NEW!  THE EVOLUTION OF AN OFFENSE... Over a year in the making Advancements since the original video in 1995 MANY OF THESE INNOVATIONS - FORMATIONS, PLAYS, TECHNIQUES, DRILLS - ARE SHOWN ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME! Since my first video hit the football scene in 1995 and helped create a whole new offensive category, it's been necessary to constantly  evolve, in order to improve the teaching of the tihngs we were already doing, and to continue to stay a step ahead of defenses. Some of the steps in the evolution of my system have been shown in subsequent videos, and many more of them have been shown exclusively at the more than 100 clinics I've put on over the years. But not until now have all of them been assembled into one DVD. IT'LL BE  LIKE A SWISS ARMY KNIFE - THERE'S SURE TO BE SOMETHING IN HERE THAT WILL HELP YOU 90+ CLIPS ILLUSTRATING MORE THAN 100 INNOVATION $49.95  -  TO PURCHASE OR LEARN  MORE

*********** Coach,

I wrote you sometime back asking a question about Bernie Bierman and you were a huge help.

Ok, now I'm curious about the development of the notion of a gap, of gap control, and of the reading of defensive keys and using those keys to align players appropriately.

I don't see these concepts in Dana Bible's football book of 1947, nor in Steve Owen's football book of 1952. They are essential to Tom Landry's first two defenses, the 4-3 Inside and 4-3 Outside, first appearing, if I'm reading Sam Huff's biographies correctly, in 1956. I suspect these two defenses are the first use of these ideas in the pros.

What I don't know enough about are the college defenses of the era. Any suggestions for references? Did Bud Wilkinson, in thinking about his 5-4, use the terms "gap" and "gap control", or were defenses from 1948-1955 still dominated by the notion of "beating your man", player versus player 1 on 1 combat? Would someone in 1955 called the 5-4 a "2 gap defense"?

My father was a high school player in small town Texas, late 1940s. I asked him about these things one time and he said his coach was all about you beating the man in front of you, not about defending a chunk of territory.

Any suggestions appreciated!

Sincerely,

David Myers, of the blog "Code and Football"
Atlanta, Georgia

Although I have a good eye for questions that could take a little time and generally duck them, this was such a good one that I had to give it a shot.

The reading of defensive keys is a fairly old concept.  We were doing it at Yale in the mid-50s, and I don't believe that it was anything new.

Interestingly, though,  the concept of "gap control" seems to be fairly recent.

I did a cursory search through my library and found that the word "gap" itself seldom appears in most publications from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, and when it does, it usually refers to a "gap defense."

In most cases back then, coaches were describing some form of the "Universal Defense," the Oklahoma 5-4, Okie, 5-2, Fifty-Two or whatever it was called.  The fact that pros are still using it, under the stage name "3-4" shows how basically sound it is.

At most, instructions to players only alluded to "gap control," such as cautioning a player, "don't get hooked" - "Bobby Dodd on Football," 1954.

I did find Gomer Jones,  in "Modern Defensive Football" (1957), written with Bud Wilkinson, instructing defensive ends: "If the (offensive end) blocks to the inside, do not penetrate, but move along the line of scrimmage, closing the gap to your inside."

Frank Leahy, in "Defensive Football," 1957, described his "88 rush" defense, a gap-8, but never used the word "gap."  Instead, the eight rushers were to focus on a common aim point (such as the quarterback or the fullback).

Bear Bryant, in "Building a Championship Football Team," (1960) goes in great detail into the numbering of defensive techniques - but in describing such techniques as a "5" or a "7" , he doesn't specifically mention gap responsibilities.

The Nose man, or as he was usually called then, the Middle Guard, was, without coaches' coming right out and saying so, given two-gap responsibility.

John McKay, in "Football Coaching," 1966, stated his MIddle Guard's assignment quite simply: "Middle. He cannot be cut off by the center," pretty much echoing Gomer Jones' instruction nine years earlier: "Basically, you must never allow the center to cut you either way."

McKay's defense did include a gap alignment and a gap charge.

Ray Graves of Florida, considered by many to be the father of the Monster variation of the 5-4, didn't refer to gap assignments in his book "Guide to Modern Football Defenses" (1966) but he did show what he called his "D.I." alignment.  He said that "D.I" stood for "Double i," and to my knowledge it was the first appearance in a publication of the "Gap-Stack" alignment that Frank Broyles would use at Arkansas.  (Coach Graves and Coach Broyles were both on Bobby Dodd's staff at Georgia Tech.)

Bob Devany of Nebraska, in the 1970 Coach of the Year Clinic notes, called his Middle Guard the "head runner," because he was the man head-up on the center. In the 1970 Coach of the Year Clinic notes, he said, "We all have to agree that there is no one that has a tougher job than the center.  We feel our head runner can tie up the two guards."

Paul Dietzel, in "Coaching Football" (1971) used the terms "A," "B" and "C" but he was not referring to gaps.  Instead,"A" referring to the guard's area, "B" to the tackle's and "C" to the end's.  He said of the responsiblity of his "MIddle Guard": "You are responsible for plays directly at you from the "A" area to the "A" area.  

And he did advise his tackles to react to "an abnormal split between guard and tackle" by "moving into the gap."

In the 1974 Coach of the Year Clinic notes, Charley McClendon of LSU talked about his defensive tackles' responsibilities and knowing "which shoulder you explode with and which arm is free."  Sure sounds like gap control to me, without calling it that.

In some 1976 clinic notes I found from something called Jack Stovall's All-Sports Clinic, UCLA defensive coordinator Lynn Stiles, fresh off the Bruins' Rose Bowl upset of Ohio State, described a number of defensive fronts and stunts they'd used, with assigned gap responsibilities.  (By then, the "Middle Guard" was  a "nose guard.")

In the 1978 Kellogg's West Coast Coach of the Year Clinic notes, Monte Kiffin, the great defensive coach who was then Lou Holtz' defensive coordinator at Arkansas, described the way they were "shading" their "nose guard" toward the strong side of the center - lining him up on the center's strong-side shoulder and limiting his responsibility to just one gap.

And then the next year there it was, in the 1979 Kellogg's West Coast Coach of the Year Clinic notes: Lou Holtz, Kiffin's boss, saying, "We take that nose guard and offset him to the tight end side... I don't believe you can take a nose guard and tell him to cover both gaps. What we do is play 'gap control.'"

The term "gap control" may have been used internally in some organizations - such as in a playbook - but that was the first time I came across it in a coaching talk or publication.   I am going to venture a guess that the phrase, if not th concept,  originated with Monte Kiffin.

The blog in question --- http://codeandfootball.wordpress.com/

***********  Hugh,

I hope your summer is going well. I've been reading up on Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger lately, and in a 1984 article refuting academic criticisms of value investing, Buffett had the following to say: "There seems to be a perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult... it's likely to continue this way. Ships will sail around the world, but the Flat Earth Society will flourish... and those who read their Graham and Dodd will continue to prosper."

A subsequent book that used Buffett's article as a foundation was more biting: "Buffett's argument has never, to my knowledge, been addressed by the efficient-market theorists; they evidently prefer to continue to prove in theory what was refuted in practice." (emphasis mine.)

These gave me a chuckle when I thought of them in the context of coaching critics, whether the topic is tackling technique or the DW offense, whether it's battling "that won't work!" or working on not overcoaching things.

(Sourced here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Superinvestors_of_Graham-and-Doddsville)

Christopher Anderson
Arlington, Virginia

Conventional wisdom may be conventional but it isn't always wise.

Warren Buffett is wise enough to trust in himself.

What I think is hilarious is that while libs and conservatives were beating each other up over Keystone XL, the BNSF railway - owned by Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway - was investing billions in rail cars, tracks and oil terminals in North Dakota, and now it's become a virtual "pipeline on wheels,"  with the flexibility to take the oil to wherever it will bring the best price.

*********** Former Washington Redskins and 1942 Georgia National Championship team member Joe Tereshinski.,  died June 9 at the age of 89. The card was given to me by his nephew, Tom Tereshinski, a Maryland high school coach, who told me what a thrill it was to attend old Redskins' reunions with his uncle Joe and meet such former teammates as the great Sammy Baugh.

***********  Whenever you're practicing team offense, I think it's important to have a goal line - and to insist that your runners (or receivers) score when they have the ball.

Take it from no less than the great Eddie Robinson: "You can't ask a boy to go in the game on Saturday and score when he has not scored in practice." 

*********** It's not exactly the Army-Navy game, but maybe a win here could start to turn things around for Army…

Teams made up of former Army and Navy football players and filled out with a few current and former solders and sailors will meet on Saturday in an  arena-ball game at Philadelphia’s 17,000-seat Wells Fargo Center.

The game is being organized by the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul, and it's intended to help bring attention to veterans’ unemployment.

“The real intention here is to help veterans gain good employment,” said Soul executive Joe Krause.

One of those expected to play is former Navy QB Ricky Dobbs, who in 2009 rushed for 27 touchdowns to break Tim Tebow’s record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a season.  He's now stationed with the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia.

***********The recent publicity about how much Rutgers paid a search firm to go out and find them a new athletic director, only to learn after she was hired that she had, uh, "baggage," has focused interest on these search firms.

How much do they charge, anyhow - and who uses them?

Writes Bruce Schoenfeld, in Sports Business Journal...

*********** Funny how the Obama administration, which would prefer that Americans not own gun - even for their own self-defense - has decided to send guns to  the rebels in Syria.  What do you suppose they hunt in Syria?

*********** Hugh, after my workout this morning at 6am I was making breakfast for my oldest son who has to be at work at 7. Anyway I punched up your news and read the opening paragraph (about the "transgender graduate"), needless to say after 2 readings and the proverbial WTF! I told my oldest "read this." His response after 2 readings was the same WTF followed by we need to (unprintable). Anyway don't know where you get these stories, I find it hard to believe they exist but I guess they do. What a world!

Mike Foristiere
Boise, Idaho

*********** Beth Davis, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, sent me a Father's Day note along with a picture of her husband, my friend and fellow coach Rick, relaxing by a lake with "his favorite book."  It's his Double Wing playbook, and if you look carefully you'll see that's it's covered with badges from my clinics.  I count eight, and I know he's been to more than that.

*********** "There are just so many things you can practice.  That is the trouble with a coaching staff.  Everyone has a play that will win.  They will, but you can't go out and practice eighty different plays when you are only going to run 15 or 16 in a game."  Bill Battle, Tennessee Coach, at the 1972 Kodak Coach of the Year Clinic.  Bill Battle is now the Athletic Director at his alma mater, the University of Alabama.

*********** You'd think somebody would have told Bob Costas that the US Open was NOT played at a place called "Marry-in."  It is spelled MERION - with an "e" - and it is pronounced "MER-ion" as in "Merry Christmas."

It's located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, an upscale suburb of Philadelphia, just west of town  on the "Main Line." 

For what it's worth, Kobe Bryant's last stop, before the Lakers, was Lower Merion HIgh School, which serves the area. Lower Merion Township is one of the top five most affluent areas in the US. (In Pennsylvania and some other parts of the east, it's common for areas to use "upper" and "lower" synonymously with "northern" or "southern.")

The name "Main Line" came about because of the string of towns -  Ardmore, Gladwynne, Bryn Mawr, Villanova, St. David's - that grew up around railroad stations on the old Pennsylvania Railroad's main line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and points beyond.  The Main Line was where many of the people who had grown wealthy in the late 1800s as Philadelphia's industries boomed built their estates. Those were the days when the truly wealthy spent enormous fortunes on their residences, yet otherwise went to unusual lengths not to flaunt their wealth.  They kept to themselves, associated only with others in their same social strata, and sent their kids to the best of prep schools and colleges so that they, too, would associate with  - and, hopefully, meet and marry -  people from their same social class.  Perhaps out of concern for the potential of class warfare, at a time when in the nearby city factory workers were busting their butts to make a living, it was considered unseemly in those times to display one's wealth ostentatiously. 

To a Philadelphian,  "the Main Line" has always been synonymous with "old wealth," not unlike "the North Shore" would be to Chicagoans, or "Greenwich" would be to New Yorkers.  Of course people of ordinary means live there, too, but back along the winding roads, behind the stone walls and big old trees, are the huge old homes of the old rich - the people whose wealth is generations old, and of an scale unimaginable to those of us from another class.

Unless, like me, you happened to attend an elite college,  you had no chance to associate with them.  I did, and by and large, I found they weren't unlike the rest of society - some were very good people and some total insufferable asses. They were just richer and more self-assured.  

100 years ago,  the working people's six-day work week didn't allow a lot of time for recreation, but the wealthy folks  had the time for sports, and the money to enjoy them -   sports such as tennis, squash and golf that have long been associated with the wealthy.  They even took up cricket. They founded places such as Merion Golf Club, where they could enjoy sport in the company of their social equals.  And it's as exclusive today as it was 100 years ago.  The Golden Age of the Old Rich may have passed, but there are still things that all the money in the world can't buy.  One of those is membership in MERion.

*********** Maybe this whole business about the NSA reading our email is a secret government plot to get people to go back to using the Postal Service.

*********** The Houston Chronicle reports that high school cheerleaders are now required to sign the same concussion acknowledgement form that football players must sign before each season…

*********** Tom Walls writes, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, "you'd be pleased to know that the students in my "special classroom" all fight over who gets to use your pass-back. It's a better motivator for math than free time."

*********** Coach,

My name is ---------- and I am the junior varsity coach in ---------.  I know that we just purchased some of you videos and coaching materials (our head varsity coach is Allan Peterson, I know that he has
been in contact with you lately).   Anyway, the real reason I wanted to contact you is I saw on your website a video for your pre season work out circuit.  I really enjoyed what I saw there.  I am
thinking that we could do something like that here too.  Can you tell me a few things, like how long do you perform each station and is there a short rest between them?  It is something different and I think that kids enjoy
doing different things, rather than the same old things day after day.

Obviously it is more of a conditioning work out than a strength work out, but it also is going to include some muscle fatigue.  Normally teams run for conditioning, but running is more cardiovascular and this looks like it
has some stations that are designed to fatigue the muscles.  Any way, it looks pretty cool and I think that our kids would enjoy the challenge, it kind of looks fun.  Thanks for your time.

Hi Coach-

I have not always been blessed with great facilities but I have found that by using your ingenuity and imagination you can find ways to exercize the whole body and prepare kids for the stresses of football.

I try to have 30 or so stations, working at each one for 30 seconds, then increasing each week to 35, then to 40, then to 45. (The idea is that if you start out the first week, it's easier, but if you procrastinate and start later, it will be tougher.)

We'll rest for 10 seconds between stations.

Everyone has to move quickly to the next station and be ready, in the start position, of the next station.  This is important.  We don't wait until the "GO" signal to get into the starting position - we are in it BEFORE the GO signal.

We do NOT use weights that weaker kids can't lift.  This is NOT strength training.  This is conditioning.  I want constant motion.

Use your own judgment on how/what to do, but obviously you don't want exercises that essentially work the same muscles/joints too close to each other.

I do like to keep the stations in relatively close proximity to one another because I want the players communicating with each other - encouraging each other.

If we have a lot of kids, we will pair them off with partners. This will mean the circuit will take almost twice as long (we don't have a ten-second rest between partners or between stations), but it's worth it in other ways. For instance,  I make sure that a senior is paired with a freshman or a newcomer to the program.

If anyone jumps or starts late, we add a station (or double the time).  If anyone loafs or stops in the middle of a station, we treat it just like stopping in the middle of a play - the whole play is lost, and we start over.

We will allow a lateness of up to three stations - the player will do an additional six when the circuit is done.  (Everyone else waits.)

When we're done, we go outside and run sprints, do bear crawls, backpedal, etc.

The whole deal takes a maximum of an hour.

I should point out that this is NOT meant to supplant strength training. But if I had to choose between the two, I would choose superior conditioning without a lot of strength over superior strength without a lot of conditioning.

We require our players to complete a specified number of circuits between the start of August and the time we issue pads.

Doing so before the start of formal practice is optional, and players who can't do so in advance may complete their circuits following daily practices.  (Very, very few, I might add, choose this option.)

We hold circuits at 8 AM and 4 PM, Monday through Friday.  In order to accommodate players' schedules we might consider holding a Saturday AM circuit.  In rare cases, when a player knows he's going to be out of town and he's already demonstrated that he's in decent shape, we'll allow a player to do two circuits in a single day.

Benefits -

Safety - Our kids never have problems with heat, and muscle pulls are rare

Confidence -  Younger kids don't have to worry about whether they can endure the demands of actual practice.

Teaching - Kids who aren't worried about how hot or tired or sore they are are better able to pay attention

Performance - Our early practices go well.  We don't have kids dragging.

Team building - When we work in close proximity, and especially when we pair off, we are able to build camaraderie

Recruitment - We can ask kids to give a circuit a shot.  And from there, we can work on him and so can the other players

Relationships - As coaches, we learn how to "coach" certain kids who are new to us, and those kids begin to learn how to take coaching

Screening - We discover who's willing to pay the price before spending any time on them on the field

Hope that helps.

*********** An elementary school principal in Hayward, California is holding a gun exchange next Saturday - a toy gun exchange -  in which students can turn in a toy gun to receive a book and enter a raffle to win one of four bicycles.

He's serious.   “Playing with toy guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” he says.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/10/Elementary-School-Urges-Students-To-Turn-In-Toy-Guns

*********** I don't know about you, but I think this latest  version of Superman, played by an Englishman named Henry Cavill, is too pretty to strike fear in the hearts of evildoers everywhere.

*********** Frank Bruni, one of the many flaming libs on the New York Times staff, wrote Tuesday that… sexism lives!

Here was some of his evidence…

*********** A Richmond (Virginia)Times-Dispatch columnist interviewed local Indian chiefs and found that not only have they no objections to the use of the name "Redskins" - they root for them!

http://mobi.timesdispatch.com/richmond/db_16529/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=2t3H8oXG&full=true

*********** A great look back at how Donald Trump almost singlehandedly  killed the USFL---

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130509/usfl-tim-tebow/?sct=obnetwork

*********** The NFL,  concerned that it could losing paying customers to man caves and large-screen TVs, is looking for ways to enhance the in-stadium experience, ways of giving the fans things they can't get at home.

Which explains its plans, announced in April, to put cameras in teams' locker rooms so fans can see the halftime happenings right on the JumboTron screen.

But Sports Business Journal found that, with kickoff of the first pre-season game a little more than two months away, not one of the two dozen clubs it contacted had a plan ready to make it work.

From the Packers: “We haven’t worked through this yet,” was the reply from the Green Bay Packers.

From the Dolphins: “Not much we can tell you at this point. We haven’t yet discussed how we will handle that.”

From the Vikings: “We have not made any decisions at this point.”

From the Bengals: “It’s on the future agenda, but so far has been brought up only briefly at one meeting.”

From the Falcons: “We have not decided how to do it."

No rush.  The first pre-season game isn't until August 8.

*********** It's the annual custom of our local newspaper to list the honors graduates at our county high schools.  They used to list baccalaureate speakers and valedictorians, but baccalaureate is so… Christian… that a lot of schools have simply done away with it, and as for valedictorians, well, when everyone in the class is very, very special, how can we possibly single out one or two?

A few schools still stick with the old baccalaureate/valectory routine, but most of the others have gone to what might be called a modified trophies-for-everybody scheme: listing the top 2, 3, 4 or 5 per cent of the class.

One thing that listing the top 5 per cent or so shows me is that today's boys are, for the most part,  lame-ass.  In most of the high schools, girls made up 2/3 of those listed. In one of the high schools, it was closer to 50-50, but in another one (one at which I once taught and coached) in a graduating class of 259 kids, there was not a single male in the top 5 per cent.

I suspect that this is the case in most places in the country.

Sure looks as if we're looking down the line at a country run by women, while an awful lot of 20-something guys live in their parents' basements, sleep until noon and play video games all afternoon while texting about where they're going to hang out that night to drink Bud Light and watch TV.

*********** In case you cared...  Cal was the winner of whatever the hell that Rugby Sevens tournament was on Sunday, defeating a formerly unknown opponent called Life University in the final.

Yes, yes, I know.  It's going to be an Olympic sport: seven players to a side, playing on the regulation-size field.

What an utter waste of all that grass.   No blocking. Very little tackling.  Flag football without forward passes.

In my opinion, it's a pathetic little sport.  But mercifully, the games don't last long - they play seven-minute halves.

To an American football fan, that's just foreplay.

*********** Hugh,
 
Looks like number 91 for the Dolphins will have to stay after practice and run laps for forgetting his knee pads, thigh pads and hip pads.

John Dowd
Spencerport, New York

Look for the NFL to hammer us non-stop with a program called "Pad Up," requiring all youth coaches to be certified in the proper fitting of hip, thigh and knee pads, with messages from current and  former NFL players - wide receivers and defensive backs - on the importance of "padding up."  Do as we say, fellas.  Not as we do.

*********** Hello Coach. I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your video. I have been trying to get the double wing going for 2 years now with little to no success. I went 3-5 the first year and this spring I went 0-6. I have purchased tons of DW material which includes Jack Gregory dvd series on the double wing which I thought was very good, and Simple double wing by JJ Lawson, and also purchased other. In other words I have tons of material and believe I have a really good hold on how it works but just can't seem to translate it to the kids. I believe this video helped me see a real practice taken place and you seem to make it seem simple. I will be purchasing more material when i get the chance but was wondering if you could tell me how you would adjust your teaching to say 8-9 year olds and how you would simplify your play calls? I really think your video I just purchased will help and I am not the sort to give up. If you have any advice for me coach please let me know. Thanks

Coach,

Even if I had really young kids I would not change the play calls. Work hard at teaching the kids the language.  It is not beyond their ability.  There is a reason why educators say that kids that age are better at learning foreign languages than we are.

Here's a way I've introduced the terminology to kids...   (You might need to download Quicktime Player - free at apple.com)

http://www.coachwyatt.com/dblwing5minuteintro/dblwing5minuteintro.mov

I would simply limit the playbook as follows:

1-2. 88 Super Power and 99 Super Power (Definitely run both)
3-4. 47-C and 56-C (if time is a problem, run just 47-C)
5-6. 88 G Reach and 99 G Reach (if time is a problem, you can wait on this until you've got it down)
7. 2 Wedge (Definitely need this)
8-9.  88 Brown and 99 Black (not a bad idea to practice this because kids that age aren't very good at pass defense)

Here's a sample of one of my teams running these plays.

Notice that we don't use motion on 88 and 99 Super Power - haven't done it for quite some time - and I'd advise you not to, either.

http://www.coachwyatt.com/YouthDWbasicNB/YouthDWbasicNB.mov

*********** Why one Pennsylvania state legislator turned against fracking…

No, the environment had nothing to do with his change of heart.  It was the usual - somebody failed to fork over the goodies.

http://conservativeintel.com/2013/05/30/more-about-that-pa-state-legislator-who-trolls-constituents-online-and-why-he-turned-against-fracking/

*********** Tom Coburn thinks the NFL should pay taxes.  So do I.

Last year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pulled down $29.4 million, more than the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, AT&T and several large banks.

Not bad for a guy who runs a "non-profit."

"This is one of the things in the tax code that just doesn't make any sense," said John Hart, a spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, speaking with USA TODAY Sports. "It's one of the striking examples in the tax code where middle- and lower-income Americans are essentially subsidizing salaries for multimillionaires."

To make sure things stay that way, the NFL spent $1.5million last year on lobbying, according to its last tax forms.

On its tax form, the NFL calls itself a "trade association promoting interests of its 32 member clubs."

The league's tax form also lists $621million in receivable loans - money it lends to teams for building stadiums (usually when local taxpayers agree to pony up a sizable amount, too.)

Those loans are made at below-market rates, allowingfor-profit NFL teams to save money in building newer stadiums that will produce more revenues for them.

Tax experts, claim that those below-market-rate loans could be considered private benefits the private team owners who govern the NFL and employ Goodell.  Such private insider benefits are not normally allowed for tax-exempt not-for-profits.

The NFL claims that it does more than merely help its members make money, and that it helps to promote the growth of the sport of football.

Yeah, right.  Can you say "Heads Up?"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/05/29/nfl-sports-leagues-irs-tax-exemption/2370945/


***********  "I'm committed to excellence... And the fair treatment of all"

*********** Tomorrow (Friday) our first week of spring ball comes to an end. 

All I can say is, "whew!"   We are looking good.

We lost only 1/2 of a starter on offense, so you'd expect us to look pretty sharp, and we do.    A number of the kids remarked on how quickly we got up to speed with out base offense, which allowed us to spend a lot of time integrating run-and-shoot-based passing into our Double Wing package. The kids are really picking up the run-and-shoot basics, and I'm enjoying my trip back in time to the 1980s.

Not only are our older kids looking really sharp, but we have had such an unprecedented turnout of incoming ninth graders that we're hovering around 40 kids at practices, an all-time high for North Beach.

We'll go for two more weeks, Tuesday-Friday, concluding with a game/scrimmage on Saturday, June 15 against traditional power Tacoma Baptist.

(Readers interested in watching a practice or two need only contact me.  And if you might be coming a distance, we do have a couple of extra bedrooms in our place.)

*********** Leave it to the whores of Major League Baseball.

The opening pitch at a ball game, once an honor accorded to Presidents and war heroes, is no longer a big deal.. Now, it's more likely to be a major sponsor, or the winner of a drawing, or the winner of a TV talent show.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/sports/baseball/baseballs-first-pitch-loses-its-exclusivity.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130529

*********** Anheuser-Busch being acquired by a Belgian/Brazilian concern? That was bad enough.

But Smithfield Foods, America's largest pork producer, being acquired by the Chinese?

Shoot, man - the name Smithfield is synonymous with ham.  They've been raising hogs down there in Tidewater Virginia since colonial times. 

I guarantee you - this wouldn't happen if Barack Obama were president.

*********** Look.  One of the benefits of old age is that I won't have to live as long in the America that's coming down the pike as most of my readers.

And if I seem to be growing weary of biting my tongue on topics that concern me, it's because I am.

Our beloved country is going to hell, right in front of our eyes, and I think that the least I can do as an old fart is to say my piece before I move on.  If others disagree and would just as soon go along for the ride to perdition, then they deserve what they get.

Look - what's going on in our administration is despicable  Those people ("folks")  are waging war on the American people, but the mainstream media, the same ones who used to rail about George Bush listening in on our phone calls,  are so enamored of Barack the Great that you'd never know what was happening.

Don't take it from me.  Don't take it from Fox News.  Take it from a Canadian journalist/commentator named Rex Murphy.

http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/about/correspondents/rexmurphy/

*********** Hello Hugh!

I am happy to say that I am back as a head coach and OC in my home town of St. Albert, Alberta (suburb of Edmonton) with the St. Albert Atom Buccaneers (7-10 years old). Last year I was the DC and had a blast coaching my son. We finished 3-3 and lost in first game of the playoffs.  Our Head Coach won coach of the year after improving from 0-6 the year before. He was gracious to recognize my efforts and recommending me to be the new HC as he moves up a level.

I plan on implementing the D. W. and am wondering what advice you have for someone coaching this age level. I will have about 20-25 players with about half who have played before. I have a very capable line coach who played college and CFL and loves the idea of running the ball.  I hope I will be able to correspond with you in the next six months and keep you up to date as well as bending your ear for advice.

Take care!

Kyle Wagner
Edmonton, Alberta

Coach,

It's great to hear from you again.  I was in Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago and it brought back find memories of my visit to Edmonton.

I'm pleased to hear that you're back - once a coach, always a coach!

Of course I stand ready to help in any way I can.

If I could give you any advice right now it would be:

(1) Make sure they know upfront what pisses you off.  Don't expect them to know in advance, and don't expect them to learn on the fly.

(2) Teach them the importance of PACE: punctuality, attention coachability and effort.

(3) Don't hesitate to keep things very simple if that's what it takes for every kid to understand.  You're a teacher, so you know how difficult it can be sometimes to get a kid to admit "I don't understand."   Keep questioning and probing to find out what they don't know and who doesn't know it.

(4) Be prepared to be flexible in your teaching.  And at all costs avoid football jargon that means nothing to them. Translate things into terms they can understand.  

(5) Be patient but be persistent - don't rush the kids, but don't stop hammering away, either.  One day, they will get it.

(6) Never confuse teaching with testing.  As a teacher, you wouldn't give kids a test on something you hadn't taught thoroughly, and it's the same thing with football techniques and drills.  

(7) Teach things the way you'd teach swimming.  Don't throw them into the deep water right away.  Start out slowly - "teaching speed" - and don't progress until you are sure that they are very confident in what they are doing. If you start out at full speed, they will make mistakes that you'll never be able to correct - mistakes that could have been corrected early on if you'd gone at teaching speed.

(8) Take the time to teach a drill before expecting the kids to perform it.  Teach the drill in slow-motion, and compressed form and only expand it as they show that they can perform it properly

(9) Stick to your schedule and parents will be appreciative

(10) Do whatever you can to end with something fun for them so they go off with smiles on their faces.

(11) Don't do a lot of lecturing to them at the end.  Make it short and sweet and send them off on a positive note.

*********** Former Army football player Kenny Rackers is now the world cheese-rolling champion. Sounds tame, I know, but it's not.  You've got to see what this thing is all about!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/angrysoups/an-all-american-hero-just-won-the-gloucestershire-avsv

*********** "Benevolence and charity are wonderful things when they're voluntary and on your terms. But what arrogance to have an entitlement society that expects it. Or to feel that you have to "give back."  I don't know what the hell you took in th first place that you have to give back."  John Aglialoro, CEO of Cybex International.

*********** "When you're north of 400 pounds - I'm not being mean - but you've got some insecurity issues, and maybe he likes being with the popular kid." Dennis Miller on New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie's man crush on President Obama."  Dennis Miller

*********** On Sunday, Our President visited Moore, Oklahoma.

On Tuesday, he was on the Jersey Shore, telling the "folks" there, “You can count on the fact that you won’t be alone. Your fellow citizens will be there for you. Just like we’ll be there for folks in Breezy Point and Staten Island, and obviously we’re going to be there for folks in Monroe, Oklahoma.”

Hey, who forgot to replace the batteries in the President's TelePrompter?

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/28/no-moore-obama-flubs-name-oklahoma-city-devastated/#ixzz2UcfFL0jJ

***********

I do not know the meaning of the universe. But in the midst of doubt, in the collapse of creeds, there is one thing I do not doubt, that no man who lives in the same world with most of us can doubt, and that is that the faith is true and adorable which leads a soldier to throw away his life in obedience to a blindly accepted duty, in a cause which he little understands, in a plan of campaign of which he has little notion, under tactics of which he does not see the use. 

Most men who know battle know the cynic force with which the thoughts of common sense will assail them in times of stress; but they know that in their greatest moments faith has trampled those thoughts under foot. If you wait in line, suppose on Tremont Street Mall, ordered simply to wait and do nothing, and have watched the enemy bring their guns to bear upon you down a gentle slope like that of Beacon Street, have seen the puff of the firing, have felt the burst of the spherical case-shot as it came toward you, have heard and seen the shrieking fragments go tearing through your company, and have known that the next or the next shot carries your fate; if you have advanced in line and have seen ahead of you the spot you must pass where the rifle bullets are striking; if you have ridden at night at a walk toward the blue line of fire at the dead angle of Spottsylvania, where for twenty-four hours the soldiers were fighting on the two sides of an earthwork, and in the morning the dead and dying lay piled in a row six deep, and as you rode you heard the bullets splashing in the mud and earth about you; if you have been in the picket-line at night in a black and unknown wood, have heard the splat of the bullets upon the trees, and as you moved have felt your foot slip upon a dead man's body; if you have had a blind fierce gallop against the enemy, with your blood up and a pace that left no time for fear --if, in short, as some, I hope many, who hear me, have known, you have known the vicissitudes of terror and triumph in war; you know that there is such a thing as the faith I spoke of. You know your own weakness and are modest; but you know that man has in him that unspeakable somewhat which makes him capable of miracle, able to lift himself by the might of his own soul, unaided, able to face annihilation for a blind belief.

MEMORIAL DAY EDITION

*********** Memorial Day, once known as "Decoration Day," was originally set aside to honor the men who died in the Civil War. (There was a time when certain southern states did not observe it, preferring instead to observe their own Memorial Days to honor Confederate war dead.)

The Civil War soldiers called it "seeing the elephant." It meant experiencing combat. They started out cocky, but soon learned how suddenly horrible - how unforgiving and inescapable - combat could be. By the end of the Civil War 620,000 of them on both sides lay dead. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were left dead or homeless.

"I have never realized the 'pomp and circumstance' of glorious war before this," a Confederate soldier bitterly wrote, "Men...lying in every conceivable position; the dead...with eyes open, the wounded begging piteously for help."

"All around, strange mingled roar - shouts of defiance, rally, and desperation; and underneath, murmured entreaty and stifled moans; gasping prayers, snatches of Sabbath song, whispers of loved names; everywhere men torn and broken, staggering, creeping, quivering on the earth, and dead faces with strangely fixed eyes staring stark into the sky. Things which cannot be told - nor dreamed. How men held on, each one knows, - not I."

Each battle was a story of great courage and audacity, sometimes of miscommunication and foolishness. But it's the casualty numbers that catch our eyes. The numbers roll by and they are hard for us to believe even in these days of modern warfare. Shiloh: 23,741, Seven Days: 36,463, Antietam: 26,134, Fredericksburg: 17,962, Gettysburg: 51,112, and on and on (in most cases, the South named battles after the town that served as their headquarters in that conflict, the North named them after nearby rivers or creeks - so "Manassas" for the South was "Bull Run" for the North; "Antietam" for the Union was "Sharpsburg"  for the Confederacy).

General William T. Sherman looked at the aftermath of Shiloh and wrote, "The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war."

From "Seeing the Elephant" - Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh - Joseph Allan Frank and George A. Reaves - New York: Greenwood Press, 1989

*********** Several years ago, I visited the First Division (Big Red One) Museum in Wheaton, Illinois, where I read these lines, and thought of all the Americans who died in service of their country - men who in the memories of those they left behind will be forever young...

********* At just about this time two years ago,  my wife and I, and Greg Koenig and his wife, Rhonda,  visited  the National World War I Museum in Kansas City.  It's a magnificent place.  As you enter,  you cross a glass bridge,  and  you find yourself looking down at a "field" of bright orange poppies.

Poppies once symbolized the Great War,  or The World War,  or - The War to End All Wars (since, in the conceit that seems to follow every war, people  just knew that after the horror of that conflict, mankind would do anything in its power to avoid ever going to war again.)

Following the World War, Americans began to observe  the week leading up to Memorial Day as Poppy Week, and long after the World War ended, veterans' organizations in America, Australia and other nations which had fought in the war still sold imitation poppies every year at this time to raise funds to assist disabled veterans.

It was largely because of a poem by a Canadian surgeon, Major John McCrae that the poppy, which burst into bloom all over the once-bloody battlefields of northern Europe, came to symbolize the rebirth of life following the tragedy of war.

Major McCrae was especially affected by the death of a close friend and former student. Following his burial - at which, in the absence of a chaplain, Major McCrae himself had had to preside - the Major sat in the back of an ambulance and, gazing out at the wild poppies growing in a nearby cemetery, composed a poem, scribbling the words in a notebook.

When he was done, though, he discarded it. Only through the efforts of a fellow officer, who rescued it and sent it to newspapers in England, was it ever published.

Now, the poem, "In Flanders Fields", is considered perhaps the greatest of all wartime poems.

The special significance of the poppies is that poppy seeds can lie dormant in the ground for years, only flowering when the soil has been turned over.

The soil of northern Belgium had been so churned up by the violence of war that at the time Major McCrae wrote his poem, the poppies were said to be blossoming in a profusion that no one could  remember ever having seen before.

In Flanders Fields... by John McCrae        

In Flanders fields the poppies blow   
Between the crosses, row on row,   
That mark our place; and in the sky  
The larks, still bravely singing, fly   
Scarce heard amid the guns below.        

We are the Dead. Short days ago   
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,   
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie   
In Flanders fields.        

Take up our quarrel with the foe:   
To you from failing hands we throw   
The torch; be yours to hold it high.   
If ye break faith with us who die   
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow   
In Flanders fields.

*********** THE YANKEE FROM OLYMPUS - ON MEMORIAL DAY

"We have shared the incommunicable experience of war. We felt - we still feel - the passion of life to its top.... In our youths, our hearts were touched with fire." Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr.

At a time in our history when fewer than five per cent of the people who govern us have served in our Armed Forced, it is useful to go back to another time, to men such as Oliver Wendel Homes, Jr.

Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr.  was born in Boston in 1841, the son of a famous poet and physician. In his lifetime he would see combat in the Civil War then go on to become a noted lawyer and, finally, for 30 years, a justice of the Supreme Court. So respected was he that he became known as "The Yankee From Olympus."

He graduated from Harvard University in 1861. After graduation, with the Civil War underway, he joined the United States Army and saw combat action in the Peninsula Campaign and the Wilderness, and was injured at the Battles of Ball's Bluff, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He was discharged in 1864 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

The story is told of Holmes that in July 1864, as the Confederate general Jubal Early conducted a raid north of Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln came out to watch the battle. As Lincoln watched, an officer right next to him was hit by a sniper's bullet. The young Holmes, not realizing who he was speaking to, shouted to the President, "Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!"

After the war's conclusion, Holmes returned to Harvard to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1866, and went into private practice in Boston.

In 1882, he became both a professor at Harvard Law School and a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In 1899, he was appointed Chief Justice of the court.

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt named Holmes to the United States Supreme Court, where he served for more than 30 years, until January 1932.

Over the years, as a distinguished citizen who knew what it meant to fight for his country, he would reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day, and of the soldier's contribution to preserving our way of life...

On Memorial Day, 1884, 20 years after the end of the Civil War, Mr. Holmes said,

On the eve of Memorial Day, 1931, at the age of 90, Mr. Justice Holmes wrote to a friend:

"I shall go out to Arlington tomorrow, Memorial Day, and visit the gravestone with my name and my wife's on it, and be stirred by the military music, and, instead of bothering about the Unknown Soldier shall go to another stone that tells beneath it are the bones of, I don't remember the number but two or three thousand and odd, once soldiers gathered from the Virginia fields after the Civil War. I heard a woman say there once, 'They gave their all. They gave their very names.' Later perhaps some people will come in to say goodbye."

Justice Holmes died on March 6, 1935, two days short of his 94th birthday, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. So spry and alert was he, right up to the end, that it's said that one day, when he was in his nineties, he saw an attractive young woman and said, "Oh, to be seventy again!"

A 1951 Hollywood motion picture, The Magnificent Yankee, was based on his life.

*********** Robert W. Service is one of my favorite poets. I especially like his poems about the Alaska Gold Rush - who hasn't ever heard "The Cremation of Sam McGee?" -  but this one, about a young English soldier going off to fight in World War I and the grief of his father at learning of his death, is heartbreaking, and especially poignant on a day when we remember our people who gave everything, and those loved ones they left behind..

"Where are you going, Young Fellow My Lad, On this glittering morn of May?"   
"I'm going to join the Colours, Dad; They're looking for men, they say."   
"But you're only a boy, Young Fellow My Lad; You aren't obliged to go."   
"I'm seventeen and a quarter, Dad, And ever so strong, you know."        

"So you're off to France, Young Fellow My Lad, And you're looking so fit and bright."   
"I'm terribly sorry to leave you, Dad, But I feel that I'm doing right."   
"God bless you and keep you, Young Fellow My Lad, You're all of my life, you know."   
"Don't worry. I'll soon be back, dear Dad, And I'm awfully proud to go."        

"Why don't you write, Young Fellow My Lad? I watch for the post each day;   
And I miss you so, and I'm awfully sad, And it's months since you went away.   
And I've had the fire in the parlour lit, And I'm keeping it burning bright   
Till my boy comes home; and here I sit Into the quiet night."        

"What is the matter, Young Fellow My Lad? No letter again to-day.   
Why did the postman look so sad, And sigh as he turned away?   
I hear them tell that we've gained new ground, But a terrible price we've paid:   
God grant, my boy, that you're safe and sound; But oh I'm afraid, afraid."        

"They've told me the truth, Young Fellow My Lad: You'll never come back again:   
(OH GOD! THE DREAMS AND THE DREAMS I'VE HAD, AND THE HOPES I'VE NURSED IN VAIN!)   
For you passed in the night, Young Fellow My Lad, And you proved in the cruel test   
Of the screaming shell and the battle hell That my boy was one of the best.        

"So you'll live, you'll live, Young Fellow My Lad, In the gleam of the evening star,   
In the wood-note wild and the laugh of the child, In all sweet things that are.   
And you'll never die, my wonderful boy, While life is noble and true;   
For all our beauty and hope and joy We will owe to our lads like you."

*********** Hugh Brodie, an Australian, enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in Melbourne on 15 September 1940. In 1942, Sergeant Brodie was listed Missing in Action. Before he left us, though, he wrote "A Sergeant's Prayer"

Almighty and all present Power,
Short is the prayer I make to Thee,
I do not ask in battle hour
For any shield to cover me.

The vast unalterable way,
From which the stars do not depart
May not be turned aside to stay
The bullet flying to my heart.

I ask no help to strike my foe,
I seek no petty victory here,
The enemy I hate, I know,
To Thee is also dear.

But this I pray, be at my side
When death is drawing through the sky.
Almighty God who also died
Teach me the way that I should die.

*********** Like many other phenomena in life, history has a tendency to be fickle. In 2001, some thirty-four years after the Battle of Ông Thanh, and the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam in 1973, which was followed by the "honorable peace" that saw the North Vietnamese army conquer South Vietnam in 1975 in violation of the Paris Peace Accords, most historians, as well as a large majority of the American people, may consider the U.S. involvement in Vietnam a disastrous and tragic waste and a time of shame in U.S. history. Consider, however, the fact that since the late 1940s, the Soviet Union was the greatest single threat to U.S. security. Yet for forty years, war between the Soviet Union and the United States was averted. Each time a Soviet threat surfaced during that time (Greece, Turkey, Korea, Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam, and Afghanistan), although it may have been in the form of a "war of national liberation," as the Vietnam war was characterized, the United States gave the Soviet Union the distinct message that each successive threat would not be a Soviet walkover. In fact, the Soviets were stunned by the U.S. reactions in both Korea and Vietnam. They shook their heads, wondering what interest a great power like the United States could have in those two godforsaken countries. They thought: "These Americans are crazy. They have nothing to gain; and yet they fight and lose thousands of men over nothing. They are irrational." Perhaps history in the long-term--two hundred or three hundred years from now--will say that the western democracies, led by the United States, survived in the world, and their philosophy of government of the people, by the people, for the people continues to survive today (in 2301) in some measure due to resolute sacrifices made in the mid-twentieth century by men like those listed in the last chapter of this book. Then the words of Lord Byron, as quoted in this book's preface, will not ring hollow, but instead they will inspire other men and women of honor in the years to come.

From "The Beast was Out There", by Brigadier General James Shelton, USA (Ret.)

*********** He's now dead and gone, but  George Jones' music will live on. His "50,000 NAMES" - a tribute to the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam - may be THE Memorial Day song.

(Warning - this could make you cry.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpBiVpSggNs

ON MEMORIAL DAY, I ESPECIALLY HONOR THE MEN OF THE BLACK LIONS, AND DON HOLLEDER, FORMER ARMY ALL-AMERICAN, WHO DIED IN THE VIETNAM JUNGLE IN THE BATTLE OF ONG THANH, OCTOBER 17, 1967

A TRIBUTE TO DONALD WALTER HOLLEDER UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY CLASS OF 1956 - THE MAN WHOSE STORY INSPIRED THE BLACK LION AWARD...

By retired Air Force General Perry Smith (Don Holleder's West Point classmate, roommate and best man)

"If you doubt the axiom, 'An aggressive leader is priceless,' ...if you prefer the air arm to the infantry in football, if you are not convinced we recruited cadet-athletes of superior leadership potential, then you must hear the story of Donald Walter Holleder. The saga of Holleder stands unique in Army and, perhaps, all college gridiron lore." Hence begins the chapter, "You are my quarterback", in Coach Red Blaik's 1960 book, You Have to Pay the Price. Every cadet in the classes of 1956, 57, 58 and 59, and everyone who was part of the Army family at West Point and throughout the world will remember, even 50 years after the fact, the "Great Experiment". But there is much more to the Holleder story. .

Holly was born and brought up in a tight knit Catholic family in upstate New York. He was an only child whose father died when Don was quite young. Doc Blanchard recruited high school All American Holleder who entered the Point just a few days after he graduated from Aquinas Institute in Rochester. Twice turned out for academic difficulties, he struggled mightily to stay in the Corps. However as a cadet leader he excelled, serving as a cadet captain and company commander of M-2 his senior year.

Of course, it was in the field of athletics that Don is best known. Never a starter on the basketball team, he nevertheless got playing time as a forward who brought rebounding strength to a team that beat a heavily favored Navy team in the early spring of 1954. That fall, the passing combination of Vann to Holleder quickly caught the attention of the college football world. No one who watched those games will ever forget Holly going deep and leaping into the air to grab a perfectly thrown bomb from Peter Vann. Don was a consensus first team All American that year as a junior.

Three football defeats in 1955 after Holly's conversion to quarterback brought criticism of Coach Blaik and Don from many quarters but the dramatic Army victory over Navy, 14 to 6 brought redemption. Shortly thereafter, Holly received the Swede Nelson award for sportsmanship. The fact that he had given up all chances of becoming a two time all-American and a candidate for the Heisman trophy and he did so without protest or complaint played heavily in the decision by the Nelson committee to select him for this prestigious award.

Holly's eleven year career in the Army included the normal schools at Benning and Leavenworth, company command in Korea, coaching and recruiting at West Point and serving as the commanding general's aide at Fortress Monroe. After graduating from Command and General Staff College, he was off to Vietnam.

Arriving in July, 1967, Holly was assigned to the Big Red One--the First Infantry Division-- and had considerable combat experience before that tragic day in the fall--October 17. Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen's battalion was ambushed and overrun--the troops on the ground were is desperate shape. Holleder was serving as the operations officer of the 28th Brigade--famous Black Lions. Hearing the anguished radio calls for help from the soldiers on the ground, Holly convinced his brigade commander that he had to get on the ground to help. Jumping out of his helicopter, Holly rallied some troops and raced toward the spot where the wounded soldiers were fighting. The Newsweek article a few days after his death tells what happened next. "With the Viet Cong firing from two sides, the U. S. troops now began retreating pell-mell back to their base camp, carrying as many of their wounded as they could, The medic Hinger was among those who staggered out of the bush and headed across an open marshy plain toward the base, 200 meters away. But on the way he ran into big, forceful Major Donald W. Holleder, 33, an All-American football player at West Point..., going the other way--toward the scene of the battle. Holleder, operations officer for the brigade, had not been in the fight until now. ' Come on Doc, he shouted to Hinger, 'There are still wounded in there. I need your help.'

"Hinger said later: 'I was exhausted. But having never seen such a commander, I ran after him. What an officer! He went on ahead of us--literally running to the point position'. Then a burst of fire from the trees caught Holleder. 'He was hit in the shoulder recalled Hinger. 'I started to patch him up, but he died in my arms.' The medic added he had been with Holleder for only three minutes, but would remember the Major's gallantry for the rest of his life." Holly died as he lived: the willingness to make great sacrifices prevailed to the minute of his death.

Caroline was left a young widow. She later married our West Point classmate, Ernie Ruffner, who became a loving husband and father to the four Holleder daughters. All the daughters are happily married and there are eight wonderful and loving grandchildren.

The legacy of Donald Walter Holleder will remain an important part of the West Point story forever. The Holleder Army Reserve Center in Webster, New York, the Holleder Parkway in Rochester and the Holleder Athletic Center at West Point all help further Don's legacy. In 1985, Holly was inducted into College Football Hall of Fame. A 2003 best selling book, They Marched into Sunlight, by David Maraniss tells the story of Holleder and the Black Lions. Tom Hanks has purchased the film rights to the book.

An innovative high school coach, Hugh Wyatt, decide to further memorialize Don's legacy by establishing the Black Lion Award. Each year at hundreds of high schools, middle schools and youth football programs across the country, a single football player on each team is selected "who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder: leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and--above all--an unselfish concern for his team ahead of himself." Starting in 2005, this award is presented to a member of the Army football team each year.

Anyone who wishes to extend Holleder's legacy can do so by approaching their local football coaches and encouraging them to make the Black Lion Award a part of their tradition. Coach Hugh Wyatt can be contacted by e mail (coachwyatt@aol.com).

All West Pointers can be proud of Donald Walter Holleder; for him there were no impossible dreams, only challenges to seek out and to conquer. Forty years after his death thousands of friends and millions of fans still remember him and salute him for his character and supreme courage.

By Retired Air Force General Perry Smith, classmate and roommate, with great assistance from Don's family members, Stacey Jones and Ernie Ruffner, classmates, Jerry Amlong, Peter Vann and JJ McGinn, and battlefield medic, Doc Hinger.

*********** "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out."

Black Lions medic Dave Berry

*********** A YOUNG MAN'S REMEMBRANCES OF DON HOLLEDER...

In 1954-55 I lived at West Point N.Y. where my father was stationed as a member of the staff at the United States Military Academy.

Don Holleder was an All American end on the Red Blaik coached Army football team which was a perennial eastern gridiron power in 40s and 50s. On Fall days I would run home from the post school, drop off my books, and head directly to the Army varsity practice field which overlooked the Hudson River and was only a short sprint from my house.

Army had a number of outstanding players on the roster back then, but my focus was on Don Holleder, our All-America end turned quarterback in a controversial position change that had sportswriters and Army fans buzzing throughout the college football community that year.

Don looked like a hero, tall, square jawed, almost stately in his appearance. He practiced like he played, full out all the time. He was the obvious leader of the team in addition to being its best athlete and player.

In 1955 it was common for star players to play both sides of the ball and Don was no exception delivering the most punishing tackles in practice as well as game situations. At the end of practice the Army players would walk past the parade ground (The Plain), then past my house and into the Arvin Gymnasium where the team's locker room was located.

Very often I would take that walk stride for stride with Don and the team and best of all, Don would sometimes let me carry his helmet. It was gold with a black stripe down the middle and had the most wonderful smell of sweat and leather. Inside the helmet suspension was taped a sweaty number 16, Don's jersey number.

While Don's teammates would talk and laugh among themselves in typical locker room banter, Don would ask me about school, show me how to grip the ball and occasionally chide his buddies if the joking ever got bawdy in front of "the little guy". On Saturdays I lived and died with Don's exploits on the field in Michie Stadium.

In his senior year Don's picture graced the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine and he led Army to a winning season culminating in a stirring victory over Navy in front of 100,000 fans in Philadelphia. During that incredible year I don't ever remember Don not taking time to talk to me and patiently answer my boyish questions about the South Carolina or Michigan defense ("I'll bet they don't have anybody as fast as you, huh, Don?").

Don graduated with his class in June 1956 and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Coincidentally, my Dad was also assigned to the 25th at the same time so I got to watch Don quarterback the 14th Infantry Regiment football team to the Division championship in 1957.

There was one major drawback to all of Don's football-gained notoriety - he wanted no part of it. He wanted to be a soldier and an infantry leader. But division recreational football was a big deal in the Army back then and for someone with Don's college credentials not to play was unheard of.

In the first place players got a lot of perks for representing their Regiment, not to mention hero status with the chain of command. Nevertheless, Don wanted to trade his football helmet for a steel pot and finally, with the help of my Dad, he succeeded in retiring from competitive football and getting on with his military profession.

It came as no surprise to anyone who knew Don that he was a natural leader of men in arms, demanding yet compassionate, dedicated to his men and above all fearless. Sure enough after a couple of TO&E infantry tours his reputation as a soldier matched his former prowess as an athlete.

It was this reputation that won him the favor of the Army brass and he soon found himself as an Aide-de-camp to the four star commander of the Continental Army Command in beautiful Ft Monroe, Virginia.

With the Viet Nam War escalating and American combat casualties increasing every day, Ft Monroe would be a great place to wait out the action and still promote one's Army career - a high-profile job with a four star senior rater, safely distanced from the conflict in southeast Asia.

Once again, Don wanted no part of this safe harbor and respectfully lobbied his boss, General Hugh P. Harris to get him to Troops in Viet Nam. Don got his wish but not very long after arriving at the First Division he was killed attempting to lead a relief column to wounded comrades caught in a Viet Cong ambush.
I remember the day I found out about Don's death. I was in the barber's chair at The Citadel my sophomore year when General Harris (Don's old boss at Ft Monroe, now President of The Citadel) walked over to me and motioned me outside.

He knew Don was a friend of mine and sought me out to tell me that he was KIA. It was one of the most defining moments of my life. As I stood there in front of the General the tears welled up in my eyes and I said "No, please, sir. Don't say that." General Harris showed no emotion and I realized that he had experienced this kind of hurt too many times to let it show. "Biff", he said, "Don died doing his duty and serving his country. He had alternatives but wouldn't have it any other way. We will always be proud of him, Biff."

With that, he turned and walked away. As I watched him go I didn't know the truth of his parting words. I shed tears of both pride and sorrow that day in 1967, just as I am doing now, 34 years later, as I write this remembrance. In my mind's eye I see Don walking with his teammates after practice back at West Point, their football cleats making that signature metallic clicking on concrete as they pass my house at the edge of the parade ground; he was a leader among leaders.

As I have been writing this, I periodically looked up at the November 28, 1955 Sports Illustrated cover which hangs on my office wall, to make sure I'm not saying anything Don wouldn't approve of, but he's smiling out from under that beautiful gold helmet and thinking about the Navy game. General Harris was right. We will always be proud of Don Holleder, my boyhood hero...

Biff Messinger, Mountainville, New York, 2001

*********** Hi Coach!
 
Thank you for sending me the Villanova tape.  I just finished looking at it.  Coach Flinn has some great coaching points and the wide receivers and slots blocking techniques were excellent.  I plan to show it to the offensive coordinator at Coast Guard soon.
 
I have a great deal of admiration and respect for all you do for coaches and the great American game of football. Keep up the good work.
 
Just a side note.  Pat and I will be celebrating our 60th  wedding anniversary on May 30. Football has been a big part of our family life and activities.  However,  she says I lied to her because when we set the date in 1953 I said our  anniversary would always be a holiday.  Then the government  changed it.
 
Thank you for letting  be part of your clinic and keeping me informed on football information.

Say hi to Connie for me.
 
Bill Mignault, Ledyard, Connecticut

*********** This is hard to believe, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, as part of looking out for the "total wellness" of players , is asking clubs to make the process of cutting players "more dignified."

Said the Commissioner, “We look at our players from a total wellness standpoint. It’s not just a physical wellness, it’s a mental wellness. And what can we do to try and make sure that we’re helping our players make the transitions through life and to make sure they’re getting the kind of help they need at any point.

“And today one of the focuses was the cutdown process as an example. How do we make the process more dignified? It is in some cases the last experience a player has with a team or any team in the NFL. So we have to do better job of doing that in a humane way and a way that will make sure they understand the respect we have for them and the pride we have in what they accomplished."

Hoo, boy - could I tell you a thing or two about undignified cutting.  Maybe I will.  Next time.

TUESDAY,  MAY 21, 2013 -   “It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." G.K.Chesterton

*********** All day Monday, the TV featured non-stop coverage of the unspeakable tragedy that hit Oklahoma.

I simply can't imagine the sorrow of losing a child; the terror those poor children must have felt as the tornado ripped their school apart; the despair of hundreds - maybe thousands - of people as they pick through the rubble where their homes once stood.

But Oklahomans  are tough people.  They've known hard times.  

And always, their faith has remained strong. While the pseudo-sophisticates on the East and West Coasts  belittle Christianity, Oklahomans unabashedly  ask for the Lord's help.

Oklahomans will show us how real Americans deal with a crisis.  Watch them. 

*********** I recently came across an article in one of those Pre-season football magazines.  Its title:  "Pro Football's Vanishing Breed: The Great Quarterback"

It was dated 1962.

It lamented the fact that with Sid Luckman, Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham and Bob Waterfield already gone from the game and Charlie Conerly having just retired;  with  Bobby Layne nearing the end of the line (and Y. A. Tittle, Bart Starr, Sonny Jurgensen and Fran Tarkenton yet to prove themselves) only John Unitas remained as a truly great quarterback.

Consider how different it was for a passer then...

Linemen couldn't use their hands
The penalty for holding was  15-yards
There was no such thing as hook sliding; if you ran, you were fair game
Intentional grounding was intentional grounding;  there was no such thing as a "tackle box" outside of which one could intentionally ground the ball with impunity
Spiking was unheard-of.  If you wanted to stop the clock, you threw an "out" pattern over a wide receiver's head
Defensive linemen could use a head slap
Quarterbacks were routinely hit - anywhere on their body - long after they'd thrown
Defensive backs could hit receivers anywhere on the field until the ball was thrown

Obviously, in the 50+ years since that article, there have been a number of quarterbacks who can be legitimately be called "great."

Yet using two stats generally accepted as evidence of a passer's effectiveness - yards per pass attempt and touchdown passes as a per cent of total passes thrown - it would appear that in spite all the things the NFL has done over that time to promote the passing game, I can argue that it's not as effective as it was in the old days.

*********** Answer to the trick question: The only college to have a "Steamboat" on its playing field is Wyoming. "Steamboat" happens to be the name of the bucking bronco in Wyoming's famed  logo.

http://www.gowyo.com/trads/steamboat.html

Wyoming's new field design is pretty cool.

http://college-football.si.com/2013/05/08/wyoming-cowboys-field-design/?sct=obnetwork

The only person to nail the question was longtime reader Kevin McCullough, of Lakeville, Indiana

*********** One blogger for the San Jose Mercury-News claims that the Pac-12 overall has the toughest out-of-conference schedule...

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2013/05/15/pac-12-football-the-2013-non-conference-schedule-and-how-it-compares-to-the-sec-b1g-etc/

*********** My friend Tom Hinger, of Winter Haven, Florida is rather good at reading between the lines,  so when I told him about the NFL naming Deion Sanders as an "ambassador" to youth football, he immediately suspected that this is part of an NFL plot to eliminate tackling.

*********** Dear Coach Wyatt

I want to take a moment and thank you for sending me a copy of the WR Fundamentals video with Brian Flinn. For those of us planning to make use of splitting some players out, the two of you have really helped bring some focus to the details that need to go into our practice plans. This is a tremendous resource you have made available to me.

Plus, lets be honest...I don't get too many good surprises in the mail.

PS - Per your news from a week ago...I followed your advice and marched into my HR department and amended my records to shorten my name from Edward to Ed. I then asked for my raise...I was then escorted out of HR. I tried...

Best,

-Ed Campbell
Land o' Lakes, Florida

(Coach Campbell is referring to the video of Coach Flinn's presentation at my Philadelphia clinic.  Coach Flinn is the wide receiver coach at Villanova University. He has been invaluable to me as a consultant on the use of split ends in our system, and I was so impressed with the job he did at my clinic that I thought it only fair to send video of it to those coaches who attended my other clinics. HW)


*********** Like most youth coaches, old friend Scott Barnes, of Rockwall, Texas, has another life.  In addition to being a family man, he worked his way up to a top-level position in Perot Systems before retiring a few years ago, still a young man.  Uneasy with a lot of time on his hands, he got back into the business world head-first, as a founding partner of Guide IT.  http://www.guideit.com/

I found that the company's Corporate Values read very much like the values you'd expect to find in a great football program.

I can't agree more.  I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  I love football as much as always, but my perspective has changed with age and with having kids of my own.  It is an arms race - and it has gotten out of hand.  It's not just workouts either - it's all the other stuff too (for coaches and players) fundraisers, meetings, camps, etc.
 
For coaches - it is hard to run a good program deal with all you have to deal with and also run all that you have to run while being everywhere all the time (and of couse you have to win too).  The winter is still a down time aside from weightlifting - but spring starts with mini camps and 7 on 7's (although we don't do too many of those).  The summer is very busy with workouts and fundraisers.  It is hard with kids and I'll be honest... I don't know how a guys still coach other sports too.  Plus - it is hard if a teacher wants to work a bit in the summer because your summer gets cut up and ends two weeks early too.
 
For kids.  Here is where my perspective has totally changed now that Im a father of three.  They don't get to be kids anymore.  Lets take the example of a three sport athlete.  Lets call it football/basketball/baseball.   Your summer is football workouts 7 on 7s and camps,  summer league basketball games and some open gyms/camps, summer baseball - and they play almost everynight.  And don't forget the fundraisers - 3 to 5 (sometimes more) for each sport.  And the meetings etc too.  It's no wonder to me kids don't play as many sports anymore.  And now - nobody gets the summer to regroup, spend time with family or get a job.
 
Sorry for spouting off - but this has been something I have been thinking a lot about.  I wish the state would come back and say - weightlifting only in the off-season.  Then kids could still be kids and coaches could have their family time without feeling like they were falling behind in the arms race.  I should add too (and I think you know) that Im not lazy - for the last 15 years or so - I have worked relentlessly at football.  The last few years - as my kids have started to get to school age I have struggled more to spend so much time away.  This year I continue to work hard, but Im scaling back.  You only get one shot at being a Dad.
 
John Dowd
Spencerport, New York


FRIDAY,  MAY 17, 2013 -   “You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives."  Lee Trevino

***********  Wrote Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, "President Passerby needs urgently to become a participant in his presidency."

Milbank noted that when Mr. Obama heard that the news had broken that the IRS had been singling out conservative groups for special handling,

"He responded as though he were just some bloke on a bar stool, getting his information from the evening news."


*********** Question: What FBS football program has a Steamboat in the middle of the field? (Hint: It's a trick)

*********** I read the obituary of a young lady who'd died recently, and I felt a little guilty when I laughed at reading, "She worked as a sandwich artist at Subway."

*********** Writes Jim Geraghty in the National Review…

*********** Owner Dan Snyder says that the Redskins will never change their name. NEVER!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000168341/article/daniel-snyder-redskins-never-will-change-nickname

*********** I came across this piece of coaching advice in an interview with all-time great Celtics' coach Red Auerbach in a 1979 issue of Sport Magazine…

After a while, a coach's voice can get tiresome to players. They don't pay attention.  The key is to give players one-fourth of the information that you think they should have, but make sure they know the one-fourth that you give them So it's up to me to determine what to give them. The mistake is to keep talking and talking. All you're doing is confusing them.

*********** So Johnny Manziel isn't going to be a great NFL prospect, the NFL draft experts say.

Yeah? Well here's what coachwyatt.com's highly-paid expert says to them:

1. Leave the college game alone, vultures.  Look - those of us who love college football couldn't care less whether you think he's a pro prospect or not.   We've seen how you've treated Tim Tebow, and many of us can remember how hard your teams and their experts worked at trying to prove that Doug Flutie was too small to play.  Just leave us alone to enjoy our game (which, by the way, is superior to yours.)

2. I've seen all those empty seats at your games.  If Texas A & M thinks he's worth adding an extra 20,000 seats to Kyle Field, he might sell a few seats in your stadiums, too.  (Not to mention jerseys.)

3. If you'd widen your playing field, he'd be a hell of a prospect.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000167068/article/johnny-manziel-doesnt-look-like-elite-nfl-quarterback-prospect

*********** The President of the United States showed up for  47 minutes late for a much-heralded news conference scheduled for noon EDT Thursday.

it was an astounding display of arrogance and disrespect. 

But also, considering that many of America's unemployed are unemployable, and a major reason for that is their poor work habits, it was a dreadful example for them.


************ At first, I couldn't believe my eyes. Yes, those were real US Marines - Devil Dogs, the spiritual descendants of Chesty Puller -  holding umbrellas to keep raindrops off the Presidents of the US and Turkey.  USMC regulations prohibit the use of umbrellas, but, hey -  when the Commander-in-Chief gives you an order...

Our President's insulting and degrading use of two of our nation's finest fighting men as f--king umbrella holders said all I needed to know about the regard in which he holds our armed forces.

You mean all the White House interns had the day off?

*********** Considering the heat that the IRS is taking right now, I'll bet your return would zip right through, bad math and all, if you were to list your occupation as "Executive Director, Pro-life Christian gun-owning Tea Party Patriots for Traditional Marriage."

*********** Coach,

I hate to point out an error, but Mt. Union won their eleventh championship this season.  Eleven championships in twenty years.  

My take on the CIF change to padded practices in the summer:  Could this be the result, at least in part, of those in our profession who are unreasonable in their approach to summer practices?  In Illinois we are allowed twenty-five "contact days" in the summer.  I've heard of some suburban Chicago schools who go two-a-days for the month of July.  THE ENTIRE MONTH!  I'm sure others grind it out through all twenty-five days, too. I love our game, but I also think it takes its toll on a kids body.  Banging all summer and then banging all through the season may result in a winning season, but probably only for those kids who were left standing at the end.  In part, I think football coaches have created some of the problems we now face.  Hopefully we will be more proactive (or reactive, if we are concerned about the CIF thing becoming widespread) in our approach to concussion and conditioning.

As always, your News is on of the highlights of my week.  Thank you.

Todd Hollis
Elmwood, Illinois

Coach-

I appreciate your pointing out the error.  Sequestration cuts have forced me to lay off my staff of fact-checkers and proofreaders.

There is no question that many people are taking the off-season activities way too far. When I was a young head coach, I was pretty intense and pretty involved in off-season activities - within the fairly strict limits of our state association.

But work expands to fit the time allotted and the relaxation of limits, and to be frank, I wouldn't want to be a head coach now and have to keep up with what more and more coaches are doing.

It not only takes a toll on kids' bodies, but I believe it takes a toll on kids' interest as well.  Not to mention a coach's family life.

*********** No doubt seeing trouble down the line,  Michigan State pulled a scholarship it had offered to an aspiring rapper who goes by the name of “Jay DatBull,” and whose "art" was a bit explicit.

"I’ve always had this in the back of my head, but never had the courage to tell my parents that this is what I want to do,” he told philly.com.

President Obama's been a little busy the past few days, but no doubt after he solves the Banghazi riddle he plans to  call  Mr. DatBull to praise him for his courage.

 http://tracking.si.com/2013/05/14/michigan-state-jay-harris-scholarship-stripped/?sct=obinsite


*********** (LEFT) Now there's a guy President Obama should be calling to praise his courage. It's Evan Mathis, of the Philadelphia Eagles, and I sure hope for his sake that his taxes are in order.

*********** Chuck Muncie, one-time NFL running back, died recently.  He achieved good things in his career, but disappointed because he never achieved the greatness expected of someone with his great physical talent.

Interestingly, I didn't read anything in his obituaries about the fact that he came from quite a football family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.  Although for some reason he spelled his name differently from them, his older brothers, BIll and Nelson Munsey preceded him in the NFL.

Bill followed his Uniontown high school teammate, Sandy Stephens, to the University of Minnesota.  Stephens would become the first black man to start at quarterback for a major college team, and he and Bill Munsey helped lead the Gophers to a national championship and two Rose Bowls. After Minnesota, Bill, a running back, played for the Cleveland Browns.

Nelson Munsey played college football at Wyoming, and played defensive back for the Baltimore Colts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/sports/football/chuck-muncie-troubled-nfl-star-dies-at-60.html?ref=football&_r=0

*********** Sent to me by my friend Armando Castro, in Roanoke, Virginia…

How you know that you're shopping in Texas… http://www.youtube.com/embed/Vt7FDTpzGvo?rel=0%C3%A1

*********** Major League Baseball gets its diversity report card.

From the Raleigh News-Observer comes this story…

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/05/14/2892151/mlb-improves-diversity-among-senior.html

Am I missing something here? Blacks now comprise only 8.3 per cent of all players and this guy is still keeping score of "people of color" in management?

Meantime, the esteemed Mr. Lapchick gave MLB low grades for "gender diversity" in management, failing to note that the percentage of women playing the game has remained constant for quite some time:  Zero.

Seems to me that instead of worrying about "gender diversity," baseball ought to comes to grips with the fact that "Latinos" are now 28.2 per cent of all players. Unless they're just thrown in with the "people of color" category, they appear to have been neglected in Mr. Lapchick's survey.

*********** John Rothwell, of Austin, Texas, sent me an article about the proven calming effects of the color pink, and that immediately brought to mind Hayden Fry, legendary Iowa coach.

http://collegefootball.about.com/od/traditions/a/trad-iowapink.htm

*********** Kenosha, Wisconsin High was one of the top teams in the nation Alan Ameche's senior year.   The QB was a guy named  Mario Bonofiglio, one of Ameche's best buddies.  Ameche, Bonofiglio and several teammates all went to Wisconsin, but Bonofiglio, frustrated by a lack of playing time, transferred to Miami, where he turned out to be just the guy to run coach Andy Gustafson's "drive series", his name at the time for the offensive innovation that came to be called the Belly Series.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1069459/1/index.htm
 
*********** Coach,
 
Saw this posted this morning.  It's truly sad, but a "shoulder to shoulder" tackle? Not only is that wrong, but how would you fracture vertebrae that way?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/louisiana-teen-dies-days-vertebrae-injury-spring-football-112307641.html
 
Josh Montgomery
Berwick, Louisiana

*********** INTERNET HUMOR

Humans originally existed as small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. The two most important events in history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel, which got man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: 1. Liberals, and 2. Conservatives. Beer required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Early humans drank beer near the brewery. That's how villages were formed. Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement. Weak and less skilled men learned to live off conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's, doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men.



TUESDAY,  MAY 14, 2013 -   “It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.” John Adams

*********** California, like other states, has a statewide governing body for its high school sports.  But because it's such a large and populous state, its statewide body, the CIF,  is divided into sections, which have a great deal of autonomy in how they conduct their business.

As an example, the CIF Central Section recently voted unanimously to prohibit the wearing of pads by football teams until August.  The new rule, intended to limit injuries (mainly concussions)  effectively ends the practice by many schools of taking their teams to contact camps in June or July.

I'm telling' ya, guys - this is just a small sample of what we're in for.  Our game is under attack. 

Oh, well.  There's always AAU basketball, American Legion baseball, and summer lacrosse and hockey leagues and camps to keep our kids off the streets.


The Churchill High Bulldogs, of Winnipeg, Manitoba

*********** The Boston Bruins scored two goals within 22 seconds to tie up game 7 of their series with the Toronto Maple Leafs with 50 seconds to play, and the play-by-play guy said, "There are people in the parking lot scrambling to get back in the building."

My wife and I, in perfect harmony, said, "F--k 'em!"

(But I really can't imagine dyed-in-the-wool Boston hockey fans bailing on their team like that. )


The Churchill High coaching staff and a guest coach

*********** Larry Kehres, who won 11 D-III national titles in his 27 years at Mount Union, has announced his retirement.

* His overall record was 332-24-3.

* He had 21 unbeaten regular seasons.

* His 11 national titles came in a span of 20 seasons, from 1993 to 2012.

* He had a pair of national title three-peats (sorry, Pat Riley, I ain't paying'), in 1996-1997-1998 and 2000-2001-2002.

* His .929 winning percentage is the best ever among college coaches.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130508/larry-kehres-mount-union-retirement/?sct=uk_t2_a11


The new Winnipeg Stadium, future home of the CFL Blue Bombers and the University of Manitoba Bisons, nears completion

*********** A good friend of mine put in his application at a school not too far from us, but never got an interview. The AD had given him the usual AD B-S about "getting back to him," blah, blah, blah, but he had to learn about the new coach the same way the rest of us did - by reading it in the local paper.

This is a school with a proud heritage that's run into tough times lately.

My friend is well-qualified, but he also needs a teaching job.  (Well, duh.)  The guy they hired was already on their staff as a teacher and an assistant.  He's had some he'd coaching experience in his past, but it's bad experience.  He was 9-31 in four years.

This hire, and others I hear all the time, just confirms that administrators are not longer really interested in hiring the best coach they can find.

They put on a dog-and-pony show of a "search," and then they simply make the most convenient hire. If it works out, fine.  But if it doesn't - that's fine, too.

And they'll be the first to tell one and all that "it's all about the kids."


This was as close as I could get (notice the screen) to the inside of the new stadium.
The roof is to provide shade as well as protection from rain and snow, but it's also designed to deflect noise back to the field.

*********** In Pittsburgh, a Carnegie Mellon University female student is facing charges after she appeared an art school parade last month dressed up as the pope, but naked from the waist down, with her pubic hair shaved to form a cross.

How much you wanna bet the parents of this "female student" fully support her?

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/05/10/cmu-president-police-file-charges-in-naked-pope-incident/


The University of North Dakota may be "only" FCS, but their indoor football stadium would be the envy of lots of bigger schools

*********** Lane Kiffin told  Ralph Russo of the AP that he'd like to coach high school football someday.

Couldn't happen soon enough for me.

He thinks it's going to be easy and worry-free.  True, the recruiting's not as tough as college, but wait until he runs into school administrators and helicopter parents.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/13/lane-kiffin-tells-ap-hes-pondered-coaching-a-smaller-program-or-high-school/


It was May, and  the UND stadium was being used for something other than football when we visited, but it is one massive structure

***********  A former employee of EA Sports has testified that the company knowingly created players for its video games using the numbers and biographical information of actual players. But it didn't use their names.

“We generally tried to make the players perform as their real life counterparts, short of their name and likeness,” the guy testified.

But then, they didn't have to, because when Florida's video-game quarterback, who was built a lot like Tim Tebow and wore Tebow's number, took a direct snap and threw a pass - left-handed - everybody knew exactly who he was supposed to be.

That testimony could be crucial in the lawsuit against EA Sports, the NCAA and the College Licensing Company brought by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and other former college athletes. The suit alleges, among other things, that the three defendants used players' names and images without properly compensating those players.

Hang on, guys.  This could (and should) cost a lot of people  - EA Sports, the NCAA and the College Licensing Company - a lot of money, money that in my opinion they had no right to.  I mean, when they bought all those Baylor shirts with"GRIFFIN III" on the back, weren't they buying them at least as much for the "Griffin" on the back as for the Baylor on the front?

http://college-football.si.com/2013/05/09/ea-sports-ncaa-ed-obannon-case/?sct=uk_t2_a11


One of the most impressive college sports facilties I've ever seen is North Dakota's Ralph Engelstad Arena, home of its hockey team.
UND has caught its share of hell from the NCAA over its nickname ("Fighting Sioux") and its Indian-head logo; I'm not an American Indian,
but I could not for the life of me see anything remotely disrepectful of our native peoples. (The equine statue is of Chief Sitting Bull.)
I found myself asking, "how in the hell does an operation like this  explain Yale's winning the NCAA title?"

*********** I've mentioned that I've been reading a biography of Alan Ameche, the Kenosha, Wisconsin native who could have gone any place he wanted, but ultimately turned down Notre Dame to stay home and play for the Badgers.

HIs high school career was legendary, and Notre Dame wanted him so badly that the late Fred Miller, ardent ND alum and owner of Miller Brewing Company, just up the road in Milwaukee, put on a full-court press.

In those days there were fewer restrictions on alumni involvement in recruiting. Miller worked very hard at getting Ameche to South Bend, and didn't let up until finally  rumors of his "involvement" grew so strong that Badger supporters threatened a boycott of his beer.

Ameche would go on to a great career at Wisconsin. He was the Badgers' first Heisman Trophy winner.  He helped take the Badgers to their first-ever Rose Bowl appearance, and when his career ended, he was the all-time NCAA leader in both career rushing yards and career carries.  His rushing records have, of course, been broken many times since.  Teams now play many more games, and  stats from bowl games are now included in a players' record.  (Bear in mind, also, that in Ameche's final two years, when the NCAA changed its substitution rules, he was required to learn a position he'd never played before - linebacker - and play both ways.

Anyhow, fast-forward to November 13, 1999 -  Wisconsin's final home game and Ron Dayne's final home game.  In the course of his four-year career, Dayne had established a new NCAA career rushing record, and the Wisconsin athletic department honored him by adding his name and number to the "Ring of Honor" on the facade of Camp Randall Stadium.

Nice.  But still missing were the name and number of Alan Ameche.


This photo was taken in Oslo, Minnesota, crossing into North Dakota. The Red River of the North is one of the few rivers
in the US that flow northward.  Eventually, its water will empty into Hudson Bay.  It also floods regularly every spring. 
Grand Forks, North Dakota gets hammered most years, and the land is so flat that the fields are flooded for 20 miles or more
on both sides of the river.  This spring was a fairly easy one, as you can tell by the flood gauge on the utility pole.


FRIDAY,  MAY 10, 2013 -   "Do not let yourselves be seduced by the temptation to think that man can fully find himself by denying God, erasing prayer from his life, and remaining only a worker, deluding himself that what he produces can on its own fill the needs of the human heart."    Pope John Paul II

*********** Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton says  he'd like the Vikings to explain why they cut punter Chris Kluwe. 

"I don't feel good about it," Dayton told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "I mean I'm not in position to evaluate the role and their punting abilities. But it seems to me the general manager said right after the draft that they were going to have competition. Well, then he brings the one guy (rookie Jeff Locke) in, he kicks for a weekend and that's the competition? I mean, I just think sports officials ought to be honest about what the heck is going on."

(Note thr irony of a politician asking someone to be honest.)

Kluwe, in case you don't live in the Twin Cities, spent a lot of his free time shooting his mouth off in support of "marriage equality."

Meantime, on the other side of the spectrum, a Florida politician insists that the Jacksonville Jaguars sign Tim Tebow.

*********** I've known a few American high school coaches whose jobs are tougher than Tom Walls', but not many.

Coach Walls, an American married to a Canadian woman, is the head coach of the Churchill High School Bulldogs in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  That's his 10-year-old son, Tommy in the photo.  Tommy, as you might be able to tell, is a big Philadelphia Eagles' fan.  (Meeting Tommy took me back to when I was a 10-year-old, and I had the great thrill of meeting Al Wistert, captain of the Eagles' 1948 NFL championship team.)

This past week, I had a chance to work with Coach Walls and his staff and kids.  It was my second opportunity to work with a Canadian team.

Churchill, built in 1955, has a long and proud tradition of high school football, but changing demographics have shrunken its enrollment from over 1,000 to just over 400, and a fair number of the students are recent immigrants (from all over the world), with no experience in sports.

A few facts about Canadian high school football:

They play the 12-man, 3-downs-to-make-10 yards, Canadian game, on the larger Canadian field.

Coaches are not paid.  Even in America, where a coach's stipend might make the job seem a bit more attractive, fewer are willing to ask their families to make sacrifices; parents being the way they are today, fewer guys want the headaches of the job, year after year.

Obviously, when the head coach is not paid, neither are the assistants.  This can make it very difficult to attract and keep good assistants, and it can also make it difficult for a coach to make what we here in the states would consider normal demands on assistants.  They're at the mercy of their job schedules, which means their attendance at meetings and practices is sometimes spotty. 

Complicating matters is the fact that in general,  assistants coach on one side of the ball only.

Unlike in the US, Canadian schools provide no funding whatsoever for sports, so coaches are old hands as fund raisers.  And pay-to-play, which is becoming more and more common in the US,  has long been the rule in Canada.  Despite that, Coach Walls has built a roster of close to 60 players, varsity and JV combined.

Although popular, football does not rule the roost as it does in the US.  If Friday Night Lights may seem overdone to most people in the States, to Canadians it's as if they're portraying another universe.

So hats off to Churchill head coach Tom Walls, a native of Wilmington, Delaware who went to Brockport State and before coming to Canada coached in the Binghamton, New York area.  

He teaches all Special Ed all day, and during his prep period teaches a sport history class, with emphasis on football.  He designed the curriculum himself and had to sell the idea to the school board.  And then, an hour or so after school lets out, his assistants begin to arrive, chief among them his right hand man, Yussef Hawash, himself a Churchill alum, and practice can start.  (I can hear you now - what do those kids do during that hour between the end of school and the start of practice?)

Churchill's  efforts with the Double Wing resulted in three wins last season, a good showing in the Province of Manitoba's toughest conference, and he's hoping to improve on that.  He's got some good runners and receivers and a good-looking quarterback, but the line will be a challenge.

 http://ww2.canadafootballchat.com/from-wilmington-to-winnipeg-bulldogs-head-coach-walls-has-ambitious-plans-for-his-team/

*********** I've seen Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, and now Winnipeg, and I have yet to see a Canadian city I don't like.

Overshadowed by other, more glamourous Canadian cities in the way a nice-looking girl suffers from having  more beautiful sisters,  Winnipeg is often dismissed as just a big city out on the prairie.  That's unfair and untrue.  Yes, the terrain for miles around is a bit, er, flat.  But once you get inside any big city - other than maybe Denver or Seattle or  San Francisco - no one pays any attention to what it looks like outside the city.  It's what's inside it that counts, and downtown Winnipeg is attractive and busy.

I'm sure that Winnipeg has its rough areas. What city doesn't? But for the life of me, I have yet to see any Canadian city with slums even approaching those of, say, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington in their abjectness.

Yes, Winnipeg is a prairie city, but it was first settled at the forks of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, where they join on their way to Hudson Bay via Lake Winnipeg.  As they wind through the city, their banks in many places are lined with beautiful homes, and in recent years Winnipeg's citizens have awakened to their aesthetic value to all its citizens. 

At the point where the rivers join, "The Forks" (or in French, "La Fourche"), a one-time rail yard has been transformed into a community meeting place,  a combination old town/marketplace/museum/kids' park/concert venue where you'd take your kids every weekend if you lived there.  And if you didn't have kids, you'd go with your friends in the evening to listen to some music and maybe have something to eat and drink.  (Canadian beer and ale, if you didn't know, is quite good.)

But, damn.  I did forget about the cold. I have no reason not to believe the person who told me that for seven months - from early October to early May - the temperature never got into double digits.  That's Celsius (everything up here is metric, whether distance & length, volume or weight).  Ten degrees Celsius works out to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spring comes late here. It was the first week of May and you'll notice on the photo that there are no leaves on the trees yet.

And, too, Winnipeg is a bit remote.  A bit, did I say?  To the north is, um, The North.  There's lots of it.  In other directions, Thunder Bay, the nearest city of more than 100,000 to the east, is more than 600 kilometers (about 400 miles) away.  Ditto Regina, Saskatchewan to the west. Fargo, North Dakota is about three-four hours' drive to the south, depending on the crowds trying to cross the border, but with Minneapolis-St. Paul and its big-time sports, shopping and airport another three to four hours to the south, few Winnipeg folks end their trip at Fargo.

*********** For us, breakfast in Winnipeg was The Original Pancake House, a local chain with three locations - http://originalpancakehouse.ca/

I enjoyed reading one menu entry:

A generous serving of six cakes with syrup when suitable and whipped butter on request.

Diet syrup is available.

*********** Stopping by one of our practices while I was in Winnipeg was Bob Cameron, a member of the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame, who in 23 seasons as a punter for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers appeared in a CFL-record 353 consecutive games.  Bob's son, Brett, is a rookie punter trying out for a spot with the Blue Bombers.

*********** The Globe and Mail, originally a Toronto-only paper, appears to be the national paper of Canada.  Unlike our national paper of record, USA Today, it is well-written and covers stories in detail.  It's possible that the difference between the two papers could reflect a difference in our educational systems, or at least in our relative interest in things other than pop culture.
But having said that, I do have to say that the Globe and Mail's coverage of the hockey playoffs is so extensive that I can only compare it to the way  The Sporting News covered baseball, back when it was a real newspaper.

*********** In Winnipeg,   "yes" often sounded like "fer shirr."

*********** From Homeland Security comes the reassuring news that from now on it's going to be checking to verify that every foreign student coming into the country has a valid visa!

Great idea, fellas.  Better late than never.

Whoever thought of that one will undoubtedly receive a generous bonus.

*********** An incident involving a member of the Portland Timbers MLS team may or may not have taken place in Kansas City recently.  According to police, a woman reported that she met a guy at a hotel bar "early Sunday morning, then went back to his hotel room after closing time (3:30 AM). She told police that  "some consensual sexual contact," took place, but when she told the gentleman that she didn't want to have sex, "the next thing she knew he was on top of her."

John Canzano, sports columnist in the Portland Oregonian, tends to be a bit soft-hearted, and his thoughts went to the poor, aggrieved woman.

"First and foremost (before worrying about how this might affect the Timbers)," he wrote,  "there's a woman in Kansas City who, if her account is true, needs our prayers."

My personal suspicion is that there might have been some sort of disagreement.  Maybe over the price.

But if prayer is called for, here goes:

Please, God, tell that woman that nothing good happens when you leave a bar at 3:30 AM and go to a guy's room and have "some sexual contact" and then tell him, "that's enough."

*********** There were 26,000 case of sexual assault in the military reported last year.  There are those who claim that that is just the tip of the iceberg - that most offenses go underreported.

The Chief of State of the Air Force, testifying in front of the Senate committee, sand that women come to the armed forces from a "hook-up culture," and it is the job of the armed services to change that culture.

Female senators were horrified at his statement, seeming to think that he was implying that women were "asking for it." The Senator from New York took great offense,  painting a picture of a vicious, leering lecher jumping out from behind a bush,  subduing a young lady as she walked home from the library, and raping her at knifepoint.

I suspect that  cases fit that description.

I also suspect that the government has statistics on what exactly the nature of these "sexual assaults" are, and where and where and under what circumstances they occurred.  Was it a case of forcible rape? Of unwanted touching?  Of a consensual tryst gone awry?

Come on, guys - give us all the facts.

*********** You may have read about the 17-year-old "teen" in Salt Lake City who killed the soccer referee.  The "teen" (ever notice how whenever the liberal media wishes to soften our feelings about a young perp, they call him a "teen?") took exception to the referee's showing him a yellow card, and punched him in the face.  The ref passed out shortly afterward, and died several days later without ever recovering consciousness.

It was a rec league designed primarily for young "newcomers" (this page has a policy against using the word "immigrants"), and apparently it was a bit loosely organized.  The "teen," who is now charged with murder, had appeared on the scene just prior to the game and was immediately allowed to play.  Apparently, nobody knew a thing about the guy.

*********** The headline in our paper read, "BOSTON SUSPECT'S BODY STILL IN LIMBO."

The intended meaning was that there was no place for it.

In simplest possible terms, in Catholic theology "Limbo" is a place for unassigned souls such as infants -  who died while still in original sin, but had not yet come under the damnation of sins of commission.   It isn't heaven but it isn't exactly hell, either.

But they're talking about Tamerlan's body, anyhow. Not his soul.   It's been in hell for more than two weeks now.

*********** Return with us to an America where a President grew up knowing how to throw a baseball:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxR1tZ08FcI&feature=youtu.be

*********** According to an article in the LA Times, "Short First Names Mean Bigger Paychecks"

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-short-names-earning-power-20130508,0,1460207.story

Get this: a "study" shows that the five top-earning names were Tom, Rob, Dale, Doug, Wayne.

Every additional letter in your first name costs you an additional $3600 a year.

So Bill makes more than "William."  Philip (one "L") makes more than Phillip (two "L's").

*********** The 49ers' new stadium is going to be Levi's Stadium.  It's going to cost Levi Strauss - hang on there - $220 million.  That's $11 million a year for the next 20 years. 

Damn shame that the taxpayers aren't going to see any of that money.

I'm not sure of all the details (and isn't that the goal of the people who put together deals like this?)  but I do know that something called the City of Santa Clara's Stadium Authority has borrowed $850,000 to build a stadium, so it does sound to me as if a portion of that Levi money ought to be going back to the people of Santa Clara - who, I'll wager, have been told many times that this whole deal won't cost them a dime.

*********** Hi coach,
 
Our state association passed the college style acclimation period for the first six days of practice.  We are not able to be in full pads until day 6 next year.
 
How much can you get done in shells (helmet/shoulder pads only) as far as contact and team drills?  We are always either full pads or helmets only.
 
Thanks,

I my opinion, it's a non-issue for us.  We could probably go all year (at least until the cold rain starts blowing in off the North Pacific) without wearing football pants.  We put great stress on staying on our feet, and always making contact from the waist up.

We do a lot of our blocking and tackling work before we're even allowed to put helmets on.

Except for the mandatory first three days of helmets-only, we never go out with just helmets.  I've had a thing about that ever since 1981 when my projected starting QB separated a shoulder on the first drill of our first practice.

I think the only way we would be affected by a rule such as yours would be in high-intensity work like the West Point drill.  We'd just have to postpone that stuff.

There's even a work-around for that...  I know of lots of schools in our state whose kids never wear practice pants at all.  They wear only shorts.  But they're fully-padded nevertheless, because underneath the shorts they wear the all-in-one "compression shorts" that contain the hip and thigh pads.  Add basketball knee pads, and football practice pants are unnecessary.

Has your state association anticipated that?

I also wonder if they've considered the possibility of lower-extremity injuries occurring during those first six days when kids with no leg protection are  playing seven-on-seven.

*********** Former New Mexico basketball coach Steve Alford is said to be willing to pay a $200,000 buyout for leaving the Albuquerque school to take a job at UCLA - but not the $1 million payment that New Mexico wants.

Alford on March 18 signed a "term sheet" agreeing to a new 10-year contract with New Mexico that included a $1 million buyout, but two days before it was to take effect, announced his resignation.

Alford is willing to pay the $200,000 called for in the original contract, but New Mexico contends it's owed the $1 million buyout because the previous contract required a 30-day notice of termination.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130430/steve-alford-buyout-new-mexico.ap/#ixzz2SHQM7twg

*********** On Thursday, The NCAA announced that the Division I Board of Directors suspended a new rule rule allowing unlimited phone calls and text messages to recruits.

The rule, originally adopted in January, resulted in recruits' being deluged with texts, phone calls and letters, and was opposed by a large number of major college coaches.

http://college-football.si.com/2013/05/02/ncaa-recruiting-deregulation-rules/



TUESDAY,  MAY 7, 2013 -   "If you believe at 50 what you believed at 15, you have not lived."  Poet Christian Wiman

*********** In line with NFL policy of blackmailing voters into approving public financing for stadium construction and/or renovation by coupling it with the possibility of hosting a Super Bowl, the Dolphins probably lost their shot at hosting Super Bowl L when Florida politicians killed a proposal to use taxpayer money to pay for $350 million in improvements to "aging" Sun Life Stadium (it was built in 1987).

On May 21, the NFL owners will decide between Miami and San Francisco  as host of Super Bowl L (2016). The NFL reportedly has told the Dolphins that without those renovations, Super Bowl L will be played in San Francisco’s new stadium in Santa Clara.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell even showed up in Tallahassee recently to lobby for the Dolphins' proposal, along with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and former Dolphins Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino.

When Florida's House Speaker Will Weatherford chose not to bring the stadium bill to a vote, keeping the decision out of the hands of Miami-Dade County voters, Dolphins CEO Mike Dee had harsh words for Weatherford.

"At the end of the day," Dee said,  "this abuse of power, I believe, will follow his career for a long time."

Ooooh.  Scary guy.

***********Love this story…I fell in Love with Louis Zamperini when I first read “Unbroken” (What a great authoress) late in 2010…now I have new respect for Matt Barkley
 
Coach Kaz
Mark Kaczmarek
Davenport, Iowa

*********** We few on Saturday to Winnipeg via Grand Forks, North Dakota - so my wife could visit her 50th state.  As you can see, we visited the store in the University of North Dakota's hockey arena, where you can still buy a few things with the much-maligned Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.

*********** You know you're somewhere in the Midwest when you see two burly older gentleman in an iHop saying grace before breakfast…

*********** It was Springfest at the University of North Dakota Saturday, and with the temperature a balmy 60 degrees out, why, who could blame those college girls from running around in short shorts and those college guys from wearing tee-shirts?

Driving down fraternity row as late afternoon turned into evening, I found myself willing to make a deal with someone to be college-age again.

*********** Tried a new brew last weekend that I found very pleasant - Burning Skye Scottish Ale, from Lincoln, Nebraska.

*********** Paging Al Gore - Up here in the Great White North, the spring thaw is a couple of weeks behind in the North. There are still random piles of snow in parking lots and on the sides of roads, and with Minnesota's walleye season set to open next Saturday, most lakes in the northern half of the state are still covered with ice.  In some cases, the ice is two feet thick.

If you're not familiar with this fishing-crazy part of the country, Opening Day is semi-sacred, a day like no other, and not being able to fish on opening day is nearly unthinkable.

*********** What does the future hold for the Big Sky? asked the headline in the Grand Forks Herald, over an article by Tom MIller. Miller asked a few pointed questions of Big Sky Commissioner Doug Fullerton.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/262923/group/Sports/

1. Are we on the cusp of a three-tier system in college football, a revolutionary change that would attempt to better group universities with similar budgets?

The financial gaps between the haves and have-nots of the college football world continue to widen.

Those fiscal mismatches have created competitive imbalance. In the Football Bowl Subdivision, Conference USA is far from competitive with the SEC. The same can be said in the FCS: The Pioneer League is not challenging the Big Sky.

When it comes to athletic department budgets, the natural separation financially — and therefore competitively for the most part — is not at the current FCS and FBS line. Instead, the natural break actually occurs after about 60-70 programs, Fullerton said.

Right now, 124 programs play in FBS and 127 in FCS.

“There’s a bright line there,” Fullerton said. “Anyone who studies the economics of this business can see that.”

One suggestion to close those financial and competitive gaps is to create three levels of Division I college football, an idea that seems to be generating steam.

Most of those discussions to this point center on the second tier consisting of a set of conferences coined “The Group of Five,” which includes Conference USA, Mid-American, American Athletic (new conference primarily made up of former Big East members), Mountain West and Sun Belt — all FBS members.

But where the lines are actually drawn and where the top end of the FCS might figure into the mix is anyone’s guess.

“The trick is to know when it’s occurring,” Fullerton said. “Is it occurring now? No. But the indications are that they’re chewing around the edges of it. What does that mean for us? We’re in a heightened alert state.
“No one has shown their hand. They’re holding their cards tight.”

2. With the Big Ten Conference announcing preliminary plans to no longer play FCS schools, will that idea spread to other major conferences and create financial problems around the FCS?

Last Sunday, the Big Ten Conference announced its intention to no longer schedule FCS programs. The reasoning is an effort to build up the league’s strength of schedule for postseason opportunities, as well as to provide stronger television ratings with more marquee programs.

The real worry for FCS programs isn’t in the short term as teams can find guarantee money games in other conferences. But the concern is in whether the Big Ten’s edict becomes a trend.
“What if the Big 12 doesn’t schedule FCS?” Fullerton said.

UND hasn’t played a Big Ten opponent because some schools in the league had a policy against playing UND because of the school’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

With the nickname no longer an issue to the NCAA, UND was in preliminary discussions to schedule the University of Minnesota for seasons beyond 2016 — until last Sunday’s news likely nixed those talks.

The draw for UND to play the Big Ten is a money game within driving distance, saving on the costs of flying an entire football team and staff to a guarantee game outside the region.

Since moving up to Division I, UND has played money games against Idaho, Texas Tech, Northern Illinois, Fresno State and San Diego State.

The Texas Tech guarantee to UND was $350,000. The Fresno State guarantee was $250,000.

For many FCS schools, those guarantees are essential in balancing the athletic department budget.

Some programs have to play two money games each season in order to strengthen the school’s budget. Last season, Northern Iowa played Wisconsin and Iowa within the first three weeks of the year. This year,

Eastern Washington is playing at Oregon State and at Toledo.

If you take those paydays away from the FCS, the fear is some programs won’t be able to maintain budgets. The latest NCAA financial report indicated FCS athletic departments receive 11 percent of their total revenue from guarantee games against FBS opponents.

*********** I've spent the last few days in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a very nice city with about 900,000 people in its metro area.  Winnipeg's winters are long and cold - it's a joke (I think) that folks here go to North Dakota on vacations - but when spring finally breaks through, as it appears to be doing on my visit there, it's just as I remember it in Finland. It's as if a curtain has been raised and everything is bright, and everyone is outdoors, enjoying the sunshine.   The long, dark spell is over.

Downtown Winnipeg is quite attractive, and with the break in the weather, it's alive with activity.  Right smack in the middle of it all is the brand-new MTS Centre, home of the NHL Winnipeg Jets and the site of various other sporting events and concerts.

Winnipeg is the largest city for hours and hours in any direction.  People here think nothing of driving to the Twin Cities, which are "only" 7-8 hours away (depending on the wait at the border) to shop or watch a baseball game. By comparison,  the nearest Canadian city of similar size is Calgary, 14 hours to the west.    Partly because of location, and partly because the Vikings' legendary coach Bud Grant both played and coached in Winnipeg,  the Vikings are the preferred NFL team.  I was informed, though, that there's quite a bit of support for the Packers, and I heard of one die-hard Pittsburgh fan who religiously makes it to two Steelers' games every year - one at home and one on the road.

The CFL season is approaching, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are eagerly looking forward to beginning play in their new stadium, Investors Group Field, on the campus of the University of Manitoba.  See the "Virtual Venue" - http://bluebombers.io-media.com/

*********** Wow.  Imagine if Dick Harpootlian had been a Republican.

Harpootlan, South Carolina's Democratic Chairman, urged voters to defeat the Republican governor, NIkki Haley, by telling them:  "send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from."

Not sure where that would be, because Governor Haley is as South Carolinian as he is.

She was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, she went to high school in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and she graduated from Clemson University, in Clemson, South Carolina.

Unless - you don't suppose, do you? - the state chairman of the ever-tolerant Democratic Party might possibly have been referring to the fact that the governor's parents were immigrants from India.

*********** I'm reading "Alan Ameche - The Story of 'The Horse,'" a biography by Dan Manoyan of the great Wisconsin and Baltimore Colts fullback. Ameche was a Heisman Trophy winner and the Colts' first draft choice.

He scored on a long touchdown run the first time he ever touched the ball in the NFL, and he scored the winning touchdown in the 1958 Colts' sudden-death win over the Giants in what has been called "The Greatest Game Ever Played."

I came across something in the book that today seems incomprehensible.

Part way though the 1954 season, Wisconsin coach Ivy Williamson was asked by the University board of regents to submit a request for a raise in pay.

He was then making $14,600 a year, and considering that in his five years at Madison he had taken the Badgers to their first conference title  and their first-ever appearance in the Rose Bowl, and that football accounted for $517,000 of the athletic department's total revenues of $721,000, it would appear that he had the regents by the short hairs.

But amazingly, he asked for no raise at all!

His reasoning was that what he was doing was no more important - or worth more money - than what professors were doing.

Nice, and all that, but on behalf of today's highly-paid coaches, I think it's worth pointing out that:

1. They are responsible for generating enormous amounts of revenue, without which colleges couldn't support a growing number of non-revenue sports, men's and women's

2. They operate under far more public scrutiny than any professor

3. They have no job security comparable to the tenure which guarantees professors employment under almost any circumstances.  The nearest thing coaches have would be a contract extension.  But there's always the chance that at any time, their employment can be terminated.  Yeah, yeah, they get severance pay.  But they're still out of work, and to a person whose work is his life, being let go is a traumatic experience.

4. They don't try to indoctrinate their "students" in the proper way to vote, nor do they inculcate them with a hatred of America and its values.

*********** Texas A & M recently announced plans to increase the capacity of Kyle Field from 82,000+ to 102,000+.

This would make Kyle Field the largest stadium in the SEC, and third overall, behind Michigan and Penn State.

I have no doubt that they'll fill the seats. My concern,  having been to Kyle Field and looked in amazement at how they've already stacked so many people on top of one another in such a small footprint is where in the hell they're going to put all those seats.

********** Economist Thomas Sowell writes,

Someone called politics "the art of the possible." But, in the era of the modern welfare state, politics is largely the art of the impossible.

Those people morbid enough to keep track of politicians' promises may remember how Barack Obama said that ObamaCare would lower medical costs — and lots of people bought it.

But if you stop and think, however old-fashioned that may seem these days, do you seriously believe that millions more people can be given medical care and vast new bureaucracies created to administer payment for it, with no additional costs?

Just as there is no free lunch, there is no free red tape. Bureaucrats have to eat, just like everyone else, and they need a place to live and some other amenities. How do you suppose the price of medical care can go down when the costs of new government bureaucracies are added to the costs of the medical treatment itself?

By the way, where are the extra doctors going to come from, to treat the millions of additional patients? Training more people to become doctors is not free. Politicians may ignore costs but ignoring those costs will not make them go away.

With bureaucratically controlled medical care, you are going to need more doctors, just to treat a given number of patients, because time that is spent filling out government forms is time that is not spent treating patients.

And doctors have the same 24 hours in the day as everybody else.

When you add more patients to more paperwork per patient, you are talking about still more costs. How can that lower medical costs? But although that may be impossible, politics is the art of the impossible. All it takes is rhetoric and a public that does not think beyond the rhetoric they hear.

You can just call "medical care for all" a "right" and you are home free with a major part of the public. Those who are more skeptical can be dismissed as people who just are not as compassionate. That puts you on the side of the angels against the forces of evil — and that is a proven winning strategy in politics.

FRIDAY,  MAY 3, 2013 -   “In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness.” Robert Griffin, III

*********** I was speaking a few days ago with Mike Lude, who along with Dave Nelson helped to invent the Delaware Wing-T.

The subject of Frosty Westering came up.  Mike, who once served as AD at the University of Washington, knew Frosty, the famed coach of Pacific Lutheran, and he was familiar with Frosty's "Make the Big-Time Where You Are" philosophy.

He said that Dave Nelson, who came to Delaware in 1951 and then remained there as coach until 1965 and AD until 1984, was the embodiment of that philosophy, turning down offers to coach at Baylor and at Illinois.

Mike recalled the time Dave informed his staff that he'd decided not to go to Illinois.

Mike said he told them, "It's just as exciting to win at Delaware, and it hurts just as much to lose."



*********** Keep your eye on this USA Football bunch.  Mark my words, with the help of Big Football (the NFL) they are working toward the day when they will make the decision on whether or not you can coach. 

A part of the NFL/Pop Warner/Disney/ESPN octopus, USA Football describes itself (after having appointed itself) as "Football's National Governing Body."

It already oversees our "national teams" in international competition, it puts on clinics in conjunction with NFL teams, and has plans to certify coaches. 

There's big money in it for them.

http://www2.usafootball.com/resource-center/coaching/clinics

*********** Please don't compare Jason Collins to Jackie Robinson.  Please.

I'm not even talking about the fact that Collins is an ordinary player, nearing or at the end of his career, while Robinson was a dominant player whose presence in the Brooklyn lineup helped make the Dodgers pennant contenders for years to come.

What I'm talking about is how much easier things are - and will continue to be - for Collins.

Jackie Robinson had a rough road.  Collins? Not only has the road been paved for him -  it's being strewn with rose petals. 

There won't be anyone objecting to Collins' playing, the way Robinson encountered among the news media, the sporting public, and even his own teammates.

There won't be any objections,  because, in case you hadn't noticed, there's only one socially and politically acceptable way to greet the news that the NBA has its first openly-gay player, and that's to exclaim, "It's about time!" and to praise Collins for his "courage." 

Excuse me?  "Courage?"  Nowadays, saying you're gay is about like saying you drive a car.

But have you seen what's happened to professional athletes or sports reporters who dare to suggest that homosexuality may not be the greatest thing that's ever to happened to the human race?  That some people might sincerely believe that homosexuality is condemned in scripture?

In our upside-down world, that's what takes courage.

***********  Reports the Daily Caller, "Two suspects who have been taken into custody in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings drove a car with “Terrorista #1″ license plates."

(To be fair, they're not official state-issued license plates.  Not even the geniuses who run things in the People's Republic of Massachusetts are that stupid.)

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/01/new-boston-suspects-drove-car-with-terrorista-1-license-plates/#ixzz2S4CTfSkG

***********"If they (my daughters) make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."  Barack Obama

Fortunately, we can all breathe a sigh of relief  that middle-school-age girls can now buy the morning-after pill as easily as they can chewing gum.

*********** Anybody notice how R.G. III is falling out of favor because he dared to question Political Correctness?

Hasn't he seen what the liberal media have done to Tim Tebow?

*********** Want to build a bomb?  No need to fly to Dagestan.  Just wait until a week before July 4, and come to Clark County, Washington, where I live. 
You'll be able to buy all the explosives you want, no questions asked.

From a place called (I am not kidding) Bomber Brothers.  (Nice name, guys.)

*********** As part of the extension of its tentacles into all aspects of the football business, the NFL has appointed Lavar Arrington, among others,  as an "ambassador" to youth programs.
He's going to serve as a "mentor" to a Baltimore County youth team.

Not only is it a great chance for him to mold kids into the kind of real team man he was, it's also a great chance for him to sell his new line of t-shirts.

My suggestion would be to go all the way and make him the head coach. Let him teach the basic skills to kids who've never played before.  Let him find out that, former pro or not, he's still got to deal with all those mommies and daddies who (1) expect their kids to play every play, (2) expect them to play a certain position, and (3) expect him to be highlighted.  And, of course, to win.  Oh. and to hold his starting position for him when he comes back from the family's mid-season trip to Disneyland.

http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-75578149/

http://www.nflevolution.com/article/LaVar-Arrington-brings-more-than-coaching-to-Heads-Up-Football?ref=9495

*********** From Character Counts - Michael Josephson

Take a look around. Business, education, politics. If there’s one thing we don’t have enough of, it’s good leaders – men and women who have the vision and the ability to change things for the better.
Former Air Force General William Cohen wrote a fine book called The Stuff of Heroes in which he identified eight laws of leadership. Here are his rules:
    1.    Maintain absolute integrity.
    2.    Know your stuff.
    3.    Declare your expectations.
    4.    Show uncommon commitment.
    5.    Expect positive results.
    6.    Take care of your people.
    7.    Put duty before self.
    8.    Get out in front.

His laws embrace important competencies like knowledge, communication skills, commitment, optimism, caring, and a powerful sense of duty. But General Cohen also recognized that the foundation of a successful leader is character, including trustworthiness, honor, and courage.

The best leaders draw on these moral qualities to influence others through inspiration, persuasion, trust, and loyalty. They do the right thing despite the costs and risks and do it not because it will yield approval or advantage, but because it’s the right thing.

In these cynical times, it’s easy to think such leadership is unattainable; yet in every walk of life there are hundreds of men and women – parents, teachers, coaches, civic activists – who fit this mold. What’s more important, every one of us could be among them.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

*********** Former Packers' defensive back LeRoy Butler is the latest to show his "courage" by opening his mouth about what's-his-name (you know - the first gay not-yet-retired NBA player).  Evidently, after he tweeted his support, he was notified by a church where he was scheduled to speak that the deal was off.

Butler then tweeted,

WTF?  $8500?  (I'm assuming he just never learned where to put the dollar sign.)

Well, screw him for charging that kind of money to speak to a church group.

But screw that church, too, for blowing its parishioners' money on celebrity speakers. (Yeah, yeah, I know - it was probably  a fund-raiser.  So they'd have more money to hire even more celebrity speakers.)

*********** Wow.  What a piece of work Geno Smith is. Drafted in the second round, he fires his agents.

The word is that during many of his interviews with teams, he kept playing with his phone, instead of making eye contact.
I
f that's true, I'm surprised he went as high as he did.  I mean, given that sort of focus, he's not going to be a lot of fun to work with, is he?

Which gets me to his high school and college coaches.  WTF kind of coaching does that reflect?

As a teacher, I never tolerated a student not looking at me when I was speaking - I mean, how in the world can a kid be listening to what you're saying when he's looking out the window?

And as a coach, I insist on being able to see everyone's eyeballs when I'm talking.  If it's important enough for me to tell them something, then I can't afford the possibility of anyone not hearing.

And that's just the learning aspect of it.  I haven't even mentioned the fact that it's disrespectful not to look at the speaker. (Our kids all learn that, too.)

Come to think of it - if this is all true - where were his agents when they should have been prepping him for those interviews?

*********** A top-notch (Double Wing) football program in the Pacific Northwest is looking for an assistant coach and teacher (4 periods of math/1 period of weight training).

I can vouch for the head coach.  Very good man.

If you're interested, send me an email - coachwyatt@aol.com - and I'll see to it that it gets to the right place.

*********** I personally like Matt Barkley.  Strange, maybe, because I don't particularly like USC, and I despise their coach.  Now that the Eagles have drafted Barkley and USC is behind him, I wish him well.

And after the way things turned out for him at USC - the way he was reviled after the sacrifice he made for his team -  I think it's a good idea to revisit a Sports Illustrated article about him and his friendship with fellow USC alumnus Louis Zamperini.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1204838/1/index.htm

And it's not a bad idea to learn a little about Louie Zamperini himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini


TUESDAY,  APRIL 30, 2013 -   "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H. L. Mencken

*********** George Jones, my favorite singer of all time, died Friday.  I had no idea the esteem in which he was held by other singers. Hell, I just liked to hear him sing.  Gospel, especially.

I'm bummed, but he left us with his music.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today."

"I'm a Small-Time Laboring Man"

"Country is…"

What a hell raiser.  His life was a country song.  But what a singer. 

Here's what I want to know: as hard as he lived, how the hell did he make it to 81?


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/arts/music/george-jones-country-singer-dies-at-81.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130427

*********** Saturday, Greg Koenig, Of Beloit, Kansas, attended Wyoming's spring game, to watch former player, Jake English, now a redshirt freshman contending for a starting position on the Cowboys' offensive line.

********** On Friday, in order to maintain the suspense, I deliberately omitted the name of the black player whom Michigan benched for the 1934 Georgia Tech game in order to appease southern segregationists.  He was Willis Ward.

Willis Ward had been a high school track star and and all-state football player in Michigan, but he had no intention of playing football at the University of Michigan until its football coach, Harry Kipke, nearly came to blows with AD Fielding Yost over the matter.  Yost, the former Michigan coach, had never had a black player on one of his teams.

Short story - Ward turned out to be a very good football player, playing a major part in Michigan's winning national championships in 1932 and 1933. On road trips, he roomed with a white teammate from Grand Rapids, the first friend he met freshman year.  A guy named Jerry Ford.

When word got out that Ward was to be held out of the Georgia Tech game, Ford quit the team in disgust before finally being persuaded by Ward to play the game.

In track, Ward almost certainly would have qualified for the 1936 Olympics - the Hitler-Jesse Owens Olympics.  He won eight Big-Ten titles and three NCAA titles in the long jump, high jump and hurdles. In his senior season, he defeated Jesse Owens twice in a dual meet.  But he himself admitted later that his heart wasn't in it - that after the way he'd been shoved aside before the Georgia Tech game, he was not about to be a pawn a second time and risk being benched in order to please Hitler.

He worked as an executive with Ford Motor Company, and finally, after a career in law, was appointed to a judgeship in Detroit by Governor George Romney.

His teammate, Jerry Ford, became active in politics and, following the resignation of Richard Nixon, became President of the United States.

When Ford took assumed the presidency in 1974, he remembered his friend Ward, inviting him to Washington D.C. for a visit. And the seed planted at Michigan spread nationwide. In 1976, he pushed to create Black History Month, which is now celebrated every February

http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/forgotten-man-remembering-michigan-trailblazer-willis-ward-day?page=0,0

In 2012 a documentary, "Black and Blue," told of Ward's and Ford's lifelong friendship

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/gerald-ford-willis-ward-u-m-football-documentary-black-and-blue-to-air-on-saturday/

http://blogs.detroitnews.com/johnniyo/2011/11/18/black-and-blue-debut-willis-ward-documentary-screening-in-ann-arbor-tonight-2/

In 2012, a little girl named Genna Urbain, watched the documentary and then lobbied successfully to have the Michigan legislature make  Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012 — the 78th anniversary of the Michigan-Georgia Tech game — Willis Ward Day in the state.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121011/METRO/210110377

*********** Our President  promises his full support to Planned Parenthood, and signs off with "God Bless You..."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_PLANNED_PARENTHOOD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-26-11-37-33

*********** In Australia, Field hockey players are tough.  Also stupid.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/field-hockey-player-bitten-by-snake-runs-dies-australia-karl-berry-042513

*********** Said Commissioner Roger Goodell: "Announcing the Tennessee Titans' pick, from the University of Miami, Keith Bullock…"

Said Keith Bullock: "That's Syracuse University…"

*********** Check out this video by David Pogue - 10 Time-Saving Technology Tips

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_pogue_10_top_time_saving_tech_tips.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2013-04-26&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=talk_of_the_week_button

*********** John Kass, Chicago Tribune: "American Football Industry is on its Deathbed."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-24/news/ct-met-kass-0424-20130424_1_future-football-players-nfl-draft-the-nfl

*********** Winning is one thing, but then there's the gate - and other than E.J. Manuel, there wasn't a single player taken in the first round that made me say, "Wow - I can't wait to see this guy play."

*********** From my archives, 2001 -

You know it's time to move on when... Several years ago, in the early days of my high school coaching career, I was at a small, rural school, and a dad took his son, a starting lineman, hunting - right in the middle of football season. The kid missed two football games. And, I might add, his starting spot when he returned. Mom and Dad were really p-o'd about that. I suppose I was guilty of not trying hard enough to see things their way, because I don't have a lot of use for people who want to have it all, at others' expense, without having to make any sacrifices of their own. I guess we were supposed to leave his spot open for him, playing with only 10 kids for two games. Either that or tell some other poor chump, "thanks for filling in for the last two weeks - you can go back to the JV''s now."
 
They thought their kid had been "punished enough" because he'd missed two games! The principal came to me and told me that he had set up a meeting with Mom and Dad. What for? I asked. They were angry, he told me, and from the things he said it appeared as if he was making an attempt to see their point of view. I was somewhat taken aback, because back in those early days in my career in public education, I naively thought that administrators were supposed to support their teachers and coaches and defend them from unreasonable parents. Stupid me.

"Hey! " I said to him. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

He had a smirk on his face, and his answer so took me aback with its cynical frankness that it's stuck with me to this day: "The Principal's."

*********** Rich Cimini, ESPNNewYork.com, said it all...

The Jets sweet-talked Tebow, convincing him they were the team for him. They completed a complicated trade with the Denver Broncos, introduced him at the biggest news conference in team history, built him up him like a rock star and …

Failed to use him, demonstrating no plan whatsoever.

It was an utter embarrassment, even by the Jets' standards. It revealed cracks in the organization, an obvious disconnect between ownership, football management and the coaching staff.

They treated Tebow like a carry-on bag. They figured he'd fit conveniently in the overhead, but when they realized he was too big and had to be checked, he became a burden.

*********** Mike Mansfield died last week at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina.  He was 63.  Back in 1974, I was Player Personnel Director of the World Football League Philadelphia Bell, and we signed him out of the University of North Carolina.  He started several games for us at linebacker.

After just the one year in Philly, he returned to UNC as a graduate assistant on Bill Dooley's staff.  Later, he would go with Dooley to Virginia Tech as his strength coach.

http://forbisanddick.com/obituary-details.php?id=3717

I gather, judging from some of the remembrances,  he was something of a legend at North Carolina.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=78&f=1408&t=11490129

*********** I'm glad that the Seahawks got him - but how did Jesse Williams last as long as he did?????

http://seattletimes.com/html/jerrybrewer/2020876201_brewer28.html

*********** GAY  GAY  GAY  GAY  GAY  GAY  GAY  GAY  GAY   GAY  GAY  GAY   

It's the love that won't shut the f--k up

Monday was a bad day at NFL headquarters. The draft was scarcely a day old when the news hit. The NBA had beaten them to it!

All that big talk about Commissioner Goodell about inclusion - mere words, now.

The NFL is trying to put a brave face on it, but there's no concealing the disappointment that the NBA was first - that even if it was a 34-year-old career backup who's now  a free agent,  the first openly-gay player in a major professional sport was a basketball player.

With absolutely nothing going on between now and the opening of training camps, the NFL PR people are frantically putting together a TV show,  "NFL Coming Out Party, Presented by Verizon" for the NFL Network, and they're busy contacting agents in hopes of finding a half-dozen of so players - gay or not - who'll agree to appear on it.

In Las Vegas, sports books are working feverishly to come up with odds for (and against) every NFL player being the first to come out.

*********** Is there any particular group or team drill on defense that you used to teach your run fits and pass fits to your defense.  Pursuit drill, Half line, 7 on 7, or do you just teach it during your team drills?

Thanks,

Coach,

We do this in "team" drills, but we do have to split in half most of the time, so we seldom have our whole team together.

Usually, it's

1. Inside drill, outside drill

or

2. Half line right, half line left

With a small squad and a small staff, I personally like half line because we are "better against better".

When we go inside drill, our starting D-linemen overpower our backups, and when we go outside drill, we don't have anybody who can run decent routes against our starters.

*********** The highlight of the UCLA spring game came when the guys in the booth sent it down to the sideline:

"Lets go down to the field and talk with Coach Mora!"

Bad timing.  Coach Mora had his back to the interviewer, and wasn't aware that he was about to be interviewed, which explained why he was caught yelling,

"GET OFF THE F--KING FIELD!!!"

*********** I continue to be stunned at how shamelessly the NFL continues to promote itself as the savior of our game.  Also at their shocking discovery that - who knew? - it is safest not to tackle with the head down!

(Charlotte Jones Anderson happens to be Jerry Jones' daughter, and we all know what high regard Jerry Jones has for our game. Deion Sanders?  He's going to teach kids to tackle?)

http://www.nflevolution.com/article/NFL-makes-1-5-million-donation-to-help-USA-Football-8217-s-efforts?ref=9243

*********** Coach,

I had the honor of speaking at the Illinois Football Coaches Association clinic a few weeks ago.  I spoke on a topic that is similar to the clinic talks I almost always go to - coaching the person.  As I introduced myself and my staff I was able to state that the members of our coaching staff have been together a combined 67 years.  You cannot make that happen, but when it does I think it says a lot about the bonds between the coaches and the consistency of the program.  Above all, I was able to tell the group in attendance that I have never once questioned the loyalty of all members on our staff to me and they have never had cause to question mine to them.  

Thank you for highlighting the importance of loyalty.

While watching some of the draft last night I also watched the USA Football videos on Heads Up Tackling.  It's good stuff.  It's also stuff that those of us who are responsible coaches have already been teaching.  This is nothing new.  They did not invent (or even reinvent) the wheel.  They sure are taking credit for it.

I am sick of hearing that USA Football is anyone's "governing body."

I posted last night that the NFL and their concern for concussions is a farce.  I pointed out that :  1) they don't require properly fitted helmets (note the guys with long hair), 2) they don't require properly fitted helmets (note the number of guys who put their helmets on and off just as they would a baseball cap, 3) no requirement for mouthpieces, 4) no requirement for double hook-up chin straps (or having all straps hooked up).  

I'm tired of the NFL making the rest of football look bad.
 
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois

Coach,

The full-court press is on.

The NFL is despicable in its hypocrisy.  If they had set out deliberately to destroy our game by modeling unsafe practices thy couldn't have done a better job, and yet here they are, spending millions to try to convince the great unwashed that through their puppet organization, USA Football, they're competent to tell us how to coach kids, and what's more, to "certify" us as coaches.  Next step will be the insinuation that if we are not USA Football-certified, we are not fit to coach your kids.

*********** Hi Coach,

Well, I'm leaving (---------) . I look forward to the change.

Like you once said, some places you just can't change. After four years here (and the school's ONLY 3 state play-off appearances) I need a change. Football is not in the cards for me next year, although a lot of friends that are head coaches have asked me. I just need a break from football--2 years ago I would have next said that.

Hope all is well for you. I'll always keep your materials. Who knows when the double wing might make another appearance someday! Take care,

(Name Withheld)

Coach,

I hope that this is a good move for you professionally.

If you need a break from football, then I can only assume that it has not been a rewarding experience.

My prediction is that when you come back to it, you'll be refreshed.

*********** Coach Wyatt,

I don't care what they call the National Championship Game, just as long
as Brent Musberger is not calling it.

Jim Franklin
Flora, Indiana

I'd give anything to have Keith Jackson call it.  Or Lindsey Nelson.  Or Chris Schenkel (native of Bippus, Indiana).


FRIDAY,  APRIL 26, 2013 -   "You know, if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything, wouldn't you, at any time? And you would achieve nothing!" Margaret Thatcher

*********** "College Football Playoff." So simple.  So pure.  (So are you telling me that you didn't think to trademark the name, either?)

I have a suspicion that it was deliberately kept simple and bland so that it would go nicely with a sponsor's name.  Any sponsor.

Yes, yes, I know - they've already said that they have no intention of selling the naming rights.  Right.  You're certainly  free to believe the same people who in return for large sums of money plastered the name "Tostitos" all over the BCS National Championship Game.

But not me.  I'm betting on one of the following:

(1) (Sponsor A) College Football Playoff…

(2) College Football Playoff (presented by Sponsor B)…

(3) (Sponsor A) College Football Playoff (presented by Sponsor B).

And remember - they didn't say that they wouldn't sell the names of the two semi-finals and the final.

http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/


*********** In reading "Dodd's Luck," the biography of Georgia Tech's legendary coach, Bobby Dodd, I came across a story that I read, and re-read, and re-read.  And then I read it to my wife.

She's not exactly naive, but her eyes widened in disbelief.

Coach Dodd related an incident that happened in 1934, when he was a young assistant at Tech under long-time coach Bill Alexander.

Tech was scheduled to play at Michigan in the fourth game of the season.  Neither team was having a good season - Tech had won its opener against Clemson, and then had lost two in a row, while Michigan had yet to win.  (Both teams, coincidentally, would wind up 1-9.)

"We went up to Michigan," Dodd remembered years later,  "and I'd heard all about Fielding Yost's point-a-minute teams in the early 1900s, and about their big stadium.  But I never heard a word said until we got to Michigan that they even had a black boy on the team. (Coach Dodd, a white southerner raised in a segregated society, obviously had no idea how offensive the term "boy" would be in this context.)  I doubt that we even knew it, 'cause you didn't scout teams from another part of the country like you do now (in 1987).

"But we got up there, and I heard Coach Aleck fuming around that they had a black boy named (----------)  and that we couldn't play against them.  And I never had thought about it, whites playing against blacks.  I'd never gotten into that, didn't ever enter my mind.  We didn't play against blacks, weren't any blacks on any teams in the South.

"In high school, I didn't ever think about it.  But I heard Coach Aleck and them fussing, and they were very disturbed about whether they were gonna play the game or not."

It was Friday, and Tech coach Alexander went back and forth with Yost, now Michigan's AD.  (Coach Dodd seems confused here, appearing to remember Yost as the coach.  Sadly, the co-author, Jack Wilkinson, failed to do his homework and note that Michigan's coach then was not Fielding Yost but Harry Kipke.)

Alexander evidently informed Yost that the white people back in Atlanta would not tolerate Tech's playing against a black player, and that he actually feared for the safety of his players on their return if they were to do so.

When the matter became known to the Michigan community, the reaction was outrage.  Hundreds marched from the campus to the hotel where the Georgia Tech team was lodged, and a plan to occupy the field the next day was discussed.

Into the night Alexander and Yost negotiated, helped along, the book suggests, by a bottle of whiskey.

"They argued way into the night," Dodd recalled. "Coach Aleck flatly said, 'We cannot play the game against a black man. We could not go back to Atlanta.'"

Finally, the two coaches reached a compromise: Michigan would hold (-------), its right end, out of the game, and in return, Georgia Tech would sit its starting right end, a player named Hoot Gibson.

And so the game went on.  Michigan won, 9-2, in what Dodd called, "probably as poorly played a game between two major colleges as I've ever seen."

That's the Tech side of the story.  More to come.

*********** Next time you try something new and people say you're nuts, that it can't be done -  even when it works - think of Hank Luisetti.

Today's Basketball wouldn't be the same without him.

He invented the one-handed jump shot.

In 1936, in a jam-packed Madison Square Garden, Stanford ended Long Island University's 43-game winning streak, 45-31. Liusetti scored a game-high 15 points, and received a standing ovation when he finally came out of the game.

New York then was ground zero for college basketball, and after Liusetti's performance you'd have thought that the one-handed jump shot would have caught on immediately.

But no.

First of all, there was no TV, so no SportsCenter to show every kid in the country how Liusetti had done what he did.

And second of all, there were the nay-sayers. And these nay-sayers were some of he top coaches in the game.

''That's not basketball,'' said Nat Holman, coach of City College. ''If my boys ever shot one-handed, I'd quit coaching.''

Said Joe Lapchick, coach of St. John's, ''I can't be persuaded that two on the ball doesn't make for far superior shot control and a greater percentage of hits.''

Nearly 15 years later, when I was a kid starting to play the game, our coaches and PE teachers all made us shoot two-handed set shots. (They also made us shoot free throws underhanded.)

''Shooting two-handed, I just couldn't reach the basket,'' he once told The San Francisco Chronicle. ''I was lucky with my coaches in high school and college, I guess, because I made the baskets, they left me alone and didn't try to change my shots.''

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/23/sports/hank-luisetti-86-innovator-of-basketball-s-one-hander.html

*********** A friend of mine just walked away from a head coaching job he coveted. 

He'd just been offered the job. All that remained was  to dot the i's and cross the t's when the principal, who'd been pretty silent up until then, asked him, almost as an afterthought, to meet with "the assistants."

"You mean interview them?" my friend asked.

No, she replied.  They were the members of his staff, carryovers from the previous regime.

Everything was in place, she informed him.  All they needed was his leadership.

Suddenly, my friend knew why the school hasn't had a winning season in 10 years. And he walked.

Lesson #1: Loyalty may not be the number one thing you look for in an assistant, but it's damn close, and when an assistant owes his job to someone other than you, that's where his loyalties will lie.

Lesson #2:  Make sure that you cover this very important detail in your interview.  And if they tell you they won't let you hire and fire your own assistants - get up and walk.

*********** Charlie Trippi of Georgia made the cover of the April 22 USA Today sports section in a story by Dan Wolken as the oldest living Number One NFL Draft pick. He was chosen by the Chicago Cardinals in 1947,  and in his rookie season, he helped lead the Cardinals to the only championship in the franchise's history.

*********** When legendary coach Bobby Dodd took over at Georgia Tech in 1945, one of his first decisions was to adopt the T-formation on offense. 
For his quarterback, he settled on a guy named Ed Holtsinger.

 "I couldn't find anyone else," Dodd said.  "I was looking for a quarterback who could handle the ball well, fake the ball, was good with his hands, could throw a short pass. I didn't care about any bombs.  If he could throw 15 yards, that's all I wanted.  But Ed could only throw the ball about 10."

Ed Holtsinger had been Tech's backup center the year before.

*********** With all the problems he faces in running a league whose players model bad behavior and unsafe tactics that we lowly youth and high school coaches have to constantly correct in our kids, it was awfully nice of Roger Goodell, Commissioner of Big Football, to take the time to let us know he's looking out for us…

(Okay, okay -  I added that PS. I couldn't resist.)

*********** The Portland Thorns, a women's "pro" soccer team,  played their home opener last week. first game.   They drew 16,000 fans,  more than any of the MLS games played that night.

1. What does that tell you about Portland?

2. What does that tell you about MLS (Minor League Sport)?

*********** Victor Davis Hanson notes how the newspeak in the novel 1984 is now  common in today's government...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/345662/i1984i-29-victor-davis-hanson

*********** The nearest thing to having a loved one in the hospital is having to leave your computer at the shop.

*********** SB Nation listed what it called "25 Memories of  College Sports' Dumbest Gold Rush,"

24. The Big Ten started all this more or less on purpose. Then ended up with Rutgers and Maryland.

In December 2009, the Big Ten announced it would expand in the next year or so. Announced! This served as a lesson on how not to realign, as programs began openly pleading for a spot. The next time the Big Ten grew, it did so in total silence, dropping the bombs in the middle of a college football Saturday.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/4/23/4253490/college-conference-realignment-acc-media-deal

*********** "Americans may choose to live in France or China, but we can never become French or Chinese; but anyone can become fully American simply by embracing our principles - and also by swearing allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands."  Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass, National Review Online, June 14, 2011

*********** Fox Business News correspondent Charles Payne got so carried away not so long ago that he dropped an f-bomb on air.

Talking about a jobs program, he recalled his own experience as a teenager, saying, "I'll never forget one guy I worked for, Mr. Hoover.  He taught me how to count change, he taught me how to make sausage, he taught me how to f--king wake up in the morning and do what I was supposed to do!"

Once he realized what he'd said, Payne covered his mouth in shock.  And so, probably, did millions of viewers at the thought that someone still believes those things are important and is willing to say so.

*********** The limos… the red carpet… the outlandish outfits… the antics… the ass-kissing interviews… the adoring masses…

No, not the Oscars. The NFL draft.

What a show.

*********** Lane Johnson? The left tackle from Oklahoma that the Eagles drafted? The one who's run a 4.7? The one who played quarterback in junior college?

You suppose Chip Kelly's secret plan is to play him at QB?

*********** Back in 1975, when we moved our family west and settled in Vancouver, Washington, young Tom Erickson was just starting out, and we were among his first patients.

He was our dentist until 2012 when young Tom, by then 67 years old, sold his practice and hung 'em up.

Thursday I paid my first visit since Tom left.  I had my doubts - I mean, 37 years with the same dentist? - but I like the new guy a lot.

His name's Dave Keller, and he spent his early years in the little town of Elma, not too far from Ocean Shores. He went to high school in Olympia, where he played high school football.  He went on to BYU, then to U of Washington dental school, and then he served in the Army.

He's a family man who's active in his church and in Boy Scouting.

I do believe we got us a winner.  Thank you, Tom Erickson.

*********** QB guru Steve Carlson claims that Tim Tebow has been sabotaged.  Not that I disagree, but how in the hell (sorry, Tim) did Tebow hook up with the kind of agent who'd let him get stuck with the Jets?

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000160779/article/tim-tebow-was-sabotaged-private-qb-coach-believes?campaign=Ext_Email_1st10_Daily&cvosrc=Ext.Email.1st10.Daily


TUESDAY,  APRIL 23, 2013 -   "You've got to love your kids enough to let them hate you."  Carol Burnett

*********** Interesting observation by the Wall Street Journal's Brian Resutek...

Q. What do NFL standouts Ed Reed, Steven Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, Dallas Clark, Brandon Meriweather and Chris Johnson have in common?

A. All were chosen with the 24th pick in their drafts.

in fact, notes Resutek in The Journal, since 2002 picks 24 through 27 have produced more Pro Bowl players (I can't use the term "Pro Bowler" because it makes me think of strikes and spares) than picks 4 through 7.

This year's 24th pick belongs to Indianapolis.

*********** Back from North Carolina and the Durham clinic.  Many thanks to old friend and long-time Double Winger Dave Potter, for handling all the on-site arrangements.  Coach Potter is even more attentive to detail than I am, if that's possible. A semi-legend in Durham youth coaching circles, he may have to take this season off to care for his ailing dad, four hours distant. 

Easily the highlight of the clinic - for me - was being able to get out on the field with a demo team, kids from Cary High School.  It was one of the best group of kids I've ever worked with, and at the same time one of the most promising athletically. It was very encouraging to me to see how quickly those kids took to the Double Wing - both tight and spread versions - and I was having so much fun I had to warn the Cary coaches that if they didn't get those kids on the bus and get them home, I was liable to keep them out there running plays until dark.

***********  Adam Rank, writing in NFL.com, says that while the League is diddling round with the Tuck Rule, there are a few other rules he'd also like to see added…

If the ball hits the ground, it's not a catch- I've never been down with the Bert Emmanuel rule. The rule defies logic and physics. If any part of the ball hits the ground, it's not a catch. That's a trap. If you want to change one thing about catching the football, scrap the "in the process" rule, which is way more egregious. How do we change a rule for Emmanuel and not Calvin Johnson?

Relax on celebrations - Personally, I'd rather see players casually flip the ball back to the referee after they score a touchdown. Act as if you've been there, as they say. But you certainly shouldn't legislate against players having a little fun after they score. This is entertainment right? I look at end zone celebrations the same way I look at those "Housewives" reality TV shows. I certainly don't care for them, but I wouldn't want to deny others who enjoy it.

Go back to school - If you also enjoy your football on Saturday, you know college does way better with certain rules. Replay is better; the pass interference is better and so is overtime. I say you bring in all three of those rules to the NFL. The NFL has benefited from the two-point conversion. This should be no different. Get rid of the red flag (you're welcome Jim Schwartz), only 15-yards for PI, and each team starts overtime on the 40 (small tweak). Done and done.

Get rid of illegal leverage - This never made sense. Trying to block a field goal or PAT is illegal? Not only should illegal leverage (or leap frogging) be allowed, but it should be encouraged. This would open the door for smaller player to be the designated cannonball to be tossed in the air (like rugby). Heck, you could probably take a female flyer from the cheer squad for this exact purpose.

A player on the field has to kick the extra point - We kicked this one around on the DDFP recently, and it's genius. When your team scores a touchdown, a player currently on the field has to kick the PAT. Coaches would hate this because it would add another layer of strategy to their jobs, but think how much fun it would be to see a defensive player have to make a kick after a Pick 6. (Not too different from my rule that I've been pushing for years: no one can kick the ball in any way more than once per game. HW)
 
No divisional games until Week 4 - This one is for the schedule makers, but please, no divisional games in the first month of the season. Too much is at stake for a divisional game to be thrown away in Week 1. Trust me, people will watch Week 1 regardless. What you do is wait until Week 4, dub it rivalry week, and you suddenly have a new tent-pole portion of the season. You're welcome.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000151111/article/forget-the-tuck-rule-put-in-these-rules-instead

(Good luck on the suggestion that the NFL take a cue from the colleges.  The NFL?  The people who want the Great Unwashed to think they invented the game?  Borrow an idea from the colleges?  Not a chance.)

*********** Coach Brad Knight, of Clarinda, Iowa, was a guest speaker at my Southern California clinic two years ago, and he remembers being taken somewhat about by the signs all around West Ranch High School in Valencia.  So I know he was chuckling when he sent me the following update…

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/california-baseball-team-had-deal-11-rattlesnakes-field-103544281.html

*********** The dog ate my helmet…

http://college-football.si.com/2013/04/18/new-uconn-helmets/?sct=obnetwork

*********** Coach,
 
The clinic was fantastic.  I attended last year's clinic after taking a few years off hoping to see what was new.  I picked up a few things, but most of the things you covered were the same as I had been doing them before.  (Not a bad thing since it was great reinforcement of the basic system)  This year you covered exactly the things that I wanted to see.  The biggest area of improvement I need as a coach is in my understanding of the passing game.  I have tried to have a decent passing game in the past but always wanted to keep to the core of the double wing in philosophy and in play calling.  The "double slot" or "run and shoot" that you covered this year is exactly what I was looking for.  It remains true to the core of the double wing and greatly improves on the passing potential of it.  I also learned a lot from Coach Flinn about coaching receivers.
 
Thanks a lot, it was great seeing you and Connie again, if you are ever in Lancaster feel free to give me a call.
 
Dave Kemmick
Lancaster, Pennsylvania

*********** I'm reading "Dodd's Luck", the biography of Georgia Tech's great coach Bobby Dodd.  Re-reading, actually.  You know how it is when you're watching video and you watch the same play over and over - and you see something new and different every time you rerun it?  I find that when I re-read a book I discover all sorts of things that I missed the first time through.

So it is with "Dodd's Luck."

Get this. In 1945 - Dodd's first as Tech's head coach - things didn't go as well as he'd have liked.  And faced with the loss of the few good players he had, things weren't looking up for 1946, either.

Up stepped his captain, Paul Duke.  Duke had graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and he already had a good job. But he had a year of eligibility remaining, and he announced that he planned to return to Tech for a final year. He did, and made All-American.  (And no ballroom dancing classes for him, either -   he picked up an additional degree in Industrial Engineering.)

Asked about why he came back, he said, "I came back just to help Coach Dodd."

Coach Dodd had tried to dissuade him, telling him, "If you're not going to coach and not going to play pro football, go out and get yourself a job."

It wasn't bad advice.  Duke was passing up a decent salary for the chance to play college football. HIs case isn't exactly comparable to today's one-and-done basketball players, but at that time, a Tech graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering would have started out making more than an NFL rookie.

Paul Duke was representative of the sort of football player Coach Dodd took pride in building his teams around.

He became a successful Atlanta businessman, and devoted much of his time and efforts to service to his alma mater. He served as a trustee of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association and the Georgia Tech Foundation, and as a member of the Georgia Tech Athletic Advisory Board.

In 1982 he received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award, and in 1987 he received the President's Award for "exceptional achievement and unusual generosity".



*********** Coach Wyatt,
 
Just wondering if you were planning a Kansas City clinic this year.  I saw the topics to be covered and am very inerested in the "scrum and shoot" and the quick toss/quick passing series.  I have really enjoyed the last 2 clinics, you do a great job teaching your offense.

Thanks, 

Scott Whaley
Head Football Coach
Oskaloosa High School
Oskaloosa Kansas

Coach,

I was unable to put together a KC Clinic this year, but I do hope to at least put together a DVD of this year's clinic and I hope to be able to have it ready for sale in a couple of weeks.

I appreciate the kind words and I know you'd enjoy this year's clinic and I'll make a special effort to make next year work.

*********** according to Michael Neibauer of the Washington Business Journal.

TUESDAY,  APRIL 16, 2013 -   "Discipline is tough for  guy who's a rebel."  Jonathan Winters

********** Something I've been noticing in my travels is the proliferation of sports talk radio.  Network sports talk radio, that is. 

Actually, McSportstalk is more like it.  It's the same sh-- everywhere you go.

No more local sports talk.  Now you get to listen to the geniuses on ESPN, or Fox, or NBC or CBS sit in studios in New York or LA and talk about… the SAME F-KING THING!

Even in Philadelphia, the home of the wise-ass sports talk radio guy, beloved local sports radio 610 WIP has been bumped to FM, to make room for the dreck they call CBS sports radio.

*********** Before the recent McDonald's All American Game in Chicago, some of the nation's top high school basketball prospects were asked by usatoday how they'd do going one-on-one matchup against Michael Jordan. In his prime.

The bravado, the arrogance, the sheer narcissism of their answers were breathtaking.

Matt Jones, of DeSoto, Texas said he'd win, 11-5. “Well, I’m feeling a little generous today, so I think he’d get his five points. This is how it would go: I’d get ball first, then I’d score the first few baskets because he’d definitely be sleeping on me. Then I’d go to my old-man game and take it to the hole every time. No matter how small the foul was I’d call ball every time until I made it. So it’s gonna be a long grind-it-out win. But I’d win.”

He's committed to Duke.  Good luck getting this one's ego under control, Old Man.  Er, Coach K.

Dakari Johnson, of Montverde, Florida, thinks it will be a tough one, but he'd win, 11-10. “I’m taking him to the post every time. He’d stop me a couple of times, but I’d just keep going back down there. I’d just contest his jump shots and pray that he’d miss. I think in the end, I’d get him though. I’m too big down there.”

He's headed to Kentucky.  For a year.

Andrew Harrison, of Richmond, Texas says he'd take Jordan, 11-7.
“I think he’d get a couple buckets here and there, but then I’d start to lock him down and give him buckets. Yeah, I think I’d get him.”

He's also headed to Kentucky.  For a year.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, of Chester, Pennsylvania, also says it will be close (after all, it is Michael Jordan), but he'll win, 11-10. “Well, it will come down to the last possession. He’ll take the ball and get me with the move, then I’ll recover and block it off the glass. He thinks it’s a foul, but it’s really not. So we shoot for it to settle the bad call he made and I’d make the do-or-die shot. I get the ball back and I give him a bucket with heavy defensive pressure. Ball game.”

He's going to Arizona.

http://www.usatodayhss.com/news/article/players-predict-one-on-one-game-with-michael-jordan

*********** You got to hand it to Rich Rod. I was watching the Arizona spring game, and three times he went into the stands to let fans call plays.  It was a first-rate  job of schmoozing.

He asked one of the play-callers if he was nervous and when the guy confessed that he was, Rich Rod said that was good, because if the play didn't go, all those fans sitting behind him were going to be on his case.

The third fan was a woman, and as Rich went over to her...

BAM!

The dipsh-- Pac 12 Network cut to the USC intrasquad game.

Watching them interview Lane-Boy Kiffin, I just couldn't picture him going up into the stands and mixing it up with the hoi-polloi

Speaking of spring games- now that they're all these stupid offense vs defense formats…Is there any team, anywhere, whose offense lost to its defense? 

*********** Coach,
 
Related to the post this morning about Trey Burke hitting his head on the court, why doesn't anyone cry foul when youth baseball coaches have their 8-10 year olds throwing curveballs?  No one seems alarmed by kids having Tommy John's surgery before they finish high school...
 
Josh Montgomery
BJHS

Right-  and despite our First Lady's concern over our national "obesity epidemic", no one seems to have thought about the long- term health of morbidly obese young men playing football at 50 pounds or more beyond their normal body weight. This one is sure to come back at the NFL in the form of a lawsuit.

*********** Those of you who've attended my clinics over the years know that I've stressed the overriding importance of establishing your team's culture… an atmosphere, a set of values, which the players  understand and unquestioningly accept, and help play a major role in imparting it to newcomers…

Forbes Magazine says that what makes Boise State unique is coach Chris Peterson's dedication to building and maintaining the culture. And part of that building process is recruiting what Peterson calls "OKG's" (Our Kind of Guys):

“If you fall in love with talent, you’re making a big mistake. You have to fall in love with the person first and foremost because you can only change someone so much. We have to be mindful of falling into the trappings of looking for great  talent and instead go recruit an OKG and make him a football player.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/2013/04/04/boise-state-football-and-the-blueprint-for-organizational-greatness/

*********** Knowing Massachusetts and Boston politicians, I was watching to see how many would get up in front of the microphone but I got distracted and I lost count…

They sure love an audience, don't they?

But trust me… Boston is a tough town, and the pols can only do so much tap-dancing and posing.  When they threw things open to questions from the media, the way the news guys shouted at them,  it didn't exactly sound like a White House Press conference.  These guys were definitely not in butt-kissing mode.

*********** Friday was a bad day for Washington sports and, more specifically, for little Pacific Lutheran University, when former Lutes' basketball coach Marv Harshman and longtime Lutes' football coach Frosty Westering passed away on the same day…

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlesports/2013/04/12/frosty-westering-plu-coaching-legend-dies-at-85/

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9165153/former-uw-wsu-coach-marv-harshman-dies-95

*********** I pretty much gave up on Yale football after Carm Cozza retired and they hired a guy who just didn't seem to understand that it's the alumni's school and team, too. And I don't follow any of the other sports, so for me the Yale hockey team's win in the national championship game was a total surprise.  A very pleasant one.

I don't know how they did, it - how did they get those players away from the real hockey schools, the ones that give scholarships?  But they were damn good. They had good players, they were well-coached, and they played hard.

The irony of it all was that the two teams remaining in the tournament - Yale and Quinnipiac - are maybe eight miles from each other.  Yale, the blue-blood school, is internationally-known.  Quinnipiac, with nothing close to Yale's resources or reputation, fights for recognition.

Justice probably would have been better served by a Quinnipiac win.

(By the way, it's "QUINN-i-pi-ac.")

Quinnipiac will have their day 20 years from now, when ESPN tells the story and, poetic license being what it is, the poor kids from Quinnipiac defy all odds and beat the spoiled rich prep school kids whose blue blood fathers owned the factories that employed their immigrant fathers.

Meanwhile, I do believe this was our first national team title in any sport of consequence.

But then there's this: Hey, Alabama! How many Olympic gold medals have any of your teams won?

In 1956, Yale's 8-man crew won the Olympic trials and in the games in Melbourne, Australia won the Olympic gold medal.

A video on the 1956 Yale crew's Olympic gold medal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNTjmpbmUS8

And a 2006 story, 50 years after winning Olympic gold.

http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2006_09/sports.html

*********** Jackie Robinson's older brother, Matthew MacKenzie "Mack" Robinson  was a great athlete in his own right.

He once held the world record in the long jump, and won a silver medal in the 220 meters in the 1936 Olympics, finishing just .4 seconds behind the legendary Jesse Owens.

He attended the University of Oregon, where during his college career he won NCAA and Pacific Coast Conference (the forerunner of the Pac-12) track titles.

He graduated from Oregon in 1941, and has since been honored as a distinguished graduate. He is a member of both the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and theOregon Sports Hall of Fame

He devoted much of his life to working with young people in his home town of Pasadena, and in 1997 the Pasadena Robinson Memorial was dedicated to him and his brother Jackie.

Several locations are named in honor of Matthew Robinson. In addition to the Pasadena Robinson Memorial, the stadium of Pasadena City College stadium was dedicated in his honor in 2000, and in that same year the new post office in Pasadena was named the Matthew 'Mack' Robinson Post Office Building.[5]

Mr. Robinson died in 2000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/14/sports/mack-robinson-85-second-to-owens-in-berlin.html

*********** Do you do all of your tackling in a team setting or do you have any drills done in position groups?

Coach,

We're such a small team that we do it all in team. We're in four lines with a coach watching each line and we get a lot of reps. One hard and fast rule for coaches: Never Accept Less Than A Good Rep.

Got it. If you ever had a big enough staff and team would you have the coaches do it in their position groups or would you still stay in big group?

I know this may sound paranoid and I know it's micromanaging, but, lawyers being what they are, those would have to be assistants for me for a long time before I would put my job and my savings in their hands.

*********** You can't tell a book by  its cover and all that, but...

A radio guy named Michael Berry was talking about some woman who had "two apostrophes and two capital letters in her first name."


FRIDAY,  APRIL 12, 2013 -   "My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police." Margaret Thatcher

*********** I took my shots at the brand of basketball played by the Louisville and Cal women, and now, after having watched the UConn women beat first Notre Dame and then Louisville, I have to retract somewhat.

UConn played the women's basketball that the late John Wooden was referring to when he said, toward the end of his life, that if you wanted to watch basketball the way it was meant to be played, you'd have to watch the women.

The UConn women are talented and very well coached.  And forget Brittney Griner.  If ever a women will play in the NBA - if it's ever going to be possible to do it without making a farce of the whole thing - it could very well be UConn's 6-4 freshman, Breanna Stewart.  The kid is a lot of fun to watch.  She has a great stroke from 3-point range, she can run the court, she plays very tough defense, and she has ball skills that most men lack.


*********** Next clinic is Durham, North Carolina, and I'm planning on having some HS kids on hand to demonstrate some of the new
things on the agenda.

It's always a fun trip for my wife and me because it's a chance to see our daughter, Julia, our son-in-law, Rob, and their boys.

But for the first time in 12 years, we won't be seeing Bindi.  Bindi, their dalmatian, had been having some serious health problems, and on Thursday she had to be put down.  It was a sad day for Julia and Rob and the boys, and I have to admit it hasn't been easy for us.

Bindi was a great dog.  In the years that they had her, they've fostered 30 dogs, getting them ready for adoption, and BIndi served as an aunt, or a big sister, to all of them.  One of them is our dog, Lainey, whom we adopted and flew out here over two years ago. If Bindi can take any credit for Lainey, she did one great job.

*********** Hugh,

Toward the end of the national championship game last night Burke of Michigan took a nasty fall and bounced his face off the floor.  He stayed down for quite a while, long enough that the announcers commented about it.  He eventually got up, walked around the court a bit during which time the announcers gave something akin to "he's shaking the cobwebs loose," and shot his free throws.  In football that player would have been sitting on the sideline for at least a play, attended to by a trainer or doctor.  When will the basketball (soccer, baseball, etc.) people start to take concussions as seriously as we do?  

Todd Hollis
Elmwood, Illinois

Coach,

I didn't see the game because I was in the air (literally).

I appreciate your mentioning it, because I know I would have gone nuts.

The basketball people will never take concussions as seriously as we do because they're not under attack by the nannies of our society, who would love to see kids turn from football to more mommy-friendly sports.

Thanks for writing.

*********** Joe Flacco?  Playing Johnny Unitas?

The highest=paid quarterback in the NFL playing the part of the Greatest Who Ever Played the Game?  A sacrilege.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130408/SPORTS02/304080057/NFL-Unitas-family-bashes-Flacco?nclick_check=1

Joe, you're a good quarterback.  No one can take that from you.

But don't step into this one.  Let the dead rest.  It's not bloody likely that today's pseudo-historians could ever come close to depicting what John Unitas meant to the game and the city of Baltimore, but paling him certainly won't help you.

You can't come out ahead in this.  You would be wise to avoid any and all comparisons with the greatest QB who ever played the game.  (We Unitas fans may be old farts, but we remember.)

Just what we need - one more example of the fact that they just can't make a good football film because actors can't pass as football players, and football players can't act.

I make one exception to the rule for "The Longest Yard," simply because other than Burt Reynolds (who once was an actual football player himself), the "actors" were all football players, current or former, who didn't have to do anything out-of-character.

To paraphrase a former vice-presidential candidate,

Joe, I knew John Unitas.

John Unitas was a friend of mine.

And, Joe, you're no John Unitas.

************ You want to see a real stud?  Listen to Medal of Honor recipient SGT Roy Benevidez. His story is inspirational.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=625265647500549&set=vb.192780127519099&type=2&theater

*********** So while our esteemed lawmakers debate gun control, and our President flies relatives of the Sandy Hook victims to Washington DC on Air Force One so that they can go door-ro-door in the capital building lobbying Congressmen, some nut pulls out an Exacto knife and slashes and stabs a bunch of people at a Texas Community College.

I suppose it's probably too late to add Exacto knives to the list of weapons to be banned.

Permit me to introduce you to my new line of bumper stickers...

*********** Some creep in the New York Times with nothing better to do decided to write an Op-Ed column last week attacking the concept of the service academy prep schools.

For those who may not be aware, the three major service academies - the US Military Academy at West Point, New York; the US Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland; and the US Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado - all have prep schools, designed to  take promising students who are not yet ready for the academic challenges of the academies and get them up to speed.

The prep schools were originally designed to prepare active-duty service people who might show interest and potential (there are special slots in all the academies reserved for such candidates).

But they also exist to prepare athletes for the grind of a service academy, where, as one of their coaches told me recently, "they take real courses."

An athletic recruit at a service academy, unless his grades are top notch, in which case he's a "direct admit"  is most likely to be offered admission contingent on spending a year at the prep school.  There, he plays on the football team against college JVs and junior colleges, and  gets help in areas where 90 per cent of US high school kids are deficient - areas such as organization and time management.  He pays nothing, and in fact draws a small monthly allowance.

He's free at any time to go elsewhere, but as a matter of ethics most other colleges do not poach these kids.

Upon graduation, he's admitted as a plebe, with a far better chance of succeeding, culturally and academically, than he would have right out of high school.

He's also a year older athletically, which is no small matter, since there's no red-shirting at a service academy.   With the US taxpayers footing the entire bill of a cadet's education at a service academy, no one gets an extra year. 

Football , given the extra preparation provided by the prep schools, is a major source of "diversity" in our service academies.  Politicians pressure the academies on the subject, but the facts are that black high school kids with the grades to be admitted directly to the academies are in short supply and high demand, and a career in the military can be a tough sell to a kid who's being courted by Yale or Stanford or Duke.

It's common knowledge that so-called "prestige" colleges will make allowances in order to admit more minorities.  All well and good.  But what do they do to see to it that those kids ever catch up academically with their peers?

I happen to think that if a kid with leadership potential shows the interest and the will to work at improving himself, he's worth taking a chance on, and we're fortunate, indeed, to have places like the prep schools to prepare them for leadership roles in our military.

The reason we have service academies in the first place is to train and provide officers for our armed forces.  Service academies are, like it or not, about war, preventing it if possible, but conducting it if necessary.

Yes, the kid from the wealthy suburb who maxes out his SAT's may win a Rhodes Scholarship some day, but who's to say he'll  be a better officer than the offensive lineman from the small high school in Nebraska or the linebacker from the slums of a big city?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/opinion/nocera-the-military-prep-school-scam.html?hp&_r=1&

(I ran the article above past Joe Brillante.  Joe's the head of our state's West Point Admissions Field Force, and he sees every kid from our state who's offered admission to West Point. Joe wrote me,

I had a chance to talk with several old grad minority admits at the Thayer Hotel bar on the eve of a diversity conference. Although I'm sure some of them were regular direct admits (we had very few blacks in my class who were not athletes), I'm sure others would not have gone to West Point but for athletics. What an impressive group! All now professionals and captains of industry, all truly deserving to be members of the Long Gray Line. I could not help but think that had blacks, in particular, been given the same opportunities and assistance when they were applying to my class what a richer experience we all would have had having these guys as classmates.

*********** Jack Hoffman, a seven-year-old cancer patient, was given the thrill of a lifetime - at least for a Nebraska kid - running for a touchdown during the Cornhuskers' spring game in front of 60,000 Big Red fans.

I'm not usually too much into feel-good stories, but this one got to me…

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/07/video-sweet-score-jack-hoffman-7-scores-inspirational-td-cornhuskers-spring-game-148651

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jmisv1Spck

*********** I'm told that there's a scene in "42" in which Jackie Robinson hits a home run - and stops, and watches it admiringly as it clears the fence.

Guys, that is so… not… Jackie… Robinson.

As much as baseball players hot-dog it now, it may come as a shock to some readers to know that there was a time - a better time, I might add - when athletes didn't gloat, or show off, or show up their opponents.

Jackie Robinson, it should be noted, already stood out by virtue of his skin color, so it was sufficient for him (and for all other players until fairly recently) to let his actions speak for him.

Worst of all, I heard a reviewer say that that scene was put in there for the sake of today's young audience, who've come to expect such antics from athletes and would expect the same from jackie Robinson.  As if he were less than great because he didn't have a favorite song to be played when he stepped up to the plate.

Wrong, wrong, wrong,  I thought. 

What a blown opportunity to put things back in order.  I mean, if Jackie Robinson, the epitome of strength and grace and courage, didn't need to hot-dog it, who the hell does?

*********** Some dipsh-- black professor was all over Condoleezza Rice for accepting Augusta National Golf Club's invitation to become a member.

See, Augusta National is one of the most exclusive clubs in America. It went years without black members, years without female members.

So, bingo - in one fell swoop they get a woman of great renown who qualifies on both scores.

A wonderful breakthrough, most people would agree.

But not  Dr. Mark LaMont HIll, of Columbia University, who was all over Ms. Rice for "allowing herself,"  in effect, to be used by those rich whiteys.

Said the learned professor (who probably has his doctorate in "Urban Studies"), "If you're the only black person in the room… if you're the only woman in the room… you're probably in the wrong room."

Imagine Dr. Hill advising jackie Robinson: "If you're the only black person in the league… you're in the wrong league."

*********** I've noted them for years, but on my  recent trip to the East Coast I finally had my fill. I'm talking about The Walls.

I'm talking about these damn walls that the government's been erecting along our Interstate Highways, walls that in some cases go for a mile or more, in some cases are as much as 20 feet high. In many cases, the surrounding country is quite nice, and yet you find yourself driving between walls that more and more give you all the scenic wonderment of driving through a tunnel.

No doubt they're intended to lessen the effect of the traffic noise on those living nearby -   except that most of those living nearby built or bought their houses in full knowledge of the interstate's existence.

In some cases, there are farm fields, woods and swamps on the other side of the walls, but no sign of human habitation.

And the construction proceeds.  Everywhere.

The roads themselves are crumbling, but still the walls go up.

With air force planes being grounded and White House tours begin cancelled because of the dreaded sequestration… Where the f--k  is the money for this coming from? 

*********** A Maryland biker stabbed a guy outside a tavern after accusing him of messing with his Harley.  The guy then sped off - and wrecked his bike.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/04/01/glen-burnie-man-accused-of-stabbing-man-outside-bar-faces-multiple-charges/

*********** A culinary trip to the East Coast, or "How IGained a Fast Five Pounds"

Thurs nite - hoagies and steaks and a six-pack of Yuengling in the hotel room -  from the Steak & Hoagie Factory, Abington, PA. 

Fri lunch -  a bowl of pasta e fagioli ("pasta fazool") at Skoogi's,  Flourtown, PA.

Fri dinner-  Roast beef sandwich (and a glass of Yuengling's) at Toner's Beef and Ale,  Ft Washington

Sat dinner - (after the clinic) Roast Beef sandwich and (several) Yuengling's at Toner's

Sunday dinner - Easter dinner with family

Mon breakfast - scrapple, eggs and potatoes at  Bonnet Lane, Abington, PA

Monday lunch - Sub from Sack o' Subs, Ventnor,  New Jersey (eaten on the boardwalk, looking at the ocean)

Monday dinner - Ribeye steak (medium rare) at Fleming's steakhouse, Radnor, PA

Tues dinner  - Cheese steak at Magerk's Pub & Grill, Fort Washington

Wed breakfast - scrapple, eggs and potatoes at Bonnet Lane, Abington, PA

Wed dinner - Assorted BBQ, Nugget Nectar from Troeg's Brewery (Hershey, PA) atBarnstomer BBQ, Fort Montgomery New York

Thurs lunch - pizza by the slice - (Can't find the name of the place) at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Thurs dinner -  Pesto pasta, Black & Tan at Tommy Sullivan's Cafe,  Branford, CT

Fri breakfast - Corned beef hash and eggs at Parthenon Diner*, Branford, CT

Fri  dinner - "Stuffies" and Pasta primavera, Bass Ale, Governor Francis inn, Warwick, RI

Sat dinner - Chicken Sandwich and several glasses of Narragansett, Shannon View Inn, Warwick, RI

Sun breakfast - "Road kill" and potatoes, Athens Diner*, Warwick, RI (Pictured at left)

     * it's hard to go wrong at a Greek diner.   One problem with living in the West - not enough Greeks.

Sun dinner - hoagies and steaks and a six-pack of Yuengling in the hotel room - from the Steak & Hoagie Factory, Abington, PA.

Mon breakfast - scrapple, eggs and potatoes at  Bonnet Lane, Abington, PA


TUESDAY,  APRIL 9, 2013 -   “The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.” Thomas Edison

*********** There's UCLA… and USC… and Penn… and Georgia Tech… and LSU… and MIT.

And now, there's UCONN.  Giving in to the reality that their success in athletics - primarily basketball - has made them better-known nationally as "UCONN" than as the "University of Connecticut," the university has chosen to use the UCONN brand in place of its longer name on all signs, letterheads, banners, advertising and web pages.

The school will also be revealing, on April 18, its redesigned Husky logo.  Although UCONN supporters have criticized the current dog logo - a happy husky with its tongue hanging out - as not intimidating enough, the university president has assured everyone that the new husky will be "sleek and beautiful."

My ideal design would be a husky - a sleek and beautiful husky - taking a bite out of the ass of the Rutgers basketball coach.

*********** "Holy sh--!"  I said to my wife. We were zipping through Bridgeport on the Connecticut Turnpike on Sunday, and I nearly lost control of the car when I happened to look over at a giant oil storage tank with the name "HI-HO" painted on it. 

"HI-HO," as anyone who followed minor-league football in the 1960s and 70s, was the nickname of F. Francis D'addario, a prominent Bridgeport businessman and owner of the Bridgeport Jets of the Atlantic Coast Football League.

(The nickname went back to when he was a kid. If you've ever sung "The Farmer in the Dell," you get it.)

The Atlantic Coast Football League played very, very good football. And before the ACFL there was the Continental Football League, an even more ambitious venture with teams coast-to-coast.  Remember, the NFL had fewer teams then, and the teams had smaller rosters. There were a lot of good football players around then, and many of the guys in the ACFL went on to play in the NFL.

The ACFL died when the World Football League came on the scene in 1974.

One of the best stories to come out of the ACFL was that of Pat Palinkas, first - and still only - woman ever to play professional football.  (And she wasn't a kicker!)

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1992-04-05/news/9204031063_1_palinkas-pat-fans

http://www.thenation.com/article/whos-got-game#

*********** I was talking with a coach recently about spread formation football, and I happened to remember the name of Jack Neumeier.

Coach Neumeier, of Grenada Hills HS in California,  was already renowned as a passing-game guru when the new coach at Northridge State enrolled his high school-age kid.  The coach was Jack Elway, moving from Pullman, Washington with his son, John, and from that point coach Neumeier's reputation was assured.  From his fertile imagination came the passing offenses of Jack Elway himself, Dennis Erickson and, some would say, Bill Walsh.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/03/local/me-neumeier3

*********** Coach Wyatt,

I am a big fan of your system and have adapted it to the 12-man game, but I was looking into different formations beyond the basic tight set, and I was wondering how the slot formation affected the blocking rules on the 5 basic plays (Power, Counter, G, Trap, Wedge)

Is the double on Power now occurring one hole tighter and the TE just climbs to the second level?
Is the double on Counter now also one hole tighter?
Is G now just and X block?
Are the wingbacks now part of the wedge, do the TE's close down?

This seems like a formation that can give a defense much consternation, if only I could clarify the rules.

Rather than try to answer all your questions, I'd rather you look at this video and then get back to me.

http://www.coachwyatt.com/slotsampler.mov

(You may need Quicktime player to view it - it's a free download at www.apple.com )

Essentially, there are few negatives to running from slot:

(1) Without a TE on the backside

    a. you should not pull your tackle on power plays

    b. you can't lead the fullback through on counter plays, as we like to do

(2) Without a TE on the playside, you can't run 6-G or 7-G

(3) There are some revisions necessary in the assignments of the ends and wingbacks on power plays.

Otherwise, there are some real advantages:

(1) It is a unique look that defenses NEVER see

(2) It is harder for defenses to hold up your receivers at the line

(3) You create some real predicaments for the defensive force man

(4) You don't need tight ends

*********** There is absolutely no sport - anywhere - that so involves the populace as Australian Rules football.  Male and female, rich and poor, "Footie" fans (never call them "rooters") latch onto a team as soon as they are old enough to stand, and they remain loyal for life.  To illustrate, my son wrote me about visiting the assisted care facility where his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Frank and Bev Marr, live:

Was up visiting Frank today at Bev's place. I kid you not, just about every TV in every room - male or female - was tuned in to the Collingwood/Carlton game.

*********** I've come to base any program I coached on "The Three R's":

Respect
Responsibility
Resilience

My brother-in-law, Wayne Cunningham, is a big John Chaney fan.  You may recall that Chaney, the former Temple basketball coach, was a no-nonsense guy. According to Wayne,  Chaney built his program on four basic principles: almost mirror mine:

Respect
Responsibility
Role
Rules

*********** Writes Jim Geraghty, in The National Review…

There's a reason the stoner or pothead is a stock character in some teen comedies, college movies and television shows, and so on.  It seems that everyone, or almost everyone, encounters some white guy with dreadlocks who is, if not addicted, unhealthily focused on smoking weed and stumbling around in a happy, mellow, relaxed daze, seeking out snack products, and not very capable of doing much else in life — holding down a real job, attending classes, etc.  And I can't help but suspect that if pot were legal, we would have more of those guys, not less.

Sure, some folks can enjoy marijuana with no consequence, and then sometimes you get Ricky Williams, the one-time NCAA career rushing leader and Heisman Trophy winner who failed a bunch of drug tests through his NFL playing days, and who then decided to retire, in his prime playing days, after failing his third drug test. He spent a year out of football, and then came back . . . this time going an entire year before failing another drug test. Yes, Williams had personality disorders and other personal issues going on, but he's a fantastic example of enormous talent and potential wasted because of an inability to resist the allure of a chemical bliss.

*********** While talking about badly broken legs in sports, Tim Brown, of Athens, Alabama, wrote, "Bobby Valentine's career ended with a badly broken leg."

Very good point.  He broke his leg when it got caught in an outfield fence as he leaped to field a fly ball.  I remember seeing him as a rookie.  He was blazing fast - he was said to have been heavily recruited as a high school football player.   The injury didn't literally end his career - he actually hung around for another four or five years - but he never lived up to his early promise.  I can remember seeing a photo of the huge knot in his leg, which never fully healed.

*********** When your major was history, you tend to look with a jaundiced eye at any attempt by Hollywood to tell a story accurately.

With all the Hoopla about "Number 42," there is the ever-present risk that Hollywood, which is solely in the business of making money by entertaining, will, in the process of trying to entertain, tell a story about Jackie Robinson  that is at least borderline false.

So I thought, "Why not go to the source?" and while in a used book store recently, I picked up a copy of Jackie Robinson's autobiography, "I Never Had it Made,"  originally published in 1972.

In the introduction to second edition, published in 1995, Hank Aaron wrote,

"When I think about Jackie Robinson, there is something that bothers me a great deal, which shows what baseball is all about.  At the end of his career, Jackie was traded to the Giants. At the last moment, after all the things he'd done for the Dodgers, after everything he had suffered, they found it necessary to trade a man of  his stature, and man who was the Dodgers. I thought at the time, Stan Musial was never traded; Ted Williams was never traded.  We're talking about someone who was very special, who should always have a place with the Dodgers. It should have been understood that this man started with the Dodgers and that he would end up with the Dodgers. Certain people you never trade, and Jackie Robinson should never have been traded."

*********** I'm sorry, but somebody has to say it... Despite years of Title IX-dictated equality in facilities, coaching salaries and attention, Louisville and Cal  put on a display of basketball in their Sunday night women's  Final Four game that any self-respecting eighth- grade boys' coach could outdo.

***********  A Philly sports radio wise guy predicted that Mike Rice won't be out of work long "because he's got a good arm and the Phillies could use him."

*********** John C Church Jr., identified as a Colonel in the US Marine Corps Reserve and an instructor at Immaculata College, wrote a magnificent piece in Tuesday's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Here are some excerpts:

Some suggest there is a fine line between motivating and bullying, demonstrating leadership and throwing a tantrum. I disagree. There is a clear line.  When you are leading young people, you assume a responsibility as a mature adult that you will role model effective behavior and lead from the front. One of the aspects of the Marine Corps I so admire is that as officers, we are inculcated to lead from the front at all times.

When I was enlisted, I served at the Marines' Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, and when I was a junior officer I served at the Recruit Training Regiment at the famed Parris Island.   In both cases, I came away knowing that screaming, ranting, raving and harshness all have their place in military training.   Lack of respect does not.

Those who liken what occurred at Rutgers to the military most likely have not served, nor have they read "Leadership Lessons From the Military" from the Harvard Business Review... That's right Harvard Business Review.

Yelling, screaming, losing control, using abusive language and becoming untethered emotionally are not training. They are human and sad, but not training.

I have seen great trainers and some less so.  I can identify quality training in an instant. I can also point out those who - in the moment - do not respect themselves, their plays/recruits, or the institution they are supposed to serve.

jchurch@immaculata.edu




FRIDAY,  APRIL 5, 2013 -   "The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny. " Rose Friedman, 1980

*********** Mal Moore, one of the best Athletic Directors any school has ever known, passed away Saturday after retiring only a week or so earlier.

As player, assistant coach and athletic director, Mal Moore was part of ten Alabama national football championships - four more than even Hall of Fame coach Bear Bryant, who was head coach from 1958-82 - and more than anyone else associated with Alabama football.

For the last 14 years, Mal Moore ran an Alabama  athletic program that includes 21 sports and has a $101 million budget. The Tide has won three national football national championships under current coach Nick Saban, whom Mal Moore hired.

http://www.rolltide.com/genrel/mal-moore.html  (Check out the photo gallery!)

*********** While visiting Philadelphia, I was talking with my brother-in-law, Wayne Cunningham, when he suddenly said, "Wait - you've got to see this!" He reached for his wallet and pulled out a business card - a very unusual business card.

"Holy sh--!" I said.  "It's Wally Triplett!"

Wayne's been active in sports in the Philly area all his life, except for four years when he played soccer at Duke.  He played professional (fast-pitch) softball and he's in the Philadelphia softball Hall of Fame. He officiated wrestling until a few years ago.  And he's active in the Philadelphia Area Sports Hall of Fame, and was on hand the night Wally Triplett was inducted.

If you grew up in the Philly area when I did, you knew who Wally Triplett was.

Wally Triplett, from Cheltenham, PA, was the first black man to play football at Penn State, the first Black man to play in the Cotton Bowl, and the first black man to be drafted by the NFL.

Here's a very enlightening video about Wally Triplett and Penn State,  and also about Penn State's All-American lineman and captain, Steve Suhey (whose marriage to the coach's daughter produced sons and grandsons who also played at Penn State)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afot8ypldsg&feature=related

*********** If Joe Thiesmann isn't the opportunist of the year, he's close. No sooner did the kid from Louisville injure himself than Thiesmann tweeted that he knew exactly how the kid felt, blah, blah, blah.

And ever since, because he once broke his leg, too (in addition to suffering from an enlarged prostate that used to require frequent trips to the bathroom, but now doesn't, thanks to the miracle product he's pushing), he's been acting as if he's the only other person in the world ever to suffer the injury.

Gee, do you think maybe it's just that he misses the limelight?

*********** Hugh,
 
As I read along this week, I noticed the verbiage on jersey numbers.  I couldn’t help but recall a recent show I was watching where Gordie Howe was asked the story behind his #9.  The interviewer asked, was it his High School number or his favorite number or what.  Gordie replied; this it resulted from a very interesting process- “that’s the one they gave me.”

Rich Golden
Montville, Connecticut

Rather typical self-effacing remark from one of the toughest men ever to lace on skates.

*********** The Conference Formerly Known as The Big East will now be known officially as the American Athletic Conference.  I am not kidding.  I wasn't able to find out how many thousands of dollars they had to pay a PR firm to come up with such an inventive name.
 
*********** Larry Scott, Pac-12 commissioner, is a marketing guy whose background is in tennis.  He's never strapped it on and played a team sport, and he's never been a coach.

So he can't possibly understand the special anger that a coach feels when he's convinced he's  been done wrong by an official.

And maybe he really does think that his Supervisor of Officials was just joking when he as much as put a bounty on the head of the Arizona basketball coach, challenging league officials to T-him.

Yeah.  Some joke.  And that very night, an official T'd the Zona coach, for no good reason, and as good as gave the game to UCLA.

Yeah, just joking.

And King Henry II was just joking when, in referring to the Archbishop of Canterbury, he remarked, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

Said in jest, maybe, but someone took him seriously, and the priest was murdered.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/prishe/2013/04/02/pac-12-must-severely-penalize-ed-rush-to-uphold-conferences-integrity/

*********** Rutgers basketball Mike Rice was suspended for three games this past season after it came to the attention of someone in the administration - there's some question as to just who that includes -  that some of his actions toward his players, both verbal and physical, were, in the words of the Rutgers AD, "inappropriate."

Yeah, I guess you'd call it inappropriate - throwing basketballs at his kids, shoving them, even kicking one in the arse. What a turd. I've had some pretty tough coaches, but not one who felt he had the right to manhandle his players.  In fact, I've never heard of one who did - and lasted long as a coach.

The coach is also heard upbraiding his players with graphic language, calling them "f--king fairies,"  and "f--king faggots." Not a good idea anywhere, but certainly not at Rutgers, where a couple of years ago a gay student committed suicide after his roommate secretly videotaped his sexual encounter with another male.

Anyhow, the coach was punished.  In addition to the three-game suspension and a large fine, he was required to undergo some sort of anger management business.  And that was that.

Until a 30-minute tape got into the hands of someone at ESPN.

And then the administration started squirming.

At first, the AD took responsibility for what now seems like "inappropriate" punishment, defending the action by saying, "It was a first offense."

Dumb statement. The tape is 30 minutes long, and includes his first, and second, and third, and fourth offenses.  And so on.

Meanwhile, the AD said that the President had been made aware of the whole situation, and had seen the tape.

Not so, said the President, who spoke as if the AD had acted on his own.  Said that when he saw the tape, he was horrified.

And Governor Christie weighed in, saying that the coach should be fired, and - like that - Rutgers announced that the coach had been fired. 

And then the AD, hustling to keep his job,  came out with some kind of lame statement saying he would "work to regain the trust" of the Rutgers community, blah, blah, blah.

I predict that the AD is toast, because he should have known that if what went on ever hit the light of day, it wouldn't stand up to public scrutiny.

And I'm guessing that the president is lying, and he will lose his job, too.

No word yet on  whether the Big Ten will rescind its acceptance of Rutgers as a member, and whether the NCAA will void every Rutgers diploma ever awarded.

*********** You can't take all those vacations and expect to go out and  shoot any better than  2 for 22.

*********** 2003 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Jim Dombrowski (Virginia) has been elected to the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame for 2013.

And quite an illustrious Hall of Fame it is, including the likes of Stan Musial… MIke Ditka… Mike Krzyzewski…  And Tom Gola.

Gola, one of the best basketball players ever to come out of Philadelphia, played at LaSalle in the early 1950s, and  took the Explorers to wins in both the NCAA and NIT tournaments in the same year. 

He's still (I believe) the only player to be selected All-American all four years.  Given the tendency of top players to stay in college for just one year, his record appears safe.

He then went on to a fine career in the NBA.

As one of his many honors while in college, he was notified that he had been named to the Italian-American All-Star team.

He respectfully declined the honor, though, because, simply,  "I'm Polish."

http://polishsportshof.com/

*********** So Mark Cuban, never one to pass up a chance to get a little pub, thinks Britney Griner could play in the NBA, does he?

Not so fast, says UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma: "I think it would be a sham. The fact that a woman could actually play in the NBA and compete successfully against the level of play that they have is ludicrous."

Predicted Nancy Lieberman, first woman to play in a men's professional league, the first time she tries to dunk on a man, "They are going to knock her on her ass."

*********** Guess who ought to be at the front of the line  the next time a big-time college basketball job opens up...

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke -  $7,233,976
Rick Pitino. Louisville - $4,973,343
Bill Self, Kansas -  $4,960,763
Mike Brey, Notre Dame - $616,843.  That's everything - salaries, bonuses, endorsements  (For what it's worth, Pitino gets almost that much from adidas alone)

*********** Villanova wide receiver coach Brian Flinn did a great job of talking to the guys at the Philadelphia clinic about something most double wing coaches are unfamiliar with - coaching wide receivers.
He stressed that at Villanova it is not a wussy position, and showed us some very useful blocking drills.

Something I really liked was his belief that "Optional is not optional" - that there are all sorts of things a receiver can do on his own.

"You can always do extra," is his philosophy, and at the end of practice, quarterbacks and receivers shouldn't go right in.

He's also a big believer in doing extra work before practice, and when I observed a Villanova practice Tuesday morning, sure enough, every receiver was out early, catching footballs fired from the Jugs machine, and tennis balls shot out of the "lobster" machine.

*********** Don't expect to read much about this.  So far, the story has received as much attention from the mainstream media as they've given Benghazi. 

That's because, at a time when football is being besieged by former players, by mothers of future players, and by Our President (who's on record as saying that he's not sure that he'd let a son - if he had one - play football), comes word that playing soccer - yes, precious, nurturing, child-safe soccer - can lead to "cognitive lapses" in players. It's all about "heading" the ball.

The Powers That Be simply can't let word of this get out.

Otherwise, there'll reactions ranging from proposals to ban the sport (not likely), to require helmets (a real shot in the arm for the sports equipment industry) or to ban heading the ball until players reach a certain age. 

The latter seems most likely, and if it were to take place, we would probably have to go to the United Nations to try force other nations to do the same. Otherwise, with our young people falling behind those of other nations in their heading skills, there would go our chances of ever winning a World Cup.

And, left without the chance ever to sit atop the World of Soccer,  there would go all our hopes, and along with them, our flaming passion for soccer. We'd be left with nothing but football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey and spring football.

(Question:  If heading the ball is so crucial to the game, why do they insist on calling it "Football?")

http://www.nflevolution.com/article/Study-finds-cognitive-lapses-in-soccer-players-after-headers?ref=7451


TUESDAY,  APRIL 2, 2013 -   "When you first come out of high school, you believe you're Superman. And then you find out Superman plays for the other team, too."   Lorenzo Romar, Washington Huskies' basketball coach

*********** Brace yourself.  Literally, maybe.  Predicts Matthew Philbin in newbusters.com, we can expect to be reading more and more about gay athletes, real or rumored, as the search intensifies for the "gay Jackie Robinson." 

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-philbin/2013/03/20/glee-gridiron

*********** I'm gettin' a bit tired of Bill Gates.  You know, the bazillionaire founder of Microsoft, who's now devoting his billions - and his opinions - to a variety of causes.

Yes, he's a bright guy who started out rich and got richer. And, yes, in the process he helped make a lot of other people rich.

But how  exactly, does that qualify him as an expert on matters outside his field?

Through his foundation, he's given millions to supposedly improve schools, and the results are… zippo.  (Ever heard about the "Schools Within a School" fiasco? Thanks a lot, BIll.)

Which prompts the question:  once he starts to pontificate on public affairs, what makes him any better qualified to do so than, say, an entertainer? Or a movie star. Aren't they  rich? Aren't rock stars?  Or pro football players?

Why do we scoff when they speak on public issues, yet listen intently when Bill Gates opens his yap?

Look - Bill Belichick is an acknowledged expert on football; he's been almost as successful in his field as Bill Gates has been in his.  But where anything other than his field of expertise is concerned, Belichick knows enough to keep his mouth shut.

*********** The photo was taken in the parking lot of a Philadelphia area restaurant.

(If you don't know,  the "Broad Street Bullies" are the Philadelphia Flyers, renowned in the 1970s  for their rough play. Philadelphians love their Flyers.  Philadelphians, it should be noted, love rough play in any sport.  Full contact golf would be big  in Philly.)

Hmmm. Given  today's sensitive climate, do you suppose  the Flyers' office ever receives call like this:

"My son is being picked on at school, and I don't appreciate your team and an entire city glorifying Bullies!"

*********** It's become conventional wisdom that it took President Theodore Roosevelt's "suggestion" to make the game of football safer that led to the forward pass.

It's a nice story, but it's probably not true, according to Dave Nelson, longtime head of the NCAA Rules Committee, and author of "Anatomy of a Game," a history of the rules of football.
 
Wrote Nelson, "Almost every section of the country claims a coach who invented, perfected or proposed the forward pass, but probably none did so with the idea of making the game safer."

*********** Dad, Not sure if you saw Louisville beat Baylor in women's hoops but I saw one unbelievable play where a girl went full speed behind her back and shot a reverse layup over Griner. Turns out it was Shoni Schimmel, the Native American girl from the Umatilla rez who transferred from Hermiston to Franklin (of Portland) and was Oregon 6A player of the year. Hell of a player.

Ed Wyatt
Melbourne, Australia

Shoni Schimmel's well-known in Portland, of course, where as you know she finished her career after making the long move from the reservation in Eastern Oregon.  It's a testament to her hard work, but also to the near-fanatic love of basketball among young Natives, that she has turned herself into a world-class basketball player.

*********** Hugh,

The injury the Louisville basketball player suffered was terrible and unfortunate.  I hope and pray for his full recovery.  Yet, I started thinking to myself…I wonder how many parents out there who saw this happen, or, who have seen the footage of the injury, who at some point prevented their sons from playing football because it is such a "dangerous" sport, will now prevent their boys from playing basketball as well??  When will people learn that "risk" is a part of any physical activity?  

Joe Gutilla
Austin, Texas

Great point. I was thinking the same thing myself, wondering, if my son were 10 years old again, if I'd let him play basketball. (Joke.)

*********** We are about to learn a lot about a football program.  Maybe two of them.

Zayd Issah, a Penn State signee from outside Harrisburg, was arrested last week for passing counterfeit bills at a McDonald's near his home.

Two partners in crime implicated him, and evidently a Facebook posting indicated he knew what he'd done.

He originally committed verbally to Penn State last June, then decommitted after NCAA sanctions came down, and then re-committed in December.

Look - we're not talking about some poor, misguided "youth."  We're not talking about "kids being stupid."

We're talking about a federal crime.

How Penn State deals with this will tell us a lot about Penn State. 

And if Penn State cuts him loose and somebody else signs him, it'll tell us all we need to know about that school's program, too.

*********** Wow!  You outdid yourself (with the "Evolution" DVD) . Very informative and brought back some memories. Thanks for acknowledging my name at the end of credits.  

Pete Porcelli
Troy, New York

*********** Windham, New Hampshire schools  have banned dodgeball because it makes kids "human targets."  (Well, duh.)

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/344199/nh-school-bans-dodgeball-human-target-games-andrew-johnson

(I suppose "Smear the Queer" went out long ago.)

*********** Coach,

I know it's been a while, but hope you're doing well.

http://www.rugbymag.com/usa-sevens-men/7477-maurice-clarett-joins-tiger-rugby.html

I wonder how this will work out for Clarett. He's certainly a great athlete but he'll be 33 when the next Olympics take place. Given some of his troubles, I'm not so sure how he'll fit in to a "hooligan's game played by gentlemen."

But I wish him well and maybe it will draw some more attention to rugby in this country.

Steve Tobey
Malden, Massachusetts

Hi Steve-

Yes, it's been a while and I've missed hearing from you.

I feel sorry for Maurice Clarett and based on some of the evidence, I do believe he would like to get/keep his life straightened out.

Maybe rugby - or that abomination that they call "Rugby Sevens," which is what they'll be playing in the Olympics - will be his ticket.

But Maurice Clarett or no, I don't see many people in the US going for Rugby Lite.

********************** My daughter VIcky (front middle) and her husband are living in London, and recently she and some friends went to Bratislava, in the Czech Republic, to run in a half-marathon.  While there, she saw some football players on a nearby field, and arranged for the picture.

*********** Get this - Amateur boxing plans to do away with headgear!

http://www.nflevolution.com/article/Protective-headgear-to-be-phased-out-of-amateur-boxing?ref=7972

*********** This past year, Oregon State finished 14-18, and 4-14 in the Pac-12.

It was coach Craig Robinson's sixth season as the Beavers' head coach and, sad to say - because he seems like a really good man - progress has been hard to detect. In fact, this past season's was his worst in the league in his six years in Corvallis.

I mentioned that he seems to be a good man;  also working in his favor is the fact that his brother-in-law is the President of the United States. (Michelle is his sister.)
 
Nevertheless, the fans have grown restless, and the media have begun to call for results.

AD Bob DeCarolis, though,  hasn't wavered in his support of his coach,  saying, "Coach Robinson is our coach and this administration is in full support of him."

And Craig Robinson himself sounds optimistic. "If, over the next year or two, we still can't bust through," he said,  "I'll be the first to tell you we can't get it done here."

Uh, "year or two?"  I don't think so.

*********** When I was in high school and constantly searching for ways to get bigger and stronger, there were no steroids.  All we had  were Bob Hoffman, of the York, PA Bar Bell Club,  and Joe Weider.  Joe Weider died recently at the age of 93.  Lord knows how many guys of my generation he influenced.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/sports/joe-weider-founder-of-a-bodybuilding-empire-dies-at-93.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130324&_r=0

*********** It was spring, 1960, and we were living in East Haven, Connecticut, watching the Yankees play the White Sox on TV. It happened to be the first game ever that a team (The Sox) wore names on the backs of their uniforms. They botched Ted Kluszewski's name - misspelled it as something like "Kluzxewski" (there was definitely an "X" in there somewhere).  By the fifth inning or so Mel Allen was pleading with fans to stop calling the station - yes, he said, they were aware of the misspelling.

The legendary BIll Veeck was the owner of the White Sox. The names on the back, like so many other baseball innovations, were his idea.

Years later, when I was with the National Brewing Company in Baltimore and Bill Veeck worked with us as a consultant, we were sitting around sampling our company's product and I told him that I had been watching that night.   He roared with laughter (he loved to laugh, and he really did laugh like that) and confessed that the whole misspelling thing was, indeed, intentional.

The misspelling was Bill's way of performing  a cheap but effective survey: all those  phone calls - which they wouldn't have gotten without that "X" in the name - confirmed that he was onto something.


FRIDAY,  MARCH 29, 2013 -   HAPPY EASTER "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."  The First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians - Chapter 15, Verse 14

*********** Down on the Oregon coast, a teenage adventurer on Spring Break had to be rescued after the tide came in and covered the beach he'd been on, trapping him at the foot of a 75-foot cliff.

I suppose I should rejoice that the young man's alive, but I rather doubt that he'll contributing much to the improvement of the breed, if you know what I'm saying. Not after hearing his comments afterward...

"I knew it had something to do with the moon, so I thought that high tides only came at night.    Apparently, they also have high tides during the day, too."

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Teen-rescued-after-high-tide-traps-him-on-beach-200049521.html

Benefits to a boy of playing football -  from BERNIE BIERMAN ---  "Winning Football" - 1937

14 - The game tends to make the boy see the value of a well-rounded life. The man who concentrates too strenuously upon one path in life eventually reaches retirement a nuisance to himself and his friends.  He has  no diversions to keep his mind and body occupied. Most men interested in pursuits other than that from who they earn a living can always find a source of enjoyment in life. Football tends to build in a boy the ability for enjoyment off the beaten path. For that, essentially, is what the game is, something off the beaten path of regular college activities. The boy elects to spend time from his studies at hard work on an extracurricular endeavor, instead of loafing about the campus or in his fraternity house. This bent in after life might well find its outlet in a general love of sports and other outdoor activites, or perhaps in music, literature, art, or a hundred and one hobbies.

*********** Rules Changes: More on the New Rules

EXCLUSIVELY to Monday's Chalktalk (A newsletter for members of the National Football Foundation)

Rogers Redding, the national coordinator of College Football Officiating, provides insights about rules changes and the mindset of college football referees. The CFO is the national professional organization for all football officials who work games at the collegiate level.

Minimum Time to Spike the Ball for Another Play: 3 Seconds
Late in a half when the game clock is stopped and will start on the referee’s signal and the offense has no timeouts, there is often a question of how long it will take for the quarterback to “spike” the ball to allow time for another play.   The rules committee has established three seconds as this minimum time.  For example, suppose that the offense has made a first down and they are out of timeouts.  The game clock is stopped and will start on the Referee’s signal.  The new rule means that if there are three seconds showing on the clock the offense may reasonably expect that the quarterback will be able to take the snap, spike the ball and still have enough time to run another play.  There is no guarantee of this—the team must still execute the spike.  But they will have a reasonable opportunity for another play.  If the clock shows one or two seconds, they will only have enough time to run a play without first spiking the ball.

Player Numerals: Must Contrast With the Jersey
Uniform manufacturers have become very creative in the design of jerseys.  For many years the rules have required that the numerals contrast with the body of the jersey itself.  Many teams have begun wearing jerseys that barely if at all conform to this rule.  So this year the committee has tightened the language to make clear that the color of the jersey number itself must be clearly and obviously in contrast with the jersey, regardless of any border around the number. For example, teams will not be allowed to wear black numbers on black jerseys with a border of a bright color around the numeral; it must clearly contrast with the jersey in and of itself.

Changing Jersey and Duplicate Numbers
Teams occasionally want to use a player at two different positions during the game—perhaps, say, linebacker on defense and tight end on offense.  Because of the restrictions on eligible pass receivers’ jersey numbers, it might be necessary for the player to change numbers.  The rule now requires that a player who enters wearing a different number from earlier in the game must report to the referee who will in turn announce the change.

In addition, it is no longer permissible for two players who play the same position at different times in the game to wear the same number.  For example, two quarterbacks may not both wear number 12.

*********** Well Coach Wyatt, I never thought I'd see the day.. looks like I'll be coaching all by myself this season. This is the first time in 36 years that I have not been able to find it least 2 loyal, dedicated guys who can be there everyday.

You have said many times it would be better to coach by yourself, than to have  disloyal,undedicated people out there.

Hugh, I realize you are smack dab in the middle of your clinic season, but if you get a chance could you send me some tips on how to structure my practices for the season using only one coach? Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Coach,

Sorry to hear that you're in this spot.  Maybe between now and the start of football you'll get lucky and find someone LOYAL and DEDICATED.

I'll be glad to help, of course.  Yes, I've often said that having NO assistants is preferable to having one disloyal bastard on your staff.

Coaching in Europe, I proved to myself that one guy can do it.

First thing - do everything - agilities, blocking, tackling, block protection, etc - in lines until you're ready for actual team offense, defense, special teams.

Second thing - you'll have to do all your offense and defense work in a team situation.

Third thing - you'll need someone trustworthy and reliable to supervise the scout defense when you're on offense, and vice-versa. (Your wife?)

Otherwise, you'll manage.  It's not as if you don't know what you're teaching.  And every kid will get the benefit of your coaching.

That may sound as if I'm oversimplifying, but this is what I did when I was coaching in Finland, and it will work for you.

*********** As spring practice approaches for both Oregon and Oregon State, the Portland Oregonian has been running position-by-position breakdowns of the two squads.
Thursday, it was defensive linemen.  It was with quite a bit pride and affection that I noticed the photo of Oregon sophomore-to-be nose guard Alex Balducci, of Portland.  Alex,  the son of a long-time friend and coach Ralph Balducci, used to accompany Ralph when he'd come over to our place to go over football stuff;  little Alex used to love to play with the trucks that we kept around for our grandsons so play with.  Little Alex is now 6-4, 290.

Of the 29 defensive linemen listed for the two squads, nine of the kids had names indicating that they were of Polynesian extraction.  They hailed from Hawaii, American Samoa, California and Utah.

Utah? Interesting story.  The missionary work of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints has not only converted many Pacific Islanders to the Mormon Church, but has alsohad the unintended effect of bringing Pacific Islanders to Utah to live. And true to the traditions of the Samoa and Tonga from which they hail, many of their sons grow up to be big and strong and good at football. Perhaps the best example of the Islanders coming out of Utah is Ravens' defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, a native Tongan who starred at Oregon and now is as good as there is at his position.

*********** I happened to be watching the USA-Mexico soccer game (sorry - "match") when they played our national anthem.  It was a stirring rendition, played by a band.  A recording, no doubt. But at least it wasn't "performed." It wasn't used as a vehicle to promote this or that Grammy-Award-winning star. Will somebody please explain to me why Mexico, a foreign nation with whom we do not always agree, shows more respect for our national anthem than we do?

Of course, the "match" itself was a f--king Nil-Nil snoozer. 

And yet - I've never seen any team in any other sport celebrate a win more than the USA team celebrated its f--king 0-0  tie!

"A classic US performance," an announcer called it.

"Coach, you're undefeated in Azteca Stadium,"  gushed the bimbo in the postage interview,  failing to mention that he had  yet to win there.    (Did I tell you that the 2013 North Beach Hyaks are still undefeated?)

Only in soccer is a tie celebrated as a win.

Yeah.  Who can forget the USA hockey team's fantastic tie game against the powerful Soviet Union? Or Bill Mazeroski's homer in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series to tie give the Pirates the tie the mighty Yankees!  Even years later, we still keep seeing Jim Valvano and the North Carolina State Wolfpack, jumping up and down, celebrating the tie against Houston.  It's  why the Baltimore Colts' last-minute field goal to tie the Giants in the 1958 NFL Championship game captured the imagination of the American public.  Oh, wait - you say the game went into sudden-death overtime?  You mean it didn't end in a tie?  And that's why it's been called the Greatest Game Every Played? 

Never mind.

Celebrating ties. Just one more reason why, despite all the little kids playing it, soccer will never be a mainstream sport in a country that abhors ties.

Unless, that is, our schools continue teaching our little kids that we shouldn't have winners, because when we have winners we also have losers.....

**********  An amazing story out of Washington!  Just when the government appeared to be hoperlessly gridlocked, Republicans and Democrats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives have sent to the White House a bipartisan bill providing for an innovative piece of immigration reform.   The bill, which President Obama has already stated that he will sign. will  provide for an alternate path to citizenship for thousands of young men brought to this country illegally by their parents.

In addition to affording citizenship for young people who have earned an honorable discharge from the armed forces or worked in a voluntary  capacity serving society's less fortunate, the new law would provide citizenship on their 21st birthday to any young man who has been certified to have participated for at least two years in any state-sanctioned  high school football program.

ICE officers would oversee the program and certify the young peoples' eligibility for citizenship.   Depending on its effectiveness, a similar program would be instituted for young women in a sport such as softball, lacrosse or field hockey.

The President has gone on record as supporting the bill,  saying, "The effects of sequestration, combined with the already-planned reduction in our military forces, will reduce the opportunities for these young people to earn their stripes, so to speak, in the military, so we welcome this exciting way for these young people to prove that they are true Americans."

Although the President said he would have preferred to extend the program to include his favorite sport, basketball, he conceded that with only five positions on a basketball team, not to mention the need for taller players, the sport simply didn't provide as many opportunities as football.  "A lot of these young people," he noted, "came here after years of malnourishment, and as a result they're simply small, and there's only so many openingsa basketball team  on  for point guards."

The Congress  quickly ruled out soccer, since so many of the young people this would affect already play the sport at their high schools anyhow, without even having to learn English. In addition, the President pointed to studies showing that rather than "Americanizing" young people, soccer tends to "Europeanize" them.

In view of the fact that the vast majority of young participants would likely be Hispanic, President Obama said that he has contacted Tom Flores, first Hispanic head coach to win a Super Bowl,  and Jim Plunkett, son of Mexican-American parents and winner of the Heisman Trophy at Stanford and quarterback of  two Raiders' Super Bowl victories, and they have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairmen of the program, which has yet to be given a name.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), who once played football at Cincinnati's famed Moeller High School under famed coach Gerry Faust, was enthusiastic in his support of the bill.  "Certainly," he said, "If a young man is willing and able to take on the challenges of playing the truly American sport of football, something that many able-bodied native-American boys shy away from these days, preferring to skateboard and play video games, he will have demonstrated that he has the courage and the work ethic that we Americans have always taken pride in, and that he has something valuable to contribute to our society."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada)  said, "As you can probably tell by looking at me, I never played football myself, but perhaps one day one of these fine young people will make it to the NFL, and then maybe I can get his autograph. Or even a chin strap."

(Did I getcha?)

*********** If you watch the Oregon-Louisville game, pay special attention to a tall white kid on Oregon's team named Arsalan Kazemi.  He's a native of Iran, the first Iranian ever to play college basketball in the US, and he's a heck of a player.  He's a lot of fun to watch because he's so active.  He's a great rebounder - double figures in each of of the Ducks' two games so far - and a good passer and defender, too.  And he's very unselfish.

http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2013/03/ncaa_tournament_oregons_arsala.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/sports/ncaabasketball/arsalan-kazemi-rebounder-from-iran-is-powering-oregon.html?_r=0

*********** While it lasts…

A video of all the dunks of Florida Gulf Coast's post-season

http://deadspin.com/dunk-city-here-are-all-of-fgcus-postseason-slams-com-458654269

(Thanks to Lou Orlando, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, who says that his dad, a retired Connecticut HS basketball coach, "is tight with" Ken Kavanagh, FGCU Athletic Director)

***********Incredible WW II Photos!

 http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/10/world-war-ii-after-the-war/100180/

*********** A couple of days ago I was talking with Mike Lude.  He's now 90 years old.   He;s got a great memory and since he's seen and done so many things, it's always a joy to talk with him.  He said that when he took the Colorado State job in 1962 he was the first of the Delaware Wing-T guys to take an outside job, and he felt that to compete at the college level - and attract the gifted, athletic kids who couldn't play anywhere else - he had to split an end. Until then, the Delaware Wing-T was totally double-tight.  (The next time we talk, I'm going to ask him how the guys back at Delaware reacted to that act of heresy!)

*********** How corrupt and hateful must the NCAA be to have so many of us taking  Miami's side in the investigation?

*********** My friend Brad Knight was on his way to an interview some 20 miles away from where he teaches, and he thought he'd allowed plenty of time to get there.  But then his truck quit. Dead. Miles from any town.

He called the people he was scheduled to meet with to tell them he'd be late, and might even have to cancel.

And then, up drove Dan Gray.

He didn't know Brad, and Brad didn't know him, but when Brad explained the pickle he was in, Dan offered to drive Brad to his interview.  And to wait until the interview was over. 

Brad explained that it was impossible to predict how long he might be, but Dan said he had a few things he could do around town, and if Brad wasn't done in an hour or so, he'd just wait.

Meantime, Brad called a towing company.  But when they weren't able to get in touch with his girlfriend to get the keys to his truck, he arranged for them to come to where he was and get his set of keys.

Dan, realizing how many extra miles the tow truck would have to drive just to get Brad's keys, and then double back to where his truck was - and then charge Brad for all those miles -  offered to take the keys back to his home, much closer to where the truck was,  and give them to the driver.  Brad agreed that that sounded like a good idea.

And then he went in to his interview - and only Only afterward did it occur to him that he'd given his keys to a guy he didn't even know.

Driving with his girlfriend to the guy's town, he went into a Casey's (big convenience store chain in the Midwest) and looked for a phone book.  When he couldn't find one, he asked the clerk if she happened to know a Dan Gray.  "Sure," she said.  "He was just in here a little while ago and gave some keys to a tow-truck driver."

As Brad told me, "Only in Southwest Iowa."

Hats off to Dan Gray, of Essex, Iowa.

*********** Can you believe that f--king Nike bunch?  They trash Joe Paterno.  In a heartbeat.  Forget al the good the man did in his lifetime.

But let Tiger Woods - who's never really done anything for anybody else - win a couple of tournaments, and there he is, the feature of a Nike ad, over the caption, "Winning Takes Care of Everything."

Yeah.  And the end justifies the means.

While winning is certainly the goal we strive for, that horrible statement disserves impressionable young people in two ways.

First of all, it would seem to justify all manner of unethical - even illegal - practices in pursuit of winning. Anything goes, right?

But second, and even worse,  there are an awful lot of miserable people in this world who've won something only to discover to their dismay that the winning DIDN'T take care of everything.

*********** Hi Coach-
 
Always enjoy my lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays so I can read this week's news. Thank you so much!
 
In today's News, you reported the top Div III attendance leaders, and indicated Wabash College was located in OH. Just wanted to point out, as a former "Little Giant", that Wabash College is located in Crawfordsville, IN. Although I did not graduate from there, I have fond memories of Wabash football. The final game played every year is against the DePauw Tigers (Wabash men never refer to them as the Tigers, but rather, "Dannies). It is the oldest rivalry game west of the Allegheny Mountains, and is known as the Monon Bell game. The teams play for the right to hold the Monon Bell, an old railroad bell from the Monon Railroad. During the off-season, the school without the bell usually tries some type of heist or prank to kidnap the Bell. It is what makes small college football great. The game is televised every now and them, with last years game being televised on HDNet.
 
Thank again for all the great news.
 
Carl Kilburg
Hebron, Indiana

Coach- Ouch.

That's straight from the National Football Foundation's release.

Shame on them.  The late Ken Keuffel, wing-T expert whom I had the honor of knowing, once coached at Wabash.

Thanks for pointing that out!


*********** Hi Coach,

So sorry to hear about Frosty. I'm praying for his peace. Such a wonderful man! He really is one of the best MEN I've ever had the honor to know about.

I know you have it - "The Sweet Season" is a really good read on so many levels. (the tribute video was very nice, but dang- there's that sustained close-up again! Un. Comfortable.)

Coach Brian Flinn...native of Youngstown?  I'd love to hear anything he knows about Bonesetter Reese!

I grinned like an idiot during that whole jump rope halftime show, wow! Those girls are in some kind of shape!

Wonder if some of your coaches get any ideas from that...don't mention I brought it up - the kids would not like it yha!

Best regards,

John Rothwell
Austin, Texas

Frosty's a great one.  Hearing him talk was what convinced me to stop fiddling aorund looking for a shot at the "big time" and to stay in high school coaching and "Make the Big Time Where You Are."


TUESDAY,  MARCH 26, 2013 -   "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." Will Rogers

*********** My friend Doc Hinger lives in Winter Haven, Florida.  Being a big baseball fan, he looks forward every year about this time to the annual Russ Matt Central Florida Invitational, which brings together more than 200 college baseball teams, most of them from northern climates that make baseball difficult this time of year. 

They're from every level from D-I down to JUCO, many of them schools you and I have never heard of.

Doc said he happened to overhear two players talking after one of the games; one of them asked the other what the "ASA" on the front of his uniform stood for.

The kid answered, "I forget."

(Of course, less than a week ago I couldn't have told you what FGCU stood for.)

Benefits to a boy of playing football -  from BERNIE BIERMAN ---  "Winning Football" - 1937

13. The boy is hardening himself in a world where today the tendency is to grow soft. Boys, of course, differ according to their circumstances and the environment surrounding them in their formative years. Most of them, however, are pretty well sheltered. They eat and sleep, go to school, and do othe
r rather routine things, but the majority of them are never called upon to face and fight to a finish a hard battle. In older civilizations, boys had hardships in the ordinary course of things, which served to temper them spiritually. Football is an artificial substitute that for some modern boys takes the place of many factors that contributed to the hardening of the boy or pioneer days.

*********** As you may know, I have dedicated this year's clinics to the concept of blending some Run and Shoot with the Double Wing. Since this means running a lot of the offense with two split ends, it brings up a question that most Double Wing coaches never face: How do you coach split ends?

Enter Coach Brian Flinn of Villanova University.  Ever since he spoke to my Philadelphia clinic two years ago, we've stayed in touch, and I consider myself very fortunate that Coach Flinn has agreed to address this year's Philadelphia clinic on some of the basics of coaching that new position.

He's very knowledgeable, and the best person I could think of to handle that assignment.

He's coached wide receivers at Villanova for the past nine years, and for the past three years he's doubled as the Wildcats' recruiting coordinator.

Before coming to Villanova, he coached wide receivers and tight ends at Eastern Illinois for four years, following positions at Maryland, Drake and Mount Union.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio and a graduate of Ursuline High School,  Coach Flinn attended Mount Union College where he played for the legendary Larry Kehres.  At Mount Union,  he played on two Division III National Champions and was an All-Ohio Confernece tight end.

*********** FROM THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION...

    •    48,958,547 fans attended college football games at all 644 NCAA schools in 2012, marking the third-highest total in history

    •    The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) drew 37,170,235 spectators or an average of 45,440 fans per game. The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) pulled in 5,967,272 fans, followed by Division II (3,006,297) and Division III (2,361,687).

    •    The SEC, which added Missouri and Texas A&M, became the first conference in history to break the seven million fan barrier with an all-time conference attendance record of 7,478,304 fans attending games in 2012 for an average of 75,538 spectators per game. The total extends the SEC's streak of 15 consecutive seasons with the highest average fan attendance.

    •    The top-five conferences for average-home-game attendance included the SEC (75,538), Big Ten (70,040), Big 12 (59,004), Pac-12 (53,679) and ACC (49,910).

    •    The Pac-12 Conference set a high water mark for total attendance with 4,240,632 fans attending a game as did the Sun Belt with 1,008,084 spectators attending a game. At the FCS level the Big South, Missouri Valley Football, and Northeast conferences all set new records.

    •    Michigan averaged 112,252 fans per home game, eclipsing its own record set in 2011 and marking their 15th consecutive attendance title.

    •    Alabama led all teams with 1,299,659 fans watching its 14 regular season games in 2012. Eight other teams played in front of more than one million fans this season: Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio St, Texas and Wisconsin.

    •    Michigan (112,252), Ohio State (105,330), Alabama (101,722), and Texas (100,884) all averaged more than 100,000 fans per home game in 2012. The other FBS programs in the top ten for average home attendance included Penn State (96,730), Georgia (92,703), LSU (92,626), Tennessee (89,965), Southern California (87,945) and Florida (87,597).

    •    Four FBS teams enjoyed crowd increases of more than 10,000 fans per game in 2012: California (18,219-person increase per game), Southern California (13,139), TCU (12,361) and UCLA (11,838). (Stadium renovations at Cal and TCU played a role in their increases.)

    •    Appalachian State claimed its fifth FCS attendance title in six years with an average of 26,358 fans per game, followed by Montana (25,236), James Madison (22,783) and Old Dominion (20,037).

    •    Grand Valley State (MI) captured the Division II attendance title by averaging 12,034 fans per game, followed by Miles (AL) with 11,117, Tuskegee (AL) with 10,869, Kentucky State (10,534), West Texas A&M (10,379) and Pittsburg State (KS) with 10,055.

    •    St. John's (Minnesota) netted the Division III attendance title with an average of 7,948 fans per game, followed by Wisconsin-Whitewater with 7,552, Hampden-Sydney (Virgiia) with 6,723, Wabash (Indiana) with 4,873 and Concordia-Morehead (MN) with 4,839.

*********** I heard Freddy Coleman say that he heard someone say "Georgetown's getting blown out by a credit union!"

The FGCU story is a great one.  And it can't be duplicated in football.

The "football has to have a playoff" crowd are so far off base, because mathematically, a 15th seed in one of the four regional tournaments is actually the 56th (or 57th, or 58th, or 59th) best team in the country overall.

In football, the big guys already play the little guys early in the season, and even when it's just a tuneup for the season to come, it's rarely pretty.There's no way in hell that in a playoff/tournament the 56th best team in college football is going to hang with a top 25 team, let alone one in the top 10. 

***********  Harlon Hill, for whom the Division II College Football Player of the Year award is named, March 21 at the age of 80. Mr. Hill came out of little Florence State (now South Alabama) to make the Chicago Bears' squad and became the NFL's Rookie of the Year in 1954. The following year he was named  the NFLs' Most Valuable Player.

http://www.roarlions.com/Lion_Sports/Football/Current_Season/2013_HarlonHillDeath.htm

*********** Ohio State's Aaron Craft is really good.  Sounds like a good student, too.  He was also an All-State QB, and eld his team to two state titles.  Which shows how rooted in the past I am - not too bad a past, I might add - because I just can't understand how he could have blown off his senior year of football - and his football teammates - to concentrate on basketball.

*********** While March Madness was going on, "March Matness" - the NCAA wrestling championship - was taking place in Des Moines, Iowa.

A kid from Cornell named Kyle Dake pulled off one of the truly remarkable feats in college wrestling history - in college sports, for that matter -  becoming the only the third wrestler  to have won four NCAA titles. but even more amazingly, the first wrestler to win four  titles in four different weight classes.

A senior from Lansing, New York, he defeated Penn State's David Taylor, considered by many to be the top college wrestler to win the championship at 165 pounds  after having wonthree previous championships at 141, 149 and 157.

He was 132-4 in his college career, and undefeated over the last two seasons.

Ironically, one of the other two men to have won four titles was Iowa State's Cael Sanderson, now the coach of Penn State, which won this year's team title.

*********** Do you realize that the Federal Motor Voter passed in 1993 allows people to mail in registration cards, with no more proof than their word that they're citizens?

So much for the integrity of our election process.

Of course, swearing that you're a citizen when you're not  would constitute perjury, but as  Justice Antonin Scalia  noted, "If you're willing to violate the voting laws, I suppose you're willing to violate the perjury laws."

************ It appears that the Ravens will not be able to enjoy one of the spoils of winning the Super Bowl: they won't be able to open at home next season, because of a scheduling conflict with the Orioles. The two teams play in separate stadia, but they share a parking lot.

Haw! Unless there's a contract prohibiting it, I'd like to see the Ravens put baseball in its place by going ahead and scheduling their game head-up against the Orioles.

*********** That f--king NCAA…

On the very first weekend of the tournament...

MIchigan and Michigan State were playing in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Louisville was playing in Lexington, Kentucky.

Kansas and Kansas State were in Kansas City.

And Cal was in San Jose, California.

*********** As this NCAA tournament goes on, I find myself becoming a bigger and bigger Charles Barkley fan.

With the Harvard-Arizona game coming up and everybody still giddy about the Crimson's opening-game upset of New Mexico, he tempered things with a dose of realism:  "Smart don't help you against these guys from Arizona."

*********** With Oregon getting ready to play St. Louis in the NCAA Tourney, I dug back and found a story about the BIllikens' late coach, Rick Majerus, written a year ago by the Portland Oregonian's John Canzano.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2012/03/canzano_rick_majeras_saw_somet.html

Canzano was talking with Majerus about Brian Conklin, a kid he's recruited out of Eugene, Oregon who, in addition to being a heck of a player, had just been named an Academic All-American.

"I've recruited only two players out of Oregon in my entire career," he told Canzano. (The other one was Portland's Michael Doleac, who played for him at Utah. "Neither one was offered a scholarship, both made all-league. Conklin has character, heart and is a tough kid who likes to compete. He's a kid who loves to keep score.  I'll bet Oregon and Oregon State wished they had him."
Majerus told Canzano that when they heard he was recruiting Conklin, "People said, 'You're taking him?!?' You get a herd mentality with coaches. You can't listen to the Scout.com things, you gotta go out for yourself and make your own decisions. I met him. I looked him in the eye. I liked his dad."

Majerus said assistants at Oregon and Oregon State told Conklin he'd never play there.

Majerus said,  "Because someone is named Orange County Player of the Year by Scout.com everyone flocks to him. Coaches get caught up in that celebrity. I just want to get players and develop players. The Pac-12 doesn't develop players."

"Oregon should be great. They should be a Final Four team. UCLA? Are you kidding me? I was going to take that 'SC job but my mom wasn't well. Oregon is a slam dunk. Oregon State is in a very good situation, too. You've got Portland there. The other states. You can go into Canada and get those kids Gonzaga has. Go into Australia. I got an Australian kid and a New Zealand kid.

"But Oregon, when I saw that building, and you can get a great education, and there's a really good tradition. They should be a national player. The state of Oregon has good coaches. Great high school coaches and high school ball. People don't appreciate how good it is."

Look, we all know what's happening to basketball recruiting.  It's all about AAU and camps.  The high school basketball season - and the high school coach - are becoming irrelevant.
It's happening on football, too, with all the combines and mini-camps and recruiting services.

If colleges wind up wasting scholarships on kids who turn out to be jerks, it's because they've put too ouch fit ion all this five-star sh--,  and they kept the coaches out of the loop.  There is no Jerk Meter at the combines.

Over a year ago,  writer Jerry Ulmer dealt with this issue in the Oregonian, and talked with  a couple of of Oregon's top high school football coaches with nearly ten state titles between them.