places for his players to stay and be fed.   He found a temporary base in Dallas, until finally arrangements were made for his 88 players and his staff to relocate to Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana, more than 200 miles to the northwest of New Orleans.   Home games? Forget it. We all saw what happened to the New Orleans Super Dome. "We don't have a home stadium, so we don't need home jerseys," Scelfo said at the time. "Hey, we ain't going back home this year. So we're on the road and that's all we have."   He tried to put a positive spin on dealing with adversity, saying "I'll play in the parking lot of a Popeye's Fried Chicken and so will my team."   It almost came to that, as Tulane's road warriors played 11 games in 11 different cities, and finished 2-9.   This year, returning to their home in the New Orleans Superdome, the Green Wave went 4-8. Of as much concern as the record was the attendance - it was way down. (Does anybody besides me think that even more than Tulane's record, the fact that New Orleans is now a much smaller city than it was pre-Katrina, might have had something to do with that?)   Anyhow, Chris Scelfo, the guy who held things together when there was even some question about whether Tulane University itself would survive Katrina's effects, was fired Tuesday.   News reports stated that Tulane's players "struggled" with the news of their coach's firing. "Obviously, everybody's probably a little upset, just for the fact that this has been our family for the last few years," said quarterback Scott Elliott.   They always say "it's all about the kids," until the time comes when they admit that it's all about the money.   *********** Coach, It's been a while since I wrote you, but I just couldn't resist after the latest fiasco down here in Arizona.   Here's a couple of interesting tidbits you probably haven't read about up there in the Pacific Northwest.   Lisa Love came here from...you guessed it USC, where before she was Assistant AD, was a Volleyball Coach.   She actually fired Coach Koetter less than 24 hours after his whooping of U of A... and she did it on the telephone!   Her response to the media when asked why she fired him was; "We haven't gained enough competitive traction." What kind of administrative lingo BS is that?   Yesterday in a press conference, Dirk responded to the question about coaching in the bowl game, which was just a few minutes before announced would be in Hawaii. His reply was, "we owe it to the kids and our families to coach in Hawaii." Then followed very sarcastically "Lisa isn't going to coach is she?"   By the way, if you look back over the last 18 seasons and 3 head coaches, this is what you'll find…   Larry Marmie's record from 1988-1992 was 22-21-1 a, .523 winning percentage   Bruce Snyder's record from 1992-2000 was 58-47, a, .552 winning percentage   Dirk Koetter's record was from 2000-2006 was 40-33, a .574 winning percentage…   Maybe the administration ought to look at something else as the culprit, rather than the head coach.   Maybe we aren't attracting the right student athletes.   Maybe facilities? Most of the big time programs that are in cold weather have indoor practice facilities, yet, ASU has to spend 2/3 of it's season practicing after 8:00 at night since it's so freaking hot…   Not that I'm a huge Koetter fan, but I'm really tired of hearing; "let's get back to the glory days of Frank Kush." Heck, he last coached since 1979. And, he got fired for hitting a kid…   I'm willing to bet… lots, that the next ASU coach has some sort of USC ties.   Just some thoughts…   Mike Waters, La Joya High School, Avondale Arisona   It is a sorry state of affairs, isn't it?   Not that Frank Kush didn't build a hell of a program there, going 176-54 over 21-1/2 years (his last year was, uh, cut short after the on-the-field incident) but those were vastly different times. Until it and Arizona joined the Pac-8 (turning it into the Pac-10), Arizona State owned the competition. It was the big game in town.   But football - and Phoenix - have changed an awful lot since he left in 1979.   Frank only got to coach 1-1/2 years in the Pac-10, and ASU's conference record in its first two years in the Pac-10 (1978-1979) was only 7-7.   I suggest that they get real down there in the desert. They're playing a slightly tougher schedule than they did when Frank Kush arrived in 1958: Hawaii, Pacific, West Texas A & M, Hardin-Simmons, San Jose State, Detroit, New Mexico State, Texas El Paso, Arizona and Marquette. At least three of those teams don't even play football anymore. And, since they were the biggest thing in town and they drew huge crowds, they were in a position where they seldom had to travel - in 1958 they played seven home games, and one of their "away" games was at Arizona.   Good luck, whoever gets that job.   Tell me about women AD's with USC backgrounds. Barbare Hedges was such a woman. She came to Washington as part of their PC movement, and systematically destroyed the Huskies' football program. Whatever you remember of the glory days of Washington, Barbara Hedges was the architect of its destruction.   I hasten to point out that another AD fresh from USC came into Syracuse and immediately had to destroy the football program in order to rebuild it. (PS. It's still broken.)   *********** Wow - they're really geting creative in Tempe - names I've heard mentioned for the Arizona State job - Pat Hill (Fresno State), Mike Price (Washington State, Alabama - briefly - and UTEP) and - hold onto your hats - Danny White, who for the last dozen years or so has been coaching in the Arena Football League.   *********** Navy's Paul Johnson has been mentioned for a few of the high-profile jobs. Think anybody has the stones to hire an option coach? He'd be a winner anywhere, but I'm saying no.   *********** Does the new Virtual Clinic DVD have a lot of game film to go along with the instruction? What team(s)?   I use a variety of clips at all my clinics - and on clinic DVDs - to demonstrate what I am talking about, and they are from a variety of teams.   *********** Coach - Bethlehem Liberty ? is that the alma mater of the Great Concrete Chuck Bednarik ? Coach do most teams in PA schedule a Turkey day rivalry ? and if they make the Play-offs they just skip that Game ? NH I believe does a similar thing ?   Coach I listen to that Dave Smith from Sporting News Radio at Lunch, and he said it best AGAIN some deserving team is going to get the screws put to them because of ND and get F**ked out of a BCS spot -   BTW - Somerville (Double-Wing school! HW) finished at 6-4 !! WOW !!! Marchetti should have the GBL coach of the year in the bag, and may even land Div 1 coach of the year from the Globe and Herald with that turn around   John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts   Liberty is, as far as I know, Chuck's high school, although then it was known as just plain Bethlehem.   Since there are far more high schools playing Thanksgiving Day games than there are teams making the playoffs, it is not that big a problem, but this wasn't the first year that I heard of a team's playing on Thanksgiving and playing a playoff game the following Saturday.   There is a VERY strong reason why Easton and Phillipsburg will NEVER give up their Thanksgiving Day game. Actually, there are 15,000 reasons - that's how many people were at the game (played at Lafayette College) in the cold and rain. At 9 in the morning.   *********** Hey Coach, Hope everything is well with you and Connie. Things are good here in sunny FL. I was reading your News page today and when you were talking about Notre Dame, it reminded me of the apaulling scene from this weekend. Did you get a load of the garb that Coach Weis had on? I mean jeez, the guys is paid over a million bucks a year to coach a "Premier" football team, they are playing a nationally televised game, one in which the winner might very well get a chance to play for the National Championship and all he can find to wear is a crappy sweatshirt and what looked like sweat pants. He looked like some guy that they hauled out of the stands and asked if he wanted to be a guest coach for the night's game. Hell, I dress better than that for practices.   Regards, Donnie Hayes, Head Football Coach, Viera High School, Viera, Florida   *********** Happy Thanksgiving Coach Wyatt,   Thought I would let you know how we finished up. We lost our last regular season game 19-14. Also, got blasted in our first round playoff game by McAllen Memorial HS. Disappointing end to a pretty good year for us. This was my fourth season here at Martin HS, so the seniors were "my guys". After running the shotgun spread the first two seasons (what was I thinking?) last season we went to the DW, struggling with a 3-7 season. As you know, we ran it at Danbury HS before I came to Laredo. Of course, going 3-7 last year, the local experts thought I was insane running "that offense". This year we began to click and finished 6-2 in district and 7-4 overall. Most importantly, we had the first winning season at Martin HS in eleven years, the first playoff team in fifteen years and the best overall record in THIRTY-EIGHT years... all running "that offense".   By the way, Coach Wayne Gandy at Joaquin HS in East Texas finished the regular season at 8-2, qualifying for the playoffs for the fifth straight year running the double wing. They are Class A, We are Class 5A.   Can't tell you how much your good counsel and support has meant to us. Hope you, and your family, have a great holiday season. Thanks for everything.   Don Davis, Head Football Coach, Martin High School, Laredo, Texas   *********** A long time reader tells me, "I have come full circle and seen your wisdom on this. I am now for leaving/re-instating the old bowl structure."   I am impressed with my powers of persuasion.   Take a look at this season --- suppose we were to have a four-team playoff, and by some chance, Michgan makes it back to the final game and edges Ohio State. And everybody hails Michigan as the National Champion.   Huh? All it proves to me is that they are 1-1 in head-to-head competition.   Are you telling me that their earlier game - plus 11 others that Ohio State won during the season - was just to get into the playoff?   Did Ohio State's unbeaten season mean nothing?   Once we have a "true national champion," I can already hear the TV people calling for a best-of-three series as the only way to determine a "true national champion."   True or false, AP or UPI or Football Writers or USA Today, I don't give a crap if there is disagreement and argument. I rather enjoy the arguments. I have the mental ability and stability to listen to all the claims and watch all the teams and form my own opinions, and I'd rather we didn't have a playoff just to provide a sedative for those who don't.   *********** Coach Wyatt, My name is Larry Alexander a few years ago I was coaching at Lakeview High School in Campti, La. I became interested in the double wing, so I studied every thing I could find and bought some of your videos and playbook. Two years ago I left Lakeview to take over a program in Oberlin, La. The program had one no more than 3 games a year in over 10 years. When I took the job I decided I would sell out completely to your system terminology and philosophy. the results have been tremendous. The first year we went 5-5 missing the playoffs due to the two hurricanes not allowing our opponents to play very many games. This year our second was spectacular. 11-1 before losing in the second round of the playoffs. Our kids love the system and believe in it completely. The mentality to run the ball no matter what resulted in us averaging 40 points per game and 8 punts on the year. I am looking forward to getting the new information you have put out. Keep up the good work.   Sincerely, Larry Alexander, Campti, Louisiana   *********** Coach, Great stuff as always! BTW, when did the IAA become the "Division 1 football playoff" (or something like that) that I see it being referred to as on the 1A games this past weekend? Does someone feel this will placate the folks that are screaming for a true football playoff system for D1(A)?   Regards, Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey    Several months back, the NCAA announced that henceforth they would be known as "Bowl Diivision" (formerly D-IA) and "Playoff Division" (formerly D-!AA). Just in case people couldn't tell the difference. I guess there was a self-esteem issue with the poor D-IAA people.   I will stick with what I know, just as I do with Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, etc. (until the Nokia, FedEx, Tostitos people pay me to change).   By the way, there's a D-IAA playoff going on, except that other than us hard-core guys, nobody cares. Osama shows that he will stop at nothing in his plot to weaken America... BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners