Coach Wyatt's "News You Can Use"
FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015
**********
An article in the New York Times claimed that "New England" meant the
Patriots represented an entire region, while the Seahawks represented
only a city.
It's worth my pointing out, to those in the Northeast who are
geographically challenged, that Seattle is even more of a regional
franchise than "New England," which actually started out as "Boston"
and didn't go regional until the Patriots, without a stadium to play
in, weren't sure whether they'd wind up playing in Massachusetts,
Connecticut or Rhode Island.
How regional are the Seahawks? In addition to Seattle and the state of
Washington, the Seahawks have long had large numbers of season ticket
holders in Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. Those are big-ass states,
guys. You could fit all six New England states inside any one of
them. Several of them have counties larger than any of the New
England states except Maine.
Oh - and I'm not counting Canada. The Seahawks have more season ticket
holders in British Columbia than in all but three Washington counties.
B.C. is REALLY big.
***********
Tom Brady told the New York Times he'd like to play until
he's 70. Given that Tom Brady is a football player in
approximately
the same way that a DH is a baseball player, the risks and physical
demands of his position are not that excessive, and depending on how he
deals with the usual ravages of aging such as forgetting where he put
things and
maybe having to wear trifocals, I don't see why he can't.
*********** Some feminist organization that calls itself "Ultraviolet"
plans on running a commercial in (or near) the Super Bowl in which a
huge, padded-up football player blind-sides a woman, followed by the
line "Let's take domestic violence out of football."
Okay. I get it. It's not right to hit women.
I get it, and I think most boys who are the beneficiaries of what the
lamestream media like to deride as Ozzie-and-Harriet upbringings do,
too.
Part of the problem, I would wager, is that a lot of the perps, at
least those who play in the NFL, have been raised in other, less ideal
circumstances.
In the meantime, while we men who choose to raise the sons we've
fathered accept our responsibility to do what we've always done -
teaching them not to hit girls - you folks at Ultraviolet could sure
help us out by backing off on your demands that girls be allowed to
play football.
You can't have it both ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0s2-WL4mqY
*********** When I was in college, preparing for Dartmouth weekend was like preparing for a siege.
Dartmouth played us in New Haven every year. None of that
home-and-home stuff. Not for Dartmouth. Dartmouth played
everybody away.
Dartmouth, in western New Hampshire, was remote and hard to get to,
especially in those pre-Interstate Highway days, and even if people
were inclined to drive there, Dartmouth's stadium, such as it was, only
held maybe 15,000.
Playing at Yale every year, given the Yale Bowl's 60,000-seat capacity
and New Haven's proximity to Dartmouth alumni from throughout the New
York area, made much more sense.
But "hosting" Dartmouth every year meant putting up with hordes of
invading Dartmouth guys, drunken and ill-mannered (even compared
to us). Dartmouth, like Yale, was all-male, but hidden away up there in
the woods of northern New England, there was little else to do outside
classes and studying than drink. As a result, drinking - heavy
drinking - reputedly occupied a goodly portion of the week. But on
weekends they really picked it up, and on their road trips to away
games in New Haven and Boston, Dartmouth guys earned their reputations
as "animals." I should point out that they were rather
proud of this reputation, as a popular but unauthorized version
of one of their fight songs attested.
Here are the official lyrics:
Dartmouth's in town again, Team! Team! Team!
Echo the old refrain, Team! Team! Team! -
But here are the ones we heard the guys sing:
Dartmouth's in town again - run, girls, run!
Dartmouth's in town again - fun, girls, fun!
Our pants are steaming hot,
We'll give them all we've got,
Virgins are just our meat!
Rape! Rape! Rape!
(Dartmouth has been co-ed for years, which undoubtedly has had a
certain civilizing influence on the males, and in these times of
heightened rape-consciousness, I rather doubt that anyone who wished to
remain at Dartmouth until graduation would burst into singing that song
at a party.)
But those were less enlightened times, and needless to say, when
Dartmouth guys invaded your town on football weekends, the possibility
of mayhem was ever present. You barred the doors to fraternity houses
and you doubled the guard.
This is all by way of saying that while the times may have
changed, New Hampshire winters haven't. They're still long and cold,
and even with the addition of females, Dartmouth men still are said to
pass the time with strong drink. In fact, in these liberated
times, the women probably drink as hard as the men do.
Which is what has prompted the president of the college to adopt a no-hard-liquor policy.
After
a spate of student misbehavior that has tarnished the reputation of
Dartmouth College, its president on Thursday announced a ban on hard
liquor on campus, and threatened to do away with fraternities or other
groups that fail “to elevate and not denigrate the Dartmouth
experience.”
Officials
said the ban will apply to any liquor that is 15 percent alcohol —
barely more than most wine — or more, and will take effect when the
spring term begins March 30. Dr. Hanlon said the college will also
increase penalties for people who provide alcohol to minors and to any
student in possession of hard liquor, but did not offer any details.
Good Luck, Prez. It ought to work about as well as Prohibition did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/us/in-response-to-student-misconduct-dartmouth-to-ban-hard-liquor-at-parties.html
*********** Coach,
The Jon Kitna move is an interesting one. I have a range of
thoughts concerning it and the circumstances that lead to good men
leaving for (potentially) greener pastures.
I wonder if "small town football" would work in a big school. I
think it would to an extent. But I don't know how well I could
get to know 200+ kids and their moms and dads in a large program.
And that would bother me. And then it wouldn't feel quite like
small town football.
I got my start here in a program that was historically
unsuccessful. I have been able to grow it in my vision without
feeling any kind of pressure to win. Honestly, winning was not a
priority at the school or in the community. Heck, I was the only
person to apply for the job. Going to a school where they put a
premium on wins from the start...would that change me or how I approach
things? Would it alter how I interact with parents (or players)
or how they interact with me? Would it cause problems for my
family? Do I want to be the coach of a program where we our worth
to young men is judged based on how many football games we win rather
than the impact we have on their lives now and into the future?
Jon Kitna made a decision and says he went where he was led to
go. I respect that response from him. I'm sure he had lots
of questions and is uneasy about the transition as well. I hope
all goes well for him and he is able to be both successful and
significant in his new position. Good luck to him.
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
Coach,
I think we're of like minds on this.
I'm looking at this from the perspective of one who is well past the point of searching for greener pastures.
I once was that guy who (figuratively) danced with the girt while looking over her shoulder to see who was coming in the door.
It took me quite some time to buy into
Frosty Westering's "Make the Big Time Where You Are" - to stop worrying
about the next job and make your preent one as good as it can be for
all concerned - and my life has been better ever since.
But it is a balancing act. As
you point out, the pressure to win has something to do with it.
We all have to win enough, of course, or we don't get to keep our
jobs, which means that we lose our position to influence the lives of
kids.
But when there is real pressure - when
the community expectation is first to win - it's bound to push
into the background all those other things we can and should be doing
for the kids we coach. It's bound to force us to look at them the
way the pros do, as pieces in the puzzle, whose worth is
determined solely by playing ability.
Once, I could have coached that way. I couldn't coach that way now.
I have a warm place in my heart for
the small school coach, because with rare exceptions, small schools
enable - require - the coach to get to know each kid and what makes him
tick, because since there's no way to "get a better player, " he
has to "get a player better." For me, being a head
football coach in a small community that appreciates you is about as
good as it gets.
What, really, is the incentive to
leave a good situation at a small school in order to coach at bigger
school? A larger coaching stipend? Yes - and you'll earn
it. You'll have more kids to supervise and more parents to
complain. And you'll have more assistants to train and supervise.
Artistically, the bigger school will be less frustrating, because
you'll have all 22 positions covered, and you'll likely get to work
with bigger, better players. For sure, there'll be a lot less
worry about whether you'll have enough kids to field a JV team.
The flip side is that your opponents will have more and better
kids, too. There is career advancement: if you're young and
hope to move into college coaching, your chances will be better at a
big high school, but you've already put yourself at a career
disadvantage anyhow, by going into high school coaching rather than
getting a graduate assistantship. From that point on, it's
largely an ego thing: the big-school gets the big headlines on
Saturday mornings, and the big-school coach tends to get the speaking
gig at the clinic.
I speculated about Jon Kitna's reasons for making a very dramatic move.
I would not have done that. I
once inherited a team whose beloved coach took another job in
mid-summer. I respected and understood the coach's decision.
It made all the sense in the world for him and his family.
But it's never easy to move on, and I saw and dealt with the
kids' heartache at losing a man they looked on as their father.
On the other hand, if he'd stayed,
there were a hundred different ways that school district could have
changed his working conditions - and his relationships with those
kids.
That's what Jon Kitna was referring to when he said that his success at LIncoln was "not sustainable."
I can say I wouldn't do this.
Now. But I'm no longer driven by the ambition that drove me
when I was younger - the sort of ambition that led me to move my family
across the country years ago. Now, I'm at the stage in life where
I consider what I'm doing as my contribution to a community. I
like that. Every coach should one day enjoy that luxury.
I wish Jon Kitna all the best, in a
town where I suspect they won't care much how well he treats their kids
if he can't beat Ennis.
*********** Hugh, just finished last night looking at the you tube
video on your web site of Jon Kitna. You are right, a hell of a guy
with great standards. I can see why the kids don't want him to leave.
Liked his thing on real men too. Hope your eye surgery went well, take
care.
Mike Foristiere
Mattawa, Washington
MIke,
Heck of a guy. I'm afraid he'll get chewed up in Texas.
Sometimes the Big Time is right where you are.
Hugh, I agree, sometimes where you are needed is where you are at right
now. I mean what I saw on the you tube video is exactly where he needs
to be. Those kids need him and he is exactly where he needs to be. I am
no Jon Kitna, but where I am at right now is a good spot. I have had at
least a dozen Mexican parents and 2 Indian parents come up to me and
tell me how fortunate they feel that I am here with their sons helping
them to be a man - that I am the answer to their prayers. Hugh, it is
nice to hear but like a lot of coaches I am just trying to do the right
things and make sure they are doing the right things so we can all be
successful. In the end I just say thank you and keep that in the back
of my mind when I start to feel frustrated.
MIke,
The problem is that 25 grateful
parents can thank you for looking out for their boys but one unhappy
parent in the ear of a gutless administrator can ruin it for everybody.
*********** On the heels of a very successful first year, the
College Football Playoff (CFP) folks are bracing for a couple of fights
- one, very real and one potential. The first is likely to be
big, the other, should it take place, still potential, will be
huge.
The first fight is already taking place between ESPN on the one hand and the CFP folks on the other.
Next season’s Playoff semifinals are scheduled to take place on New
Year's Eve, a Thursday night, but ESPN is pushing the CFP to move those
games to January 2, a Saturday when there's not much else on TV.
There's not likely to be competition from the NFL - its regular season
ends on Sunday, January 3, and the league hasn’t played a game on the
last Saturday of the regular season since 2007.
ESPN is concerned that going up against the New Year's Eve "count-down"
shows will cut into its ratings, while the CFP insists it is committed
to its plan to hold two tripleheaders - three bowl games on New Year's
Eve and three on New Year's Day."
If that weren't bad enough, up steps the NFL, and a problem with the
potential to stir up some real trouble - ESPN and the CFP.
It's no secret that the NFL has been making noises about adding to its
playoffs. Not content evidently with the number of mediocre teams
already clogging up Wild Card weekend, it's expansion would mean two
more wild card games. In insider terms, that means it would need
two more "TV windows."
According to Sports Business Daily, Roger Goodell told the FBS
conference commissioners that any expansion of the playoffs would mean
playing a Wild Card game on Monday night.
Here's the problem: dating back to the BCS, the colleges
have been playing their championship games on a Monday night, and the
CFP's contract with ESPN, which runs for 12 years, calls for the
championship game to be played on a Monday night, usually the second
Monday night in January. That just happens to be the Monday night
the NFL would insist on.
The colleges have no intention of moving their game. Should the
conflict occur, ESPN would be caught in the middle, because it not only
has the rights to televise the CFP but it also regularly televises the
NFL's "Monday Night Football."
The CFP's contract specifies that its games must be aired on ESPN, and
not ESPN2 or ESPNU, and it's not likely that the NFL would play second
fiddle and allow one of its "playoff" games to be moved to ESPN2.
There is the possibility that the NFL could offer its Monday night wild
card game to another network, which would mean going up against the
biggest colleeg game of the year with a couple of deadass NFL teams -
and guess which one would win out.
Stay tuned.
*********** The referee at the Super Bowl will be out on the field by
the grace of God and the incredible skills of Dr. John
Elefteriades, a surgeon at Yale School of Medicine.
http://news.yale.edu/2015/01/26/yale-cardiac-surgeon-helps-famed-football-ref-get-back-game?utm_source=YNemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ynalumni-01-27-15
*********** "I knew once they started to name these winter storms it was all over." Rush Limbaugh
***********
In Vancouver, Washington, a 35-year-old high school drama teacher - a
rather nice-looking woman, judging by the photo in the paper - has been
charged with four counts of rape of a high school student.
I
have no experience with such a scenario. Rape of a student? By a
teacher? Unthinkable where I went to school. I went to an
all-boys school and all our teachers were male, which would have meant
man-boy sex. Ugh. Forget that. In addition to the general taboo
against any teacher having sex with any student, let's just say that in
those days homosexuality was not viewed as a co-equal lifestyle, an
acceptable alternative, the way it is today. The closet door was
shut tight. The word "gay" did not yet draw snickers when
we sang it in a song.
In
fact, one of our more illustrious alumni was the legendary tennis
player Big Bill Tilden. He was never accorded the recognition he
would otherwise have enjoyed, and I can remember asking an older
teacher about that and being told - in a whisper - that years earlier
he had shown a, um, "preference" for young men.
At
first, the article in the paper didn't say whether the student was male
or female. Next-day stories indicated it was a 15-year-old boy.
It
went on to say that she and the student had sex on several occasions,
and that they made sure to get their stories straight in case anyone
suspected.
This is rape?
I
guess, because of the kid's age (the age of consent in Washington is
16) this might be a case of statutory rape, but otherwise, how is this
rape? IHow many male high school students in the United States
would have to be forced to have sex with an attractive female teacher?
Calling
this teacher's conduct, however revolting, "rape" diminishes the
impact of a word that for most of us conjures up a picture of a man
forcing an unwilling woman to have intercourse with him, committing a
crime that at one time was punishable by death.
Question:
Is it my imagination, or are seeing more such cases than we used to? Is
it the "sexual liberation" of The Pill? Is this what results from
"do your own thing?" From "who are we to judge?" From "Love
makes a family?" From Presidents getting B.J's in the Oval Office?
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015- “It
is perfectly obvious that in any decent occupation (such as bricklaying
or writing books) there are only two ways of succeeding. One is by
doing very good work, the other is by cheating.” G. K. Chesterton
***********
General Robert Neyland of Tennessee is by anyone's standards one of the
greatest college football coaches of all time.
Following are General Neyland's famous Axioms, passed along by his
former player Andy Kozar. They may have have originated with Charlie
Daly, Neyland's coach at West Point...
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2. Play for and make the breaks and when one comes your way - SCORE.
3. If at first the game - or the breaks - go against you, don't let up... put on more steam.
4. Protect our kickers, our QB, our lead and our ball game.
5. Ball, "oskie," cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle... for this is the WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to our opponent and keep it there for 60 minutes.
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv16/CFHSNv16n2a.pdf
***********
God help us all if the rest of the United States reacts, as New York
City did, to the mere forecast of a snowstorm. Buncha weenies.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to rush out to the Safeway and lay in
an emergency food supply before they make us get off the roads. It's
supposed to get down to 54 degrees tomorrow, with a chance of
rain. But you never know. Better safe than sorry,
*********** I hope I can keep from laughing long enough to write
this... So Belichick found a guy to take the fall - some rogue
equipment manager who evidently decided on his own to deflate the
footballs. This went against everything the Patiorts stand for, so the
equipment manager will, of course be "reassigned," but not before
becoming the highest paid equipment manager in the history of
christerndom, when you include the pension, the home on the Cape,
college tuition for his kids, one-per cent ownership of the Patriots,
and lifetime use of a luxury box right next to Mr. Kraft's.
Has it ever occured to anyone that the so-called deflategate fiasco was
deliberately employed as a diversionary tactic to make
everyone forget the incompetent officials and their pass interference
non-call in the Lions-Cowboys wild card game?
*********** I don't really know why, but unlike most all-star games, I
actually found the Senior Bowl kind of fun to watch. Yale's
Tyler Varga, a 230-pound running back from Kitchener, Ontario,
looked pretty good, both running and blocking.
*********** Such is the popularity of the NFL, and such is Big
Football's ability to brainwash the public into thinking that they're
watching real football, that for years, the sham that is the Pro Bowl
has drawn impressive TV ratings.
But for two straight years now, its ratings have headed south.
The 2013 game (the one that was so bad that the league debated
discontinuing the Pro Bowl) drew a 7.7 rating. But the Players' Union
promised to be good, and do a better job of fakery, and the game lived
on. But the rating - last year it dropped to 6.7 and this
year's game pulled a 5.6.
Those ratings are still better than anything else that ESPN could have
put on at that time, but still, the decline is 27 per cent in two
years, a sure sign to Big Football that the public is growing wise to
the fact that the Pro Bowl is basically pro wrestling with worse acting
and no plot.
The game itself was a bit confusing, played as it was between teams chosen by "captains" Michael Irvin and Chris Carter.
Hey - as long as they're going to glorify a lowlife like Michael
Irvin by making him team captain or somesuch, next year they
ought to go all out and let the fans vote on a list of NFL
misfits, either retired or on suspension for "substance abuse."
But no more of this "Team Irvin" (or, in the event that T.O.
should win, "Team Owens") crap. If you've got to imitate
soccer, it has to be "FC Irvin" or "FC Owens."
The game itself showed how football can be made safe - by taking out
the tacking and blocking. Think non-alcoholic beer. I
started out counting how many guys ever went to the ground during the
game. That got old fast, but it's safe to say that on average it
was maybe one guy per play. (There were several "running plays" where
no one at all went to the ground - the running back and the "tackler"
simply ended up in a warm embrace and by mutual consent, the play was
over. In a suspiciously large number of instances, runners or
receivers lost their footing, and any time the ball carrier was within
five yards of the sidelines, the script evidently called for him to run
out of bounds.
Wrote Frank Schwab of Yahoo sports, "You can't have a violent
game like the NFL be played in a setting in which nobody really wants
to hit each other. Two of the first three plays Sunday were handoffs to
Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray. Defenders held him up and hoped
for a whistle instead of bringing him to the ground."
It really is a great deal for the players. Those who
elect to play in the game (many don't) are flown - first-class -
to the game site, housed for a week in top-notch hotels and fed like
kings. True, they "practice" a couple of hours a day, but
otherwise, it's a heck of an excuse to relax and/or party. Damn
shame to have to ruin a week like that by having to go out and play a
game of football, however bogus.
But play they do, and the public watches while a bunch of overpaid oafs
cavort and carry on and have a great old time. Members of the
winning team are paid roughly $50,000. Losers are paid about half
that. Chicken feed, I know, for well-paid high school football
coaches like you and me. Also for NFL players, many of whom
budget $50,000 just to cover for the fines they expect to be assessed
during the season for various transgressions. But seriously - $25,000
for a couple of hours playing pretend football? A person earning
$12 an hour has to work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks to make that much.
That's the sort of thing that could make a socialist out of me.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/pro-bowl-television-ratings-take-another-big-dip-165540548.html
*********** It was a lock to be one of those "based on a true story" made-for-TV movies.
The local kid, the star of the high school football and basketball
teams, goes off to s small college where he plays well enough at
quarterback to draw the attention of the pros.
And against all odds, he makes it in the NFL and enjoys a 16-year career as both a starter and a backup.
And then - here's where it gets great - he goes back to his old high school!
He gets a job teaching math and coaching football.
The football team's been down for a couple of years. The
demographics of the student body have changed since he went there. 80
per cent of the kids have no father in the home. 75 per cent of
them are on free- or reduced-price lunch.
But he comes in with an approach that's about much more than just
football - he teaches math and his wife volunteers her time in academic
support for the players. He stresses being responsible and being
accountable. He stresses being "real." He's a Christian, and he
makes references to Jesus.
He goes 5-5 in his first year there.
And the next year, he goes 8-2.
And in his third year, with his own son playing quarterback, his team
goes undefeated in the regular season, and finishes 11-1. It's
only loss is to the eventual state champion.
Pretty good so far, right?
Here's how the movie's going to start: We're at his retirement
party. One by one, former players come up and tell how playing
for him changed their lives…
Okay. Now I'm going to ruin it for you.
The story's true. The coach is Jon Kitna, who graduated from
Lincoln High in Tacoma, Washington, played at Central Washington, and
went on to play for a number of NFL clubs before returning to teach and
coach at Lincoln.
But now - there goes your story, Hollywood - he's leaving to become head coach in Waxahatchie, Texas.
Why? According to the Tacoma News-Tribune...
“The
dream would be to stay here, the comfortable thing would have been to
stay here, the ideal thing would have been to stay here. But where God
is leading me, I have to follow, and I’ve always said that.”
Kitna,
who spent the first four years of his 16-year NFL career with the
Seattle Seahawks and the final four with the Dallas Cowboys, said it
came down to sustainable positions for his assistant coaches.
At
least four assistants will go with him, including brother Matt Kitna.
Junior quarterback Jordan Kitna, Jon’s son, is going, as is junior
tight end Devan Brady, whose father is Lincoln assistant Evan Brady.
The other assistants leaving are Casey Kjos, Damola Adeniji and
possibly Corey McBride, who had not decided as of Wednesday.
Lincoln
had five assistant coaches, with each making almost $5,000 this year.
In the 2013-14 school year, Kitna was paid almost $40,000 to coach and
teach part time at Lincoln. Kitna said the pay for his assistants made
it difficult to keep them and that his staff payroll will increase at
Waxahachie.
“It’s
really hard to ask coaches to put in 25-30 hours a week after they work
a 40-hour-a-week job,” Kitna said. “If you just want to show up for
practice, OK, we’ll go through our two-hour practice and show up on
Friday. That’s great. We would be mediocre, we would compete for our
league title here every year and stuff.
“But
at the end of the day, I can’t stand average. I want to be able to
compete at the highest level. I just don’t think we could sustain it as
is, as it is currently constructed.”
So there goes the movie. It's sad, but understandable.
I'm guessing it's partly
(1) that he's found he's gone as far as he can go in a
bureaucracy-bound big-city school district, and ultimately, those
people in administration really don't give a sh-- what you're doing for
their kids. They're armchair generals and they resent warrior
types and they'd just as soon hire some guy off the street who won't
pester them with demands.
(2) He has that urge that lots of us get to see if his act will play on a bigger stage, and you can't go bigger than Texas;
(4) He's a devout Christian, and that doesn't play all that well in the
Northwest. It undoubtedly makes school administrators squeamish.
I wish him well in Texas. In terms of high school coaching, it's
a world away. He undoubtedly already knows this to the extent
that an outsider can, but only by going there can he really understand.
The News in the Tacoma paper...
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/01/21/3599165_kitna-resigns-football-coaching.html?rh=1
The news in Waxahachie...
http://www.wfaa.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/01/23/jon-kitna-hired-as-new-head-football-coach-at-waxahachie/22201447/
Waxahachie is getting a heck of a guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxiicXcOhPg
*********** Rather than ask you to name the very first draft pick in
the very first draft of the Minnesota Vikings, I have to pass along the
sad news that Tommy Mason died last week. Mason, a native of Lake
Charles, Louisiana, was an outstanding running back at Tulane, and went
on to play 11 seasons with the Vikings. He played in three Pro
Bowl games, back in the days when they still tackled. For a time,
he was married to noted gymnast Cathy Rigby.
http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/012215aab.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/sports/tommy-mason-first-player-to-be-drafted-by-vikings-dies-at-75.html?_r=0
*********** The NFL thought that Marshawn Lynch's crotch-grabbing act was in such poor taste that it fined him.
And then, true to its dedication to making a buck off anything, it
offered for sale - for $149.95 - a collage featuring Mr. Lynch
that included a photo of his coarse touchdown "celebrating."
Alas for The League, there are still people in this country with morals
and good taste, and after they complained, Big Football pulled the item.
See, they have a policy. Said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, “Any play that results in a fine may not be used commercially.”
I think that means that you can still go ahead and sell those Bill Belichick pumps..
http://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/nfl_was_selling_seahawks_collage_featuring_marshawn_lynch_crotch_grab_pic/18155564?linksrc=story_article_right_head_18155564
*********** Ernie Banks, a great gentleman and a great baseball player
who symbolized the futility of being a great player on a lousy
team - in his case, the Chicago Cubs - died last week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/sports/baseball/ernie-banks-the-eternally-hopeful-mr-cub-dies-at-83.html?emc=edit_th_20150125&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=23696377
FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2015- "if
we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the
people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become
happy." Thomas Jefferson
*********** Hey all you Hudl users - Check out what the AFCA Code of Ethics has to say about film exchange…
It is unethical to make available to any individual or institution any video or film in which your own team does not appear
Look- there's no getting around the fact that Hudl is a great service.
But Hudl has led to a Wild West sort of arrangement in which coaching ethics is being thrown to the wind.
Let's call ourselves Team A. Let's suppose Team B, one of our
opponents, has come into possession of several game videos of us,
against Teams C, D, and E.
Team B obtained all of them on the up-and-up, by straight swaps with teams C, D and E..
But then, after we've played Team B, Team B gets a call from Team F
asking what they've got on us, and out of the goodness of
their hearts, Team B sends them everything they've got on us -not just
their game against us, but also our games against Teams C, D and E.
It's an all too common practice - and it's a violation of the AFCA Code of Ethics.
To many of us, that still matters.
*********** QUESTIONER: "Is Tom Brady a cheater?"
TOM BRADY: "I don't believe so."
ME: "WTF? I don't believe so?"
*********** Hugh,
I usually agree with your postings 100%, but I feel that the national
talking heads and perhaps Coach Harbough may have left out a couple of
subtile points or facts. I am a season ticket holder and was at
the game as usual, so here goes:
1. Each and every time that one of the "backs" reported the
official announced on the public address system so everyone including
the 78,000 fans could hear the following "number 34 has reported as
ineligible- that means you don't have to cover him on pass coverage"
(no kidding he went the extra step to define that)
2. Each and every time the announcement was made- the line judge
stood over the ball for 5-6 seconds before allowing the play to
proceed. (presumably to allow adjustments/substitutions)
I also find it amusing that an entire defensive secondary that is paid
on average $6 million a year each to play professional football, and
have the advantage of an entire coaching staff in the box with direct
communications to the middle line backer via the helmet radio- couldn’t
figure out who was or was not eligible. Additionally, as I recall
from my playing days- anytime you were not sure (like if someone rolled
out the swinging gate etc.) You audible to a zone.
Not to pat myself or my two friends who go to all the games with me on
the back but we figured it out real time at the game- as did several of
the fans around us.
Sorry, but I don't think the rule should change, nor do I believe it
was dishonest, it was simply showing a look that was not the "vanilla"
look the NFL has become accustomed to. I bet Harbough would have
complained if they ran the single wing or lined up in the swinging gate
or God forbid- Tight Rip 88 super power.
No one complained a few years ago when Harbough sent Ray Lewis in to run the football.
Rich Golden
Montville, Connecticut
Rich,
Sorry for my delay in responding.
Funny how the delay allowed me to
address not only your email but also the latest accusations against the
honorable Mr. Belichick. The temptation to do so is great, but
I'll pass on the underinflation issue. I'll just say that I
wouldn't defend Belichick as strongly as Jimbo Fisher has defended
Jameis Winston.
With respect to the Patriots'
use/misuse of the current rules, I did not know how clearly the
officials had informed the Ravens (and the fans) at the time, and - you
got this right - I fell for the misinformation provided by the
clowns who pose as sports media.
Knowing that, I have to agree with you
on the absolute responsibility of the Ravens' defense to deal with the
matter at hand based on the information provided them. I
would be upset with any high school sophomore who'd fail to understand
that. And I'd be VERY upset with myself for not preparing the kid
for that situation. And, as you say, the pros do have a few
coaches up in the box, plus the ability to communicate directly.
It was rather clever (devious, maybe)
of Belichick to have his ineligible-man-with-the-eligible-number
move rapidly backward into the backfield - into a position that would
make him eligible, once he was as deep as the QB.
I can't believe the way teams keep
falling for this "tackle eligible" crap. They're clearly told
that a guy with an ineligible number os eligible - and they still don't
cover him! WTF? The Patriots threw a TD pass to Nate Solder
on Sunday. Despite the declaration that he was eligible, NOBODY
covered him.
I can't be persuaded to change my
stance on the need for the NFL to wake up and adopt the very
simple-to-apply rule on eligibility that we high schoolers seem to have
no problem complying with.
*********** Now we come to the matter of the underinflated balls.
First of all, since the subject involved "balls," have you ever heard
so many sophomoric attempts at humor in your life?
Secondly, now that we've heard Bill Belichick and Tom "Conehead" Brady
(the dweeb in that stupid stocking cap) deny knowing anything about the
deflated balls, permit me to pass along a bit of dime store wisdom I've
picked up over the years:
If a guy will cheat, he'll also lie. Bet on it.
Now, then…
Who, other than a Patriots' fan, doesn't believe that Belichick would
try such a juvenile stunt simply to get an edge, especially knowing the
scrutiny he's constantly under?
If this were to go to trial, you wouldn't be able to find a juror who
knew anything about pro football and didn't have a strong opinion one
way or the other.
Even so, I'm still waiting for one reputable person to step up to say, "I know Bill - and Bill would never do something like this."
I will bet you that shortly after the news broke, Roger Goodell fielded
32 phone calls - 31 from the other owners demanding that he slam
Belichick. (The first, of course, would have been from New
Orleans owner Tom Benson , whose coach had to sit out a year for
something called Bountygate.)
The thirty-second call was from DeMaurice Smith of the NFLPA, wanting
to know what, in view of the way Goodell's hammered players for
off-the-field issues, he's going to do about a coach whose
conduct brings into question the integrity of "The Shield" itself.
Hey- however repulsive their actions, nothing that Ray Rice or Adrian
Peterson did brought into question whether the NFL's product, the game
itself, was on the up-and-up.
Up-and-up did I say? Make me laugh. In my opinion, the whole
operation's a sham: players routinely hold, but the house-servant
announcers call it blocking. Defenders dive at runners but it's
called tackling. The League constantly tweaks the rules in favor
of passing, distorting the game in a never-ending effort to produce
more scoring.
The players are paid millions to play a game, yet when they simply do
what they're expected - paid - to do, they celebrate in a way no one in
any other productive occupation would ever do. (I had eye surgery
yesterday and when it was over, the surgeon shook my hand and began to
get ready for the next play - er, patient. Not even a single high five!)
I hate to make this whole Belichick deal seem bigger than it is,
but to me it's symbolic of an end-justifies-the-means,
if-you-ain't-cheating-you-ain't-trying society, at the top of which is
a President who boasts that if playing within the rules won't get him
what he wants, he'll just have to take action on his own, rules be
damned.
*********** I loved hearing Brady say that, in effect, he doesn't notice the softness of the ball once he's out on the field.
I call BS on that. Does he expect me to believe that
my high school quarterbacks can instantly tell an over-inflated ball
from an under-inflated one (they can) when an NFL quarterback can't?
Great athletes are highly conscious of the tools of their trade,
and as illustration I recall a story I heard years ago about baseball
great Ted Williams.
Apparently the bat manufacturer's sales rep, tired of Williams' famous
fussiness, set out to expose him. He arranged for the next
shipment of Williams' bats - several dozen or so - to include one whose
handle was a few thousandths of an inch narrower than all the
others. Williams, unaware of what was going on, went
through the shipment and quickly identified - and rejected - the
anomaly.
*********** If I were Roger Goodell…
Guilty or not, I'd require Tom Brady, poster boy for pussy
football, to spend an entire season playing by the rules that greats
like John Unitas, Bobby Layne and Bart Star had to play under (I won't
go all the way back to Sammy Baugh and make him play defense, too):
No wireless communication with the coach.
Hashmarks dividing the field into thirds.
No Intentional grounding. Anywhere.
Spiking? It's intentional grounding.
No surrender-by-hook-slide
Contact with receivers is allowed anywhere downfield until the ball's thrown
Offensive linemen must keep their hands against their chests when pass protecting
Defenders can hit the quarterback anywhere on his body.
Defenders can's be expected to stop just because the quarterback has released the ball.
Defensive linemen can "head-slap" offensive linemen
Tell me you wouldn't like to see Old Candy-Ass play real football.
And - guilty or not - I'd turn Belichick over to Mark Emmert.
Anybody who could do what Emmert did to Joe Paterno and Penn
State has to have one meanass streak in him, and now that he's
been forced to roll back the Penn State sanctions he's got to be hungry
for somebody else to beat on. I'm figuring on something like a
$60 million fine, a five-year ban on post-season play, a 33%
reduction in draft choices, and the vacating of all Super Bowl
victories.
Oh - and here's the deal breaker - I'd make him dress like Vince Lombardi on game days.
*********** Writes Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post, Roger Goodell has to act firmly and decisively. And fast.
Cannizzaro's vote is for suspension of Belichick from all Super Bowl activities.
http://nypost.com/2015/01/21/if-guilty-belichick-must-be-suspended-for-super-bowl/
*********** Coach:
Have you heard any more about any possible rule changes to the free
blocking zone. Spread guys are determined to take the 180 lbs Offensive
Lineman pout of the game.
David Maness
Lincolnton, Noth Carolina
Coach,
My "sources" tell me that one way or the other, the NFHS expects to rule on the free-blocking zone in the next week or so.
My greatest fear is that they'll tell
the offense that it can't block low but they'll leave the defense free
to submarine, which is at least as dangerous to the offensive kids'
knees as blocking low is to the defenders!
On January 23-25, 2015, the NFHS will
review and vote on proposed rule changes. We are looking for your
input on the following proposed rule change.
Eliminate the Free Blocking Zone and
make blocking below the waist clipping and blocking in the back illegal
anywhere on the field, in order to greatly minimize the risk of injury
for the participating student athletes. This attempt to reduce injuries
we hope will also help save the game of football as we know it
today. Participation numbers are down, and we feel they will
continue to decline unless this wise and reasonable committee makes a
move to protect the student athlete against injuries to lower
extremities.
I have to chuckle at the notion that numbers are down because of the free blocking zone.
Good Lord - with all the free
publicity that the concussion issue has received thanks to the NFL and
its lawsuits, saying that fear of "injuries to lower extremities" is
the reason for numbers being down is like arriving at the scene of an
accident caused by a drunk going 100 mph and saying we need to get more
people to wear seat belts.
My worry is that with so many coaches
no longer even bothering to teach three-point stances, this won't seem
like an issue to a lot of guys.
*********** After the Bloomington, California High School girls'
basketball team lost a recent game, 161-2, its coach is back on the job
following a short suspension.
This wasn't the first bad game the Bloomington team has ever played.
Over the last four seasons, they've gone 1-60.
In their 15 games so far this season, they've scored 150 points - an average of 10 per game
In that same time, they've given up 992 points - an average of 66 per game.
Okay, I made up the part about the losing coach being suspended.
No, he didn't get suspended. The winning coach did.
Everyone - the story made national news - blamed him. No blame,
though, for the people who by now might have realized that they've been
overscheduling the Bloomngton team.
(If the name "Bloomington" rings a bell, it should.
Bloomington was where Double Wing great Don Markham set a
national high school football scoring record. You'd better
believe there were some big scores run up that season.)
http://www.sbsun.com/sports/20150119/arroyo-valley-girls-basketball-coach-michael-anderson-returns-from-suspension-talks-about-161-2-victory
*********** ISIS has killed 13 youngsters - for watching a soccer match!
If they were ever to come to the United States and start killing soccer fans, they could put Starbucks out of bsiness.
http://nypost.com/2015/01/19/isis-executes-13-teens-for-watching-soccer/
*********** Still on soccer... We've all heard about groupies,
but this is ridiculous: In Australia for the Asian Cup soccer
tournament, players from Iran, where women aren't permitted to watch
them play, have been posing for selfies with Iranian-Australian
women, potentially causing problems for them when they return
home.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/afc-asian-cup/iran-footballers-warned-for-selfies-with-female-fans-20150119-12t6sd.html
*********** Doug Marrone was just hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars as their offensive line coach.
They've been really, really had, so if they can turn things around down there, it could him land a head coaching job someplace.
Wait - didn't he just walk away from the head coaching job in Buffalo?
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000461051/article/jacksonville-jaguars-hire-doug-marrone-as-oline-coach
*********** Today's quote was sent to me by Coach Mark Hundley, of
Dublin Jerome HS, in Dublin, Ohio, who wrote, "I thought of you
and your quotes at the start of your News You Can Use when I read
this quote."
*********** All the results of all of this past season's bowl games…
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11419086/2014-15-college-football-bowl-schedule
********* The highest TV rating of all bowl games outside the Big Six
College Football Playoff Games went to the Holiday Bowl (USC-Nebraska),
which drew 6.8 million viewers
*********** In an episode of HBO's Real Sports, Mike Ditka told
Bryant Gumbel that if he had an 8-year-old son right now, he wouldn't
let him play football.
"I wouldn't," he said. "And my whole life was football. I think the risk is worse than the reward. I really do.”
Talk about a hypocrite. Football enabled him to live the life of
a lord, and he continues to cash in every Sunday, sitting behind a desk
and pontificating on the sport that he now disparages.
Funny thing is, when he first enrolled at Pitt, he claimed he wanted to
be a dentist. Yikes. Can you picture Doctor Ditka leaning
over and saying, "This may hurt a little?"
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mike-ditka-i-wouldnt-let-my-son-play-football_824144.html
*********** See how Americans (bear in mind that these people vote) reacted to the "news" that Martin Luther King, Jr. had just died...
http://www.infowars.com/video-some-americans-think-martin-luther-king-just-died/
*********** Jonah Goldberg notes the contradictions amend our campus lefties...
We’re
breeding generations of citizens who think attacking left-wing college
administrators from the left is bold and courageous and denouncing
Islamic extremism is racist. We apologize for the “root causes” that
lead to actual violence, while we theorize endlessly about how
ultimately we’re really to blame. Our military heroes are terroristic
and the terrorists are misunderstood.
*********** Former New York GIants' head coach Allie Sherman died on January 3. He was 91.
He coached the Giants for nine years, and won back-to-back NFL Coach of
the Year awards in his first two years in New York, but he never could
truly win over the Giants' fans.
The problem was that he wasn't Vince Lombardi and he wasn't Tom Landry.
The Giants were tremendously successful during the 1950s under Jim Lee
Howell, but what wasn't known by most fans was that Howell was chiefly
a figurehead. The real coaching was done by Lombardi, who had the
offense, and Landry, who had the defense.
But the Mara family, owners of the Giants, were loyal people. When
Lombardi was offered the Packers' job in early 1958, they encouraged
him to take it. There was never any thought of letting Howell go.
However, when Wellington Mara initially gave the Packers' president
Dominic Olejniczak permission to talk with Lombardi, he gave it with
one condition: if ever the Giants' job came open, they could try to
bring back Lombardi. Olejniczak said he had no problem with that.
Two years later, it almost worked out that way.
Wrote David Maraniss, in "When Pride Still Mattered,"
At
the end of the 1959 season, Jim Lee Howell had walked into Wellington
Mara's office and announced that he was burned out. The thrill of
winning, Howell said, no longer compensated for the deep anxiety he
took from losing. He would coach the 1960 season, but that
would be his last. Howell's surprise burnout did not come at the
best tie for the Maras. Not only had they let Lombardi go to Green Bay
a year earlier, but they had just lost Tom Landry to the expansion team
in Dallas.
Now, the Giants' thoughts immediately turned to Lombardi, whose
Packers' 7-5 finish had earned him Coach of the Year honors.
Obtaining secret permission from Olejniczak, they spoke with Lombardi, but both parties agreed to table the matter until after the 1960 season.
Throughout thatseason, the New York news media pressed the issue. They wanted Lombardi back.
And Lombardi, a New Jersey-New York guy, seemed to relish the
idea of coaching in New York. (His wife would gladly have moved
back.)
Lombardi loved the Maras and knew they were people of great
integrity. And he knew most of the Giants' players and liked them.
But there were arguments for staying in Green Bay. For one thing, he had power that he could never have in New York.
And he liked his players in Green Bay too. And, wrote Maraniss,
"In terms of talent, they were younger and they were better."
And there was the matter of his contract. With the AFL coming on
the scene, George Halas of the Bears expressed concern that if a coach
could break a contract, it might be hard for the NFL to prevent players
from doing the same.
And, pointed out Halas and Paul Brown, just as Lombardi had saved
the Packers' franchise, his leaving could undo all the good he'd done.
In the midst of all this back-and-forth, his team got hot, and
made it to the NFL championship game against the Philadelphia
Eagles.
There, Lombardi informed Jack Mara that he was staying in Green Bay.
Meanwhile, Allie Sherman, who was replaced by Lombardi years earlier
when Steve Owen retired and Jim Lee Howell was hired, was brought
back as Giants' offensive coordinator, and when Howell retired after
the 1960 season, Sherman replaced him.
Inheriting a team that had gone 6-4-2 in 1960, Sherman led the Giants
to a 10-3-1 regular season in 1961, and was named Coach of the
Year. Alas, the Giants fell to the Packers in the title game,
37-0.
In 1962, the Giants finished 12-2, and he was once again named
NFL Coach of the Year again, becoming the first person to be so honored
in consecutive years. but again his Giants lost to the Packers in
the NFL championship game, 16–7.
In 1963, the Giants ended the regular season 11-3, but for the third
straight year they lost in the title game, this time to the Bears,
14-10.
In 1964, the Giants' record plunged to 2-10-2, and until he was let go
following the 1969 session, the never again finished above .500
It was during the disastrous 1966 season, when the Giants finished
1-12-1 that Giants' fans began singing, "Good-bye Allie, Good-bye
Allie, Good-bye Allie, We hate to see you go.” They kept it up
for years.
“That wasn’t hard on me,” he said years later. “That was hard on my family. I knew I wasn’t appointed coach for life.”
At the time, he joked that he owned the rights to the song and was making a fortune off the royalties.
What finished him with the Giants was a loss to the hated Jets in a
1969 pre-season game. Despite having five years remaining on his
contract, the Giants let him go.
He never coached again, but he went on to be successful in several different fields.
Besides his career with the Giants, Allie Sherman left his mark on the game in other significant ways.
In 1962 a friend named Ed Sabol arranged with Sherman and Wellington
Mara to film Giants games for use by various TV outlets. Calling his
new firm Blair Motion Pictures Sabol contracted with NFL Commissioner
Pete Roselle to film the 1962 NFL Championship Game between the Giants
and the Packers, and In 1964, Blair Motion Pictures became NFL
Films.
In 1966, Emlen Tunnell and Roosevelt Brown, two former Giant
all-stars, became the NFL's first full-time black assistants when Allie
Sherman hired them.
Born in Brooklyn, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he is a member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Rest in Peace, Allie.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/sports/football/allie-sherman-giants-coach-in-the-1960s-dies-at-91.html?_r=0
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015- "You have to be prepared to die before you can begin to live." Rev.
Fred L. Shuttlesworth, called “The most courageous Civil RIghts
Fighter in the South" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
***********
Finally, two NFL teams got together Sunday and put on a real game. I'm
glad the Seahawks won, but I'm sorry the Packers lost - you can't
watch a game in Green Bay and not come out of there with a little
"Go Pack" in you.
I do have to say, though, that after Mike McCarthy went for a field
goal on fourth and a foot, it was poetic justice to see the trite
old NFL "fourth down - time to kick a field goal" formula bite the
Packers in the ass.
(It's worth noting that in the Ohio State-Oregon game there was exactly ONE field goal kicked.)
*********** Extortion: obtaining money, property, or services through coercion
The NCAA-Penn State story came to an end this past weekend with the NCAA all but admitting that it never had a case.
You may remember back when the NCAA handed down its draconian sentence
that I insisted that it had no right to be punishing an institution for
something that was way outside its jurisdiction.
What has transpired in the time since the NCAA hammered Penn State has
been revelations by those on the inside that NCAA President Mark Emmert
misrepresented things ("lied," if you will) in getting Penn State to
accept the punishment.
With a brand-new president on hand, Penn State was in no position to
challenge Emmert's assertion that the college presidents on the
committee discussing the punishment were "out for blood," and that a
"multi-year" death penalty was a very strong possibility - unless Penn
State agreed to the terms he proposed, which included a reduction in
scholarships, a four-year bowl ban, and the right of any of Penn
State's current players to transfer without having to sit out a year.
Oh - and the vacating of 112 of Penn State's wins under coach Joe
Paterno, and the payment of a $60,000,000 fine.
And Penn State had 11 days to decide whether or not to accept. The Mob would have been proud.
Penn State's Board of Trustees caved. They signed a consent
decree, But Penn Staters, members of one of the largest alumni
bodies of any American college, refused to accept that as the
last word, and they fought the trustees. One by one, alumni candidates
who opposed the settlement knocked off members who had voted for it.
Other Pennsylvanians, including the Paterno family, responded with lawsuits.
And now, based on the emails and sworn testimony of members of the NCAA
committee that there never were more than a couple of votes in
favor of a death penalty, not to mention that there was considerable
doubt as to whether the NCAA even had the right to assess penalties in
this case, it became obvious that Emmert was "bluffing" - I call
it lying - and his obtaining concessions from Penn State under threat
of the death penalty was extortion, pure and simple.
Writes Tim Sullivan in the Louisvlle Courier-Journal,
“We are not at all admitting that we didn’t have the authority to impose the penalties,” Emmert said.
Well, not in so many words.
The
NCAA’s proposed legal settlement with Penn State could avert a court
battle over a consent decree the school signed under unseemly pressure
from the governing body for college athletics. And it allows Emmert the
right to continue claiming jurisdiction he might have a hard time
justifying under oath. But if you’re keeping score at home, this case
was a blowout.
By cowardly standing back as its president did great damage to a
proud, upstanding member institution that had never, ever, come
remotely close to violating any NCAA rule, the member presidents
have undermined whatever credibility the NCAA had. At least
as long as Mark Emmert remains on the job, the NCAA is as good as dead.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2015/01/15/penn-state-ncaa-mark-emmert-death-penalty-consent-decree-rodney-erickson/21826697/
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/columnists/sullivan/2015/01/17/tim-sullivans-top-sports-quotes-mincing-words-ncaas-mark-emmert/21930235/
*********** I feel terrible for the Packers' Brandon Bostick. Green Bay people are
decent sorts, so I have no doubt he'll be able venture out and about
without fear for his safety. But he probably should expect to pay for
his own beer.
*********** Used to be, the post-season all-star games were somewhat interesting.
That was back in the days before we knew most of the players -
before every game of every college team was on television, and half the
teams in major college football played in a bowl game; back then, an
all-star game was often our first chance to see some of the guys we'd
only read about.
That was back before players had agents. Before the projected
high draft picks began to be advised by their agents/entourage to
forget the all-star games - to drop out of school and get to work
preparing for the combine.
But we still have things like last week's Medal of Honor Bowl and this
past weekend's East-West Game and the NFLPA Collegiate All-Star
Bowl.
Good for the people putting on these games. Good for the coaches and the players. Noble efforts, all.
But, jeez, the football was lame. Really lame. The coaches,
most of whom had pro experience, couldn't possibly have done a better
job of realistically simulating actual breathtaking NFL
excitement. How about this: Five offensive touchdowns… Two
interceptions returned for touchdowns… NINE f--king field goals.
Let's see. The final score of the Medal of Honor Bowl was 26-14,
favor something called the "National" team. (I have no idea how
they decided on who played on which team - in any of the games.)
Now get this - there were only two offensive touchdowns scored.
And they were both scored by the LOSING team. The winning team
"dominated" with two interception returns and four field goals.
But that game was a nail-biter compared to the East-West game, a 19-3
win for the East. The game MVP was a guy from South Florida who
kicked four field goals.
I actually watched a bit of the "NFLPA Collegiate All-Star Bowl"
(now there's a jawbreaker of a name for you). The game took place
in Carson, California, in a soccer stadium, which might explain why the
announcers kept hammering us with the soccerish "Team National/Team
American" crap.
It might as well have been a soccer game, judging from the handful of spectators on hand.
The NFLPA might be made up of the best football players on the planet,
but marketing experts they're not. In an area of more than 6
million people - they couldn't entice more than a couple thousand
people to come out on a sunny Saturday afternoon and pay a few bucks to
watch a football game.
Give the TV people their due - despite the fact that they had THREE
guys in the booth, the first sideline interview came with 5:22 in the
FIRST period.
The game itself? A 17-0 snoozer. Won by Team National. Or was it Team American?
*********** Coach,
An acquaintance of mine has a son who plays high school football.
From the information available to us, we believe he's the nation's
leading receiver (yardage).
He's got good size, good speed, great hands, and huge "ups" as the kids
say these days. My friend knows I take an interest in the
recruiting process, so he asked me how his son might go about getting
on the radar of D1 coaches. It was surprising to me that such a
prospect would go completely unnoticed. I was going to suggest
that he write a polite letter (or email) to the D1 coaches in the area,
asking if they might consider taking a look. But then I saw what
you wrote about Yale telling you to mind your own business. If a
respected high school football coach can't even get a football program
to just take a look at a prospect, then what chance do any great but
unknown kids have? How do these coaches find players,
anyway? Do they just ask ESPN or Rivals who the "Top Studs"
are? For that matter, is Yale so inundated with NFL-calibre
athletes clamoring for a roster spot that they can just turn away mass
numbers of prospects?
I'm not sure what the next step should be. Time is growing short
now with national signing day a month away. I have sent emails to
recruiting directors for the various scouting services, merely asking
for advice. All have gone unanswered. Do you have any
helpful suggestions? (I would even be willing to accept unhelpful snide
remarks at this point. We just want SOMEBODY to acknowledge that
they've heard us.)
Thank you for your time,
You didn't say where you and your
acquaintance live, so I'm sort of flyIng blind. I hope you'll
understand that my reply is limited by my not knowing anything about
your friend's son, or of the sort of program in which he plays, or of
his grades or other issues.
I'd certainly want to know what
visiting recruiters had to say to his coach if/when they saw his video.
That is, if they do visit - again, I don't know anything about the
level of play.
To make sure I didn't steer you wrong,
I asked a friend who is recruiting coordinator at a top program what he
would suggest and here's what he wrote ---
Best bet: email a link to highlight film to the recruiting coordinator - it will get watched/evaluated by someone in the program
ESPN/rivals/etc is "all nonsense "- "we evaluate the film and go from there"
As for this year's signing day -
the real deadline passed a long time ago for scholarship colleges. They
have been on top of these kids since at least junior year, and
they know by now who they want. No surprises from this point until
signing day. Most likely anybody they're looking at now is for
next year's recruiting class.
If the young man is a senior, a junior college or prep school might be helpful.
Hope that helps some
********** I'm not sure what they were thinking when they signed him
up, but somehow I just don't see Cam Newton moving a lot of Greek
yogurt off the shelves.
*********** Note to Bill Belichick: not saying that you did or didn't
let air out of those footballs, but if you did - what were you
THINKING???? You could have clobbered the Colts using a
rugby ball, a nerf ball or a 16-pound shot.
(For those who argue that a playoff determines which team is the best -
please tell me how a team as bad as the Colts managed to make it that
far.)
Not to say that the Patriots actually deflated their footballs Sunday,
but tell me, honestly - do you doubt that Bill Belichick is capable of
such a stunt? If I told you that Tony Dungy was accused of doing
it, you'd say "NO! Not Coach Dungy!" But Belichick? I can
see the smirk on your face now.
Here's a guy who ought to be compared with the Halases and Shulas
and instead he finds himself, victimized by his own antics,
keeping company with Al Davis. (The Last time underinflation was
an issue, USC got caught doing it against Oregon a couple of years
ago. The USC coach was Lane Kiffin.)
NFL procedure is for the officials to check the balls of each team -
all of them - before the game, and then to hand them back to the
respective teams. From that point, though, the teams are
essentially free to tamper with them as they wish.
Our high school system, in small-town Washington, isn't much
different. Before the game, an official comes and asks to see the
game balls. Our game balls are the same balls we practice with -
we usually have a half-dozen or so of them - so we'll pick out
three to show him. Then, one by one, he'll squeeze them (very
scientific) and if he thinks any of them is maybe a little too
soft, he'll tell us it needs a little more air. We'll either give
it a couple of shots with a pump, or we'll hand the official another
ball, and then he'll mark the balls that he's approved - and away
we go. But from that point, the officials are plenty busy with
other things, and if we were so inclined, we could probably get
away with what the Patriots are accused of doing.
(I can't reveal my sources, but I'm told that Commissioner Goodell has
ordered the air from all the Patriots' balls to be transferred to
specially-made "balloons." After carefully weighing each one, he
and his top aides will "destroy" the evidence by sitting on the
"balloons" and allowing the escaping air to make amusing noises.)
*********** Somebody PLEASE tell the newspaper guys that the football
is supposed to be inflated to between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds of AIR
PRESSURE, and NOT 12.5 and 13.5 pounds' WEIGHT. Good Lord -
a 13-pound football? Just how strong an arm do they think Brady
has?
*********** Funny how we all got to see Marshawn Lynch grabbing his
crotch, but the instant the director realized that we were (gasp!)
watching Russell Wilson and other Seahawks kneeling in a post-game
prayer…
*********** Maybe the third time's the charm…
Steven Rivers, a quarterback like his older brother Philip,
appeared in only four games in two years at LSU. Last spring, with two
years of eligibility remaining, he transferred to Vanderbilt
where, having graduated from LSU, he was able to play right away.
At Vandy, he played sparingly, completing 25 of 63 passes
for 334 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions.
According to the Nashville Tennessean, his decision to transfer
was not a surprise. His last significant playing time came in a
44-17 loss to Georgia in early October when he made a serious mistake
that ended any Vandy chance of winning: according to a coach, he read
his wristband upside-down, interpreting a "60" call that had been
signalled in to him as a "90," and wound up throwing an interception
that was returned 53 yards.
He got on the field just once more after that, appearing in three plays
at the end a 51-0 loss to Mississippi State after the two guys ahead of
him were injured.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2015/01/18/stephen-rivers-to-leave-vanderbilt/21963503/
*********** The story of three-year-old Tommy Morrissey is about as inspirational as you can get…
http://player.theplatform.com/p/BxmELC/gc_player/select/I_6m3VpqoakQ
*********** There's a lot to be said for not specializing in one sport,
and some schools are taking steps to try to bring back the three-sport
athlete.
At Fairfield (Ohio) High School, one of the state's largest schools, AD Mark Harden has seen specialization in his own family.
“Just this year, my 8-year-old was asked to play on a traveling
baseball team that trained year-round and he had to decide whether he
wanted to do that or continue to play football and basketball,” he
said. “Again, my son is eight.”
At Fairfield High, the athletic department has created a special award
for any senior who plays three varsity sports in his or her senior year.
In addition, Fairfield moved this year to waive participation
fees for any student who participates in a third sport during the year.
“I’ve always thought that kids benefit from playing multiple sports
over specialization,” Harden said. “Unfortunately, at a school our size
there is a pressure to focus on just one sport in order to ‘make a
team’ or ‘be a success’ at that particular sport. What is driving this
even further is the availability to play sports or train for them
year-round.”
http://www.nfhs.org/articles/trend-toward-sport-specialization-not-always-best-decision/
*********** From the New York Times… a great defense of high school sports and their lifetime benefits.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/10/21/taking-sports-out-of-school-2/high-school-athletes-gain-lifetime-benefits
.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015- "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!" P. J. O'Rourke
*********** I guess I should be a John Elway fan, but I'm not.
I once was, back when he played at Stanford. My son was there at
the same time and we've still got a great photo hanging on our wall of
Elway at Stanford, autographed "To the Wyatts."
And I rooted for him when he played for the Broncos.
But since he's been running the Broncos, I've wondered when he might
need a shoulder operation after all the self-back-patting he's done.
And now he's thrown John Fox under the bus, even though most onlookers
are pretty sure that wasn't John Fox out there throwing those lollypops
against the Colts.
I've been enjoying watching him go, in the space of a week,
from "Elway: Executive of the Year" to "Elway: A Lot to Answer
For."
*********** Know your history.
You've probably seen the ad on TV.
I sat up straight the first time I saw it - "Admiral Tom Lynch" tells veterans about something called New Day USA.
I wondered - could that be THE Tom Lynch?
The former Superintendent of the US Naval Academy?
The captain of Navy's 1963 football team?
The Navy team that went 9-1 and played Texas in the Cotton Bowl for the National Championship?
The Navy team whose quarterback , a guy named Roger Staubach, won the Heisman Trophy?
Could that be the Tom Lynch who as the center snapped the ball to
Staubach on every offensive play, then, in those days of going both
ways, played middle linebacker, where he was called a "demon on
defense?"
The same.
*********** Sam Knopik, head coach at Kansas City's Pembroke HIll
School, emailed me from the AFCA National Convention, which has been
taking place all this week in Louisville, to say, on the subject of the
free blocking zone, "Coach they are going to eliminate this. The day in
which all kids can play this game is coming to an end."
Not good news. Another win for grass basketball.
I'm guessing that its intent is to outlaw all blocking below the waist. Anywhere.
If it's also going to apply to colleges, it's aimed squarely at Georgia
Tech and the service academies. I've seen that coming for several years
now. It's going to cause them problems. Firing out low
along the line was one of the things that made the 'bone and its
variations a great equalizer, and it's the thing that opponents hate
the most.
For us, there are workarounds. I've anticipated this, and over
the last two seasons we've all but eliminated "shoeshining."
Do you suppose this means that defenses will be required to make
contact above the waist, too? Will it outlaw submarining against
our wedge? Hahaha. Silly man. Not a chance.
*********** Most people are unaware of this, but while the 32
individual NFL franchises are run as for-profit businesses, the NFL
itself is not.
The NFL itself is a non-profit. It is, in fact - hold still, now - a charitable foundation!
Charity? In 2012, Big Football gave away just $2.3 million,
most of which ($2.1 million) went to its favorite charity - the NFL
Hall of Fame.
Charity? Well, they say it begins at home, and the head of the
"charity," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, was paid $29.5 million.
The lengths to which Big Football will go to preserve its non-profit
status (neither MLB or the NBA have it) naturally means taking good
care of the people who make our laws - which means many of them will
will be at the Super Bowl on the NFL's (or a lobbyist's) dime.
http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/01/21/nfl-commish-makes-29-5-mil-a-year-15-times-more-than-tax-free-org-gives-to-charity-more-than-ceos-of-ford-heinz-fedex
*********** The Texas Class 6A Division I final matching undefeated
Allen against Cypress Ranch, had an announced attendance of 52,308.
It’s the second-largest crowd for a Texas high school football game,
trailing only the 54,347 that were on hand for last year's 5A Division
I championship game between Allen and Pearland.
*********** The Black College Football Hall of Fame announced the 25
Finalists that will be on the ballot for induction into the 2015 Black
College Football Hall of Fame.
The Finalists were narrowed down from a list of 180 nominees by a 13-member Selection Committee.
The committee, as well as all living members of the Hall of Fame
classes, will select from the 25 finalists seven members (six players
and one coach/contributor) who will be inducted as the Class of 2015.
PLAYER FINALISTS
Emerson Boozer (RB, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 1962-1965)
Roger Brown (OL, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 1956-1959)
Ken Burrough (WR, Texas Southern University, 1966-1969)
Harold Carmichael (WR, Southern University, 1967-1970)
Richard Dent (DE, Tennessee State University, 1979-1982)
Hewritt Dixon (RB, Florida A&M University, 1959-1962)
L.C. Greenwood (DE, University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 1965-1968)
Harold Jackson (WR, Jackson State University, 1965-1968)
Gary “Big Hands” Johnson (DL, Grambling State University, 1971-1974)
Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd (DL, Grambling State University, 1957-1960)
Leo Lewis (RB, Lincoln University, 1951-1954)
Tyrone McGriff (OL, Florida A&M University, 1976-1979)
Timothy Newsome (RB/KR, Winston Salem State University, 1976-1979)
Jethro Pugh (DE, Elizabeth City State University, 1961-1964)
Ken Riley (QB, Florida A&M University, 1965-1968)
Donnie Shell (DB, South Carolina State University, 1970-1973)
Otis Taylor (WR, Prairie View A&M University, 1961-1964)
Emmitt Thomas (QB/DB, Bishop College, 1962-1965)
Everson Walls (DB, Grambling State University, 1977-1980)
Aeneas Williams (CB, Southern University, 1987-1990)
COACH & CONTRIBUTOR FINALISTS
Joe Gilliam, Sr. (Defensive Coordinator, Tennessee State University, 1963-1983)
W.C. Gorden (Head Coach, Jackson State University, 1976-1991)
Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones (President, Grambling State University, 1936-1977)
Arnett Mumford (Head Coach, Southern University, 1927-1961)
William J. “Billy” Nicks (Head
Coach, Morris Brown, 1930-1942, Prairie View A&M University,
1945-1965)
http://www.blackcollegefootballhof.org/
Wait a minute, I thought, as I looked at that list. That's a heck
of a group of football players. And they aren't in yet? And not
all of them are going to make it? So who in the world IS in?
Good question, Wyatt.
The very first group inducted (in 2010) was about as distinguished a group as you would find in any Hall of Fame…
Buck Buchanan
Junious “Buck” Buchanan, as a defensive end for Grambling State
University from 1959 to 1963, was an NAIA All-American and a three-time
Black College All-America. Buchanan could bat down passes with either
hand, play the run and rush the passer. The first of the prototypical
defensive lineman, combing size, speed, and strength, he was the first
black college player taken as the No. 1 overall pick in an NFL Draft,
when the Kansas City Chiefs selected him in 1963. He was inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 and the College Football Hall of
in 1996.
Willie Galimore
Willie “Gallopin’ Gal” Galimore, as a running back at Florida A&M
University from 1953 to 1956, was all-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference choice four times and was named a Black College All-America
by the Pittsburgh Courier three times. The Rattlers won four conference
championships while Galimore was at FAMU and one Black College National
Championship. He played for the Chicago Bears from 1957 to 1963, before
passing away tragically at the age of 29 in an auto accident in
Rensselaer, Indiana, on July 27, 1964. As FAMU’s all-time leading
rusher, Galimore averaged 94 yards per game and was the Rattler’s first
1,000-yard runner (1,203 yards in 1954).
Deacon Jones
David “Deacon” Jones played defensive end for South Carolina State
University and Mississippi Valley State University from 1958 to 1960.
Blessed with speed, agility, and quickness, the “Deacon” became one of
the finest pass rushers in the business. Yet had it not been for the
chance observation of two Rams scouts viewing films of an opponent, he
might never have had a chance to play pro football. When the scouts
noted that the 6-4, 272-pound tackle was outrunning the backs they were
scouting, they recommended Jones as a sleeper pick. He went on to
unanimous all-league honors six straight years from 1965 through 1970
and was selected to eight Pro Bowls. Jones was inducted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
Willie Lanier
Willie “Honey Bear” Lanier played Linebacker and Offensive Guard at
Morgan State University from 1963 to 1967. He earned first team
All-America honors his junior year and led the Bears to bowl games in
1965 and 1966, winning both and holding opponents to 0 total yards
offense in the 1965 game. His teams won three conference championships
and at one point had a 32-game winning streak. Lanier went on to play
in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs, winning a Super Bowl and five
times being named as an All-Pro Middle Linebacker. He was inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and the College Football Hall of
Fame in 2000.
Walter Payton
Walter “Sweetness” Payton, as a Running Back at Jackson State
University from 1971 to 1974. made every All-American team picked for
college division or division 1-AA teams. In both years Payton was voted
Black College Player of the Year. A tough back, who ran harder than his
size (5’10, 200), Payton was a complete football player -- one who
could run the ball, block, tackle, pass, catch passes, and kick. It was
in college that Payton picked up his nickname "Sweetness" because of
the smooth way he ran. He moved on to a legendary career with the
Chicago Bears, which included a Super Bowl Ring in 1985, nine Pro Bowls
and two NFL Player of the Year Awards. Payton was inducted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame in 1993 and the College Football Hall of Fame in
1996.
Jerry Rice
Jerry Rice, a wide receiver for Mississippi Valley State University
from 1981 to 1984, is widely regarded as one of the greatest receivers
in history on any level. He was named first-team Division I-AA
All-America and finished ninth in the 1984 Heisman Trophy voting. His
27 touchdown receptions that season set the NCAA mark for all
divisions. Rice was named the 1984 SWAC Player of the Year and
Offensive Player of the Year for the State of Mississippi. In addition
to being named first-team Division I-AA All-American, the NEA and
Football Writers’ Association of America both named Rice to their
first-team Division I-A All-America squads. He was drafted by the San
Francisco 49ers with the 16th overall selection in the 1985 NFL Draft
and became arguably the greatest player in NFL history. He was inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 and is a 2010 Nominee
for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ben Stevenson
Ben “Big Ben” Stevenson spent his first years at Tuskegee University
as a prep-schooler, which at the time allowed him to play eight seasons
in all for the Golden Tigers, from 1923 to 1930. During that span, the
team amazingly suffered only two defeats. Stevenson combined speed (9.8
100-yard dash), strength and durability. Scoring on a combination of
long runs and drop kicks, he also played defensive back, earning a
reputation as one of the top pass thieves in the conference. Stevenson
was named to seven consecutive Black College All-America teams,
numerous Negro all-time All-America teams and was voted as the game's
greatest all-around player.
Tank Younger
Paul "Tank" Younger had a record-setting career at running back and
linebacker at Grambling State University from 1945 to 1948. He was
named to the 1948 Pittsburgh Courier All-America team and was the
Tigers’ leader on offense and defense. Younger totaled 60 touchdowns
during his career at Grambling, which at the time was a collegiate
record. After his senior season, he was named black college football's
Player of the Year. Younger went on to a very successful NFL career
with the Los Angeles Rams and the Pittsburgh Steelers, earning Pro Bowl
status five times. He became the first black player to play in an NFL
All-Star Game, and after his playing days, went on to become the
league's first black assistant general manager in 1975.
Eddie Robinson (Coach)
Coach Eddie G. Robinson spent 56 years at Grambling State University,
from 1941-1997. He put together an incredible overall record of
408-165-15 and sent more than 80 players to the NFL and AFL. Robinson
led the Tigers to a streak of 27 consecutive winning seasons from 1960
to 1986, as well as 17 SWAC Championships and nine Black College
National Championships, more than any other HBCU. He was inducted into
the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997 and has received more awards
than any other coach in history.
Jake Gaither (Coach)
Coach Alonzo “Jake” Gaither spent 24 years at Florida A&M
University, from 1945 to 1969, amassing an astonishing record of
203-36-4. His teams won 18 Conference Championships and were Black
College National Champions six times. In a 10-year streak, from 1953 to
1962, his teams went 87-7-1. His “split line T” offense was adopted by
several major college programs, and he retired in 1969 with a .844
winning percentage, the best ever among all NCAA coaches. In 1975 he
was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Bill Nunn (Contributor)
Legendary journalist and NFL Scout Bill Nunn entered the newspaper
business as a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Courier, where he later
rose to sports editor and managing editor. After elevating the
Courier’s Black College All-American team to new heights, Nunn joined
the Pittsburgh Steelers' scouting staff part time in 1967 and then full
time in 1969. A true innovator, he constructed a bridge between the
Steelers and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Five Super
Bowl Rings later, Nunn is among the most legendary NFL scouts of all
time.
http://www.blackcollegefootballhof.org/inductees/2010
***********
Hugh, I was surprised and pleased to hear that an athlete of Kobe
Bryant's stature was telling the world that the AAU Emperor has no
clothes. After six years of parental involvement in girls' AAU
basketball, I can tell you that Kobe's remarks are right on
target. 99% of AAU hoops teams are nothing more than collections
of talented physical specimens with no personal inclination or external
direction toward team play. No team fundamentals are taught and
no individual skills are improved -- it's simply glorified playground
"ratball".
The AAU system is constituted to serve the interests of college scouts,
who can see 40 or so D1 prospects at any given "viewing
tournament". Naturally this is more convenient than having to
scout 1 or 2 athletes at each individual high school game. Since
the whole purpose of AAU ball is to make an impression on the scouts,
the players eschew passing, and each possession usually consists of the
ball being shot by the girl who has brought it down the court.
Woe betide the player who inbounds the ball! In most cases, the
ball will already be in the air in the general direction of the basket
before she has crossed midcourt!
With all this physical ability and all this shooting, AAU scores are
still as low as high-school games (despite much higher overall talent
levels) because shot selection and "basketball IQ" is not valued or
developed. AAU also puts a lot of unnecessary wear-and-tear on
the girls, since a winning team will play as many as five full games in
a weekend tournament. How could they be expected to play a)
safely and b) sharply and intelligently at that kind of fatigue
level? Believe me, it leads to unnecessary injuries.
Evidently the college coaches are OK with this, since a reputation as
an AAU "scoring machine" is a ticket to one of the five "power
conferences", while girls with lesser stats make do with the
"mid-majors".
Having seen this process "up close and personal" for so long, I
understand completely when the USA mens' team is beaten by some
welterweight like Greece or Lithuania. Proper Preparation
Prevents Poor Performance.
In closing, I will say that I have seen two or three AAU girls' teams
that obviously teach fundamentals and play team ball. Each of
them is a thinly-disguised high-school team that has played together
under consistent coaching for years, rather than a collection of
"all-stars". In my opinion, that is the way that off-season
basketball should be structured.
I'll bet Kobe feels the same way!
All the best,
Shep Clarke
Puyallup, Washington
(Shep Clarke knows what he's talking about. His three kids, from
left to right, Wain, Riley and Mac - are triplets, and seniors at
Puyallup's Emerald Ridge High. Each in his or her own field,
they're amazing achievers. Riley, the basketball player, has
earned an appointment to the Air Force Academy; Mac, after playing in
the Seattle Sounders' youth program, will be going to San Diego State
on a soccer scholarship; and Wain, a standout receiver and defensive
end for Emerald Ridge, has committed to play at Hillsdale College, in
Michigan.)
*********** This is not good. Indianapolis Colts' linebacker Josh
McNary, a West Point graduate and former Army captain, has been charged
with rape.
I know nothing other than what has been reported, which leaves me
caught between two stories. I know which one I want to believe,
but as John Adams said, in defense of the British soldiers accused in
the Boston Massacre, "Facts are
stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or
the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and
evidence."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2015/01/14/josh-mcnary-chaged-rape-indianpolis-colts/21770811/
Steve Anderson, who played four seasons at West Point with Josh McNary,
and who was co-captain with him their senior year, told the Middletown
(NY) Times-Herald-Record, "I know his family really well. He was raised
really well. He's always been respectful and a stand-up guy...
For me to honestly believe this took place, I would need a confession
out of Josh. I would literally need to hear it from Josh himself before
I could get caught up in even believing this is close to being true."
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150114/SPORTS/150119634
********** Hello Coach Wyatt:
This is the other Coach Wyatt from Whitmire, SC and I hope that
this email finds you in the greatest of health. I’ve been on your
website looking your 2015 clinic dates. When will you be posting
them? Now that my basketball season is coming to an end (Jan 29),
I will have time to sit down and really study/watch it and won’t have
to rush like I did last year (new coach new system).
I wish you and your staff have a blessed day.
Maurice Wyatt
Coach Wyatt,
NIce to hear from you.
I enter the New Year with a pretty
long agenda of health issues - nothing serious - that I've been putting
off for some time, and dealing with them means I'm going to have to at
least push back this year's clinics. That would mean that if and
when I do any, it may not be until April or even May.
Atlanta is a likely spot, but Durham NC is almost definite.
Hope you can make it. In the meantime, if you come across any questions in your study, fire them off to me!
*********** In Washington, DC, three U.S. Marine recruiters heard a
woman crying for help outside their office, an rushing outside, they
stopped an attempted robbery and chased down one of the perps, despite
the fact that the guy said he had a gun.
"I've been shot at before," said one of the Marines. "It's not as bad as everyone thinks. Most people miss."
*********** Bob Brookover, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has a few suggestions.
First, to the NCAA: restore those 111 wins that you took from Penn
State and Paterno, overstepping your jurisdiction in doing so...
Then, to Penn State: bring back the Paterno statue. With one condition...
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/penn_state/20150114_Time_to_bring_back_Paterno_statue_-_with_a_caveat.html
*********** A blogger named Ben Garrett lights into Urban Meyer. He writes, "Ohio State Won, Urban Meyer Lost"
http://www.bengarrett.net/2015/01/ohio-state-won-urban-meyer-lost/
The piece is very well researched and very well written. The writer
does do a number of Meyer, starting with that last Ohio State
touchdown, and ranging through his tenure at Florida. Unlike the
writer, while I didn't particularly appreciate Meyer's sticking that
last score in there, I would argue that if that's the way he
plays, it was Oregon's job to stop him. My complaint, and one
that he should have to answer for, is that Ohio State had - what? - 85
players dressed for the game, and if anybody was going to try to score
down at the end, it should have been their backups, guys who worked
their tails off all season long and then, in the biggest game of their
lives, never even got on the field. (In case they wondered what
their coach really thinks about them.)
*********** This, from Forbes Magazine's Mike Ozanian…
Is there a bigger hypocrite in college sports than Urban Meyer?
With
Ohio State leading Oregon 35-20 in the college football championship
game last night the Buckeyes had first and goal at the Ducks’ 2-yard
line. There were less than two minutes left in the game. Urban Meyer
could have his quarterback take a knee and Ohio State would be champs.
This
is what Meyer instructed Cardale Jones to do, right? After all, Meyer
talks a big God game and is pals with Todd Gongwer, whose book on
finding the heart of leadership, LEAD…for God’s Sake, struck a chord
with Meyer and served as the foundation for their friendship. The book
is supposedly (I have not read it) about finding a purpose in life
through Christian values.
Or
not. Instead of graciously letting the clock run out and not
humiliating his opponent, Meyer had Jones give the ball to running back
Ezekiel Elliott. Twice! On his second attempt Elliott got into the end
zone with 28 seconds left. Ohio State 42, Oregon 20.
Urban Meyer. Hypocrite.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2015/01/13/was-god-urban-meyers-inspiration-for-running-up-the-score-against-oregon/
*********** Cardale Jones admits he's not ready for the pros.
Actually, it remains to be seen whether he's ready for college.
But he is old enough to be a father. Surprise. An interviewer,
evidently not aware that there are still a few of us who don't think
it's such a great idea for children to be fathering children,
inevitably out of wedlock, gushed as she mentioned his little
four-month-old daughter.
How cute. I suppose it would have been rude - not to mention naive - to ask how his wife was doing.
*********** Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances.
That's the First Amendment to the Constitution. Over and over, as
if they were constitutional scholars, people in all areas of life
mistakenly cite it as giving them a license to say anything they want,
at any time and place they choose, to anyone they want.
But the reality is that very day, we encounter dozens of instances in
which, in one way or another, our freedom of speech is "abridged."
No, not by Congress. Congress couldn't care less whether you
think your wife's new slacks make her look fat. That means you're
free to say whatever you think, right?
Right. But it doesn't mean there aren't going to be consequences,
and it doesn't say anywhere that you are going to be shielded from
those consequences.
So go ahead and tell the 16-year-old girl on the basketball team you coach that she's got nice legs…
Or tell that TSA person that you're going to hijack the plane and fly it into the Golden Gate Bridge…
Or tell those guys sitting in front of you in those silver and black jerseys that the Raiders suck.
Sure, it's a free country. Congress hasn't even given a thought
to passing a law that says you can't sit in Oakland Coliseum and say
"Raiders suck."
No, the founding fathers saw no need to go that far, undoubtedly
believing that common civility - not to say common sense - would
prevail, and would restrain most people. And where it didn't, the
offended party would either take it - or take action. Duelling
was still common when the First Amendment was ratified. Andrew
Jackson once killed a man in a duel for insulting his wife.
After dueling, there was still the old-fashioned punch in the
mouth. That was usually enough to keep peoples' opinions
under control.
But for the most part, what kept things civil was a code of politeness,
a part of the social contract that said, "you just don't say those things."
Recently, the murder of members of the staff of a French satirical
magazine as a result of some cartoons it published seems to have evoked
some serious misunderstanding of the idea of "free speech."
Yes, those "journalists" were free to mock and ridicule a religion and
its sacred figures. Their government guaranteed them that
freedom. But nowhere was it stated that there would be no
consequences for their actions.
No, they should not have had to pay with their lives. Yes,
Islamic terrorists are murderers and must be eliminated (not, as our
faint-hearted presidents like to say, "brought to
justice").
But I personally have grown tired of the way Christians stand,
sheeplike, and allow others to demean and ridicule our faith, and
I personally would have applauded if a Muslim had walked into those
offices and punched the editor in the nose.
Such an expression of disagreement with a journalist would not be unprecedented here in the United States.
In 1950, after the Washington Post's music critic wrote a scathing
review of a young singer's performance, he received a threatening note,
calling it a "lousy review," and concluding, "Some day I hope to
meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of
beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below."
The writer was the singer's father, President Harry S. Truman.
************ Protesters blocked Interstate 93 outside Boston during
rush hour Thursday. Needless to say, people are pissed. In case
the demonstarors, mostly out of towners, have any plans for the
weekend, let this be fair warning:
.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015- "If you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill
*********** I am so bummed.
College football is over for another year;
I've almost certainly seen the last of Marcus Mariota as a college football player;
I've seen the Oregon Ducks lose in the national title game;
And worst of all, I've seen the Ducks play as badly as they've played in several years.
Yes, Oregon played a terrible game, in every respect, but Ohio State
played like the national champions that they are, and the result, I'm
sorry to say, was an ass-kicking.
The Buckeye defense was outstanding, and their offensive line was
overpowering. They absolutely ate Oregon alive with that counter - what
we would call 6-C and 7-C.
Ezekiel Elliott was a beast, and the Buckeyes' coaches did a fantastic
job of keeping Cardale Jones focused for most of the season after J.T.
Barrett was promoted to starting QB, and then of getting Jones
game-ready.
***********
Kudos to the two coaches in the National Championship game - they went
for it on fourth down more times than all the NFL coaches would
in an entire season. (Maybe I exaggerate, but not that
much.) Imagine - just one k--king field goal the entire game!
*********** Evidently even a national championship game still isn't
enough to draw an audience on its own merits. They had the Ohio
State band on hand, one of the finest in all creation, but oh, no
- they still had to go out and hire some weirdass trio to "perform" the
national anthem.
*********** Just when I'd almost forgotten Bill Belichick's
filming of opponents' practices (BTW, I'm willing to bet that before he
"destroyed the tapes", Commissioner Goodell made himself a copy and
stashed it in a safe somewhere) and recognize him as one of the great
NFL coaches of all time, he goes devious on me.
Yeah, yeah, I know. That little stunt he pulled against the Ravens with players' jersey numbers is
legal, blah, blah, blah… Tom Brady even snidely suggested that the
Ravens ought to study the rule book.
Yes, what he did was legal. But I put it in the category of a violation of "unwritten
rules," things that are legal but just aren't done. Baseball is full of
them (stealing when you're x number of runs ahead, etc.), but football
has its share - things like pretending to take a knee and instead
throwing deep.
Most such travesties, such as forward fumbles, sleeper plays and hidden
ball plays have pretty much been outlawed by now, but for some strange
reason the NFL still allows this to happen by leaving a couple of
archaic rules on the books - rules that date to the earliest days
of pro football, when teams had some 33 men on their rosters, and it
was common for many players to go both ways.
Here's the legal basis for what Belichick did…
Rule 5, Section 3 Changes in Position
REPORTING CHANGE OF POSITION
Article
1 An offensive player wearing the number of an ineligible pass receiver
(50–79 and 90–99) is permitted to line up in the position of an
eligible pass receiver (1–49 and 80–89), and an offensive player
wearing the number of an eligible pass receiver is permitted to line up
in the position of an ineligible pass receiver, provided that he
immediately reports the change in his eligibility status to the
Referee, who will inform the defensive team.
Now, with 53-man rosters (plus 10-man "practice squads") and
specialization to the point where they keep guys around just to rush
passers on third down, there's no reason on God's earth to keep such
outdated rules. They serve only to confuse officials, opponents
and fans, as well as providing temptation to the sort of guy who likes
to play fast and loose with the rules.
It especially bothers me that whenever these changes of position are
employed, it's always to exploit an opponent's pass
defense. Good God, the rules aren't tilted heavily enough toward
the passing game as it is. (The Patriots certainly gave us a look at
the future of the pro game Saturday, "rushing" seven times
for 14 yards against the Ravens.)
I can't imagine anyone wanting to keep those rules on the
books. All the NFL has to do is adopt the high school
rules.
They're quite simple and easy to understand, and difficult to take advantage of.
NFHS: Rule 7, Section 2, Article 5
(a) At the snap, at least seven A (Offensive) players shall be on their lone of scrimmage.
(b) At the snap, at least five A players on their line of scrimmage must be numbered 50-79
There
are certain exceptions for "scrimmage kick formations" (in which the
presumed kicker is at least seven yards deep) so that teams can
substitute an eligible-numbered guy as a deep snapper as well as
lighter, faster players to take the place of big offensive linemen in
kick coverage.
Rule 7, Section 5, Article 6
The following players are eligible pass receivers:
(a)
All A players eligible by position and number include those who, at the
time of the snap, are on the ends of the scrimmage line or legally
behind the line (possible total of six) and are numbered 1-49 or 80-99.
I'm thinking that the reason the NFL hasn't changed is the same reason
why it didn't employ our overtime - someone else thought of it before
they did, and not even the NFL could fool people into thinking
otherwise.
Belichick wasn't the first to try this "find the eligible man" shell game.
A few years ago, some high school coach in California got the bright
idea of lining his QB up seven yards deep. This made him
technically in "scrimmage kick formation," but his purposes was not to
kick. The rule permitted him to have 11players on the field with
eligible numbers, leaving opponents - and officials - trying to guess
who was eligible on any given play. He called it the "A-11"
offense.
Although legal according to the letter of the law, it was a violation
of the spirit of the law, and the idea was quickly put to rest, by
state associations.
To the NFL: even with our high school rules, swapping numbers isn't that difficult.
At North Beach, we took a page from Stanford, which
complied with the college rule (which is similar to the HS rule) by
having at the ready an extra set of shoulder pads inside a player's
alternate jersey, and then, as needed, simply exchanging one set of
jersey/shoulder pads for the other. That was much quicker than
having to exchange jerseys while leaving the shoulder pads on.
We adopted the idea this past season for a player who backed up on our offensive line and also at tight end.
*********** I don't recall where I first heard of it, but I had to pass
along links to "The Dash" - a poem by Linda Ellis. (The "dash"
refers to a person's life - to what's represented by the dash, on a
tombstone, between the dates of a person's birth and death.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVLqkExH5ww
http://www.linda-ellis.com/the-dash-the-dash-poem-by-linda-ellis-.html
*********** In Fuzzy Thurston's memoirs, "What a Wonderful World," the
Packers' all-time great guard tells a story of persistence and belief
in one's self - and of the influence one great person can have on one's
career.
Although Thurston had been such a good linemen that in his senior year
he was named his conference's most valuable player, he came out of
little Valparaiso, and was a relative unknown to the pros.
Nevertheless, he was drafted by the Eagles in the fourth round.
As he points out in his book, with only 12 teams in the NFL at the
time, that was a pretty big deal.
He was cut by Eagles after their final exhibition game, and returned
home to his hometown, Altoona, Wisconsin, to learn that he'd been
drafted again - this time, though, by the United States Army.
After 21 months in the Army, much of the time spent honing his football
skills playing a good brand of service football ("better than I had
seen at Valparaiso") he signed with the Chicago Bears for a $500
bonus. But after three exhibition games he was traded back to the
Eagles - who then cut him on the Wednesday before the season-opener.
When he was contacted by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL, he
headed north. He was now married with an infant son, and out of
work,
In Winnipeg, he had the good fortune to encounter one of the game's
legends, and to be the beneficiary of an astounding act of selflessness
that sent him on his way to an NFL career.
"My time in Canada was short, but valuable. I was there a week, but
before I signed a contract, the Bombers' head coach, Bud Grant, called
me into his office. Grant said the Baltimore Colts called and inquired
about signing me to a contract. He said he hated to do it, because he
really wanted me, but he felt I needed to go to Baltimore and
give it another try. He told me he felt I belonged in the NFL, and that
if I was given another chance I could have a good career."
Signed to the Colts' taxi squad, he was activated after six weeks, and
played on special teams and backed up guards Alex Sandusky and Steve
Myhra, and earned a championship check as the Colts defeated the Giants
in the NFL title game often referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever
Played."
Prior to the next season, he left Wisconsin the day after his second
son was born, and drove all night to get to Colts' camp, where on his
arrival he found a note on his door reading, "See Coach in the morning."
In the morning, he was informed by Baltimore coach Weeb Ewbank that the
Colts needed another linebacker, so they had traded him to Green Bay
for Marv Matuszak.
"I didn't understand why he couldn't have told me this before I
got in the car and drive eighteen hours." Thurston wrote. "I was
pissed off."
So he turned around and drive back to Wisconsin, to Green Bay, where a
new coach named VInce Lombardi had just arrived on the scene to try to
turn around a woeful team that had just gone 1-10-1.
And the rest, as they say…
*********** Since many of you are teachers, you will probably
appreciate the writing of Peter Greene who refers to himself as "A
grumpy old teacher trying to keep up the good classroom fight in the
new age of reformy stuff." My friend Paul Herzog put me onto him.
Guy's pretty good. Here, he writes about the fallacy of
evaluating teachers based on their students' test scores.
So Sorry, Minneapolis Teachers
As
promised, this morning brought the publishing of teacher ratings,
including VAM scores, with a map and a pearl-clutching interview with
the district's superintendent. The gap is shocking, alarming,
inexplicable.
I'm
speaking of course of the apparent gap between Superintendent Bernadeia
Johnson's brain and reality. How does somebody with this gigantic an
inability to process data end up as a superintendent of a major school
system?
Superintendent
Johnson is shocked-- shocked!!-- to find that under this evaluation
system, it turns out that all the worst teachers are working in all the
poorest schools! Hmmm-- the poorest schools have the worst results.
What's the only possible explanation? Teachers!! (Pause for the sound
of me banging my head on the desk.)
“It’s
alarming that it took this to understand where teachers are,”
Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson said Friday. “We probably knew that,
but now have the hard evidence. It made me think about how we need to
change our staffing and retention.”
No, Superintendent Johnson. What's alarming is that you don't understand a damn thing.
Here's
what you have "discovered." If you rip the roof off a classroom, the
teachers that you send to teach in that classroom will get wet when it
rains. You cannot "fix" that by changing the teacher.
But
apparently that's the solution being considered. "Okay," says
Superintendent Johnson. "Over here we have teachers who stay dry and
their students stay dry, so we'll put this dry teacher in the classroom
without a roof and have a dry teacher for the wet rooms. That'll fix
it."
And
Superintendent Johnson appears willing to go further. "Maybe we just
need to fire the wet teachers and replace them with new, dry ones," she
may be thinking. [Sound of me banging my head against the concrete slab
of my basement floor.]
If you want a dry teacher in the room, build a damn roof on it.
Look.
Look look look look look. We already know that poverty absolutely
correlates with test results. Show me your tests results and I will
show you where your low-income students are. Poverty and lack of
resources and underfunding put these students in a classroom without a
roof, and anybody you put in there with them will be a wet teacher.
Build a damn roof.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/11/so-sorry-minneapolis-teachers.html?spref=fb
**********
If you're an old-timer like me and you wish NFL players would start to
look the way they did it the old days, you might see some
potential uses for this guy in West Reading, Pennsylvania...
http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-berks/police-surprised-dad-threatens-man-with-daughter-cuts-off-dreadlocks/30541404
*********** I came across a few great reactions by Bostonians to the
news that Boston will be the USOC's candidate for the 2014 Olympics…
As
someone who lives and works in Boston and deals daily with traffic
gridlock, decaying bridges and tunnels, and a subway from the 19th
century, where a large portion of the population lives in poverty, i
was thinking the other day that what this city really needs is a good
velodrome...
If you plan on taking the Green Line to the games, you'd better get on a train now.
*********** Ask yourself - honestly - would you want your
son (or grandson) playing a game in which an opponent can lay in wait
for him and, at no risk to himself, while your kid's helpless to defend
himself, knock him senseless?
So why should we expect anyone else who's seen an NFL defensive back
launch himself at a defenseless receiver and then watched officials
split hairs trying to determine whether contact was made by shoulder or
helmet, or whether the point of impact was the shoulder, or neck, or
helmet of the targeted victim, allow his (or her) kid to play a
game like that?
It started in the NFL, and as inevitably happens with the most
repugnant aspects of the NFL, it's seen on TV by kids and very quickly
copied. And, left unchecked, it's going to kill our game.
What would you say to someone who tells you this is why he doesn't want
his son playing football? What can you say?
Even boxing allows a man the opportunity to defend himself.
This isn't boxing, though - this is much worse. HItting a
helpless opponent requires no courage. Tucking the arms and hands
and launching one's self into a helpless opponent is about as
courageous as sucker-punching him. It's the knockout game in
shoulder pads.
I recommend two changes:
(1) Hands must lead - hands must be above or ahead of the shoulders or
it's not a tackle. It's illegal contact. Fifteen yards from
the spot.
(2) Time for a penalty box. None of this suspension crap, where
coaches can prepare a substitute. Guy's out for a specified period of
time - while his team plays a man short. Watch how fast
coaches - and players - change their ways.
What kind of sport allows a player to deliberately injure an opponent? Boxing? Whatever happened to boxing, anyhow?
*********** For a nation with so little respect for history, our media
sure do seem to spend an awful lot of time talking about a politician's
"legacy." As if, two or three years from now, anyone will even remember
any of these clowns.
*********** By the time the first NFL game was under way Saturday, the North Dakota State- Illinois State game was already over.
Too bad, because it was by far the most exciting game of the weekend.
Geez, I hate watching those Patriots play. It's like watching
seven-on-seven with a handful of big linemen cluttering things
up. It's a travesty to watch Brady stand there.. and stand there…
and stand there.. and throw passes. It's pussified football, and
I fear that it's the way the NFL (and, ultimately, the rest of
football) is headed.
Think of it - 7 (SEVEN!) running plays for 14 (FOURTEEN!) yards, for
God's sake. Is there any easier way to make a living in American than
as a Patriots' running back?
No, you can't count Brady's six ventures out of the pocket (for ZERO
yards) as "running plays" even though the stats guys do. Believe
me, there's no way the Patriots ever intend for Brady to run the
ball. What - and have him actually play football?
I don't want to wish anything really bad on Brady or anything, but it
sure would be a little more like the football we grew up with if he'd
have to take a serious hit every now and then.
*********** I've flown a lot in the past 20 years or so, and I've seen
a few "emotional support animals" on flights… but a f--king
50 pound pig?
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/27505135/pig-us-airways-plane
*********** I'm partial to David Shaw, not only because he's a Stanford
guy and he's the Stanford coach, but also because I knew his dad,
Willie. Willie Shaw was on Rich Brooks' Oregon staff when I'd
work at Oregon's camp back in the 70s and 80s. Great guy. A
career coach. I think that if he'd been born maybe 20 years
later, he'd have been a head coach himself (if you get my drift) but
his legacy is his son and what he's been able to accomplish at Stanford.
From AFCA Weekly...
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2015- "Take notes on the spot: a note is worth a cart-load of recollections.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
***********
Only in California, where when it comes to managing peoples' lives,
state government could give the USSR a run for its money…
This year, California's middle school and high school football coaches
will be required by STATE LAW to limit contact in practices.
The law prohibits high school and middle school teams from
(1) having full-contact practices lasting longer than 90 minutes in one day
(2) conducting more than two full-contact practices per week during the season and
(3) holding contact practices during the off-season.
The intent, of course, is to limit concussions and other serious head injuries.
The state doesn't require coaches to be USA-Football certified. Not yet.
http://www.prep2prep.com/feature.aspx?ArticleID=3223
*********** This one was sent me by Chuck Lovinski, younger brother of my late friend, Frank "Pope Franjo" Lovinski.
Chuck, a native of Wheeling, West Virginia, was a QB-running back
for WVU in the mid-60s, when Jim Carlen was the Mountaineers' head
coach, and his offensive coordinator was a young Alabamian named Bobby
Bowden. Another QB, trying to come back from a leg injury, was a
6-3, 200 pound kid from Farmington, the home town of the legendary Sam
Huff, named Joe Manchin.
Chuck Lovinski remains a BIG Mountaineer fan, and a big fan of the
Mountain State in general, and he sent me link to an amazing
story:
The Coaching Cradle That Claims 15 National Titles…
From one small area in north central West Virginia have come four coaches who among them have won 15 National Championships:
Fielding Yost, Fairview - six (all at Michigan)
John McKay, Shinnston - four (all at USC)
NIck Saban, Monongah - four (one at LSU, three at Alabama
Jimbo Fisher, Glens Falls - one title at Florida State
Other areas of the Mountain State have produced such outstanding
coaches as Rich Rodriguez, Lou Holtz, Ben Schwartzwalder (won the 1959
national title at Syracuse), Greasy Neale (coached at Virginia,
West Virginia, Yale, and won the 1948 and 1949 NFL titles coaching the
Philadelphia Eagles).
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2314854-the-coaching-cradle-that-claims-nick-saban-jimbo-fisher-and-15-national-titles?utm_campaign=tsiphone&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=teamstream
*********** We lost two country music greats last week:
LIttle Jimmie Dickens
"May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfYFx6MOTYU
George Hamilton IV.
"A Rose and a Baby Ruth,"
"Abilene"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RF3nbreBE
Get this - from the Nashville Tennessean - George Hamilton
was the rare country star to actively support progressive politicians
in the 1960s, and his abiding Christian faith led was the bedrock of
his belief in civil rights and racial equality. In 1968, he and wife
Tink attended Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy's
speech at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym. Kennedy was late for the speech,
and event organizer John Seigenthaler asked Mr. Hamilton to entertain
the assembled crowd.
"He said, 'Well, it just happens I have my guitar in my trunk,'" Seigenthaler told a Vanderbilt Hustler reporter.
Mr. Hamilton played for 45 minutes, and he considered "opening" for Kennedy a highlight of his musical career.
*********** Kobe Bryant says European basketball players are better
because in their system they learn (and work) on fundamentals, instead
of in our AAU-driven system based on assembling teams of talented
players and playing lots and lots of games.
"I just think European players are just way more skillful. They are
just taught the game the right way at an early age. ... They're more
skillful. It's something we really have to fix. We really have to
address that. We have to teach our kids to play the right way."
The problem, as he sees it?
"AAU basketball. Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It's stupid.
It doesn't teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up
having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this
fancy crap and they don't know how to post. They don't know the
fundamentals of the game. It's stupid."
Obviously, Kobe has never seen one of these NFL "camps" that profess to teach young kids "fundamentals."
Or an NFL practice, where they're way too busy to practice tackling.
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/12114523/kobe-bryant-says-european-players-more-skilled-americans-blames-aau
*********** Not that I've ever been in the San Antonio Spurs' locker
room, but I' told that there's just one sign on the wall - in English,
French, Serbian Spanish and Turkish.
It's a quote from Jacob Riis, a Danish-American social reformer:
"Look at a stone cutter hammering away
at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing
in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two. . . . It
was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before."
It's what's meant by "pounding the rock."
*********** Maybe it's been bought by Muslims.
Either that or somebody on Fox News just mispronounced the name of
Hartford's paper, the Courant ("Current"), calling it the Harford
Kor-AHNT.
*********** Well. Jameis is off to the NFL, and now Florida State can get back to just playing football. Maybe.
My wife asked me what I'd do if I were coaching at Florida State with
all that's gone down the last couple of years - the criminals and
near-criminals on the team, and their apparent coddling by the team,
the school athletic department and the local police.
I wish I could say that I'd hand in my resignation and walk out.
Nowadays, I would.
But realistically, that would have been a much younger and far more
ambitious me, and caught in that situation, I'm afraid I might have
sold my soul and said nothing, knowing that there weren't many jobs out
there as good as the one I had.
I'm human, and I know it, which is one reason I count myself fortunate
to have found myself in that sort of moral dilemma just once, working
for a totally amoral man in Philadelphia, and to have had my problem
resolved for me when our entire league went out of business.
*********** “It was a blessing to be able to coach him. He’s one
of the unique players that I’ve ever had the privilege to coach. He
embodies what you as a coach want as a person, a student and a player.
He’s a genuine and honest guy.”
That was Jimbo Fisher. It really was. He was talking about Jameis Winston. He really was.
*********** Where did ESPN find this Marty Smith guy? I can't
tell if he's any good because his unkempt appearance puts me off.
The guy just doesn't... look... football. Truthfully, he looks
like a guy they found holding a cardboard sign at a freeway on-ramp,
and threw a sport coat on him and stuck a micorphone in his hand.
*********** The Big Guy in the Orange Sweater may have committed an ethics violation
Writes Cindy Boren, Washington Post…
(Chris)
Christie flew to Dallas and accepted the ticket to the game at the
expense of the Cowboys’ owner, who just so happens to have a business
relationship with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The
state’s Code of Conduct says that governors “may accept gifts, favors,
services, gratuities, meals, lodging or travel expenses from relatives
or personal friends that are paid for with personal funds.”
The
sticky issue is that the governor of New Jersey, along with the
governor of New York, controls the Port Authority, and Legends
Hospitality, a company in which Jones has an interest, has been given a
license to run an observation deck atop One World Trade Center, which
is operated by the Port Authority.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/01/06/chris-christies-trip-to-dallas-on-jerry-jones-dime-raises-ethics-concerns/
*********** Bob Stoops fired his top offensive guys, but insists that they're not being made scapegoats.
Hmmm.
40-6, Clemson.
OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OFFICES, DAYS LATER:
"Well, heads we blame it on the offense, tails we blame it on the defense.
"Oh, wait. Can't do that. My brother coaches the defense..."
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/oklahoma-soomers-bob-stoops-fires-coaches-jay-norvell-josh-heupel-010615
*********** Army's Black Lion Award winner, Joe Drummond, has been
selected to play in Saturday's Medal of Honor Bowl Game in Charleston,
SC
In the team huddle following practice, Coach Gailey was very specific
about this week’s goal. “You guys are here to make the NFL, not to
party. The fun can wait.”
http://www.mohbowl.com/team-rosters/
*********** John Simar and I have been on a search for Hanson Ely. Was he or was he not an Army football player?
John, who retired last year after a long tenure as athletic director at
New Jersey's Lawrenceville School. is a former Army football player and
coach, and when we first met he was serving as President of the Army
Football Club, the association of former Army football players.
In that position, John played a major part in the Army Football Club's sponsorship of the Black Lion Award at West Point.
In his years at Lawrenceville, John became quite aware of Dennis Mahan
Michie, a Lawrenceville grad and the "father of Army football."
Army's MIchie (MY-key) Stadium is named in his honor. Thanks to
his considerable efforts, Army was able to put together a team of
cadets, only three of whom had ever played a game of football, to face
a much more experienced Navy team.
The date of the game was November 29, 1890.
Navy had been playing since 1882, and, understandably, won the contest, 24-0.
But the loss actually had a bright side: so determined was the
Army command to avenge the defeat that as hard as the Army football
players had had to work to make that first meeting with Navy
possible, they had no difficulty at all in arranging for a second
meeting the next year. And at a time when Cadets rarely left the
academy grounds for any reason, they even gained approval to
travel to Annapolis to play the game.
For that game, the Cadets were prepared. Having learned that former
Yale star Harry Williams had landed a teaching job in nearby Newburgh,
Michie and the officer in charge of football managed to persuade
Williams to volunteer his services as a coach. Making the trip
over Storm King Mountain to West Point twice a week, Williams worked
wonders, and the outcome of the 1891 contest was a 32-16 Army victory
and the assurance that, yes, this would, indeed, be a rivalry- and one
of college football's greatest rivalries at that.
But John Simar also came across a very interesting connection between that first Army football team and the Black Lions.
He wrote me,
My
grandfather kept a journal when he served with the 29th Division (the
famous National Guard Division that was assigned Omaha Beach in WWII)
in France in WWI.
When
I was researching WWI for a booklet I did on him for my family I read
John Eisenhower's (Ike's son) book called "Yanks". He has a
chapter on Cantigny. That was a crucial engagement for the
American army for 3 reasons: it deprived the Germans of an important
observation point, it showed the Germans that the American army was not
just a rabble, and most importantly it added to Pershing's argument for
an independent American command which saved many American lives.
Our troops would have been parceled out to French and British divisions
and would have been used as cannon fodder.
The
Black Lions are the 28th Infantry Regiment which was part of the 1st
Infantry Division in WWI. The 28th was assigned to take the town
of Cantigny, France from the Germans and was commanded by Col. Hanson
E. Ely.
Eisenhower
says, "Ely was considered a formidable warrior. A quarter century
earlier, at 6'2 and 220 pounds, he had been one of West Point's first
football players, and since then had lost none of drive and stamina."
The
regiment did such a magnificent job that the French named the Regiment
the "Lions of Cantigny", thus the patch and the French lion.
This led John on a search of West Point records - was Hanson Ely actually "one of West Point's first football players?"
Alas, there is no mention of him in the Army media guide.
But wait - I dug into my library and found a book by Tim Cohane
entitled "Gridiron Grenadiers," a history of Army football, published
in 1948.
Author Cohane wrote about preparations for the first game of football
an Army team ever played - against Navy, on November 29, 1890...
"Cadet Hanson Ely, who would have
played on the team if he hadn't broken an ankle in the riding hall,
asked Professor Francis J. Kernan if the academy would provide
uniforms. The professor laughed."
So if Tim Cohane's research - as well as John Eisenhower's - is
correct, Hanson Ely, commander of the 28th Infantry at Cantigny, the
battle in which the Black Lons earned their name, may not have been
able to play in the first Army-Navy game, but he was on the first Army
football team, and would have played had he not been injured.
Hanson
Ely, “Ely of Cantigny,” held many awards for bravery. At
his retirement in 1931 he possessed the Distinguished Service Cross,
the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Croix de Guerre
with five citations and other foreign decorations.
During his forty years in the Army he campaigned in the old West, Mexico, Cuba and the Philippines.
He
was one of the first American officers sent to France, in May
1917. His first work there was the study of the trench warfare
methods of the Allies.
In
World War I he rose from the rank of Major to that of Major
General. He received his “Cantigny” nickname on May 28, 1918,
when, as a Colonel commanding the Twenty-eighth Infantry, First
Division, he led his men at the battle of that name in France in the
first purely American offensive of the war.
*********** Dad - not sure if you saw this. Great piece about the LA Rams. Love, Ed
The biggest tease in this latest NFL news isn't that another rich guy
is planning to build another stadium on another perfect site like
Hollywood Park.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-rams-plaschke-20150107-column.html
I've been reading quite a bit about
Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Rams, and his plans to go ahead and
build a stadium in Los Angeles, on the site of old Hollywood Park Race
Track. He's going to do it (he says) on spec, fully aware that he
needs approval of two-thirds of the NFL owners in order to move.
I would expect there to be resistance
to his play, because I think the NFL would prefer to sell a brand-new
franchise to somebody and place it in the LA market and distribute the
money among the members - what do you suppose an expansion
franchise in the Los Angeles market would bring?
Otherwise, if they do let the
Rams/Chargers/Raiders (the three teams most likely to move there
because the taxpayers in their current cities won't build them new
stadia) move - what's a franchise worth in a much smaller, much
less glamorous area that (in the NFL's estimation) needs a stadium and
wouldn't build one for the last guy?
For sure, Kroenke is smart to take
advantage of the fact that no matter who else wants to get in there, he
owns that name. In my opinion, "Los Angeles Rams" has value.
Let me tell you, those Rams of the
late 40s-early 50s were damn good! They were so far ahead of the game
in so many respects. Only the Cleveland Browns rivaled them in
the (relative) wide-openness of their offense. They and the
Browns are the only teams of that era that you could look at today and,
allowing for the fact that they'd be in black-and-white, see
evidence of today's NFL offenses. (Ironically, the Rams moved from
Cleveland to LA because with the AAFC - and the Browns - coming to
town, they could see that they were going to be Number Two in ttheir
own market.)
It's popular nowadays to say that pro
football "didn't arrive" until the Colts played the Giants in 1958, but
the Rams were playing in front of huge crowds well before that. (And
so, it should be added, were USC and UCLA. Never let anyone tell
you that the Southland isn't great football country.)
I remember my college coach, who lived
in LA in the off-season, telling me in 1960 what a big deal the Rams
were - how every tavern within 50 miles of LA would run buses to the
game - way before the guys back East ever figured it out.
*********** I can remember when coaches weren't permitted to send in plays. Not sure I'd want to go back to those days.
But I can also remember when coaches couldn't call time outs on the
sideline, and I'd love to go back. For God's sake, do we want to
turn our game into a Madden with more life-like players?
C'mon, coaches - Is it absolutely impossible for you to communicate to one of your players your desire for a timeout?
Does anyone remember this year's Army-Navy game, when Army lined up for
a 4th-and-one at midfield and managed to make it? And then
the referee said that Navy had called a timeout before the play?
And then replay showed clearly that the ball had been snapped while
Navy Coach Ken Niumatololo was still communicating his intentions to
the official on the sideline?
Back in 2004, the NFL rule book was changed to allow coaches to call
time out from the sideline. Up until then, it could only be
called by a captain, on the field. Coaches argued convincingly
that the change would save precious time spent trying to get the
attention of the captain and then trying to get the attention of an
official.
And then, this. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes.
In a 2007 game, as the Raiders' Sebastian Janikowski lined up for
a game-winning field goal attempt, Denver coach Mike Shanahan quietly
informed an official near him on the sideline that he was going to be
calling a timeout. Then, just before the ball was snapped,
Shanahan called it.
The time-out was too late to stop the center from snapping the ball,
but not to nullify the outcome of the play - which, as it turned out,
was a field goal.
When Janikowski missed the re-do, Shanahan was seen in some circles -
the darkest circles of shady coaching - as a genius, and there we
are. Now, it's become a routine part of a coach's strategy.
Said Mike Pereira, the NFL’s head of officiating at the time, “It’s the
unintended consequence of a good rule change. I don’t think any of us
projected it would be used this way. It just doesn’t seem right.”
One proposed tweaking of the rule - prohibiting the calling of a
timeout once the kicking team is set and the offensive linemen are in
their three-point stances - has proved unhelpful, as more and more
teams eschew the three-point stance entirely.
Said Giants CEO John Mara, back in 2007, “The next thing you’ll see is
a coach walking up to the official and acting like he’s going to call
it, and then he doesn’t do it. Do we want to have that in the game? I
don’t really like the way it looks, to have the kicker kick the ball
and you think the game is over and the players run out onto the field
celebrating and it’s, ‘Wait a minute,’ and you’re lining up again.
“We have other sportsmanship issues we have had to deal with -
taunting, excessive celebrations - and this just adds a whole other
level to it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/sports/football/21icing.html?_r=0
TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2015- "When you strike at a king, you must kill him." Ralph Waldo Emerson
************ Found a sure-fire way to keep from putting on those Christmas pounds.
Get sick. Don't eat.
Just lie around and watch bowl game after bowl game after bowl game.
(I actually slept through one bowl game, something I normally do only
during NFL games.)
It'd been a long time since I really got whacked like that. spent most
of the time between Christmas and New Year's going back and forth
between the bowl games on TV in one room and The Kohler Porcelain Bowl
in the other.
*********** Rest in Peace, Stuart Scott.
*********** In case you didn't see the big guy in the orange (or
whatever it was) sweater up there in Jerrah Jones' box in Dallas,
that was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, doing his best to piss off
all those GIants', Jets' and Eagles' fans back home…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/04/the-cowboys-won-a-playoff-game-chris-christie-awkwardly-hugged-jerry-jones-to-celebrate/
*********** After watching 2-3 weeks of bowl games, the NFL game
is bo-o-o-o-ring. I've said it so often that it's becoming cliche,
but there's more excitement in a weekend of college
football than an entire NFL season. And if you watched even half
of all the bowl games, you will have seen enough football to be immune
to all the bullsh-- the media will be putting out over the next few
weeks to tell you how exciting the NFL playoffs are.
Of course, if you find watching quarterbacks dropping back into the
pocket, play after play after play, you may actually find it
exciting. By far the most exciting point of this entire past
weekend was when the officiating crew, either through incompetence or
corruption, decided that what they initially called pass interference
against the Cowboys wasn't actually pass interference after all.
Most surprising to me was that here we've come to expect referees to
lecture us at considerable length on the appropriate rule and why it
does or does not apply, and so forth, and in this case, the referee
went totally silent on us.
*********** I've never made a secret of the fact that I despise the NFL and what it's been doing to our game, and this past week did nothing to change my opinion.
First, there was the the unbelievable Suh decision, all but rewarding
dirty play by allowing Suh to step on an opposing quarterback's ankle
and then rescinding his one-game suspension, even though what he did
was nearly identical to the act just a week or so earlier that cost
teammate Dominic Raiola a game. Yes, yes, I know - Suh was fined
$70,000. Brutal. Guy made $12.5 million this past season, which
means $70,000 works out to maybe 10 plays a game.
Moral - you're so worried about domestic violence that you need to get back to focusing on what's going on INSIDE your game.
Then,
there was the "tackle" that knocked the ball out of Ted Ginn's arms in
the Panthers- Cardinals game. Our local paper actually ran a
photo of it on the front sports page. Hey, kids - don't listen to
what your coach tells you! Do it the way the pros do! Just
like the guy in the picture! (And Moms, make sure your little
boy's coach is USA Football-certified!)
Moral - You need to spend less
time trying to tell high school coaches how to coach and get back
to teaching your own players . Start with tackling. Try to
remember: "Heads Up!"
Actually, I predict that the next big NFL scandal will occur when a
player dies of a broken neck after tackling with his head down and the
public demands to know why, since initiating contact with the crown of
the helmet in the open field (as shown in the photo at left) was
officially made illegal in 2013, the officials have seldom flagged
it. It's not likely that coaches are doing anyting to discourage
it, either, which makes them liable, whether they know it or not.
Worse yet, it could happen to a high school kid, and when it does,
nobody will even think to make the connection between what he did and
what he saw NFL players doing.
Finally, there was the unconscionable "whoops!" call in the
Cowboys-Lions game. ("Whoops! That was the Cowboys we
called it against! Let's pretend it didn't really happen.
Who will know?")
Remember back when the refs were on strike and the league went with
"replacement refs" - and the "real refs" union spent money pointing out
the mistakes made by the replacements, as if that would never happen
with them?
Moral - If you want people to start doubting the integrity of the game, tell officials to do this more often.
*********** They're saying that the Dallas-Detroit
interference/non-interference call may have been the result of the
NFL's brilliant idea to use "all-star" crews in playoff games, rather
than crews that have worked together all season.
Tell me about it. The worst-officiated game I've ever coached in was a playoff game worked by an "all-star" crew.
*********** Johnny Manziel was a gift from God to guys like me
who enjoy ridiculing all the knuckleheads in the NFL but hate to appear
to be constantly hammering on black guys.
So, thank you, God, for Johnny Football - a white guy who may be the biggest knucklehead of them all.
One writer to the Cleveland Plain Dealer said he knew Manziel's story
about being out with three friends from his hometown (Kerrville, Texas)
instead of throwing a party had to be a lie because "you can't find
three people in Kerrville who like him."
*********** Are you listening, Johnny Manziel?
Bill Simmons...
I
wholeheartedly believe that NFL quarterbacks succeed for the following
reasons: “talent” (25-30 percent) and “everything else,” which covers
leadership, charisma, personality, work ethic, intelligence and not
doing basically anything that Johnny Football does (70-75 percent).
You’re not just the QB in pro football; you’re the CEO. You’re setting
a week-to-week, day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute example. If
your teammates don’t believe in you, if they don’t follow you, if they
don’t totally care about protecting you or fighting for you, then
you’re done. If you can’t crouch in a crunch-time huddle — down four,
three minutes left, 80 yards to go — and look your 10 dudes in the eye
and say with complete confidence, “WE ARE SCORING RIGHT NOW,” then
you’re never making it in (Cris Carter voice) the National Football
League.
*********** I will defend the safety of my players…forever.
thus tweeted Jim Mora, UCLA coach, lamely explaining his rude,
ultra-quick "handshake" with BIll Snyder following the Alamo
Bowl.
Uhhh, Coach… Somehow, I don't see how disrespecting the sort of coach
you can only hope to become did a whole lot to defend the safety of
your players, seeing as how the game was over.
Actually, allowing for my bias toward K-State and my general dislike of
UCLA, I had the impression that overall, UCLA played borderline-dirty
ball. As just one example, Miles Jack, a Washington kid and
a very good player, seemed to take a lot of questionable shots
and be right in the middle of any entanglement.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/jim-mora-bill-snyder-ucla-bruins-kansas-state-wildcats-alamo-bowl
*********** Keep an eye this one…
“I have no plans to coach anywhere other than UCLA at this point."
That was Jim Mora, quoted by the Orange County Register's Ryan
Kartie. Before the Alamo Bowl. At that point.
*********** Florida QB Jeff Driskel, who threw for 23 touchdowns in his
career at Florida, has been given his release and is free to transfer.
Because he has already graduated, he will be able to play right away at his new school.
In seven games this past season, Driskel threw for 1,092 yards with nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
*********** Despite years and years of Title IX and sharing the
wealth, despite all the female sports that colleges have added -
invented, even - we're no further along than this:
The AP Female Athlete of the Year is a 13-year-old girl who pitched on a boys' Little League baseball team.
And that's progress?
Would they in all seriousness have done that to male athletes?
Look - I've seen UConn basketball and I wonder where Breanna Stewart
finished in this bogus poll. And wasn't there anyone on Penn
State's NCAA volleyball championship team who was worthy? Wasn't
there a college soccer player or sprinter or swimmer?
Or were they just getting tired of giving the award to Serena Williams every year?
If I were a woman and either a coach or an athlete, I would be pissed
at the way the AP lost sight of the meaning of its own award, and let a
feel-good story that played out over a couple of weeks last summer
enable a child to barge ahead of thousands of outstanding female
athletes at the apex of their sports.
BOWL ROUNDUP
*********** What kills me about the likelihood of "The (ESPN) Playoff"
slowly killing off the other bowls is the sight of all those excited
kids after their teams ended their seasons with big bowl wins.
Not that fans give a sh--, but the more The Playoff expands, the more
we approach the ugliness of a pro-type system which ends with only one
winner.
*********** Note to Rich Rodriguez: talented or not, don't you
have to wonder if a guy really is smart enough to be your quarterback
when he can't remember that he doesn't have any more timeouts left -
and with time for (maybe) two more plays he runs and lets himself
get tackled?
*********** I consider myself a connoisseur of college fight songs, and
I like Arizona's "Bear Down", but their band sure lost me with
the new, revised - and dumbshit - version they played, over and
over, in the Fiesta Bowl.
************
TRIGGER WARNING… Thankfully, the camera cut out before our little
children were forced to see the Michigan State kids bowing in prayer.
But next time I wish they'd give us a little warning first.
***********
Sure wish I'd started counting all the false start penalties they
called during bowl season. Ridiculous.
*********** How far they've fallen… Her ties with ESPN cut, one-time sideline dream girl Erin
Andrews has been reduced to starring in Probiotics commercials.
*********** PLAY OF THE BOWL SEASON - 6-G/7-G, by Air Force and Georgia Tech
BOWL BROADCASTS
*********** ESPN had, oh, four weeks to prepare for the Rose
Bowl game, but I'm going to bet they put off preparations until the
last minute and then pulled an all-nighter. It showed.
Maybe someone should have told them about how fast-paced the Oregon
offense is, because they were so busy with their usual between-play
horse puckey that they missed the starts of play after play. They
totally whiffed on Oregon's two-point conversion after their first
score because, you know, everybody just routinely lines up for a place
kick, right?
They could have made do with a whole lot fewer cameras, because
with all those cameras there's too much temptation for the director to
sue them all. As a result, in addition to the usual closeups
between plays, we got a lot of ground-level shots and cutesy-poo shots
from strange angles.
*********** Once Chris Spielman and the play-by-play guy with him got
on the idea that Boise State's defense was tired they wouldn't let go
of it.
*********** The guys at the whatever bowl who kept saying how great it
was of Kevin Sumlin (to leave that "student-assistant" in the locker
room)...
What coach wouldn't have made sure that guy vanished?
Not once did they ask what the guy, not by any definition a real coach,
was doing right in the middle of everything, and how he could have hit
two different West Virginia players without the coach finding out about
it until halftime, as he claimed.
*********** Enough, already. Stop with this "VAH-tech," "LAH-tech" crap. I'm just waiting to hear, "WAH State"
*********** It was Stanford 35, Maryland 7, and with 10 minutes
left in the 3rd quarter the talk up in the booth switched from the game
to The Playoff
Before that, they noted at one point that there was only one
Californian on the Maryland team. Helpfully, they provided us an
explanation: "Maryland is not a West Coast team…"
Oh.
*********** BIG BOWL WINNERS
OREGON - Tsk, tsk, FSU. You done got exposed. All that work
covering up for Jameis, and he goes belly-up on you. Literally.
OHIO STATE - There can no longer be any doubt - Urban Meyer can coach.
THE BIG TEN - Ohio State, MIchigan State and Wisconsin all came up winners on New Year's Day.
THE PAC 12 - Not lookin' so soft, now, are they, all you guys who've been poll-parroting what you heard on ESPN?
TCU - Definitely good enough to have been in - even won - "The Playoff"
CLEMSON - Good enough to hammer Oklahoma.
GEORGIA - Do they EVER run out of good running backs?
GEORGIA TECH - Paul Johnson demonstrated that no, people haven't
caught up with his offense. Other guys may be tempted to run that
triple option, but there just aren't many guys out there who know how
to teach it and coach it
STANFORD - Where do they find all those good athletes with good grades?
All those big linemen? All those tall receivers? We know
where they found Christian McCaffrey - his dad, Ed, played at
Stanford (before the Denver Broncos). You have got to see this
kid. He is incredible
BOISE STATE - Broncos developed yet another kid from the Northwest into a winning QB
ARKANSAS - It's been a long road back from the Petrino debacle, but the
way the Hogs took it to Texas it looked like some of Bielemaa's
best Wisconsin teams. (How about the 8-man line they threw up there in
a short yardage situation?)
USC - Scary. And now the QB's coming back.
MICHIGAN STATE - They were so far out of it against Baylor that I
switched the bigger TV over to Wisconsin-Auburn. That game was
OVER. Whatever Harbaugh is getting, Mark Dantonio should
get at least $1 more.
WISCONSIN - It might have been a "meaningless bowl" to you, or to the
experts in the media, but not to those kids from Wisconsin.
TENNESSEE - Young team. Great young QB returning. Explosive.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE - Ditto
BIG BOWL LOSERS
FLORIDA
STATE - Pretenders (And these guys took a spot from TCU?). Classless losers at that. Most
of the team simply walked off the field after the game. Somebody needs
to give that bunch a lesson in how to act like men. Even when you
lose. Happens to other people all the time. Seven of your opponents
lost to you by six points or less, Noles, and they all had to deal with the
pain and disappointment of losing when they went and shook your hands. Yes, it hurts like
hell, but congratulating your opponent is part of the price you pay for
being able to be a part of our great game, and shame on the head
coach who doesn't teach that. Which brings us to the head coach. Guy
just had his ass kicked, admittedly a very rare thing for any Florida
State coach, and he barely acknowledged his opponent before going
straight to spin mode: "We beat ourselves." "It was the turnovers."
(Yeah. Like Oregon didn't have anything to do with that.) And then
there was the superduperstar Heisman Trophy winning quarterback
himself, who sounded as if he had just finished playing in
another game on another planet and had magically materialized for the press
conference: "We were never stopped at all."
The BCS - If we still had it, Alabama would be playing Florida State for the BCS National Championship game
TOSTITOS - Haven't seen a single ad yet. Just doesn't seem like a national championship without 'em.
THE BIG 12 - Thank the Lord for TCU and Oklahoma State
THE SEC - Still strong, of course. Still may have the most NFL
prospects. But at least we won't have to listen to all the bragging
about the SEC's claimed superiority until the start of next season.
THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI - Mississippi State and Ole Miss both finished
their seasons embarrassed in their bowl games. At one point,
earlier in the season, they were 1-2 in the nation.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA - UCF, MIAMI, FLORIDA, FSU - all losers
OKLAHOMA - A really, really bad performance. The Oklahoma people
can't be happy, but what are the odds that they could do better than
Bob Stoops?
TEXAS - Sorry, but I just don't see any of that Charlie Strong magic yet
TEXAS A & M - Yes, they won, but a team that allows "student
assistant coaches" (whatever they are) to get close enough to the
action to hit opposing players might have other problems.
NORTH CAROLINA - At least they don't have to worry about getting
back to their studies. There'll be tutors to cover for
them. If any of them are taking actual classes, that is.
Speaking of North Carolina… Butch Davis was all over the ESPN studio
shows… He was head coach at UNC while a lot of the academic
scandal was taking place, but he swears he had no idea it was going
on. Right. Believe me, as paranoid as most major college
football coaches are, it would be a total shock to learn that we'd
actually come across one of them who wasn't aware of every tiny detail
of his operation. http://abc11.com/education/butch-davis-defends-decisions-he-made-at-unc/434982/
IOWA - I like Kirk Ferentz and I admire what he's done at Iowa, but
memories are growing short. Jim Harbaugh's entry on the Big
Ten scene means the league will become even more top-heavy, and
it's going to be quite a job for Iowa to get back up there with the
Ohio States and Michigan States along with - bet on it - the Michigans,
Nebraskas and Penn States.
WASHINGTON - Got waxed in the Cactus Bowl - and theyre losing their three best defensive players.
XAVIER WOODSON - Arkansas State linebacker. Despite stopping Toledo on
a fourth-and-goal play, Arkansas State found itself facing
a first-and-goal from the one after Woodson was penalized and ejected
for "threatening an official." WTF? NOBODY seems to know
what he said.
http://fanbuzz.com/story/arkansas-state-player-ejected-for-threatening-an-official/
PLENTY-OF-EMPTY-SEATS -IN-THE-BACKGROUND BOWLS -
Poinsettia Bowl - Navy-San Diego State (Pretty bad when it's played in San Diego, a big Navy town at that)
Heart of Dallas Bowl - Lousiana Tech - Illinois
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl - Air Force-Western Michigan (I thought the idea was to get Midwest people to go someplace warm)
Orange Bowl - Georgia Tech - Mississippi State - Full house - if you didn't count the empty upper deck
Outback Bowl - Wisconsin-Auburn- Pretty good crowd down below, very good job of keeping the TV cameras off the upper deck
St, Petersburg Bowl - NC State - UCF
Quicklane Bowl - NC-Rutgers
Bahamas Bowl - Western Kentucky-Central MIchigan - I played in front of bigger crowds in Finland, for God's sake
Armed Forces Bowl - Pitt - Houston
DECENT CROWDS
Sun Bowl - Arizona State-Duke
Music City Bowl - LSU-Notre Dame
Cotton Bowl - Baylor-MIchigan State
Peach Bowl - TCU-Ole Miss
Holiday Bowl - USC-Nebraska
Fiesta Bowl - Boise State-Arizona
GROUNDSKEEPER AWARD FOR BAD FIELD CONDITIONS -
Yankee Stadium - This one is way out in front of the competition, well
on its way to retiring the trophy. Every year they try resodding after
the baseball season's over, and in the Northeast, that just doesn't
work. As the TV cameras showed - but the announcers seemed to be
instructed not to comment on - the loose turf caused the BC
placekicker's plant foot to slip, costing BC the extra point in OT that
cost them the game.
Levi's Stadium - Stanford vs Maryland - not that it should have surprised anyone:
From the San Jose Mercury-News:
The
stadium's field proved to be an embarrassment, as the Niners had to rip
out the entire brand-new $1.4 million turf system after the first
preseason game in August because it wasn't playable. The team is
currently on its fifth field after having to re-sod parts or all of the
turf about once per month during the season, and while players publicly
said they were generally fine with the playing surface, big divots and
brown patches continued to be visible during Niners games.
St Petersburg's Indoor Stadium, or Dome, or whatever it's called
- That damn artificial field looked as if it needs a haircut last
year, and it still needs one. Only the turf in the Syracuse Carrier Dome rivals it for crummy appearance on TV.
Bronco Stadium (or is it Albertson Stadium?) - Whatever. It's
that damn blue field in Boise. Okay, okay. Enough,
already. The novelty has run its course. You've had your
fun. We all know who you are now. Now, can we all go back
to playing football on green fields?
************ In today's world, if Lee Harvey Oswald had walked right up
to President Kennedy and shot him, most bystanders would have been
shocked, but the ones who weren't would have had the presence of mind
to go immediately to their pockets. Not for their guns, but for
their phones. So they could start their cameras going.
No one would have gone after the assassin. The video camera is that pervasive a part of our culture.
Most youth football coaches have known this for some time. Most high school coaches, too.
But not big-time college coaches. Not all of them. There
are still some who don't seem to understand that they're constantly
on-camera - and much bigger, much better, and much more
professionally-operated cameras at that. And those cameras do not
always show a coach to best advantage. In fact, where coaches are
concerned, they're gotcha cameras.
So somebody - please - remind Rich Rod and Brian Kelly that they're
constantly on-camera, and the camera, and the creative types who
manipulate the video, have the ability to make a guy look like
pretty bad.
The montage of Rodriguez' angry looks that the creative guys stitched
together was near-defamatory, but what do they care? They were
going for laughs.
Kelly, despite his short temper, is pretty safe most of the time,
because most of his appearances are on Notre Dame's own network
(NBC), but he's got to be more careful when the Irish are on
another network.
(It's too late to give this advice to Mike Stoops, whose sour sideline
demeanor almost surely contributed to his being fired at Arizona.)
***********
I'm currently reading Fuzzy Thurston's book, "What a Wonderful
World." It's a fun read. I've had it around for a while but
it languished on the shelf.
What got me started reading it was a photo my friend Tom "Doc" HInger,
of Winter Haven, Florida sent me after Fuzzy died. It was taken
in 2009, during a trip a small group of Black Lions made to a Packers'
game in Green Bay.
The trip was largely arranged by author David Maraniss, a Wisconsin
native who spent a lot of time in Green Bay doing research for "When
Pride Still Mattered," his award-winning biography of Vince
Lombardi. Like me, David's an honorary Black LIon.
Think he doesn't have an in with the Packers? You try getting a
personalized tour of the Packers' facilities. And pre-game
sideline passes. And a visit with Packers' President Mark
Murphy. And 14 seats - together - at a game in Lambeau Field.
The photo was taken on a Friday. That's Doc on the left, David in the
middle, and, of course, Fuzzy. Because I was coaching, I didn't
arrive until Saturday afternoon, and, sadly, I missed out on
meeting Fuzzy.
Wrote Doc, "I’ll always treasure this picture. By the way, the book he is signing is the one you own."
(It's inscribed, "To Coach Wyatt Go Pack Go! Fuzzy Thurston 63")
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 - "If a belief is too serious to joke about, it's probably wrong." Sandra Day O'Connor
********** Just finished The U, Part 2 - excellent doco, really well done. A few things:
1 - Cannot believe the sheer amount of talent that program had. The
names are unbelievable: Vilma, Shockey, Moss, Ed Reed, Bryant McKennie
and on and on...
2 - For the most part, the players were all pretty well spoken.
3 - Forgot about Ken Dorsey. What a winner.
4 - Never liked Butch Davis (not sure why) but really came across well in this.
5 - Larry Coker was about what I thought - the accidental tourist stumbling into a good situation.
6 - Forgot about that bogus pass interference in the Ohio State game. That was terrible.
7 - Didn't realize that Nevin Shapiro was such a little weasel. I
thought he was an older guy a la Madoff and the other Ponzi guys.
Anyway, superb piece of sports fillmmaking.
Ed Wyatt
Melbourne, Australia
MY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS WISH FOR
FOOTBALL COACHES EVERYWHERE (First printed
in 2000, and printed every Christmas since): May you have.... Parents
who recognize that you are the football expert; who stand back and let
you coach their kids; who know their kids' limitations and don't expect
them to start unless in your opinion they're better than the other
kids; who don't sit in the stands and openly criticize their kids'
teammates; who don't think it's your job to get their kid an athletic
scholarship; who schedule their vacations so their kids won't miss any
practices; who know that your rules apply to everybody, and are not
designed just to pick on their kid...
... A community
that can recognize a year when even Vince Lombardi himself would have
trouble getting those kids to line up straight... Opponents
who are fun to play against; who love and respect the game and its
rules as much as you do, and refuse to let their kids act like jerks...
Students who want to be in your
class and want to learn; who laugh at your jokes and turn their work in
on time... Freshmen who listen carefully,
hear everything you say and understand all instructions the first
time... Officials
who will address you and your kids respectfully; who know and respect
the rulebook; who will have as little effect on the game as possible;
who will let you step a yard onto the playing field without snarling at
you... Newspaper reporters who understand
the game, always quote you accurately, and know when not to quote you
at all...
A school district that provides
you with a budget sufficient to run a competitive program... A superintendent who schedules teachers'
workdays so that coaches don't have to miss any practices... An athletic director
who has been a coach himself and knows what you need to be successful
and knows that one of those things is not another head coach in the
AD's office; who can say "No" to the bigger schools that want you on
their schedules; who understands deep down that despite Title IX, all
sports are not equal... Assistants who
love the game as much as you do, buy completely into your philosophy,
put in the time in the off-season, and are eager to learn everything
they can about what you are doing. And if they disagree with you, will
tell you and nobody else.. A booster club
that puts its money back into the sports that earn it, and doesn't
demand a voice in your team's operation... A
principal who
figures that when there is a teachers' position open, the applicant who
is qualified to be an assistant coach deserves extra consideration; who
doesn't come in to evaluate you on game day; who makes weight-training
classes available to football players first, before opening them up to
the general student body; who knows that during the season you are very
busy, and heads off parent complaints so that you don't have to waste
your time dealing with them; who can tell you in the morning in five
minutes what took place in yesterday afternoon's two-hour-long faculty
meeting that you missed because you had practice... A faculty
that will notify you as soon as a player starts screwing off or causing
problems in class, and will trust you to handle it without having to
notify the administration... A basketball coach
who encourages kids to play football and doesn't discourage them from
lifting, and doesn't hold "open gym" every night after football practice... A baseball coach who encourages kids to play
football and doesn't have them involved in tournaments that are still
going on into late August... A wrestling coach who encourages kids to play football and doesn't ask your promising 215-pound sophomore guard to wrestle at 178...
A
class schedule that gives you and at least your top assistant
the same prep period... Doctors
that don't automatically tell kids with little aches and pains to stay
out of football for two weeks, even when there's nothing seriously
wrong with them... Cheerleaders who
occasionally turn their backs to the crowd and actually watch the game;
who understand the game - and like it... A
couple of transfers who play just the positions where you need
help... A country that appreciates the
good that football - and football
who encourages kids to play football and doesn't ask your promising
215-pound sophomore guard to wrestle at 178... coaches - can do for its young men...
A chance,
like the one I've had, to get to know coaches and friends of football
all over the country and find out what great people they are... The wisdom to "Make the Big Time Where You Are"
- to stop worrying about the next job and appreciate the one you have ... Children of your own who love,
respect and try to bring honor to their family in everything they do...
A wife (like mine), who understands
how much football means to you... Motivated,
disciplined, coachable players who love the game of football and
love being around other guys who do, too - players like the ones I've
been blessed with. A nation at peace - a
peace that exists thanks to a strong and dedicated military that
defends us while we sleep. Merry Christmas.
For all assistants - A head
coach whose values and philosophy you can espouse
Sounds like the
things I have - may you be blessed to have them, too.
And one special wish
for those coaching brothers who find themselves "between positions" at
this time of year - May your Christmas joy not be dimmed by the fact
that you are temporarily without a team, and instead brightened by the
belief that your next job is just around the corner. (And if my
experience is any indicator, it will be a far better one than the last
one, anyhow!)
************
Maybe Hollywood should have left the North Koreans alone and just
kept sticking it to Christians. Or business people. Or the
military. And left it at that.
That's how it's been making all those millions that it kicks in at
Democratic Party fundraisers. Trouble is, it got so rich and fat
picking on people with no way of fighting back, that it forgot
that there are some very nasty people in this world who won't just sit
there and take it.
*********** Although they had the nerve to announce a "crowd" of 18,000
in Boise, the truth is that when the Air Force-Western Michigan game
came on, I thought we were a day early, watching the
walk-throughs. The actual crowd was maybe one-tenth what they
announced. Combined with the rainy day and that dreary-ass blue
field, it was a sorry sight to see and a hell of a way to advertise
Idaho potatoes. Or Boise.
Maybe even the people in Boise are starting to get sick of that damned blue field.
*********** The way Louisiana-Lafayette plays in the Louisiana Bowl
every year, if the Ragin' Cajuns could get into a major conference (not
that LSU would ever let than happen) and then arrange to play all their
games in the Super Dome, they'd be national title contenders.
*********** What's the deal with the orange rams' horns on the CSU helmets?
*********** BYU and Memphis both really fought hard. And if you tuned
in late, the game that went on before the fight was pretty good, too.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765664840/BYU-bowl-game-ends-in-brawl.html
*********** So after three or four weeks of playoff games, it's down to
North Dakota State against Illinois State for the FCS title - and now
all they have to do is hang around another two or three weeks until
they play - on January 10.
No doubt they'll give their players a week or so off before getting
back to work, but otherwise they've been going since early August.
And it won't be more than a couple of weeks after the title game before
they start in on their conditioning programs to prepare for spring ball.
I'm not a proponent of paying players, but this crap plays right into
the hands of those who argue in its favor. When the NCAA enters into
these little money-making deals the last people they think about is the
players.
*********** Years ago, I was standing on the sidelines in Minersville,
Pennsylvania watching a play just a few yards to th right of me, being
careful to stay out of the way, when from the left of me a player from
the opposing team crashed, feet first, into my leg. He'd been
sent flying by a blocker, and after the collision, he lay on the ground
writhing in pain. I remember him saying, "My leg's broke!"
I hate to say it, but I was too concerned with my own leg to worry
about his. I hope he was okay. As it turned out, I was
fine. I couldn't believe it. The game went on, and so did
I. I still have a little dent in my quad, just above my knee, but
otherwise I never had any problems.
Not every coach is that lucky. A surprising number of them have been injured as a result of sideline collisions.
Anybody else watch South Alabama coach Joey Jones get kicked in the face in the Camellia Bowl?
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/12/watch_as_south_alabama_head_co.html
*********** I found it rather unusual that South Alabama's QB, Brandon
Bridge, is not from Alabama. He's not even from the South.
Or from the USA, for that matter.
He's from Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. Kid has
amazing arm strength. I saw him throw deep, accurately, while
off-balance, with just a flick of his wrist.
*********** Don't know whether you saw it, but when it got down to
crunch time, Air Force got into a double-tight, double-wing set and ran
the crap out of their fullback. They especially liked what we'd call
6-G and 7-G, and when thy faced a fourth-and-one with two minutes to
play, they ran a wedge at 3.
They had 283 yards rushing, and nearly 200 were gained by their two fullbacks.
*********** Last weekend was a good one for quarterbacks from Clark County, Washington.
The MVP of the NAIA championship game between Southern Oregon and
Marian - also the NAIA Player of the Year - was Austin Dodge, a
local kid, from Vancouver, Washington's Skyview High.
http://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/index.ssf/2014/12/austin_dodge_leads_southern_or.html
The starting QB for Colorado State, Garrett Grayson, stood out in a
losing cause against Utah. He's from Vancouver's Heritage High School.
*********** One of the NFL pre-game shows did a feature on head
coaches' attire, and how it's regressed from the days of coats and ties
to today's Nike-issued gear and raggedy-sleeve hoodies. My wife
asked me if that's why they never had Gatorade baths back when Lombardi
and Landry coached. Hmmm. I never gave that one much thought.
Actually, as an indication of the change in the coach-player
relationship brought about by increased roster sizes, league expansion
and a stronger player union, I have no doubt that even if Vince
Lombardi (or Tom Landry) had deliberately wore a shirt that said "Soak
Me!", there still wouldn't have been any takers.
*********** You could make a very good case for the Lions' Jim Caldwell as NFL Coach of the Year.
You could also sell him a trunkful of counterfeit Rolex watches. He's that gullible.
He said he believes his center, Dominic Raiola. Dominic told him
that he didn't mean to step on the Bears' Ego Ferguson's ankle
Sunday. Well actually, I wouldn't call it a step. I'd call
it a stomp. It was ugly and it was dirty, and it was dumber
than owlsh-- because it was in clear view of the cameras.
And his coach still believed him when he said he didn't mean to do it.
"I believe what Dom told me," Caldwell said, "that it was inadvertent,
but I can also see why obviously it's being reviewed by the league and
everybody's taking a real good look at it. You can also see the other
side of that as well."
Well, "the other side" happened to be the one the NFL saw, which
happened to be the one I saw - and it's going to cost Mr. Raiola a
one-game suspension.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12067760/dominic-raiola-detroit-lions-suspended-one-game-pay?addata=module-b
*********** What do you suppose will happen with the libs at the U of
Michigan if/when they hire Jim Harbaugh at $8 million a year?
Talk about income inequality - he'll make more than the governor, the
state's two senators and 14 congressmen and the president of the
university - combined. You could probably throw in every mayor of
every Michigan town and still have money left over.
The professors and the useful idiots known as students will protest, of
course, and it won't make a bit of difference if you point out that
none of Harbaugh's salary is coming out of their pockets, and not a
dime of taxpayer money is going to go to pay it, and no poor people are
going to sleep outdoors tonight just because the Michigan athletic
department happened to to lose its senses.
If facts mattered to those people, they wouldn't have bought all those "Hands up, Don't Shoot" tee shirts.
In the meantime, there probably isn't an athletic director in the
country who hasn't already called Michigan and said, "Don't… do…
it."
*********** Give Jimmy Clausen credit. He played a decent game against the Lions.
But he sure did take us back to his spoiled brat days when he jumped up
indignantly after being on the receiving end of a helmet-to-helmet hit.
Trouble was, the foul in question would never have happened except that
he was in the process of assuming the "please don't hit me" pose by
hooksliding, and he made his decision to hookslide so suddenly that the
Lions' defender, Ziggy Ansah, who'd been aiming at Clausen's legs,
wound up hitting him in the head.
Clausen, who appeared to pull his helmet off while on the ground,
jumped up as if to take on Ansah. Big mistake, Jimmy.
Thankfully for him, nothing happened.
Ansah was penalized, and the announcers went way over the
top: "Completely unnecessary," said Tweedle-Dum.
"That is the hit that has to be removed," said Tweedle-Dee.
I could just as easily have joined in with, "and hooksliding is the play that has to be removed."
Look - if you don't want your quarterback running out of the pocket - you don't have to send out five receivers on every play.
And then, as if to shove it in the faces of those of use who deplore
the way they put skirts on quarterbacks, on the very next play Clausen
ran toward the sideline and, once outside the "tackle box," flipped the
ball out of grounds (something that so many of the greats of the game
never lived to see) and survived another play with the big boys.
*********** Coach,
No shortage of topics for the news today I bet. Between Cutler,
Pelini, and Harbaugh things were buzzing in the Midwest. It was
too easy on the talk show hosts around here.
Pelini was a gift from God. The stuff almost writes itself.
Cutler/Clawson is next up. Can't wait till Sunday.
Harbaugh is still kindling. It is going to heat up big time.
Ultra-liberal U of M professors are going to raise hell about
that $8 million a year salary. It doesn't matter that not a
nickel is coming from the taxpayers or out of the general fund.
Facts don't matter to them. That's why they're going around
wearing tee-shirts that say "Hands Up Gon't Shoot."
The Michigan/Harbaugh thing almost cannot happen. You think the
market for coaches’ salaries is crazy now, wait until all the raises
are through across the nation after this courtship. It will be an
NFL issue also.
John Bothe
It will probably happen.
One more sign that big-time college athletics have very little to do with the colleges they claim to represent.
One more way that the Big Five + ND separate themselves from the hoi-polloi. Paying the players will be the next step.
*********** The hubbub about the CIA and its interrogation tactics is
nothing new. Periodically our country goes through periods
similar to this one, when some on the left express the nation
that "playing fair" with our enemies is more important than our
national security.
Many years ago, the late, great William F. Buckley, Jr. was amazed that
Americans would compare our CIA with the Russian KGB, writing in his
memoirs,
"To say that the CIA and the KGB engage in similar practices is the
equivalent of saying that the man who pushes an old lady into the path
of a hurtling bus is not to be distinguished from the man who pushes an
old lady out of the path of a hurtling bus: on the grounds that, after
all, in both cases someone is pushing old ladies around."
*********** I know you saw this ad during the Army/Navy game. BIG improvement over "A Global Force for Good"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ThImmlN-I8s&app=desktop
Shep Clarke
Puyallup, Washington
This Navy ad really says something to the people of America about what all the armed forces do for them, 24/7.
It wouldn't be a bad theme, either, for a series of promos on behalf of America's police.
But, gosh - if they're going to be
busy defending us, I wonder if they'll still be "committed
to the fair treatment of all."
*********** One of the greatest sports announcers of all time was
the legendary Red Barber. You think Vin Scully's good? (I do.) Red
Barber was his mentor.
Red Barber always kept a three-minute egg timer in front of him in the
broadcast booth. He'd start the timer at the beginning of the game, and
every time the sand would run out, he'd give the score and flip the
timer over - and repeat this process throughout the game.
That was many, many years ago. Over the years I've worked alongside
radio guys who might not have known about Red Barber, but carried on
his egg-timer legacy, making sure not to leave their listeners in the
dark.
I thought of Red Barber on Saturday.
I turned on the R & L Carriers Louisiana Bowl Saturday (8 AM
Pacific) and then my wife and I walked the dogs. When we came
back, the game was well under way. We knew there was a
score (other than 0-0), since the announcers mentioned that somebody
was "a touchdown behind," but they didn't say who, and without
any graphics on the screen (even when they cut to commercials), and
without any mention of the score by the announcers (who, believe me,
were not otherwise short on words), we didn't find out what the score
was until halftime.
In the second half, the best we ever got was, "It's a two-possession game with nine minutes to go…"
With all ESPN's money (Disney's actually) you'd think they could afford a few egg timers.
***********I 'm interested in your take on the forfeit. If one
believes, as I do, that the value of sports, particularly football, is
the life lessons learned: the importance of preparation, teamwork,
punctuality ( I still keep my watch 3-4 min fast, 5 you factor
in),competitiveness and perseverance etc, so what are you teaching with
a white flag? Except perhaps preparation for the Iraqi army
I think that the school's decision was
in keeping with the belief fashionable today among parents and those
charged with "educating" our children is that they must not be allowed
to suffer injury, slight, insult, discomfort, embarrassment, indignity,
defeat, etc., etc.
Like you, I disagree with that
philosophy. As we all know, life has its downs as well as its
ups, and I really do hold with the argument that competitive sports
teach kids how to rebound from setbacks. Also, that nothing in
life is promised - that as often as not, you'll work your ass off and
still get beaten.
This happens to be a school which only
two years ago was a powerhouse (at our level, that is) but underwent a
change in coaches that hasn't worked well for them, and their team
numbers were at the point where the certain ass-kicking that we would
have delivered might have ended their season.
Given today's concussion hysteria and
a growing anti-football climate, I suspect there were parents waiting
for a good reason to pull their kids out of football and sign them up
for soccer.
Welcome to the Feminization or America.
C'est la vie.
.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2014 - "Don't
design your offense to attack their defense; do something so well that
they have to get out of what they normally do in order to stop you."
Dick Vermeil
*********** After all these years, I still don't know what to think about Jay Cutler. I don't know why, exactly, but I think I like the guy,
He does seem snake-bit: whenever he appears poised to lead the Bears to the Promised Land, something seems to go wrong.
What I do know, though, is that his career is in serious trouble if he's being benched in favor of… Jimmy Clausen!
Jimmy Clausen, for God's sake, whose career high point was showing up
(in a limousine) for his letter-of-intent signing ceremony (at the
College Football Hall of Fame), and who at last count was still
four short of the four National Championship rings that he promised
he'd win at Notre Dame. Not even noted QB guru Charlie Weis could
make that happen.
(Many Bears' fans are also ND fans. Wrote one: "If Jimmy Clausen is
starting, I'd like to see Charlie Weis call the plays. Then the Bears
would score negative points.)
**********
I forgave Michael Vick long ago for the dog fighting. I mean,
when other athletes get off light for some pretty awful transgressions,
Vick paid a heavy price. Went to jail - for nearly two years.
Regardless of what kind of football player you think he is, what's
happened since he got out is proof to me that Michael Vick is a man of
character.
When he got out of jail and returned to the NFL, he owed creditors nearly $18 million.
He could have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would have absolved
him of all his debts, but instead, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,
and worked and put himself on a special budget in order to pay
back what he owed.
And now, six year after he got out, Michael Vick is almost debt-free.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/12/michael-vick-jets-debt-paid-back
*********** Whew. That Bo Pelini sure can burn the bridges, can't he?
In a farewell meeting with his former players, the former Cornhusker
boss said some highly uncomplimentary things about his former boss,
using some vulgarities that seemed to confirm the belief of many at
Nebraska that he was the wrong man to be leading their program.
In response to his remarks, recorded unbeknownst to him and
provided to the Omaha World-Herald, the University said as much:
If these comments were, indeed, spoken by Mr. Pelini, we are extremely
disappointed, but it only reaffirms the decision that he should no
longer be a leader of young men at Nebraska. His habitual use of
inappropriate language, and his personal and professional attacks on
administrators, are antithetical to the values of our university. His
behavior is consistent with a pattern of unprofessional, disrespectful
behavior directed by Mr. Pelini toward the passionate fans of Nebraska,
employees of the university and, most concerning, our student-athletes.
This behavior is not tolerated at the University of Nebraska and, among
other concerns, played a role in his dismissal.
http://www.omaha.com/huskers/bo-pelini-insults-a-d-shawn-eichorst-in-expletive-filled/article_b202b14a-8633-11e4-8c91-f3f5386da4f8.html
*********** Matt Hansen writes in the Omaha World-Herald, "Pelini talks of core values but lacks more than a few"
A sampling…
Here’s
a value: Rage in private, to your spouse or your parents, to your most
trusted confidant. Vent about how life is unfair, how the cards are
stacked against you, how you can never catch a break. And after you do
that, go back out into the world — to your co-workers, your friends,
your players — and force a thin smile, and say something like, “It just
didn’t work out.” Wanna be John Wayne? That’s a John Wayne move.
Here’s
a value: Don’t lose sight of the fact that, no matter what fate has
just befallen you, you are still a multimillionaire who lives in a very
nice house in a very nice neighborhood in a very nice country. Even
while despairing, we should be able to recognize how insanely lucky we
truly are. We should be able to remember what our moms told us, that
there are starving children in Africa (and on every other continent)
who would love to eat the infinite number of vegetables we can buy with
our American Express Platinum cards and have delivered to our front
doors by Amazon.
Here’s
a value: While we are on the subject of money, it’s probably best not
to mention the millions you are contractually obligated to receive to a
room full of 18- to 22-year-olds, many of whom are from absolutely
nothing.
Here’s
a value: If you feel the need to say, “Fellas, this all stays here” to
a room of 100 people in 2014, you should definitely not say whatever
you are going to say next. It will get out. And, in related news, it
probably shouldn’t be said even if it doesn’t.
http://www.omaha.com/huskers/hansen-pelini-talks-of-core-values-but-lacks-more-than/article_29f3915d-9a8b-54c2-98ce-e2d4ce312e61.html
*********** I wrote Matthew Hansen and told him that his column,
directed at Bo Pelini, should be read by every football coach in
America:
Dear Matthew,
I write as a long-time high school football coach to tell you what a
masterful job I thought you did in addressing Bo Pelini's criticism of
his former AD and his lack of "core values."
You might send a copy to the American Football Coaches Association
headquarters, because your list of "values" should be required reading
for anyone aspiring to be a head coach, especially at a program as
visible as Nebraska's.
For a member of a profession that's so paranoid about being fired that
its members are known to always keep one eye out for the next job ,
Pelini sure broke all the rules about not burning bridges with his
vulgar bad-mouthing of the AD.
Yes, he's already got another job. Between that and his settlement from Nebraska, he should be be okay. For now.
And yes, he gave that Nebraska AD a piece of his mind, and he drew a
few chuckles from his former players when he called the AD a P-word and
a C-word (and a few other things).
But Youngstown State could be his last head coaching job,
because you can place bets that there are plenty of other ADs out
there who read what he said about his former boss, and vowed that he'd
never get the chance to do that to them.
Again, great column.
*********** If I remember correctly you had a forfeit this year and had
a week off of playing. Did you know going into the week that you
would not be playing? How did you handle the week practice wise?
Just curious, we have never had a ‘bye” week and always wondered how to structure it.
Thanks,
John Bothe
Oregon IL
Coach,
We actually had two "Bye weeks" this season:
One was unexpected - we were
informed early in the week that our opponent had elected not to play
us. Very strange, but not totally unexpected, since the opponent
was very weak and we were coming off a 75-0 win over another weak
opponent.
The other was the result of our earning a first-round playoff bye.
In the first case, we just practiced
as usual, same routine, except we gave the kids Friday off and while we
scouted we arranged for the kids to go to a movie. Interestingly,
one kid chose not to go with the group, and damned if he didn't get
arrested for an MIP.
In the second case, we were coming off
a Thursday game, so we once again practiced from Monday through
Thursday so we could go out scouting.
Other than the Fridays off, though, we
didn't depart from our routine. We didn't want them to lose their
focus or think that we had lost ours.
*********** Coach Wyatt
I have sent you a couple of articles about Coach Darlington at Apopka
High School and how he won the state Class 8A Championship again this
year and then I read your article about high school kids transferring
all over the various states and that is happening here in Florida and
the FHSAA does nothing about it. It was happening to me at
Umatilla and that is when I started running out of talent and finally
decided to resign since I couldn’t stop it. Coach Darlington had
his best junior running back transfer to Dr. Phillips this past year
and he lost to Dr. Phillips in the regular season, but defeated them in
playoffs and went on to win the state Championship with a 5’3”
sophomore running back and some very dedicated seniors who having gone
6-4 during the regular season would not give up and won it all. I
wanted to email you with the info after you info in the “News”
today. I know that you have met Coach Darlington and he is the
real deal and a very honest, christian man and coach.
Wishing you and your family a great Holiday Season,
Ron Timson
Leesburg, Florida
Coach Rick Darlington's Apopka Blue
Darters have been to three straight Florida 8A championship game,
winning two of them. Their most recent win came last week when
they beat Miami Columbus, 30-23. He is a great guy and, it
goes without saying, a great coach.
You will enjoy what MIke Bianchi wrote about him in the Orlando Sentinel…
And
the most incredible thing is this: Darlington and his Blue Darters
did it with zero impact transfers in this day and age when nearly every
top team takes advantage of free-wheeling transfer rules to attract top
players.
Exhibit
A: Daquon Isom, the kid who was supposed to be Apopka's star running
back. He found his way into Darlington's doghouse and ended up
transferring and becoming the leading rusher this year at Dr. Phillips,
which spent most of this season at No. 1 in 8A until losing to
Bradenton Manatee in the playoffs. Unranked Apopka spanked Manatee in
the state semis last week.
"Other schools have really good walk-on programs while we have a walk-off program," Apopka athletic director Fred Priest says.
Darlington
is an anachronistic throwback who demands discipline and doles out
punishment no matter if you're the superstar running back or the
pine-riding bench jockey. He is renowned for benching wayward starters
for weeks or kicking them off the team permanently if they run afoul of
the rules or the law. If Jameis Winston played for Apopka High, he
wouldn't have played in the state-championship game on Saturday night.
It's
perhaps why Darlington only lasted three years when he left Apopka in
2002 to take the job at iconic Valdosta High School in Georgia. It was
a bad fit from the beginning. The boosters and administration wanted to
do things the Valdosta way; and Darlington likes to do things the Darlington way.
Last
year, for instance, he dismissed his best receiver and running back
from the team during the course of the season and lost his starting
quarterback — son Zack — in the first game to a season-ending
concussion. The Blue Darters still made it to the state-championship
game by scrapping their spread offense and installing an entirely new
attack — a 1920s-style single wing. The result: the Blue Darters broke
the state record for points scored in a season (751).
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/football/os-hs-apopka-state-final-mike-bianchi-column-20141213-column.html
I especially liked Rick Darlington's
"walkoff program," and Mike Bianchi's reference to "The Darlington
Way." Given Coach Darlington's great success at the highest
level of a major football state, one would hope that in this day of
promiscuous transfers and increasing tolerance of player
misbehavior young coaches will take a cue from his
example. But I doubt it.
***********
Infested as Big Football is with multimillionaires who travel with
their entourages, live in gated communities, socialize in the VIP
sections of strip clubs and flout the conventions of civilized
society, read some of the things Packers' fans wrote
about former Pack great Fuzzy Thurston, who died Sunday, and
think about how much fans of today's NFL are going to miss in the years
to come.
I
invite you to look ahead 50 years and try to picture even a
handful of starters on today's NFL teams who will be remembered as
fondly as Fuzzy Thurston for the way he was there for the ordinary fan.
Many
wonderful memories hanging at your bar when I lived in Green Bay, also
loved it when you got a group together and hopped on a bus and off to a
game we go !
I
remember the great times at Fuzzy's bar. One time I made him a collage
with all his football cards and Packer pictures on it. When I gave it
to him he cried and he made me cry also.
(Written the day after the Packers' loss to the Bills.) This loss hurts much more than Buffalo.
I feel honored to have met him in 1997 at one of his establishments. He was very gracious and autographed my hat.
Our greatest memories of Fuzzy are when we spent time at his bar and he would sing "What a Wonderful World"
Fuzzy
was a class act, will never forget the first time going to the original
shennanigans, with my daughter the place was packed (no pun intended)
and fuzzy gave up his seat at the bar for my daughter, then proceeded
to talk with us for a good 15 minutes until the staff needed him for
something.
One
of the first Packer games I ever went to was through Fuzzy's bar
(Shenanigans) and it was a fantastic experience getting a chance to
meet Fuzzy in person!
Fuzzy truly loved the Pack and their fans. Donna and I will miss those bear hugs!
Fuzzy many times I've spent talking to you in your bar... Rest In Peace my friend!
One great friendly guy, always willing to talk and always ready to tell a story.
Got to meet him at the Packers / 49ers game. Super great guy! Glad I was able to drink a beer with him!
Vince has his starting left guard back.
I
will always remember going to Shenanigans and he was always there with
a smile on his face! When I left for college I could always count on
him to get me tickets for the games played in Milwaukee. After I gave
birth to my second son, he sent me an autographed picture that still
hangs in my home today.
When he owned Fuzzy's on mason street you could always count on him being there and Willing to stand for a photo AT NO CHARGE
Thank
you for being a friend who when we were just strangers. I was looking
to find fuzzy....and asked you how to get to Fuzzies...you said Im Here
and introduced yourself to me...man what respect you showed to
me...when it was you whom i respected most and always will.
A
celebration of life will be held at 3:00pm on Friday, December 19,
2014, at The Lambeau Field Atrium in the Legends Club Room, 1265
Lombardi Ave., Green Bay. A visitation will be held from 11:00am until
time of service. Packer attire is welcomed. To leave a message for the
family, please visit www.NewcomerGreenBay.com
http://www.packers.com/news-and-events/article-1/Fuzzy-Thurston-legendary-Packers-guard-dead-at-80/f0054181-d675-459e-9aac-29e3b3651548
*********
I was perusing (browsing, if you insist) the Green Bay Press-Gazette's
site and I came across a "review" of what sounds like a great tavern -
Demmith's Hunters and Fisherman's Tavern, in Lena, Wisconsin. The
place has so many animal mounts on its walls - over 1,000 - that it's
known as the "Dead Animal Bar," or simply D-A-B.
The owner, Russ Demmith, talked about the various Packers who've stopped in the place over the years…
A
whole roster of Green Bay Packers players have been in to marvel at the
menagerie of mounted bear, moose, deer, skunk, fox, fish, fowl and
coyote, including Brett Favre, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Willie Wood,
Jim Taylor, Willie Davis and Dave Robinson. Don Beebe stops in on
occasion on his way up to property near The Four Seasons Island Resort
by Pembine, Demmith said, and "Fuzzy Thurston has been in here many times. Oh God, yes.''
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/life/2014/11/29/demmiths-hunters--fishermans-tavern-mounts-are-on-the-house/19635505/
*********** Dad
Spoke
with two OSU grads last night (Perth manager Steve Fish and shortstop
Joey Wong) and both were ecstatic that the Ducks were in the final
four. Don't think you'd see that in Alabama.
Ed Wyatt
Melbourne, Australia
So true. You sure wouldn't see something like this many other places, either-
A full-page ad in a special Oregonian section on Mariota - bought by Oregon State.
***********
Yale running back Tyler Varga, whose 26 touchdowns led all FCS players,
was named Ivy League offensive Player of the Year. The 5-11, 230-pound
Varga, a Canadian from Kitchener, Ontario, averaged 142 yards a game
and 6.1 yard per carry in helping lead Yale to an 8-2 record.
Varga's
2014 season included a pair of five-touchdown games, one of them a win
over Army when he ran for 185 yards and scored the winning touchdown in
overtime.
Varga,
who has a 3.56 GPA in ecology & evolutionary biology, was named a
National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete as well as a finalist for
the William V. Campbell Trophy, awarded for the nation's top football
scholar-athlete. Varga is the Gridiron Club of Boston's FCS winner of
the Swede Nelson Award for New England's top scholar-athlete, and
the New York Athletic Club named him its first-ever scholar-athlete
recipient.
Varga's
path to Ivy stardom was an unconventional one. Rated the top high
school running back in all of Canada, he turned down Baylor, among
others, and signed with the University of Western Ontario.
Varga
played his first year of college football at Western, and was on his
way to a record-breaking career when an injury ended his season.
And then came the chance to transfer to Yale.
The
move caught his teammates and coaches by surprise, but Varga said that
when he was presented with the opportunity to transfer to Yale,
he couldn't pass it up.
"When
I went to Western, I never intended on transferring," he told James
Duthie of TSN Canada. "But Yale is one of the best schools in the
world. This is where football started. It has one of the best football
traditions anywhere. You meet amazing people and make connections that
are invaluable to your future. I don't have the words to describe how
awesome this has been."
http://www.tsn.ca/duthie-canadian-varga-enjoying-dream-season-at-yale-1.125420
According to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, there were a few awkward moments in Varga's adjustment to the American game.
First was our rules limiting the number - and direction - of backs in motion.
To
make a long story short, Varga moved when he shouldn’t have moved,
without thinking anything of it, and his coaches called him on it.
“They said, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ and I was like, ‘What, you can’t do that? It’s not legal?’ ” he said with a laugh.
Then there was the Canadian rule requiring all kicks to be
returned. Even punts and kickoffs into the end zone. Failure to
do so in the Canadian game costs the return team a point (often called
a "rouge," or a "red").
…there
was the first game of the season when he fielded a kickoff in the end
zone and ignored a teammate’s advice to take a knee and give his
offence the ball at the 20-yard line. Instead, Varga returned it about
20 yards and headed to the sidelines, where a coach was waiting for him.
“He
said take a knee next time, and then it dawns on me that I’m thinking
of Canadian football, where it would cost the team a point if I don’t
get out of the end zone."
http://www.therecord.com/sports-story/2618427-roller-coaster-ride-to-success/
***********
Whew. The FCC has ruled that it's still okay to say "Redskins" on
the air - it's not the same as a swear word - thereby sparing
countless radio and TV announcers the possibility of years in prison
for accidental slip-ups.
Whew. That was close.
Let's hope the FCC doesn't find out about the Aniak Halfbreeds.
You read correctly. That's Aniak, Alaska.
Wrote Alan Boraas in the Alaska Dispatch News,
No
high school nickname in Alaska, perhaps the United States, raises more
eyebrows then when Aniak takes the basketball floor with Halfbreeds
across their chests. According to journalist Dan Joling, in a 2005
Associated Press article, the nickname was chosen by students in the
late 1970s. Before that the boy’s teams were called the Apostles and
girl’s teams the Angels. Good choice to change the nicknames. Most of
the residents are mixed-blood. The school board president at the time,
Wayne Morgan, is quoted by Joling as saying, “Most people are of mixed
race, mixed background. We’re proud of it. The kids are still proud of
it.”
But that doesn't mean Boraas supports the use of "Redskins."
Aniak…
chose the name, and the community largely embraces the name. They have
control to use or change the name. The term redskin is offensive to
many Native Americans and Americans. It’s an intentional use of a slur
by the non-Native power structure to subjugate and marginalize. Use of
a derogatory name sends the message “we can use a name that offends you
and you can’t do anything about it.” The name reflects an attitude of
dominance and superiority and that’s racism.
http://www.adn.com/article/20140919/aniak-halfbreeds-proud-name-washington-redskins-racist-slur
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014 - "The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes." Thomas Paine
***********
Um, with all due respect for Mount Union and all that they've
accomplished over the years, I really expected more of them than what I
saw Saturday.
It's a bit questionable when a team's leading its opponent 63-0, deep
into the third quarter, and it throws for a score - to make it 70-0.
But that's what Mount Union did against Wesley, in the NCAA D-III
semifinal.
Okay, I thought - that's a backup QB who's earned the chance to play,
and it's not really fair to tell him he can't throw the ball.
But here's the problem: it wasn't a backup at all - the pass was
thrown by the starting quarterback. It was his 41st pass of the day
and his seventh touchdown pass.
Is this really typical of Mount Union?
***********
Of course I wanted Army to beat Navy, and of course I'm bummed that it
didn't come about, but Army went into the game 14-15 point dogs and,
despite an obvious talent disparity at quarterback, played the Middies
to a near standstill. You have to have been an Army fan for as
long as I have and to have seen some really piss-poor performances
against Navy to appreciate the fact that Army played hard and played
sound football from start to finish.
Meantime,
Army's Black Lion Award winner, Joe Drummond, played a big part in
Army's defense holding Navy's nation-leading running game, which came
in averaging 345.1 yards per game, to an astonishing 205.
100 of Navy's yards were gained by QB Keenan Reynolds, on 26
carries.
Drummond made nine tackles and recovered a Navy fumble. "Of
course, it will be our one huge regret from our time here not beating
our archrivals,'' he said after the game. "They're a fantastic program
and they certainly did what they had to do today. They made plays in
critical situations to get it done. When it comes to the (Army) program
moving forward, we know that we're leaving it in very, very capable
hands. The staff has done a fantastic job this past year getting
Army football back to relevancy and back to competitive greatness. And
that's the only thing that could possibly be in our future."
Army's workhorse fullback Larry Dixon led the Cadets with 90 yards on
14 carries (6.4 yards per carry). Said Dixon to the Baltimore Sun
afterwards, "My freshman, sophomore and junior years, it was easier to
leave the locker room because we weren't as close as a team. That's the
hardest thing I've ever had to do is just part ways with my teammates.
I'm thankful for what Coach Monken has done, and I'm thankful for him
- he has created a family… This team is as tight as we've ever
been."
Now, then, to find a quarterback to run that Army triple option at the
Navy level. It's a big country, and If Navy can find a Keenan
Reynolds in a small Christian school in Tennessee, there's got to be
one out there for Army.
*********** I hope some of you watching the Army-Navy game saw the
final leg of former Army Black Lion Mike Viti's walk across the country
in honor of the more than 6,800 US soldiers who've given their lives in
the 13 years of the so-called War on Terror. Seven months ago, he
started his hike near Fort Lewis, Washington, and Saturday he made it
to his destination - the Army-Navy game.
http://espn.go.com/espnw/athletes-life/article/12020104/veteran-hopes-cross-country-trek-becomes-ongoing-tribute-fallen
*********** Watching the Army-Navy game, I almost choked when I heard a
mealy-mouth TV guy refer to "The half-time crossover of the 'military
dignitaries' that are present…"
Yeah, military dignitaries. It used to be the President. I can
remember as a kid watching the Army Navy game as President after
President would make a practice of watching the first half on the side
of one of the participants, and then, very ceremoniously, cross the
field at halftime to sit on the other side.
This current President, however is WAY too busy to attend a silly
football game. Saturday, instead, we got Chuck Hagel, who
evidently as one of his final duties as outgoing Secretary of Defense
was to sit in for the President.
*********** What a great day for Bills' fans! A win over the
Green Bay Packers! A VERY interesting play took place near the end of
the game… Buffalo, leading 19-13, was unable to sustain a time-killing
drive, and punted deep into Pack territory. On first down, Aaron
Rogers dropped to pass, and the ball was knocked out of his
hand by the Bills' Mario Williams.
But Williams and Rogers seemed to be the only people who knew it, and
with Williams tied up by a blocker and Rogers looking around for it,
the ball lay by itself back in the end zone for an unusually long time
before finally being scooped up by one of Rogers' teammates.
Although the guy did - barely - make it out of the end zone, the
play was ruled a safety.
Fox's resident officiating guru explained: in the event of a fumble in
the last two minutes, if it is recovered by a member of the offensive
team other than the one who fumbled, and it should happen to be a
"forward fumble," it's returned to the spot where it was fumbled.
But if it's fumbled backward, as was the case here, it's dead at
the spot of the recovery, which in this case was the end zone.
Safety.
*********** I'm not going to bore anyone with more stories about what a
great kid Marcus Mariota is - on top of his football-playing ability -
but it sure is nice to have a Heisman winner who doesn't have a shaky
background or a talent for self-promotion that approaches a career
death wish.
In his acceptance speech he was appropriately grateful to all the right
people, and took great pride in the honor of representing his native
Hawaii.
His face mask, by the way, is designed to form the number 808 - Hawaii's area code.
***********
It was great seeing Notre Dame's legendary coach Ara Parseghian on the
Heisman show. How great a coach was he? He was so great that when he
coached the Irish, I rooted for them.
He was commenting on John Huarte, who as a senior in Parseghian's first
year at Notre Dame took the Irish to within one game of an unbeaten
season. He noted that because Huarte hadn't played a lot until that
year, he actually won the Heisman Trophy before he won his letter at
Notre Dame.
Huarte gently contradicted his coach. "Actually," he said, "I played a lot - but it was on Tuesdays and Wednesdays."
*********** It was 10 AM Saturday when I received a text from Coach
Brian Mackell in Baltimore: "Coach, as an FYI, a Philly youth team is
on ESPN2 in the Pop Warner championship playing live right now.
Northwest Raiders coached by Duane Watson and they run the DW."
Okay, got my attention. So now I have to watch North Dakota
State-Coastal Carolina on ESPN, Villanova-Sam Houston State on ESPN3,
and the Pop Warner Super Bowl on ESPN2. Got it.
The Philly kids were playing a team from New Britain,
Connecticut. I know of New Britain - a great football town.
Practically the first thing I saw was a Super Power run to
near-perfection, and the Philly A Back, whose name I learned was Isheem
Young, made the rest look easy.
"Northwest Raiders," I kept hearing. In Philly, "Northwest"
refers to my old neighborhood - the Germantown-Mount Airy
section. Could it be?
Coach Mackell said it was quite likely. Said he knew the Raiders'
OC, Greg Bonner. Said he'd met him at one of my Philly clinics
and ever since, they'd "gone back and forth over Facebook."
As the game went on, I grew more impressed with the Raiders. They
were running a really once, clean Double Wing. Super Powers,
Counters, and wedges. And their QB, who did an exceptional job of
running the offense, threw well, too.
The final score was Northwest Raiders 26, New Britain 6. The
Northwest Raiders rushed for 389 yards, and threw for 60 more - playing
10-minute quarters.
And Sunday, as I watched the Bills beat the Packers, I got a call from
Greg Bonner. He was excited to tell me about the big win, and
seemed please to hear that I'd watched the game. He'd waited to
call until he got home - said that they left right after the game - in
Orlando - and rode a bus for 17 hours back to Philly.
We chatted at some length - he told me that although he added a few
tweaks of his own, the Double Wing is from my videos and clinics.
He said that he has stayed true to the terminology, and the proof came
when I mentioned how impressed I was with the way one of his wingbacks
- number 3 - ran the counter, and he said, "That's my C Back - he can
run 47C with his eyes closed."
I complimented him on the play of his quarterback, and he told me with
justifiable pride that that was his son, Naeem Bonner. Said Naeem had
been running the Double Wing since he was little - he's now 13 - and
"he knows the Double Wing as well as I do."
He said the cost of the week-long trip was about $22,000. They
did a lot of fund-raising, and they were helped along by a $10,000
grant from the Mayor.
And, yes, the Raiders are from Germantown. Coach Bonner lives about a
mile-and-a-half from where I went to high school, in Germantown, and
about the same distance from where I grew up, in Mount Airy.
http://6abc.com/sports/phila-team-wins-pop-warner-super-bowl/435859/
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20141214_North_Phila__Aztecs_fall__24-7__in_Pop_Warner_national_football_championship_Saturday.html
*********** Ohio State's ex-QB J.T. Barrett was involved in what we
once called a spat, but is now called a domestic violence
incident, with an ex-girlfriend - who told the 911 operator that
he knocked her across the room. Also that she's pregnant.
But, see, he told the operator (he actually called 911
first) she wouldn't leave his room. So he's the accused and
she's the victim. And/or she's the accused and he's the
victim. I'm so confused.
Anyhow, you choose the ending of the upcoming drama:
(1) There is no longer a QB controversy at Ohio State: Cardale Jones is
announced as The Man. Brackett and Braxton Miller both announce they'll
transfer
(2) Miller decides to return and reclaims his job. Barrett and Jones announce they'll transfer
(3) Brackett's rehab goes well, and now that he has the street cred of
a pregnant ex-girlfriend, Ohio State decides to push him for the
Heisman. Miller and Jones both announce that they are transferring
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/12/ohio_state_quarterback_jt_barr_2.html
*********** So we hustle home to watch the start of the Chattanooga-New
Hampshire playoff game at 5 o'clock (Pacific) - and I'll be damned if
ESPN2 isn't still showing a f--king high school basketball game - and
it's still got FIVE f--king minutes to play!!! And one team's
beating the other by 15 f--king points!!!
Five minutes, did I say? It took them 13 F--king MInutes to finish.
When you're told you've got only so much time left to live, and you're
given one last request - ask if they can use basketball time.
With all the timeouts left.
*********** There are some "writers" in the Mainstream Media who
would rather withhold the truth and watch America burn than tell the
whole truth if it doesn't add to their story. Or advance their cause…
It certainly was a tragedy when that 12-year-old kid in Cleveland was
shot and killed by police after apparently disobeying orders to drop
what proved to be a toy gun. Like me, you probably pictured a little
kid, too terrified to even comprehend what the police were telling him
to do, much less to do it as quickly as they wanted.
That was back on November 22, and the story has festered ever since,
used by many cop-haters as further evidence of a police war on black
citizens.
It was only on December 13, three weeks later, that I read something
that hadn't been mentioned up to then. Buried in an article that was itself buried in
the middle of the paper was the interesting fact that this "little
kid" was 5-7, 195 pounds. That's not exactly boy-size, and the police,
who had no information that they weren't confronting an adult male,
only learned later that day that he was only 12.
Now, none of this changes the sad fact that the boy is dead. That's a
real tragedy. But at a time when certain people are using similar
tragic deaths to their political advantage, it would have helped the
public to better understand why the police in this case acted the way they did if we'd been told a rather important fact.
But then, that wouldn't have advanced the "Cops are Bad" narrative, would it?
*********** Eric Sondheimer, who covers high school sports for the LA
Times, and is about as good at doing so as any reporter in the country,
writes that if you're a coach and you hope to win any titles in
Southern California, you'd better get out there and recruit.
Used to be something that the public school guys accused the private
schools of doing, but now - monkey see, monkey do - it's a rare public
high school championship team that doesn't owe its success to the
influence of transfers.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/la-sp-transfers-sondheimer-20141212-column.html
I read the article and thought back to a visit to Miami several years ago.
Seemingly wide-open transfers have been going on in Dade County (Miami)
Florida for at least 20 years. The difference, it appears to me,
is that while what's going on in SoCal public schools appears to be
taking place among middle-class kids, in Miami-Dade County, it's
definitely been an underclass phenomenon.
There, beginning in the earliest days of youth football, the NFL is the
model, and the idea, regardless of the kids' age, is to amass the most
and best talent. "We Own This Game," by Robert Andrew Powell, is
a chilling look into the quasi-professionalism of youth football in
Dade County. http://robertandrewpowell.com/books/we-own-this-game
It carries on from there into the high schools, where it's not uncommon
to find a star athlete who's attended three different high schools in
his career.
"Year of the Bull," a documentary that takes a scary look at the
football program at Miami Northwestern High School, is several years
old now, but there's no reason to believe that the scenes in it
couldn't be taking place today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s23JTmfJOY
Floridians both north and south, both inside and outside Dade County,
have told me stories about the relative lawlessness of Dade County
football, and my questions about how it all goes on without the state
association intervening are met with cynical chuckles. More than
one coach has told me that state administrators are (figuratively, I
think he meant) afraid to cross the Dade County line.
Of course, coaches at the University of Miami began to tap into this
breeding ground, with amazing success on the field and an aura of
criminality on and off it. Today's Miami football team conducts
itself better than it once did, but it doesn't win as much, either.
After seeing "The U 2," the latest 30 for 30 special, I surmise that
there are many, many Dade Countians who long for a return to Miami's
winning, if unsavory, past.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014 - "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." Martin Luther King, Jr.
***********
To me, what happened to Arizona and Wisconsin and MIssouri Saturday
provided a powerful argument against a 16-team playoff. Who wants
to sit through a 1-vs-16 first-round game? Ever seen what happens in
those everybody-in high school playoffs that some states insist on?
I mean, come on, look at this year - 1 vs 16. Alabama vs. UCLA. Are
you serious? Other than the bonus in Jim Mora's contract for
performing the astonishing feat of making it into the playoff by
finishing 16th, Is there really any point in making
Alabama have to jump through that hoop? Or expecting us to watch?
Actually, after the drubbings that Arizona, Wisconsin and Missouri
took, I'm not so sure that an 8-team playoff, with its 1-vs-8 and
2-vs-7 would be much better.
*********** Army has lost to Navy 12 years
in a row now. Put another way, Army has beaten Navy just
once in this century. Army's a 15-point underdog in Saturday's
game. Nevertheless, GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!
***********
Three Army football players were on hand last Saturday night in Fort
Montgomery, New York for the presentation of the Black Lion Awards to
players in the Junior Black Knights program. Many of the
Junior Black Knights are sons of West Point faculty, Army coaches,
civilian employees of West Point, and soldiers stationed there.
This year's Junior Black Knights Black Lion Award winners, from left to
right, are Dane Edens, NIck Waugh, Thor Swanson, and Hunter
Mauldin. Nick Waugh's dad, Tucker Waugh, coaches Army's slotbacks
and wide receivers, and Thor Swanson's dad, Scott, is West Point's
Director of Strength and Conditioning.
The Army players in the photo are (at far left), defensive lineman Joe
Drummond, and, next to him, slotback Charles Baggett; on the far
right is fullback Larry Dixon.
Joe
Drummond, a first classman (senior) defensive lineman from Rochester,
New York, has been named Army's Black Lion Award winner.
In his letter nominating Joe, Army coach Jeff Monken placed special
emphasis on his unselfishness in putting his team ahead of his own
concerns:
"As
a leader, Joe stepped forward to take on the role of defensive captain
when a teammate was no longer physically able to fulfill that role. In
the areas of devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and team above self, Joe
has tutored and provided additional leadership for a plebe who is
behind him on the depth chart. Through Joe's work with him, this
reserve has actually gotten more game reps than Joe. Not once has Joe
complained nor has he backed off in his instruction of the young
Cadet. Joe simply wants what is best for the team and to finish his
outstanding career at West Point with a win over Navy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqCsOF4zL2Q
Army senior running back Terry Baggett, pictured at last spring's
football awards banquet, rushed for 1113 yards last year,
including 304 yards in a single game - an all-time
West Point record - and won the Colonel Thruston Hughes
Award, given to Army's Most Valuable Player, for the
2013 season.
A chemical engineering major who carries a 3.37 GPA, he was named to
the 2013 Capitol One Academic All-America First team, and is one of 17
finalists for the National Football Foundation's 2014 National
Scholar-Athlete Award.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qdcYR2j1_g
It's
quite possible that over the past four seasons, no player in major
college football has been tackled as often as Army fullback Larry
Dixon. For those four seasons, the 5-11, 238-pound Dixon has been a
marked man - the first option in Army's triple option
attack. He is a major reason why Army has consistently ranked at
or near the top of college football in rushing.
He's a Double-Winger's dream B-Back - tough and durable.
He's played in 44 games and started 36 of them. He's carried the
ball 515 times (which doesn't count all those times he ran inside and
was tackled after the quarterback decided not to hand to him) for 3124
yards (6.1 yards per carry) and 26 TDs.
This year, in 11 games, he's carried 177 times for 1078 yards and 9 TDs.
The photo was taken at the spring game last May. A
Northwesterner, he played his high school ball at Olympic High, in
Bremerton, Washington, whose largest employer, ironically, is the Puget
Sound Naval Shipyard. He actually knew where Ocean Shores was - said he and his family had vacationed there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLmkNbviEA
*********** My Major bowl early line - Don't think that these bowls
don't matter. It would seem logical that following the Playoff, spots
#2 and 3 (at least) in the final polls could be up for grabs.
COTTON BOWL - BAYLOR - MICHIGAN STATE
My toughest pick. The Spartans are underdogs, and they haven't seen
anything like the speed and pace of the Bears' offense, but
Michigan State is good enough overall and they're always tough on
defense. Spartans by a hair.
FIESTA BOWL - BOISE STATE - ARIZONA
Is Arizona the team that beat Oregon and Arizona State? Or is it
the team that the Ducks crushed? Is Rich Rod going to take
another job? Or is he committed? If Rodriguez doesn't bail,
the Wildcats roll.
ORANGE BOWL - MISSISSIPPI STATE - GEORGIA TECH
Mississippi State is MUCH better on defense than Florida State, and
they have plenty of time to prepare for the flexbone. I
think that the Bulldogs will play like the team that was Number One for
several weeks and they'll win big.
CHICK-FIL-A BOWL - TCU - OLE MISS
I think TCU belongs in the playoff. Ole Miss doesn't. TCU all the way, even against an SEC team in SEC territory.
OUTBACK BOWL - AUBURN - WISCONSIN
Auburn gained 630 yards against Alabama, despite losing, 55-44. Wisconsin is not Alabama. Auburn in a runaway.
CITRUS BOWL - MISSOURI - MINNESOTA
MIssouri has been in two straight SEC title games.
Minnesota is getting better by the year. The Gophers aren't there yet,
but Minnesota is my upset pick because Missouri has benefitted from
playing in the weaker of the SEC's two divisions, and wouldn't have
been better than fourth or fifth in the West.
*********** Coach,
I just watched the late whistle (in your playoff game).
Unreal. What kills me is the back judge starts coming forward
(after standing flat footed most of the play) because he thinks/knows
the play is over. So at least one on the crew knew the play was
over. And what about the referee who the ball carrier asked if
the play was still live. If that's not an indicator that the play
is over, I don't know what is.
Congratulations on a wonderful season.
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
*********** Anyone who's ever coached the Double Wing is familiar
with officials whose knowledge of the rule book is, shall
we say, sketchy. And attempts to bring certain issues
unique to the Double Wing to officials' attention are met, more often
than not, with indignation that a mere coach would dare to imply that
there was anything involving the rules of the game that they weren't on
top of.
Before our last playoff game, our head coach, Todd Bridge, met with the
officials, and expressed his concern to them about something we'd seen
on video of our opponent. He was cut off short by the referee with a
curt, "You do the coaching and let us do the officiating."
Well, we did just that, and it was a big mistake. We should have let
somebody else - some guys off the street - do the officiating.
Which brings me to the 3A playoffs in Oklahoma, where the
officials' lack of knowledge of the rules landed the state
association in court, with one of the participants asking to replay the
last 1 minute 4 seconds of the game - or the entire game.
Here's what happened, according to The Oklahoman:
With
1 minute 4 seconds remaining in the Oklahoma playoff game last month,
Douglass High School scored on a remarkable 58-yard yard touchdown pass
and seemed to take a 25-20 lead over Locust Grove. Receiver Qua’Sean
Sims caught a short pass near the sideline on fourth down, whirled
toward the middle of the field and wove elusively to the end zone.
Video
shows a Douglass coach running excitedly along the sideline and
appearing to unintentionally impede or bump one of the referees.
Earlier, Douglass had received a warning for a similar infraction. This
time the referee threw a flag.
The
violation is considered minor; rules call for a 5-yard penalty to be
assessed on the extra-point attempt or the ensuing kickoff. Instead,
the referees wrongly annulled the go-ahead touchdown, infuriating the
Douglass coaches and some fans.
The
Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association later apologized to
Douglass, calling the referees’ mistake “inexcusable.” But the
association also said that state and national bylaws did not permit
protesting the outcome of a game because of an official’s ruling on the
field.
Oklahoma
City public school officials disagreed and are seeking in court to have
some or all of the game replayed. Last week, Judge Bernard M. Jones II
of District Court in Oklahoma City issued a temporary restraining
order, prohibiting Locust Grove from playing its scheduled semifinal
playoff game.
UPDATE: On Thursday, Judge Jones denied the temporary injunction
asking for all or some of the Class 3A quarterfinal game to
be replayed. The playoffs will proceed as scheduled.
I have no quarrel with the idea that we have to accept an official's
judgement and move on. Officials operate under pressure to make
correct decisions and make them quickly, and they're as fallible as
coaches.
But we weren't talking judgement here. We were talking about an official - or an entire crew - not knowing the rules of the game
It's bad enough having to deal with officials who don't know the
rules, but there's a special room in hell for those who don't know them
but insist that they do, refusing to allow for the slightest
possibility that they might not, and treating with discourtesy anyone
who dares to suggest that possibility. (Who hasn't run into such
an official?)
What's worse in this case, I find it hard to believe that an entire
crew shared one guy's ignorance. There's that doggone cover-up
reflex that I wrote about earlier.
And to think that all it would have taken to avoid this mess was a look at the rule book. If anyone had one.
Mark Twain said it: "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so."
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/sports/court-weighs-intervening-in-oklahoma-high-school-football-playoffs.html?referrer=
*********** It's fashionable to pile on the Big Ten, but I'll do it
just this once: one of the rationalizations given by the Playoff
committee head for moving Ohio State up was the claim that the Buckeyes
had a strong schedule. The "proof" of this was the number of bowl-bound
teams they played. Nice try, buddy. Not to argue against
the selection of the Buckeyes, but the Big Ten had agreements to
furnish teams to ten bowls.
Where bowl invites are concerned, the Big Ten resembles youth soccer - every kid gets a trophy.
So. There are ten Big Ten teams going to bowls. And -
here's where I pile on - not a single damn one of them is favored to
win.
Courtesy of the Wynn Las Vegas
Friday, Dec. 26
Heart of Dallas Bowl: Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech -3
Quick Lane Bowl: Rutgers at North Carolina -4
Saturday, Dec. 27
Pinstripe Bowl: Penn State vs. Boston College -3.5
Holiday Bowl: Nebraska vs. Southern California -6
Tuesday, Dec. 30
Foster Farms Bowl: Maryland vs. Stanford -14
Thursday, Jan. 1
Outback Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Auburn -6
Cotton Bowl: Michigan State vs. Baylor -1
Citrus Bowl: Minnesota vs. Missouri -6
Sugar Bowl: Ohio State vs. Alabama -9
Friday, Jan. 2
TaxSlayer Bowl: Iowa vs. Tennessee -3.5s
*********** Once - just once - I'd like to see somebody stand by what
he said refuse to apologize for something that he meant at the time,
and undoubtedly still does.
When Bengals' coach Marvin Lewis was asked on a radio show about
possibly having to prepare to face Johnny Football this week, he
said, "You've got to go defend the offense. You don't
defend the player."
And then, after short pause, he added: "Particularly a midget."
Great line, Coach! Great for the game. Great for
fans. Great for a league that would love to have people talking
about something other than domestic violence, drug abuse and
concussions.
But, no. Some suit obviously got to him and said, "Coach… you can't say things like that."
And soon enough, predictably, out it came: "I apologize to Johnny, the
Browns and all the fans in Cleveland," Lewis said. "It was just a
poor remark. I really didn't mean anything by it."
Maybe, rather than offend Little People, he should have just said, "Particularly that smartass little pr--k."
*********** The concussion hysteria (thanks a lot, NFL) is taking its toll…
A new Bloomberg Politics poll finds that half of Americans wouldn't want their son to play football.
The survey shows that people making $100,000 a year or more and those
with college-educations are the groups most likely not to
want their boys playing football.
Democrats were more likely than Republicans, by 52 per cent
to 47 per cent, to be opposed to their boys playing football, and
- ominous news in a society in which women increasingly make key
family decisions - 58 per cent of female respondents say they
don’t want their boys playing football compared with 41 per cent of men.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-10/bloomberg-politics-poll-half-of-americans-dont-want-their-sons-playing-football
*********** Two VERY interesting things that you may not have noticed last weekend:
(1) Alabama's offense: pick your poison.
They came right out of the gate playing hurry-up, as if to say
"we can play that other game, too. If we have to. Or want
to." And they looked scary good doing it.
And then they settled in to play their pro-style game.
They controlled the ball. They ran up 28 first downs, and ran for 242 yards.
But they also thew the ball astonishingly well - 23 of 27 for 262 yards (9.7 yards per attempt!) and two TDs.
(2) Oregon's offense: really good. Oregon's defense: not too bad, either.
The Ducks are known for their offense (they had 617 yards and 31 first
downs against Arizona), but their defense played a HUGE role in their
51-13 win. They held the Wildcats to 111 yards rushing and 113
yards passing. That worked out to 3.2 yards per rush and 4.3
yards per pass attempt.
The Wildcats converted just three of 15 third downs, and they were oh-fer in two fourth down attempts.
Arizona got only 10 first downs, and had to punt 10 times.
Don't let the 13 points they gave up fool you, either - Arizona scored a meaningless TD on the last play of the game.
*********** Coach Wyatt,
We came up a little short, 13-6, in the championship game but what a
season nonetheless! I coached a junior micro team, 7- and 8-
years old, in Chino Hills, California and we ran the Wyatt double wing
from the Wildcat formation. We finished our season 9-2 and scored
42 touchdowns on offense. Not bad for 40-minute games that went
to running clock once we got up 3 TD's on a team. We defeated the
#3 and #2 seeds on the way to the title game, losing only to the
undefeated and #1 seed Orangecrest Wolves. It was a tough game
and to Orangecrest's credit they made a couple of more big plays than
we did.
The videos and materials I purchased and your feedback to emails I sent
you were invaluable and I learned a lot as a coach this year even
though this was my 11th season coaching youth football. I was
really glad you discussed the wildcat formation in your materials
because we were having problems going under center. Small hands
and pulling backside linemen made getting out from under center
difficult. Once we made the switch the offense really took off.
I'm already looking forward to next year and feel we bring home
the trophy as we move up to the next age division. I'm hoping
we'll be able to run both from under center and the wildcat.
Thanks again!
Manny Juncos
mannyjuncos@hotmail.com
Coach Juncos-
Thanks for taking the time to write!
I'm so glad that you had a great season. Sometimes the other guys
is just better. We don't have to like it, and we don't like to
admit it, but it's a fact that we all have to deal with in the course
of our coaching careers.
I'm glad that my materials were helpful to you, and I applaud your
decision to go to the Wildcat, not because it's superior to the
QB-under-center Double Wing but because you went to it because you
believed it was best for that particular group of kids.
Next year, you may find yourself staying under center.
The important thing is (1) to have a system and (2) to have a system that allows you to be flexible if need be.
Thanks again for writing and have a great Christmas!
***********Good Morning Coach,
Just read your "News" column this morning and the part about the
potential rule changes left me disgusted. That fact that they are even
discussing the free blocking zone means that it will be gone in a few
years, if not next season. I am a diehard triple option fan and I will
hate to see it go, not to mention what will happen our beloved
shoeshine block. It's a nice change to watch Navy or Georgia Tech. All
offenses are starting to look same now, no variety.
Another penalty to eliminate is aiding the runner. Went to a game last
Friday night and a team had first and goal at about the one and half
yard line. They lined up in spread, under center with one back. QB
snaps on a sneak, RB runs straight forward into the back of the QB and
pushes him an entire yard into the end zone. The only team I can
remember ever getting an aiding the runner call is my own team, on the
wedge.
Sorry to hear about your teams loss. Sounds like you had a great year with a great bunch of kids. Tell Connie "Hello".
Take care,
Jim Crawley
China Grove, North Carolina
Hi Coach,
Amen to the aiding/assisting the runner.
Nothing breeds more disrespect for the
rules in general than officials' routinely ignoring a rule that gives
one of the teams an unfair advantage.
It's in the rule book, clear as a
bell, but since officials refuse to call it - and announcers even
praise guys for pushing on their own runners - I say it's time to fish
or cut bait. Enforce it or remove it. And revert to rugby.
We had a great season. It went way too fast.
Hope your family is well and that you'll have a wonderful Christmas.
*********** Last week, Columbia football coach Pete Mangurian
resigned after several of his players sent a letter to the university
president calling for his resignation. Columbia has gone 3-17 in
his three years there, but there's more to it than …
According to the players' letter, “Pete Mangurian has
consistently denied the diagnoses of concussions. There are several
players who will speak to the fact that Mangurian told them to return
to practice, that they are faking their concussions, and that they are
being soft if they sit out for their concussion injury.”
Team doctor William N. Levine, an orthopedist, told The New York Times
that there was no truth to any charges that Mangurian overruled the
medical staff - ‘‘In my 16 years at Columbia," he told The Times, "No
coach, including Coach Mangurian, has ever made me have to in any way
bend my ethics about taking care of our student-athletes."
And then there was this: reportedly, following a blowout loss to
Albany, Mangurian told his team “You are terrible (%#@#$%&)
people…The world would be a better place without you.”
Oh, dear. To think that they had to hear that, considering that
from the time they were five-year-olds, they'd been receiving trophies
every year, and told how special they were.
Not arguing, you understand, that those words were appropriate,
and even if they were, that that was the time or place for them -
but these are grown men. I think.
The players' letter has since been withdrawn, an act on the order of unringing a bell, and the coach is now gone.
Meanwhile, at that same prestigious university, a group of Columbia law
students have caused some of us think that, quite possibly, a culture
of losing infects the entire university.
Law school students "of color" demanded to be able to postpone
final exams because, see, they'd been so traumatized by events in
Ferguson and Staten Island that, sniff, they'd been unable to study.
And guess what? This probably won't surprise you - the school caved. No exams for the poor dears.
“The
grand juries’ determinations to return nonindictments in the Michael
Brown and Eric Garner cases have shaken the faith of some in the
integrity of the grand jury system and in the law more generally,”
wrote the dean of the Law School in an email. “For some law
students, particularly, though not only, students of color, this chain
of events is all the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense
that the law is a fundamental pillar of society designed to protect
fairness, due process and equality.”
What crap. What twerps.
One defense attorney, Benjamin Brafman, a prominent defense lawyer,
called the decision “absurd,” telling the New York Times,
“Despite the genuine trauma that law students may honestly feel about
the Ferguson and Garner decisions, as lawyers, they are going to be
dealing with tragedies many times worse. If law students cannot
function with difficult issues like these, maybe they should not try
and become lawyers.”
Not saying that the two incidents are connected in any way, but…
(HINT: Next time you need a lawyer to fight for you, look up on his/her office wall. And if you see a Columbia diploma...)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014 "Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." Ralph Waldo Emerson
***********
Glad you posted those game videos on Youtube. Two of those
non-calls are just egregious: the "TD" run was clearly stopped
(if your boys had continued and taken the RB down, they would have been
penalized for roughing), and the young lad on the sideline was clearly
guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct after the play.
Grrrr!
Shep Clarke
Puyallup, Washington
Please don't infer
from those clips that I'm saying that we were cheated out of a
win. We lost. But I am sick up to here of officials who
instead of providing playoff-calibre officiating show up seemingly hell
bent on ruining the game for both teams. And then, remorseless, they
collect their checks and drive home. You can't tell me they don't
know when they've blown a call, but the way they cover up for
each other would make the White House envious. Not once, in all my
years as a coach, have I had an official call me and tell me, "Sorry
Coach - we blew it." It's
that lack of remorse - the attitude that they've done a perfect job and
even if they haven't, no big deal - that I can't stand.
As to the
unsportsmanlike conduct, since in our society the concept of
"sportsmanship" seems to have gone the way of "etiquette" as a relic of
better times, I suggest we adopt the Canadian form: "Objectionable
Conduct."
*********** And this playoff system is better than the BCS???
REALLY???
A week ago, TCU was ranked 3rd…
And then it went out on Saturday and put 55 points on Iowa State - the
Frogs could easily have scored more, but they began taking a knee
with FOUR MINUTES to play.
And on Sunday, the Playoff Committee dropped them three places - from 3rd to 6th.
Look - I have no quarrel with Ohio State's big leap. I was
impressed as anyone with the Buckeyes' big win over
Wisconsin. I think that they've earned their spot.
But Joey Galloway on ESPN said it all for me when the selections were
announced on Sunday: "How come TCU was better than Florida State
five days ago and now they're not?"
I smell a rat.
*********** The Football Playoff was designed in part to head off the
sort of controversies that were inevitable under the BCS system of
choosing two teams to play in The Ultimate Game.
Controversies such as happened in 2000-2001, when Florida State (11-1)
was chosen to play Oklahoma for the title. Never mind that Miami (also
11-1), had beaten FSU during the regular season, while Washington (also
11-1) had given Miami its only loss.
In 2001-2002, Nebraska was chosen to play Miami. Never mind that
Nebraska had just been shellacked by Colorado in the Big-12 conference
championship game.
In 2003-2004, Oklahoma, LSU and USC all had one-loss records. But
OU's loss had come in the Big-12 championship game, with the Sooners
losing - big - to Kansas State, 35-7. Unlike this year, though,
when Ohio State's win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game
was enough to vault it into a playoff spot, Oklahoma's loss to KSU was
treated as just another loss, and as a result, the Sooners played LSU
in the Big Game - and USC was S.O.L.
In 2004-2005, USC and Oklahoma, both undefeated, played in the Big
Game. Auburn, also undefeated, was left out. So, too, were two
non-BCS conference schools, Utah and Boise State.
(USC won the game but later, after it was revealed that Reggie Bush had
received illegal benefits, the Trojans were stripped of their title.)
In 2007-2008, the Big Ten did not yet have a championship game, so
while Ohio State sat out the final two weeks of the season, the
Buckeyes moved from 5th place to 1st place as rival contenders carved
each other up. (This was the year that heavily-favored West
Virginia, ranked #2 at the time, lost its season-ender to Pitt. It's my
theory that the dejection of this loss propelled Rich Rodriguez to take
the Michigan job.) LSU, in the meantime, jumped from #7 to #2 with a
win over Tennessee in the SEC championship game, and the Tigers beat
the Buckeyes in the championship game.
In 2008-2009, Oklahoma, with one loss, was chosen ahead of Big 12
conference rival Texas, which had defeated OU in the regular season,
and also had just one loss. Utah and Boise State were both
undefeated, but neither represented a BCS conference, and when one-loss
Florida beat previously-unbeaten Alabama in the SEC championship game,
Florida got the nod.
In 2009-2010, Texas "won" its spot in the title game despite "losing"
to Nebraska, 12-10. (Actually, although the score read 12-10,
Nebraska when time ran out, Texas won, 13-12, when one second - ONE
F--KING SECOND was put back on the game clock - and that was enough
time for Texas to kick a game-winning field goal.)
IN 2010-2011, Auburn, Oregon and TCU were all undefeated. TCU,
being from a non-BCS conference, never had much chance, but the
Frogs' situation wasn't helped by a disparaging statement by Ohio State
president Gordon Gee (remember him? The guy who later said he hoped the
football coach wouldn't fire him?), implying that while schools such as
Ohio State were facing "Murderer's Row" every week, non-BCS-conference
schools (such as TCU) played the "Little Sisters of the Poor."
2011-2012 was the year that caused many people to become suspicious of
the excessive influence of the SEC. LSU beat Alabama, 9-6 in the
regular season, and won the SEC West title. Alabama,
meanwhile, finished second in the West and did not even play in
its conference championship game. LSU beat Georgia to win the SEC
title and a spot in the championship. Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma,
44-10 to win the Big 12 title, and claimed a spot in the title
game. But Alabama, like Oklahoma State, had only one loss, and
its proponents argued that while Bama had lost only to LSU - and
narrowly - OSU had lost to lowly Iowa State; OSU fans, on the other
hand, pointed to the Cowboys' having played far more teams with winning
records than the Tide. In the end, the Tide won out. And
then, as Casey Stengel would say, you could check it out - in their
rematch, Bama beat LSU to win the National Championship.
In 2012-2013 the game selection was non-controversial, with SEC
champion Alabama facing undefeated Notre Dame in the famed Manti Te'o
Bowl.
2013-2014 was also without controversy at the top. Contenders Baylor
and Alabama lost in their season-enders, and Ohio State lost the Big
Ten title game to Michigan State. Meanwhile, Auburn, which
had beaten Bama with a sensational kick return in the Iron Bowl,
won the SEC title over Missouri, and Florida State beat overmatched
Duke to win the ACC championship.
The irony is that despite all the squawking about the BCS system, over
the past two seasons it actually did what it set out to do -
select the best two teams to play to determine a national champion.
And this year, with Alabama and Oregon out in front pretty much by themselves, it would have done the same.
What the introduction of the four-team playoff has done, mostly, has
been to soften the argument by pushing it back to who belongs in
positions three and four.
***********
It's been a bad week for devoted TCU followers. On Sunday, they learned
that there was no place for them in the playoff.
Just four days earlier, on December 3, they lost Jim Swink.
Doctor Jim Swink, a retired orthopedic surgeon and, along with Sammy
Baugh and Davey O'Brien and Bob Lilly and LaDainian Tomlinson, one of
the greatest players ever to wear a TCU uniform.
And a Black Lion.
In 1955, my senior year in high school, there was no football player bigger on the national scene than Jim Swink.
I'd see him on TV in just one bowl game a year. Mostly I saw him in
highlights shown at our theatre during the "newsreels" just before the
features. As a sports page and football magazine addict, I
read everything I could about him.
I idolized the guy, wanted to be like him. I loved the way
he ran. I liked his crew cut, and I thought he was extra special
because he was one of the first players I really noticed wearing "low
cuts" - low-top shoes. Naturally, after seeing him on TV, I had to wear
low cuts, too. Actually took a pair of scissors to my high-tops. No
problem in high school, but in college, where they insisted we all wear
school-issued high tops, I'm sure I was viewed as a rebel when
I'd go out to practice wear my own shoes - low cuts.)
Jim
Swink came out of the small town of Rusk, in East Texas to attain
national stardom at TCU, where his incredible broken-field running led
to his nickname, "Rusk Rambler." Not overly big, he was fast and quick,
and became one of the most dangerous runners the Southwest Conference
has ever seen.
He was a high school legend in Rusk. "I was originally from Sacul, a
small town between Nacogdoches and Rusk," he told Knight-Ridders
newspapers' Whit Canning, "and my real father was a logger. But my
parents got sick, and I fell in with a couple that had no kids - Obie
and Grace Walker - and lived with them."
He was recruited by TCU's legendary Abe Martin, an easy-going, country
sort of guy whose players absolutely loved him. "He came down to talk
to me," Swink recalled for Canning, " and we went for a walk out in the
pasture on a small ranch we had down there, kinda out in the middle of
nowhere. I knew right off that he was a smart man because he knew which
cow patties to kick. You don't want to go trying to kick the fresh
ones."
In Swink's sophomore year, Martin took his heavily-sophomore team to
Los Angeles early in the season to play USC. A week before, it had
given mighty Oklahoma, then in the process of winning 47 games in a
row, a scare, before falling, 21-16. In the Coliseum, the Horned Frogs
beat a USC team that would make it to the Rose Bowl that season, 20-7.
A few weeks later, the Frogs beat a Penn State team with the likes of
future pro stars Lenny Moore and Roosevelt Grier by the same score.
TCU
finished 4-6 in Swink's sophomore year, but in 1955, the Frogs had a
great year, finishing 9-1 in the regular season with a number 5 ranking
nationally despite losing, 14-13 to Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. Swink
had a pretty good year, too. He rushed for 1,283 yards on 157 carries -
averaging 8.2 yards per carry - and scored 20 touchdowns and 125 points
overall. He was a consensus All-American and finished second in the
Heisman Trophy balloting.
In his career at TCU, he had three great performances against Texas.
(Perhaps he saved his best for the Longhorns because they hadn't
recruited him.) In TCU's 47-20 trouncing of Texas in 1955, he carried
15 times for 235 yards and four touchdowns. The night before, thousands
of Texas fans had gathered for a candle-light vigil, hoping to put a
hex on the Frogs. "Heck," said Coach Martin, "if a candle can beat us,
we ain't very good."
The highlight of the game was a 62-yard touchdown run by Swink in
which he swept to the left, cut back to the right, cut back again to
the left, then come to a dead stop as Texas' pursuers overran him,
finally running the last 15 yards with two confused Longhorn defenders
seemingly running interference for him. "Don Cooper and I were supposed
to be blocking," Vernon Uecker recalled for Whit Canning, "but Jim ran
by us so many times we finally just stayed on the ground and watched
the show."
When George Sauer, whose Baylor team had lost to both TCU and number
one-ranked Maryland, was asked to compare the two teams, he said,
"Maryland does not have Jim Swink."
Coach Sauer would know. Against Baylor, TCU had had a third-and-25 on
their own one-yard line. Coach Martin sent a substitute into the game
with a message for quarterback Chuck Curtis - "Abe says punt."
"
Did he say when?" asked Curtis - somewhat of a free spirit - and
when the messenger shook his head, he called for Swink to run off left
tackle. He went for 33 yards. Two plays later, he went 65 yards more
for the score, capping a 99-yard, three-play "drive."
In
the final game of his career, a historic Cotton Bowl matchup with
Syracuse and the great Jim Brown, Swink scored the winning touchdown in
a 28-27 TCU victory. (Brown scored 21 points himself, but missed the
extra point that became the margin of victory.)
(Above, in the Cotton Bowl, TCU vs Syracuse: Left- Jim Swink catches a
pass as Jim Brown ("A man among boys," in Swink's words), closes in;
Right - Jim Swink , 5-11, 185, braces himself to tackle the 6-3, 230
pound Brown)
Great football writer Dan Jenkins thought enough of him to include him
as a halfback on his "Team of the Century," along with the likes of
Tony Dorsett, Glenn Davis, Billy Cannon, Billy Sims, Billy Vessels and
Barry Sanders. "Just a little ol' rubber-legged outfit that
nobody can catch," was how Abe Martin described him.
"I feel I was just fortunate to be a part of it," he told Whit
Canning. "I enjoyed playing both ways, and I enjoyed my whole
four years at TCU. It was a great place with a real friendly
atmosphere, where you pretty much knew everyone on campus. And, at that
time, there were a lot of very talented players on that campus, because
of Abe. He was sort of like a father to me, and everyone else. His
style was to get you aside and tell you how good you were."
He had no pro career to speak of. "The Bears drafted me, and it was
tempting," he recalled. "George Halas used to call me up and talk for
an hour. He'd say, `I need someone up here who doesn't fumble the
ball.' But I just couldn't fit it into my schedule."
The "schedule" at that point involved medical school, then internship,
then residency, then service in the Army, before Dr. Jim Swink finally
went into practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Fort Worth.
He did try briefly to fit pro football into his busy schedule in 1960,
with the Dallas Texans of the AFL, but, as he recalled, "I was at
Parkland (Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where President Kennedy was
pronounced dead in 1963) then, and the Texans signed me, and for a
while I played with Cotton Davidson and Abner Haynes, But I just
couldn't do it full time. I probably would have played longer if it
were possible, but it just wouldn't work."
Upon completion of his medical training, he served a tour of duty in
Vietnam, as a Black Lion and, in the words of medical corpsman Tom
Hinger, "a hell of a Batallion Surgeon!"
"Just a matter of trying to make the best of a bad situation," he said
of his service in Vietnam, "and there were times I had to question my
parents' advice about being patriotic. We had a few medics, but I was
the only doctor in the battalion, and often there wasn't much you could
do for people out in the field. I made 25 helicopter flights and every
one was bad. I finally got hit by shrapnel, just trying to dodge
bullets."
He was being overly modest. He earned the Purple Heart and the Silver
Star, the third highest honor award to a soldier. General Jim
Shelton, a Black Lion and a former football player himself, tells, in
his book "The Beast Was Out There," of his first meeting with Jim
Swink, in the heat of battle:
I
received a report that one man had been killed and several others
wounded, and I called back to Dagger and asked them to send a dustoff
(aeromedical evacuation chopper) to our location ASAP. As I looked from
my hole I saw someone about 50 meters away holding up a large
flashlight.
I didn't think that was very smart. I ran over to the light and shouted, "Hey, you dumb bastard! Shut that light out!"
The reply came back, "Screw you. Who the hell are you?"
I replied, "I'm Major Shelton, Dauntless 3 - who are you?"
He said, "I'm Captain Swink, the battalion surgeon, and I need the light."
I said, "OK" and went back to the radio.
(I
had never met the battalion surgeon, Jim Swink. After this battle I was
to learn that he was the same Jim Swink who was an All American
tailback at Texas Christian University in the early 50's when I was
playing in college at Delaware. His picture had been on the cover of
every football magazine in the country. He had gone to medical school
after TCU and was serving his time in the Army when he was sent to
Vietnam. He had gone immediately to treat the wounded that night and
had been shot in the shoulder himself. He continued to treat the
wounded, although when I had called to him he was bleeding from a wound
of his own. He received a Silver Star for his cool actions that night,
working with the wounded though wounded himself. )
Dr. Jim Swink, first a football hero, then a decorated war hero, and
finally a respected doctor, exemplified the sort of man who is able to
put football into proper perspective in life - a man who used football,
rather than letting it use him.
With typical modesty, he dismissed his football glory, telling Whit
Canning, "All that stuff was the work of the 10 guys out there on the
field with me. I just happened to play a position where you got a lot
of the credit."
In an article in his hometown paper, he told of the time his high
school retired his number: "A great time in my life. Marshall Treadwell
was the first coach who ever told me I could be as good as I wanted to
be."
And he recalled what inspired him to be doctor: "I was very
fond of my home town doctor in Rusk and he is the one who inspired me
to become a doctor. From day one I knew I wanted to help people and the
doctors associated with the TCU football were great mentors too…"
Dr. Jim Swink was a Black Lion. May he rest in peace.
*********** A few weeks ago I offered some gratuitous (unasked-for)
advice to a coach who'd said some intemperate things after he'd just
taken an ass-whipping: "When you win, say little. When you lose,
say less."
I wish I could have gotten to a coach named Mike Kelly, of D-III
Widener University, just outside Philadelphia. Guy must be a
pretty good coach, because in this, his first year, he coached Widener
to a 10-0 regular season and wins in the first two rounds of the D-III
playoffs.
But this past weekend, his team fell, 45-7, to Linfield College, of
McMinnville, Oregon. (Linfield, if you're not up on your D-III
football, is a perennial power out here in the Pacific Northwest.
Linfield has not had a losing season since 1956 - that's 59 years,
longest in any level of football. Linfield won the D-III national
championship in 2004. Losing to the Linfield Wildcats is no
disgrace.)
But losing comes hard to any coach, and in his post-game pain Coach
Kelly, who undoubtedly now wishes he'd taken advice similar to mine,
blamed his team's loss on - Chip Kelly.
Yes, that Chip Kelly. The coach of the Eagles. What did
Chip Kelly do/? Why, he let Linfield practice at the Eagles'
facility! Imagine! I mean, just because Chip Kelly knew the
Linfield staff from his days of coaching the Oregon Ducks...
But let's hear the other Coach Kelly - the Widener one - tell it:
"Make sure you put in the paper that we thank Chip Kelly, and I hope
the Seahawks do well tomorrow. He was helping them out. Maybe somebody
in Philadelphia ought to buy him a map so he knows where he lives now.
But, go Seahawks."
Well. The score WAS 45-7. Let's suppose, just for the sake of
argument, that Chip Kelly, who was prohibited by NFL rules from even
watching Linfield practice, slipped them a trick play that wound
up going for a touchdown. Let's suppose he slipped them TWO trick
plays, and they both worked. That means that the score would have been
31-7. Still a blowout.
Meanwhile, if anyone needs a map, it's this Mr. Kelly - the
Widener one. He's the one who doesn't seem to know where he is. He
clearly doesn't understand Philadelphians and their ferocious devotion
to their Iggles. (You may recall that Philly is the town where
they actually set up court down in the bowels of the stadium to handle
the volume of unruly fans pinched during Eagles' games.) If there
were any Philadelphians who might have been inclined to
sympathize with him, I can assure you that he lost them with those last
two words.
"Go Seahawks?" The day before the Iggles played them?
The mail that I've read has been running about 99-1 against him,
and to put it mildly, the writers, true Philadelphians, have not been
gentle.
It's been a couple of of days now, and no word's come out of Widener
yet, from the school or the coach. So I have another
suggestion - again, unasked-for: hire a PR firm, right away,
because this one's going to be hard to live down, and it's not
going to go away.
http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2014/12/chip_kelly_on_eagles_loss_to_seahawks.html
*********** This is really saying something, but that rendition of the
(supposedly) National Anthem before the Packers-Falcons game Monday
night was possibly the worst I've ever heard. It was so whiney,
weaselly and weak that I can see soldiers overseas during wartime
hearing it over the radio, and saying, "We must have lost."
***********I didn't record the ACC championship game, but I did see -
did I see it? - did I really see the Georgia Tech QB
deliberately go out of bounds at the Florida State 11, when he might
have gotten a yard or two more?
Was he really that savvy?
Given your choice, wouldn't you rather have first-and-ten at the opponents' 11, than first-and-goal at their ten?
*********** Georgia Tech's offense was beautiful for me to watch, which
is why it pains me to point out the obvious: there are times - such as
coming from way behind or converting on long-yardage plays - when that
powerful offense puts them at a disadvantage. Not that this is
news to Paul Johnson, whose major challenge is developing a
sophisticated passing game given the constraints of a system that
demands other things of his quarterbacks and his offensive line.
*********** My friend Ralph Balducci, whose son, Alex, is a defensive
lineman for the Oregon Ducks, said he knows now where Marcus Mariota
gets his humility. (As one example, Marcus refused Oregon's offer to
run a Heisman campaign for him.)
Ralph was at the Pac-12 championship game in Santa Clara Friday
and he said that following the game, he was talking with Marcus' dad,
and as they parted, Ralph said, "Good luck next week!"
Mr. Mariota looked at him, puzzled, and asked, "What do you mean?"
"You know." Ralph said. "The Heisman."
Said the father of the odds-on-favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, "Oh. Thanks."
*********** I was watching a game on TV and one of the geniuses in the
booth was discussing the effect of a score that had tied the game
at 14-14 just before halftime:
"You could just see it, " he said, "Players playing harder, coaches coaching harder…"
WTF? How, exactly, do you "coach harder?"
*********** Hugh, I watched the three plays you had on your news and I
was stunned at the calls or non-calls, but what stunned me about the
officials even more was their total lackadaisical effort to be in
position to make a call. I mean this is playoff football and they are
supposed to bring their A game. What I saw was just plain and simple
lazy officiating. Those kids and coaches on both sides deserved
better!!! I know it doesn't change anything and I know that we will
face this again and again.
Hope all is well
Mike Foristiere
Mattawa, Washington
*********** Hugh,
Congratulations on your great season. When all is over and done
if you can say we got the very best from the kids they had to offer
there is nothing more to be said!!
I have so many fond memeories of my season at North Beach and was so
very excited at the success you and Todd had. I am sure I am one of the
few who really understand how difficult it is in a small school and
place like North Beech to accomplish what you did. Having great kids
willing to work of course is a very big thing but they don't get that
far without great coaching and the ability of you and Todd to work
together to make it happen.
Marshwood won the State Title game 44-18 over a very good Brunswick
team that was ten and one at the time. Marshwood runs multiple
formations but ran the Double Wing much of the game. Their
excution of the Wing-t was flawless.
All the best to you. Connie and the family this Christmas Season--You guys are never far from our thoughts!!
Jack Tourtillotte
Rangeley, Maine
PS: Great team picture!!
Jack,
Thanks for the note. It was a special season, and you're one of the few people who fully understand the nature of the job!
It all went so fast that it's hard to believe it actually happened.
Marshwood sure made a great hire, didn't they?
Hope you and Sue are enjoying winter in the North Country.
********
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014 - "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!" Anonymous
***********
In nominating his Black Lion Award winner, coach John Lambert of La
Center, Washington included a clip of his nominee in action
http://youtu.be/_-NHXBlMEAE
and he wrote,
On 4th down from the 1 inch line with 6 seconds left in the half, his
teammates filled all of the gaps and forced the opponent’s 240 RB to
the edge where (Our Nominee) was waiting for him. (He) used great form
and drove him back as the whistle blew as time expired…. it was the
opposite of the play in your playoff game...the referee blew the
whistle as soon as the ball carrier's forward progress was stopped.
********** Get Ready for a big college football weekend…
Latest Playoff Rankings
1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. Florida State
5. Ohio State
6. Baylor
7. Arizona
8. Michigan State
9. Kansas State
10. Mississippi State
First up: Oregon and Arizona play Friday for the Pac 12 title.
Oregon wins - Oregon is in.
Arizona wins? On the strength of its two wins over Oregon, Arizona has earned a spot
Arizona's only losses: to USC 28-26, UCLA 17-7
Best wins: over Oregon 31-24, Arizona State 42-35
Next: Baylor. TCU
will probably not drop out of the picture. The Frogs will NOT
lose to Iowa State. BUT a convincing Baylor win over Kansas State would
deadlock the Bears and TCU for the Big 12 title - and Baylor
would have the tie-breaker (not to mention the head-to-head), having
beaten TCU several weeks ago. On that basis, it would seem hard
for the selectors to bypass the conference champion. Solution: could
both TCU and Baylor wind up in the playoff?
More likely : Ohio State (with a win over Wisconsin).
Next in line...
Wisconsin (with a win over Ohio State). The Badgers have lost only to LSU in the season opener and to Northwestern (by six points).
Michigan State (with an Ohio State win over Wisconsin) - the Spartans have lost only to Oregon, early in the season, and to Ohio State.
Kansas State (with a win over Baylor)
Where do the open spots come from?
If Missouri beats Alabama - Alabama is S.O.L. - and so is the SEC.
Missouri? There's that 34-0 loss to Georgia. And that loss to… Indiana!
MIssissippi State? Bulldogs have lost two of their last three games.
If Georgia Tech beats Florida State - It's all over for FSU - and the ACC
Georgia Tech can't overcome those losses to Duke and North Carolina
*********** Who we gonna turn to for our examples of class when Bill Snyder decides to hang 'em up?
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article4257470.html
*********** For those who are interested, Washington (WIAA) playoffs will be shown on the NFHS site-
ALL TIMES PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
Friday's games:
4 PM Class 2B - Napavine vs Okanogan (The class that North Beach plays in)
7 PM Class 3A - Bellevue vs Eastside Catholic (Bellevue, nationally-ranked Wing-T team, has won six straight state titles)
Saturday's games
10 AM Class 1A - Cascade Christian vs Colville
1 PM Class 2A - Sedro Woolley vs Lynden
4 PM Class 1B (8 Man) - Neah Bay vs Liberty Christian
7:30 PM Class 4A - Bothel vs Chiawana
http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/associations/wiaa-wa
*********** From an open letter to Under Armour about Texas Tech's
uniforms, written by a Tech booster, comes an interesting
analysis of Oregon's togs…
One
of the biggest criticisms about the Oregon design is that they’re just
crazy and they have a ton of these ideas and uniforms and therefore,
the design must be crazy. Actually, that’s pretty far from the truth.
The
terrific thing about Oregon is that they have embraced two designs and
they've built an empire on it. But those two designs are actually very
simple. It's the wing with the feather, whether it be on the helmet or
on the jersey, and the Oregon "O". That's it. Everything plays off of
those two very simple design aspects. Oh sure, Oregon has varied a bit
after that, and they've had a few throwback uniforms, but generally
speaking they use the wings and the Oregon "O". They have also used
five colors: green, yellow, grey, black and white. Lots of variations
of green, but I think that's easier to do with green than with red.
There is one pink helmet for cancer research, but generally speaking
Oregon seems to stick pretty much within those variations of colors.
http://www.vivathematadors.com/2014/12/1/7303647/an-open-letter-to-under-armour-on-texas-techs-uniforms
*********** Coach,
I am long-time reader of your blog and thought you would be interested
in the NFHS questionnaire on potential new rules. I do not know if you
were sent the survey as well, but here are some items that they are
discussing this year...
-Allowing the QB in the gun to immediately spike
-Eliminating the free blocking zone
-Eliminating the hurdling penalty
-Expanding formation restrictions on free kicks
-Allowing an onside kick that has been grounded to be fair caught
-Penalizing offensive fouls behind the LOS from the previous spot instead
Eliminating the free blocking zone is a terrible idea. Smaller teams
will have issues with bigger opponents, let alone backside blocking on
the Power.
Some of these potential changes I had a chuckle at as I am sure you will as well.
Thanks,
Ben Rulli
Head Football Coach
Carroll HS
Dayton Ohio
Coach,
Appreciate the note.
1. The spike itself is a joke.
Want to stop the clock? Run outside the tackle box and throw the
ball away... or run out of bounds... or (why doesn't anybody mention
this?) call a time out?
2. Everybody up! The two-point-stance linemen's guys' prayers are answered. Good-bye triple option.
3. Might as well. Been coaching since 1970 and I've never seen it called. Never.
4. Next step is eliminating the kickoff.
5. Same as #4
6. Sure. I guess the present
rule has been too hard on all the guys who coach holding. (And
here I am, dumb me, saying the penalty for holding should go back to
being 15 yards.)
*********** Coach Wyatt,
I don't know if you remember me, but my name is John Gammon and I am
the football coach at Livonia High School, South of Rochester,
NY. I was previously (9 years ago) the varsity coach at Eastridge
HS in Rochester, NY, where John Dowd was an assistant coach on our
staff and we began running the double wing in 2002, winning the
school's first sectional championship in 2004.
I've been away from coaching at the varsity level for the last nine
years after taking over an administrative position in my home town, but
continued to coach the modified (7th and 8th grade) team and my son's
youth team for the last 6 years. The double wing continued to
thrive at those levels, combining for a record of 63-6, 6 undefeated
seasons, 4 league titles and 3 regional titles.
This past fall I was able to take over the varsity program.
The varsity program has not won a sectional title in 21 years, but
flying high with the double wing, we almost pulled it off this
year. The team was 8-2, losing in the championship game
15-14. We averaged over 40 points a game with our A back rushing
for over 1,500 yards and 24 touchdowns.
I would like to thank you for your guidance over the years. I
hope to be another double wing success story as we turn this team into
champions.
John Gammon
Livonia High School
Livonia, New York
*********** Say this for Mike Pettine, Jr., the Cleveland Browns' rookie coach - he's got a set of stones.
With everyone else in the world having decided that this was the time -
finally - to hand the Browns' offense over to Johnny Football
(when's the last time you heard him called that?), Pettine
decided instead to dance with the guy that brung him - to stick with
Brian Hoyer. You just know that there's pressure from the
suits in the front office to play Manziel, and personally I'd have
enjoyed watching what happened, but Pettine sounds like a guy who's
thinking like a coach, not a fan or a marketer.
BEREA,
Ohio -- Browns coach Mike Pettine said the determining factor in
sticking with Brian Hoyer over Johnny Manziel was the fact he's led the
Browns to a 7-5 record and has them in the thick of the playoff race.
He cited the fact the Browns are facing a very good team in the 8-4 Indianapolis Colts, who lead the NFL with 31.8 points.
He
said Manziel hasn't had an opportunity to take many reps with the
first-team offense, which factored heavily into the decision.
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2014/12/mike_pettine_on_brian_hoyer_ov.html#incart_hbx#incart_best-of
*********** You have to give Ohio State a lot of credit for the way
they survived the loss of Braxton Miller, who was going into this
past season as a potential Heisman winner.
But Miller's backup, J.T. Barrett, did such a spectacular job in his
place that by season's end, it was clear to one and all that there
might not even be a place for Miller in the Buckeyes' plans next year.
And then Barrett also went down against Michigan, his ankle
broken. And now, the Ohio State staff has to work its magic
again, this time with backup-to-the-backup Cardale Jones. And
this time, with a week to do so.
Saturday, with Jones making his first start, the Buckeyes play Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game.
Not much at stake - just a potential spot in the national
playoff. And only a convincing Ohio State win will satisfy the
playoff selectors.
But Cardale Jones is not some kid they found wandering around
Columbus. He is a scholarship athlete. He was heavily
recruited. He is 6-5, 240, and he is said to have an even
stronger arm than Barrett. He is a redshirt freshman, yes, but
he's not exactly green. Counting a post-graduate year in prep
school in Virginia, he's three years out of high school. He was a
strong contender in the competition to replace Braxton Miller before
being nosed out by Barrett. Do not be surprised if he has a big day
Saturday.
*********** You may think you've never heard of Cardale Jones, but I'll bet you remember this tweet...
*********** Michael Sam is not in the NFL because he's gay. Or so he says.
http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/03/michael-sam-im-not-in-the-nfl-because-im-gay
*********** Shawn Eichorst, Nebraska AD, in announcing the firing of Bo Pelini, set the bar high for his successor...
“The
people of Nebraska deserve not only high standards and expectations,
but they deserve seeing our people and our teams reach
them. I indicated during my introductory press conference
that we will compete for Big Ten and national championships, and we
will do so with class, integrity, sportsmanship and with a commitment
to our student-athletes. I believe the action taken today is in line
with that vision… At the end of the day, I think we have kids in our
program that are capable of winning championships.”
And then, having fired Pelini, who'd averaged nine wins a
season, on the grounds that he hadn't won enough, or hadn't won the big
ones, he went out and hired a guy whose team went 5-7 this past season…
who won nine games just once in the last six seasons… whose five-year
record is 29-33… who's won just two of his last 12 conference games…
who's lost seven games in a row to his in-state rival.
I'm talking about Mike Riley, a very nice person who spent 14 years as
Oregon State's coach, and a very good man who seems to be
well-respected in the fraternity of college coaches. But how many
great guys have we seen come and go in the business of big-time college
football?
MIke Riley would be at the absolute bottom of any list of Pac-12
coaches that I'd think of in terms going to Nebraska. He seemed
to be a perfect fit for Oregon State and Corvallis, Oregon - his
father, Bud, was an OSU assistant, and he went to high school
there. Most people out here figured he'd stay at Oregon State
until he retired. But lately, there's been some question about
whether that would happen. There's been a lot of clamor lately
for Riley's head (did you know that, Huskers?). it wouldn't
have taken a lot of research by Nebraska to detect signs of an OSU
program on the verge of a death spiral, but the main thing
that's kept the wolves at bay has been the harsh economic reality of
life at a have-not school: they can't afford to buy him out.
Overall, I wouldn't call "Beaver Nation" an unreasonably demanding fan
base. There are still Beavers fans in the stands who lived
through the depression of 28 straight losing seasons. So why
would OSU fans want him gone? Well, the last five years have been
tough ones, and they've come as the Beavers' arch rivals, the Oregon
Ducks, less than a half-hour away in Eugene, have established
themselves as a national power. And seven straight losses to the Ducks
- most of them beat-downs - have left Beaver nation dejected.
Making matters worse, there was the sense, after a 5-7 2014
season that concluded with yet another thumping at the hands of the
Ducks - this one at home - that the cupboard is bare. And that
Mike Riley just didn't seem fired up about doing anything about it.
His recruiting has not been up to Pac-12 standards. In Sean Mannion, he
had one of the nation's top quarterbacks returning this year. But
after losing a great receiver, Brandin Cooks, to graduation, he failed
to go out and get quality receivers for Mannion to throw
to. Portland sports writers got all over him for that, and I had
to agree with them.
He has been a no-show in recruiting Oregon kids. Oregon State
once prided itself on having more in-state recruits than the Oregon
Ducks, but for this season's Oregon game the Beavers had exactly one Oregon kid on their two-deep roster.
A friend of mine who is close to the scene theorizes that Riley kept
hearing the media repeat the mantra that he had a special knack for
taking lower-rated recruits and developing them as Pac-12 players to
the point where he fell in love with that self-image - and as a result
no longer aggressively went after the better athletes.
As one case in point, he scarcely made an effort to recruit Alex
Balducci, the son of long-time friend Ralph Balducci. Alex was then the
state's top recruit at Portland Central Catholic High, and every major
school in the West was after him. Except Oregon State. Alex
chose Oregon, and now, a 6-5, 300-pound junior, he'll start at nose
guard against Arizona in Friday's Pac-12 championship game.
Overall, then, I get the feeling that much of Beaver Nation thinks the whole Riley-to-Nebraska move is a blessing.
As to why Riley would leave his home town, it took me a little while, but then it began to make sense:
1. Every coach at a resource-poor school has to wonder how he'd do at a place that provides him with everything he needs to win
2. He's tired of fighting Nike U.
3. He's giving the finger to the Beaver fans who've been calling for his scalp.
4. The cupboard is bare, and the league is getting tougher
5. The move may re-energize him
6. He'll make twice as much money at Nebraska
As one who is several years older than Mike Riley, and remembers
working with him at Rich Brooks' Oregon camp when he was just out of
college and an assistant at Linfield College, I'm the last one to be
"ageist." So it pains me to have to point out that he is 61 years
old. Usually, when a 61-year-old man is still coaching
successfully at a high level, he's doing it at a place where he's
become an institution (think Mike Riley at Oregon State), and not
starting all over.
Somehow, if things should go south at Nebraska (and it's hard to
improve much on a 9-win season), I don't think he's going to be treated
very gently by Nebraskans, a group of fans far more numerous, far more
passionate, and far more demanding than "Beaver Nation."
Look, one last time… Mike Riley is a great guy, and he's done some
great things at Oregon State. But to many, he seemed to be
running out of gas. I sure hope that this is a good move for him.
*********** As part of a brand-new effort on behalf of the game of
football and its benefits to our society, the National Football
Foundation has launched a new site,
FootballMatters.org
According to a release by the NFF, "The site focuses on stories,
videos, and franchises highlighting the very best in high school and
college football, such as: Football Moms, Special Teams, Hook &
Corporate Ladder, Man-to-Man, the Quote of the Day and many more."
It appears to me that it will be a very positive voice for our game.
On there, I watched an interview with Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE.
A former Dartmouth lineman, he talked about his love of football and
about football's effect on the way he does his job.
One part of the interview immediately won me over.
He said he was in India one time, and somebody asked him what was the most difficult thing about running a global company.
He said, "Pretending to give a sh-- about soccer."
http://footballmatters.org/stories/imafootballplayer-jeff-immelt-dartmouth-college-1977
*********** Are your ears still ringing with those chants of "I believe that we can win?"
Wasn't it just yesterday that people were leaving work early to watch World Cup matches?
Wasn't this summer's World Cup supposed to be the one that would finally establish soccer as a major sport in the US?
Well… Maybe somebody should tell all those twits who last summer
professed their undying love for The Beautiful Game that it's time they
got off their asses and went out and bought a ticket to an MLS (the
"ML", if you didn't know, stands for "Major League") game, because
according to the MLS commissioner, Don Garber, the league's teams are
losing $100 million a year.
"I can say without doubt that our owners did not expect that by this
time we'd still be needing to invest the level of money that we have
been investing, and that's just the reality of where our business is
today," Garber told The Associated Press.
It's been said for years: Soccer is the sport of the future… and always will be.
http://www.komonews.com/sports/MLS-commish-frets-about-state-of-league-finances-284544491.html
*********** Dan Jenkins, legendary sports writer, in Texas Monthly
TM: With all the concern over head injuries, people are starting to
suggest that football itself is politically incorrect. Do you think the
handwringing about concussions is overblown?
DJ: Yes. It’s a tough game, and they know what they’re getting into.
But I do worry about what’s going to result from that. My greatest
fear, and I won’t live to see it happen, is for the United States men
to win the World Cup [in] soccer. It would start something.
"Central Spartan JV after winning our city championship !"
Good morning Coach Wyatt,
This season I was given the opportunity to head coach the JV at my alma
mater, Central Union in El Centro, Ca. after spending the last 2
seasons in Calexico. We finished 9-1, our last six games were
shutouts! Installed a basic set of plays to compliment the Varsity
offense in week 4 of the season. I have attached a video of our first
play in our first league game week 5! (It's a beauty of a Super Power!
HW)
Matt Marrs, Imperial, California -
P.S. How about that former A-back Royce Freeman?!!!
Royce Freeman? Doing a great job
as a true freshman running back for the Oregon Ducks. He would be
anybody's dream A-Back!
*********** Ever wonder why there seems to be such tolerance for all
the sh-- that goes down in Washington? Why nobody's talking about the
President's unilaterally granting amnesty to millions?
Jonah Goldberg has an explanation.
"...the
only way this president can be rescued from a bad news cycle is if an
even worse one comes along. This is a source of frustration for many on
the right who get outraged by the fact that “we” don’t talk enough
about Fast & Furious or Benghazi or the IRS scandal or the VA
scandal or Ukraine/Syria/Islamic State/China/Libya/Gitmo . . . . etc.
The reason some of these topics get pushed to the backburner, even on
the right, is that another controversy or scandal suddenly eclipses the
previous one. If I ask you to hold a bowling ball and then, five
minutes later, I surprise you by throwing a second bowling ball at you
and shouting “Catch!” it’s sort of unfair for me to expect you not to
drop the ball."
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 - "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln
***********
The New York Times ran a nice article last week about the MIT football
team and the fact that it not only made it into the D-III playoffs, but
actually won a first-round game. Yes, they lost to Wesley in the
second round, 59-0, but the miracle is that football is alive and
kicking at a school that is among the most selective and most
academically demanding in the country. There are no Tar Heel
courses at MIT.
And wouldn't you know - probably a third of the responses to the
article were from people questioning why "guys that smart" would even
play football.
I wanted to shout, 'BECAUSE THEY WANT TO, YOU SH--HEAD!"
They're young, athletic males. They may happen to be brighter than the
rest of us but they still enjoy testing themselves physically. They
still like to wrestle, to ski, to play ice hockey, to ride motorcycles,
to climb mountains.
And play football.
2014 NORTH BEACH HYAKS - OCEAN SHORES, WASHINGTON 
RANKED #4 IN STATE
10-1 PACIFIC LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
FIRST LEAGUE TITLE SINCE 1975
STATE QUARTER-FINALIST
FIRST PLAYOFF WIN SINCE 1983
FIRST UNDEFEATED REGULAR SEASON IN SCHOOL HISTORY
*********** Coach,
Wow
what a game! I read your account in the ‘News’ just now and I am
sure that it will be one you will re-live for a long time.
It sounds as though the staff got everything out of the potential of
your team that was possible, which is the greatest compliment a coach
can receive. And that the boys came to practice on Monday! I don’t
think I have ever heard of that. What a compliment! THAT is what this
is all about.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving and again congratulations.
Emory Latta
Dothan Alabama
Coach,
I appreciate the note.
It was wonderful season with a great group of kids.
We are demanding and tough but our kids know that we love them. (Sort of the way their fathers used to be.)
Our coach, Todd Bridge, is a Christian man who lives his faith and is
proof that a tough man and a Christian are not contradictory terms.
Our post-game session in the locker room with our kids lasted over an
hour and brought out emotions that most kids aren't willing to share
with others.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, and thank you again.
*********** Coach,
Sorry about the loss. I am sure you have heard enough clichés for one season.
I was watching Sports Center this morning and Odell Beckham's catch was
all over the program. Tommy was sitting on the edge of my bed watching
while I was getting dressed. We were talking while my back was to him
and we both expressed amazement at the catch. However, as the TV
footage then showed Beckham standing on the bench, pounding his chest
and shouting at the crowd, I turned and saw my son still transfixed to
the program.
I began to wonder how deeply that example was being ingrained in his psyche.
Sometimes I think Sports Center (especially the Top 10) has ruined
sports, by making it all about the sexy aspects of the game (dunks,
homeruns and shoulder tackles) and not the basic fundamentals.
Now I think it compounds this problem by highlighting narcissism.
It was bad enough that he wanted to be a receiver in the first place.
Why don't we ever hear about a ten-year old who complains because he
didn't get to play Guard?
I think this will be a good topic for the dinner table tonight.
Get some rest.
Tom Walls
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Hi Tom,
Appreciate the note. We're over it.
The best sign of the success we had was the fact that on the Monday
after our disappointing loss, our kids - ALL of our kids - wanted to
practice. So we practiced. And every single kid was there.
I agree with you on Sports Center.
For viewers it is like the Cliffs Notes of sports - why watch a whole
stupid game when they'll give you the highlights and you can go back to
Twitter?
For narcissistic players it is like catnip.
For coaches and fathers, it is a great challenge to try to keep kids grounded.
I know that with your guidance Tommy will figure it out.
Cliff Notes to literature is a good analogy. Here are some others:
As MTV is to music- No one can listen to a full album anymore.
As the History Channel is to History- Everyone considers themselves experts on Hitler or the Civil War
As Madden Football is to Coaching Football- Everyone thinks they can
call an offense- you would be surprised at how simple young coaches
think passing plays are.
All of these short cuts have fed into the devolution of the American
culture (or maybe world wide), where we want immediate gratification
rather than long-term reward.
This is yet another reason why I think American football is superior to
Canadian. With three downs and unlimited motion, the emphasis is on big
plays rather than long drives.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat my instant oatmeal that took my grandmother 20 minutes to make when she was young. :)
*********** Like me, you will come to like a handful of
individual officials, but you can coach until you're 100 and you
probably won't need more than two hands to count the ones who treat you
respectfully, who know the rules thoroughly, who use good judgment in
enforcing the rules, and aren't so paranoids that they see any
challenge of any call as a question of their integrity.
I have seldom doubted an official's integrity or impartiality, and I
have found that most have a good knowledge of the rules. But I always
worry about getting one whose judgement is poor, and I worry even more
about getting a guy who combines poor judgment with thin skin.
In my opinion, our crew Saturday - one of those all-star mixed crews
that the state inflicts on you at playoff time - did not measure up to
the demands of the game.
Look - we lost our game, 21-14. On that day, our opponent was the better team.
But there's no room in football for officiating like this…
(1) A questionable personal foul adds to a drive; the officials
claimed they saw the whole play, but they evidently didn't see -
because they didn't penalize - the kid from the opposing team who
could have started a brawl by leaving his team area and "approaching"
our player
http://youtu.be/p9vgBRSPjEE
(2) A Fourth-and 15 reverse pass is intercepted (I know, I know -
fourth down) and the returner fumbles; the ball is touched by an
opposing team (Toledo) player while he is clearly out of bounds,
meaning possession belongs to the team that fumbled. But, no -
not with those officials. Toledo ball. Toledo goes on to score
the winning touchdown.
http://youtu.be/UZIyGxptnAA
(3) The winning touchdown. Talk about a slow whistle. Any other
time - if we'd pried the ball loose, or thrown the runner to the ground
- they'd have said that the runner's forward progress was
stopped. Not this time. (What's with all the slow whistles while
they pay lip service to player safety? )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYnuk1stDF0&feature=youtu.be
*********** UCLA made a very big deal during the Stanford game of the
fact that it was retiring Jackie Robinson's number - 42 - for all
Bruins' teams in all sports.
Nice honor. Robinson, who played football and baseball and ran
track at UCLA and is one of the school's most illustrious alumni, is
highly deserving.
Except, uh... Thanks to the title of a movie, people
who weren't even born when Jackie Robinson played know that he
wore number 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But there's no record that he ever wore that number at UCLA.
He wore number 28 as a football player, but I've had no luck finding a
photo of him from the back to tell whether he even had a baseball
number.
*********** In response to my comments about not understanding what the problem was with RG III…
Charlie Wilson of Crystal River, Florida sent me a link to an article
which pretty much explains why the Redskins have given up on a guy who
was once neck-and-neck with Andrew Luck...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/11/19/chris-cooley-rgiii-was-so-bad-i-cant-assess-the-rest-of-the-redskins-offense/
*********** Going into a state championship game, you've got to
be pretty confident to go along with a Detroit TV station, the
way Warren (MIchigan) De La Salle did, but what resulted was a
pretty funny spoof on what we've become used to seeing on NFL
broadcasts. (De La Salle won the game, 44-8.)
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/27509745/warren-de-la-salle-wins-first-ever-high-school-football-championship
*********** Georgia's down by six but driving, when- whose
bright idea was it? - they called a slant on second and six. It
was intercepted. There went the game, a place in the conference
championship game and - perhaps - a spot in the playoff.
Oh, and that there triple option Tech offense that people thought they'd solved? It still works.
*********** The season-ending injury to Ohio State quarterback J.T.
Barrett has put the playoff selection committee in a bind, because by
nearly all criteria, the Buckeyes should be neck-and-neck with Baylor
and TCU for the fourth spot in the playoff, except…
With all due respect to the Ohio State coaches' ability to prepare
their third-string quarterback (Barrett, remember, only got the
starting job when Braxton Miller was injured) for playoff competition,
it would be a travesty to give a precious playoff spot to a team whose
offense is operating at far less than its best.
*********** The Duke and North Carolina football teams play annually
for possession of a large bell, and it's tradition for the
winning team to paint the base of the bell in its school color.
Immediately. Which means spray paint.
Uh-oh. What if they don't know when to stop?
North Carolina coach Larry Fedora wound up having to apologize to
Duke officials after his players sprayed paint on the rug and on the
walls of their locker room in Duke's stadium.
Despite suggestions that perhaps outside vandals had done the damage in
hopes of pinning the blame on the Tar Heels, Durham police
detectives said the perpetrators had to be North Carolina
football players because they misspelled "UNC."
*********** Coach,
I failed to provide an update to the end of our season. The
Trojans finished the season 7-3, having lost in the first round of the
Class 3A playoffs 43-45 to visiting Monticello. The season
brought our fourth consecutive conference championship and seventh in
the last twelve years and fifth consecutive playoff birth and eleventh
in the last twelve years. The seniors ended their careers having
been part of a varsity team with a four-year record of 36-7.
I have to thank you for all that you do to promote high school football
and the double wing in particular. It is through your postings
(and some of the contacts I have made through your postings), along
with some pretty great groups of kids the last few years, that I have
grown as a coach. Your encouragement to get out of the
traditional double wing has allowed me to expand as an offensive coach
while still staying true to what I've been taught (by you) and
believe. I am certainly a better coach now than I was four years
ago, and a lot of that has to do with the influence you have.
Thank you.
I have attached my nomination for the 2014 Black Lion. I hope it is not too late.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
*********** Soccer people are celebrating Caleb Sturgis' "rabona" kick last week…
http://blog.foxsoccer.com/post/103470186427/miami-dolphins-kicker-attempts-rabona-onside
*********** Hello Coach Wyatt,
I wonder what advise you may have for someone who is thinking of running your, "spread cat", formation exclusively?
Is blocking, at the corner, for 88 power more difficult? Can backside G &T both be pulled to playside to wall off?
Thank you for your advise.
Coach,
Blocking for 88 power from spread
formation can be a bit problematic because you will often find a man on
your playside tackle's outside shoulder, and your choice is whether to
have your tackle block to the inside - and leave that defensive lineman
for your B-Back, or to double-team that defender with your tackle and
wingback.
In the former case, if that defender
is really tough, as close as he is he might be too much for your B-Back
and he might shut your play down before it starts.
On the other hand, if you double-team
him, you might wind up blocking him to the outside, which means that
your backside guard - and your runner - might actually go through the
"4" hole.
In any event, you will not
consistently be able to pull your backside tackle, because a defensive
end will chase him, and run your play down from behind.
UNLESS you're willing and able to teach your QB to read that defensive end.
*********** If you didn't know anything about the War of 1812 turned
out, from the slow, mournful femmie/fruity way they sing the national
anthem before NFL games, you'd swear we lost that G-D battle in
Baltimore Harbor, and the Brits captured Fort McHenry after all.
*********** Questionable end-of-game management...
With 1:47 to play and the game tied, 21-21 Ohio U. missed a potential game-winning field goal.
Miami U. took over with 1:47, but rather than playing for OT, they
rolled the dice: running just once, and throwing five times.
Unfortunately, four of their passes were incomplete, and instead of
running the clock out and going into overtime, they wound up punting.
Six plays from scrimmage, plus the punt, and they ran just 39 seconds off the clock.
Starting at their own 20, Ohio needed just four plays - two runs by the
quarterback and two pass completions - to get the ball into field goal
range and this time to kick the winning field goal as time ran out.
Ohio 24, Miami 21.
*********** Buried in the story of Western Kentucky's 67-66 overtime
win over Marshall was the fact that Marshall receiver Davonte Allen was
ejected for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, both following
touchdowns. The first was the result of a little dance, the second when
he threw the ball in a defender's face. Good receiver - up to that
point he'd caught six passes for 141 yards - but sheesh. Talk about
selfish.
Hats off to Marshall coach Doc Holliday, who is somehow able to coach
kids like that. But wait - isn't he the one who recruits
them?
*********** The good news is that UAB's win over Southern Miss made the
Blazers bowl eligible. The bad news is that UAB will likely drop
football this week.
http://www.sunherald.com/2014/11/30/5944033/end-is-near-for-uab-football-what.html
*********** Among the dumb, unMichigan things done by
recently-fired Michigan AD Dave Brandon was the "Legends" deal -
unretiring numbers (such as Tom Harmon's number 98) and putting them on
players who hadn't even begun to measure up to the immortals whose
numbers they wore.
*********** On the other hand, maybe its just as well Miami and Ohio
U didn't go into OT, with John Beilein so worried about his
Michigan basketball players (er, student-athletes) waking up for their
9 AM classes the next day.
Michigan's basketball game with Villanova tipped off at 10:15 - 15
minutes late - after a the Miami-Ohio U game ran late on
ESPN2. Rather than start the basketball game on one of its
lesser channels, ESPN chose to delay the start in order to show
the game in its entirety on ESPN2.
Said Beilein afterward, "I mean, I love ESPN, guys, I love it, but when
they told me that the game was being moved back 15 minutes -- something
is wrong. We have a whole bunch of guys with 8 and 9 o'clock classes
tomorrow morning and we move that game to 10:15 so that a football game
could be finished."
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/11/john_beilein_blasts_espn_for_l.html
***********Coach,
I am trying to get the (local) high school interested in running your
double wing. They have only one good season and that was in 1960 when I
played and we went undefeated at that time! I would like to see them
un-defeated at least once more, in my lifetime! If they commit to the
system I am sure they will have a good chance to do that!
Coach,
From long experience, I would say that
the only way that they would decide to do it would be if somehow it was
the head coach's own idea.
Otherwise, for one thing, the head
coach will not be fully invested. For another, it will be seen as
your idea, and immediately there will be people who will shoot it down
because it wasn't theirs.
In short, it has to be bought. It can't be sold.
*****
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 - "If you want to know what God thinks of money just look at the people he gave it to." Dorothy Parker
************
Remember those bastards from European-owned ABInbev and all those
phony-ass patriotic Budweiser ads they've run, trying to trick stupid
Americans into thinking that good old Bud is still American?
Remember when I said that soon enough, the Clydesdales would be gone?
Well, don't look for them in commercials. prancing through snowy New
England towns this Christmas. Or any other Christmas, for that
matter.
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/11/24/anheuser-busch-no-clydesdales-at-christmas/
Mark my words - it won't be long before the menus of fine European restaurants are featuring roast Clydesdale.
***********
On a beautiful sunny day in Centralia, Washington, North Beach lost to
Toledo Saturday, 21-14, in a state quarter-final game.
North Beach finished the season 10-1. Toledo, 11-1, moves on.
It was a frustrating loss. If you coach long enough, you'll have those
games. They start out in bizarre fashion and go on from there,
and you find yourself wondering when the real game will start.
Back in 1978, I was coaching at Banks, Oregon and the opponent was
Dayton, coached by the late Dewey Sullivan, who would go on to retire
as the winningest coach in Oregon high school football history.
We received, and as the Dayton kicker approached the ball, my front
line players turned to carry out their blocking assignments.
Unfortunately for us, the kick hit one of them in the rear end.
Dayton recovered, and the rout was on.
Needless to say, from that point on it's always been a big thing with
me to make sure that our up-front guys understand that their first job
is to make sure they see the ball kicked. But then, there are those
games...
36 years later, as we prepared to receive the opening kickoff, I
sat in the press box and watched Toledo's kick bounce right in front of
one of our front guys, who appeared unaware of where it was. The
ball rolled past him and Toledo recovered. One play in and we
were rocked, and before we could regain our poise - before a minute
had elapsed in the game - they had us down, 7-0.
This time, though, there would be no rout. Our kids regained their
composure, and after recovering a Toledo fumble on our own 35 yard
line, drove 65 yards in eight plays to score with 2:35 left, but missed
the extra point try and trailed, 7-6.
Toledo lost another fumble, but after we were forced to punt, they
drove 80 yards to score with 43 seconds left in the half to take a 14-6
lead.
The third quarter consisted almost entirely of two long drives.
Toledo took the kickoff on the 35 (we'd kicked out of bounds) and drove
to our 10 yard line, where our outside linebacker, Skyler Wells,
intercepted a slant pass and was downed on our three.
At this point, with the exception of 40-some seconds at the end
of the half, we had gone nearly ten minutes without running an
offensive play.
Aided by two major penalties - one for pass interference and the other
for a face mask - we managed to drive the 97 yards in 15 plays,
punching it in from four yards out on fourth down with :13 remaining in
the period. The longest play was a third-and-one sneak that QB
Alex McAra turned into an 18-yard gain. The successful two-point
conversion tied the game at 14-all.
Aided by two major penalties - one for pass interference and the other
for a face mask - we managed to drive the 97 yards in 15 plays,
punching it in from four yards out on fourth down with :13 remaining in
the period. The longest play was a third-and-one sneak that QB
Alex McAra turned into an 18-yard gain. The successful two-point
conversion tied the game at 14-all.
Then ensued one of the damnedest drives I've ever seen, much less been a part of.
Toledo pulled off a nice reverse and returned the kickoff to our 27.
On the next play, our outside linebacker Gabe Hernandez tackled
the Toledo runner as he headed out of bounds, and, as Gabe made sure to
hold him up, the two rode together all the way to the track, where Gabe
let go and was accosted by an indignant Toledo player who left his team
area and pushed Gabe, then took off his helmet (never a smart move) and
challenged him. To Gabe's credit, he stood and did nothing.
To the officials' discredit, although they managed to "see" the
personal foul, they missed the action behind the bench.
They marched off the penalty and the quarter ended, with the score
tied, 14-14 and Toledo on our 12. We stiffened, and after three
plays, they faced a 4th and 15 on our 17.
And then all hell broke loose. Toledo tried a double-reverse
pass. One of our defensive ends sniffed it out and tackled the
intended passer, who managed to fling the ball jet before he hit the
ground. Gabe Hernandez, without time to realize that it was
fourth down, intercepted on the 15 and took off for the Toledo goal,
but at the 20 the ball was knocked loose from behind, with enough force
to cause the ball to roll out to the 39 where following a scramble -
video shows - it was clearly touched by a Toledo player who by that
point was lying out of bounds. Despite the fact that we were last in
possession and Toledo never regained possession before touching the
ball while out of bounds, Toledo was awarded the ball - and a first
down.
It took them four plays to get to a first-and-goal on our five,
and one play to get to our one yard line. But we bowed our
backs and stuffed a quarterback sneak. And then came a play
I'll remember forever. From the one, they ran a dive at our left
side, where the runner was met at the goal line by our free safety, who
was quickly joined by at least three teammates who drove him
backward. The runner's forward progress was no longer even an
issue - not only was he headed backward, but in fact he was facing his
own goal, looking at the referee, who stood stone-still and mute.
For some reason the guy didn't blow his whistle, and for some reason -
perhaps because they were gun-shy after the earlier personal foul
penalty - our kids let go of the runner, and after a brief pause,
possibly surprised that he'd been set free, he alertly did a 180 turn
and loped across the goal line.
With 7:34 remaining, we took the kickoff and drove to their 31, but
with a little more than two minutes left, we threw incomplete on fourth
down. Toledo took over and ran out the clock and that
was that. Our kids played hard but we didn't play our best game.
For what it's worth, in the game that followed ours, which determined
whom we would have played in this week's semifinal game, top-ranked
Napavine put a 52-7 shellacking on Raymond, whom we managed to beat
earlier in the season in two overtimes.
I'm not happy with the loss, but if our season had to end, I'd much
prefer it end in a 21-14 hard-fought loss than a 52-7 whupping.
As a postnote, at our players' request, we held a final "practice" Monday afternoon. In pouring rain. And every single kid was present.
Part of the crowd at the North Beach-Toledo game, seen from the press box.
************ What does it mean when Buffalo
can trounce the Jets after being snowed in and unable to
practice all week?
*********** The Football Writers Association of America/National Football Foundation
Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll - Week 11
1 Alabama
2 Florida State
3 Oregon
4 Mississippi State
5 TCU
6 Baylor
7 Ohio State
8 Georgia
9 UCLA
10 Michigan State
11 Kansas State
12 Arizona
13 Arizona State
14 Wisconsin
15 Auburn
16 Missouri
First-Round games, if there were to be a 16-team playoff:
Alabama-Missouri
Florida State-Auburn
Oregon-Wisconsin
MIssissippi State- Arizona State
TCU-Arizona
Baylor-Kansas State
Ohio State-MIchigan State
Georgia-UCLA
*********** One reason I'll be happy to see 2016 get here is that I'm
really looking forward to no longer having to hear "folks" used
as the all-purpose word to describe anyone from hard-working
Americans, prisoners, political opponents, refugees and terrorists
to victims of crime, earthquakes, blizzards and hurricanes.
*********** The NFL can wear all the pink it wants, and it can blather
on about espousing family values, but who's it kidding when every game
we watch on TV exposes us to panels of "experts" the likes of
Michael Irvin, Randy Moss, Keyshawn Johnson and Deion Sanders?
Anybody remember what model citizens they were as players? What great
team players? If the Patriots hadn't signed LeGarrette Blount,
we'd probably be listening to him this weekend.
*********** See how Yale could beat Alabama: My Team is Better Than Your Team
http://www.myteamisbetterthanyourteam.com
*********** When you have the game won, take the win and go home.
Should you ever consider getting cute, keep this in mind:
In 1999, Baylor coach Kevin Steele, his team leading UNLV with only 12
seconds remaining and the Rebels out of time outs, chose to
run the ball rather than take a knee. The Bears fumbled and UNLV
returned the fumble for the winning touchdown.
*********** Our game Saturday started at 1 PM and was over by 3:30. We
were out of the stadium before 5, so my wife and I went and unwound and
watched the USC-UCLA game on the TV set behind the bar.
How did I know who was playing?
Well, neither team was wearing black. Or gray. Or cam. Or
anything designed specially for the game by NIke/Adidas/UnderArmour.
Jeez, it's nice to know who's playing without even having to be told.
*********** If you want to poison your relationship with your
quarterback, and make any future quarterback wonder whether he can ever
trust you, this is how to do it. It's Redskins' coach Jay Gruden,
talking about Robert Griffin.
“Robert
had some fundamental flaws. His footwork was below average. He took
three-step drops when he should have taken five. He took a one-step
drop when he should have taken three, on a couple occasions, and that
can’t happen. He stepped up when he didn’t have to step up and stepped
into pressure. He read the wrong side of the field a couple times. So
from his basic performance just critiquing Robert, it was not even
close to being good enough to what we expect from the quarterback
position.
“Just
take your drops the right way and throw the five-yard stick route when
you’re supposed to and do the best you can. Sometimes he worries a
little bit too much. We’ve just got to try to get him better. His frame
of mind is in the right place. It just doesn’t come out the right way
sometimes, but he wants to get better. He knows he has a long way to go
to get better. If he stays on the right track as far as work ethic and
listening and preparing, then he’ll get better.
“It’s
his job to worry about his position, his footwork, his fundamentals,
his reads, his progressions, his job at the quarterback position. It’s
my job to worry about everybody else. And, yes, everybody else needs to
improve. There’s no question about it. But it’s not his place. His
place is to talk about himself, and he knows that. He just elaborated a
little bit too much.”
**
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2014 - "Barack Obama is the President that Richard NIxon always wanted to be." Jonathan Turley, Professor, George Washington University School of Law
*********** Sorry for the brief "NEWS" today.
On Saturday at 1 PM in Centralia, Washington Tiger Stadium, the North
Beach Hyaks (10-0) play the Toledo Indians (10-1), in the Washington
State Class 2B quarterfinals in the first game of a double-header.
Should we win, our opponent in the state semi-finals will be the winner
of the game that follows ours, between the Raymond Seagulls (9-1),
whom we beat six weeks ago in two overtimes, and the Napavine Tigers,
10-0 and ranked number one in the state.
The semi-final game will take place in the Tacoma Dome next weekend -
on, uh, either next Friday or Saturday. We probably won't know until
Monday. (Good luck planning Thanksgiving dinner.)
Our local newspaper picked us to win, 42-36. I don't know whether
we're good enough to score 42 points against them, but given that we've
allowed a total of 53 points all season - 13 of them in garbage time -
I'm really going to be surprised if they're able to score 36 points
against us.
Sorry I don't have more today. Things have been pretty
hectic out here on The Edge of the Continent after our first playoff
win in over 30 years.
Friday
morning, our kids will be bussed to pep rallies in their honor at our
district's two elementary schools, in Ocean Shores and Pacific Beach.
Friday
afternoon, we'll bus to Aberdeen to practice on artificial turf (from
this point on, all playoff games must be played on artificial turf).
(Could it be our last practice? What a dreadful
thought.)
Saturday,
we play the first game of a double-header, so we'll serve the kids
breakfast at 8:15, and by 9 we'll be on our way to Centralia, roughly a
two-hour bus trip, where we face Toledo (10-1) in the state Class 2B
quarterfinals.
Kickoff
is at 1 PM. By 4 PM, when the next game starts, we'll have
sent the team bus back to Ocean Shores, and we'll either stay
around to scout our next week's rival, or…
Damn. I hate to even think of the possibility that it could all be over.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2014 - "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything." Oscar Wilde
***********
As if Michigan didn't have enough problems, defensive lineman Frank
Clark is in jail in Sandusky, Ohio, held without bond on a charge of
domestic violence.
Doesn't "domestic violence" mean ("allegedly") beating up someone he's shacked up with? (Such as a "fiancee?")
Doesn't it make you wonder whatever happened to athletic dorms?
Doesn't
it make you wonder how these poor college kids who, they tell us,
go to bed hungry every night, manage to pay for off-campus housing for two?
Doesn't it make you laugh when a college coach refers to his players as "kids?"
***********
On a chilly Friday night in Aberdeen, Washington, the North Beach Hyaks
played solid on defense throughout and came alive offensively in the
second half to defeat the Pe Ell/Willapa Valley Titans, 27-12, and
advance to the quarterfinals of the state Class 2B playoffs.
Call it nerves. Call it cockiness. Chalk it up to the fact
that we hadn't played in game in two weeks - and hadn't faced a tough
opponent in four weeks.
Whatever the reason, our offense was barely recognizable in pregame and
for most of the first half. We clearly weren't ourselves.
Failing to field a punt (big mistake on an artificial surface), we had
to start out inside our ten-yard line; we managed to pick up a couple
of first downs, but two procedure penalties stalled us.
Same basic thing the next drive. And the next. More stupid
procedure penalties in one half of ball than in the previous nine games
combined.
Add to that a play when we had only 10 men on the field. WTF?
Worst of all, we seemed passive, listless, letting the opponents take it to us.
Fortunately for us, our defense held.
Our defense has been good all year. Coming into this game, we'd
given up just 41 points all season, seven of them scored against our
JVs during mop-up time.
Facing a team on a seven-game winning streak in which it hadn't scored
less than 34 points in any game, our defense kept PWV out of the end
zone until we could finally put a little drive together in the closing
minutes of the half.
Starting at our own 20 following a PWV punt, we drove deep into Titan
territory, assisted along the way by two penalties, until finally,
facing a fourth-and-goal at the ten-yard line, Saul Gonzalez kicked the
first field goal of his career with 52 seconds left to send us
off at halftime with a 3-0 lead. (Not that we hadn't been practicing
field goals every day for an entire season - we knew that Saul could
make it. We just hadn't ever had occasion to kick one in a game.)
In the halftime locker room, even allowing for the fact that we were
facing a very tough opponent, we all agreed that we'd played probably
our worst half of the season - and yet there we were, ahead by
three points.
And, although I had no proof, that last drive had given me a sense that
we'd begun to find ourselves - that the game had begun to swing our way.
After opening the second half with a short drive, we punted the ball
away, and on their first play from scrimmage, PWV fumbled - and we
recovered - on their 37.
That business about asserting ourselves? Check. Time for
the old Double Wing (remember that?) From this point on,
the plan was to pound.
Like drives of old, it took us nine plays to get in. Pound,
pound, pound. The only run longer than six yards was the scoring
play itself, a ten-yarder with Elijah Towery carrying it in.
The two-point conversion made it 11-0, and so long as our defense could hold up, we were in reasonably good shape.
The Titans evidently didn't see things that way, and put on an
impressive drive of their own, down to our 14. There,
though, once again they fumbled, and once again, we recovered.
And drove.
This drive took us 13 plays - seven at the tail end of the third
quarter, six at the start of the fourth - to go 86 yards, with Towery
scoring from three yards out. Pound, pound, pound. The only play
of more than eight yards was Towery's 20-yard run down to the three to
set up the score. The conversion made the score 19-0, and now,
with 9:56 left, I began to feel we had a decent chance of winning.
Uh-oh. As we'd seen them do so many times over the last several
games, on their next play from scrimmage PWV went 61 yards for a
touchdown. Their try for two points was stuffed, and we
led, 19-6.
And then, despite all our work, every practice, on covering onside
kicks, I'll be damned if they didn't do one - successfully - and take
over on our 48.
First down, around left end, got them one. Second down, around
left end, got them two. Third down, a bootleg right, and the
quarterback, pressured, threw incomplete. Fourth and seven,
another bootleg right, and Towery, who'd already scored our two
touchdowns on offense, sacked the QB for a 12-yard loss.
Taking over on their 43, we needed nine plays to punch it in, with
Jordan Chong carrying it in from three yards out. Pound, pound, pound.
The only long play was Chong's 12-yard carry down to the five. We
did need one fourth-and-five conversion, on which we relied on what
most of you would recognize as a classic Double-Wing play.
We added another two point conversion (figure it out - three of those
suckers are the equivalent of a touchdown) and the score stood 27-6
with 4:15 left.
And then, inexplicably, PWV did our job for us,
and ran out the clock. As we backed off in anticipation of
passing, they instead pounded the rock themselves, and took 11 plays to
get 39 yards, from midfield (after our short kick) down to our 10 yard
line, where with six seconds remaining they threw for a consolation
score.
Finally, take-a-knee time. Game over.
Post-game was a bit strange. The kids were happy, of course, but
scarcely the way I'd seen them over the past several years, when wins
were scarcer. There was almost a sense of relief that we'd
finally accomplished a playoff win, the school's first since
1983. Maybe, too, it was the exhaustionn of a bell-to-bell
struggle with a very tough team, a struggle that took more out of them
than they realized.
Our local paper, the Aberdeen Daily World, had predicted we'd lose,
28-27. Quipped our coach, Todd Bridge, afterward, "At least they
got our score right."
*********** After our win Friday night, we had to wait until Saturday afternoon to know who our next week's opponent will be.
Now we know. It's 10-1 Toledo, 65-32 winners over Concrete.
Toledo proved to be as explosive against Concrete as they were when I
scouted them last week, especially their running back Taylor
Hicks. Hicks ran for 393 yards and six touchdowns as the Indians scored
45 points in the second half, 31 of them in an astonishing third
quarter.
After a back-and-forth first half, Concrete, a Double-Wing team, led, 26-20 at the intermission.
And then came one of the damnedest sequences of events - and one of the
most dramatic illustrations of the importance of the kicking game - you
could ever see. By the time it was over, Toledo was in control,
and Concrete was reeling.
Taking the second half kickoff and driving quickly for a score, Toledo
then onside kicked successfully and quickly scored again. Then, twice
Concrete mishandled Toledo pooch kicks, and twice more Toledo scored.
By the time the Toledo onslaught was over, the third quarter was
barely halfway through and Toledo led 51-26 - and Concrete had yet to
run a play!
Needless to say, this is not the sort of situation any team likes to
face, and it's certainly not what the Double Wing was designed
for. Concrete fought gamely, but from that point on it was
a lost cause.
In our only game against a common opponent, Toledo beat Pe Ell/Willapa
Valley, our first-round opponents, 20-14 in the second game of the
season.
*********** WIAA Playoff bracket-
http://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/UFmy4k8hEeS00gAmVebEWg/-Uz6f08kEeS00gAmVebEWg/football-fall-14/2014-washington-high-school-football-playoff-brackets--wiaa-2b.htm
************ At a time when ethnic, religious, and tribal groups are
killing one another across the globe, why are concepts of hyphenation,
identity politics, or mandatory bilingualism in official documents
preferable to the exceptional American idea of a melting pot, a common
culture, and a shared national language?
The selfish position is the current one of burdening the host society by accommodating the language of the guest.
The surreal position is that of ingratitude of guests toward
the generous host country by demanding that its laws either be
ignored or changed to fit their own particular agendas and preferences.
Victor Davis Hanson, Natonal Review Online
*********** It was senior night at Villanova, and with 30 seconds
remaining and the Wildcats' 49-31 win over Albany secure, the
last two plays of the game were carries by four-year walk-on Wildcat
senior Fred O'Connor.
Albany coach Greg Gattuso was enraged. He said Villanova's Andy Talley should simply have run out the clock.
He told Coach Talley as much and he told the Philadelphia media as well.
"I was very disappointed with Coach Talley at the end of the game,"
Gattuso said. "Thirty seconds left, [he] doesn't want to kneel. He
mentioned Joe Paterno (for whom Gattuso played in college) to me,
and how he looked up to him. I can promise you this, he's no Joe
Paterno after this, doing something like that."
Said Coach Talley, "Joe Paterno is a legend, I would never pretend to
be like Joe Paterno or anybody else. I am Andy Talley. Check my record,
pal. When he gets to that point, he can come talk to me about coaching."
Gattuso went on: "I think that was so little class it shocked me. I
just think it's a rookie coach mistake, and if it was a young coach it
would be one thing, but somebody of his stature to do something like
that is shocking to me."
Gattuso continued, "We ran the ball in the fourth quarter, we didn't
use timeouts, we didn't onside kick," he said. "I think we did it the
way you have to. We are certainly going to try to score, I think
everybody wants to score. When there is 30 seconds on the clock, the
great ones kneel, period."
I would be tempted to say, "What is this, baseball, where you're not
supposed to be stealing when you're up by five runs?" (Or is it four
runs? Six? Seven?)
Said Coach Talley, "We wanted to get a senior running back in the
game who is a four-year walk-on, and we wanted to give him the ball."
Coach Talley noted that Albany's final touchdown was scored by its starting tight end.
"He kept his first team in through the whole game, and for him to come
in here and criticize me - are you kidding me?" Coach Talley said. "I
made my bones in this program. Let him go get 10 playoffs and a
national championship and he can come here and rip me."
Now, I've met Coach Talley and I've been impressed with him as
a coach and a gentleman. I would be proud to have a son or
grandson play for him and his staff. (In fact, one of my
grandsons, Wyatt Love, just graduated from Villanova.)
So I take offense when someone takes a shot at a man who to me stands for what college football should be about.
Coach Gattuso?
Not that he would be interested in any advice from me, but from long experience saying things that I later regretted…
When you win, say little. When you lose, say less.
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/villanova/20141116_Villanova__Albany_football_coaches_have_angry_words_after_Wildcats_victory.html#rK53pp07K2zjbrks.99
The Rest of The Story… The walk-on running back at the center of the squabble was a kid named Fred O'Connor.
Fred O'Connor, I thought? Any relation to Fred O'Connor, from Trenton State?
I met that Fred O'Connor in the spring of 1974, when I was working with the WFL Philadelphia Bell and I was looking at Trenton State as a place for our training camp. Fred
O'Connor had just been named head coach at Trenton State (now
College of New Jersey), fresh from a stint as an assistant at
Villanova.
Shortly after, before he ever coached a game at Trenton State, Fred
took a job with another WFL team, the Washington Ambassadors, soon to
become the Virginia Ambassadors and, ultimately, the Florida (Orlando)
Blazers.
When the WFL folded, Fred hooked up with the Chicago Bears, and went on
to a long career in the NFL, including a brief term as interim head
coach of the 49ers.
The kid, it turns out, was that Fred O'Connor's grandson. And his dad once assisted coach Talley at Villanova.
If I had been coach Talley, I'd have done exactly what he did.
I've have made damn sure that that kid carried the ball in his last
home game as a senior.
And if that guy on the other side of the field didn't like it, well, screw him. He doesn't coach my team.
As Joe Paterno once told Lou Holtz, "You can only coach one team at a time."
*********** Relax, Tallahassee Police. Rest easy, Florida State. This time, it's not about you…
The NFL - that organization that presumes to "help" us mere high school
coaches do our jobs better, was confronted in Monday's New York Ties by
yet more evidence that its teams not only harbor criminals on their
rosters - nothing new there - but in many cases have routinely
cultivated incestuously close relationships with local law enforcement
agencies that enable players to receive special treatment when they run
afoul of the law.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/sports/football/an-accusation-of-abuse-then-special-treatment-for-nfl-player.html?emc=edit_th_20141117&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=23696377&_r=0&referrer=
*********** Can you say, "Marcus Lattimore?"
Georgia running back Todd Gurley, who missed several games this year
because of NCAA sanctions, injured his knee Saturday against Auburn,
ending his season and - who knows? - perhaps his career as a football
player.
*********** The Old Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, pulled one out in OT
over his one-time employer, the Florida Gators, and put an end to the
agonizing tenure of Gators' coach Will Muschamp, who just couldn't get
over the hump. Muschamp was once the designated successor
to Mack Brown at Texas, but he couldn't wait, and jumped at the Florida
job when it was offered. Now, he looks forward to a future - a
very comfortable one to be sure, given his buyout at Florida - as
someone's defensive coordinator. He'll do well.
And in the meantime, since he's Florida's coach until the end of the
season, we can only hope that he can rally the Gators to beat Florida
State.
*********** Does anybody else get angry the way I do whenever I see
Jimbo Fisher on TV? To me, he embodies the infiltration into the
college game of the Al Davis "Just Win, Baby" philosophy.
*********** Speaking of FSU… their latest squeaker, an edging of Miami,
doesn't make them look like a playoff contender. And Notre Dame's
two straight losses sure have taken the luster off the Seminoles'
narrow win over the Irish.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2014 - "To
produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and
enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be
who have tried it. " Herman Melville
************ MIchael Bloomfield is an astronaut. So is Leland Melvin. So, too, are Mike Hopkins and Butch Wilmore.
There's something else: they all played college football.
Wrote Ben Cohen in the Wall Street Journal (September 16, 2014), "A
surprising number of recent astronauts were shaped, in part, by their
experiences play college football."
Bloomfield played at Air Force; Melvin played at Richmond and was
good enough to be drafted by the Lions; Hopkins was captain of
his team at Illinois; Wilmore played linebacker at Tennessee Tech.
Even in space, they manage to follow their favorite teams, and have
even taken a football aboard flights and thrown it around while in
space.
But football has been more than just a diversion in their lives.
Wrote Cohen, "Football isn't just a topic of conversation among thee
astronauts. They say the discipline, teamwork and decision-making
involved in playing the sport at a high level help them in their
high-pressure jobs today."
*********** North Beach vs. Pe Ell/Willapa Valley
By Rick Anderson
Aberdeen Daily World
An unbeaten team on the cusp of a historic season and one of the
state’s hottest 2B clubs could produce a sizzling first-round state
contest.
The third-ranked Hyaks have already achieved several milestones this
year. This week, according to state prep historian Ralph Lovelace, they
are seeking their first postseason victory since 1983.
North Beach features a diversified ground game in which the likes of
Jordan Chong, Cameron Keller, Skyler Wells, Saul Gonzalez and Elijah
Towery — plus quarterback Alex McAra — take turns running behind a big,
talented offensive line.
“They’re big and they’re physical and they’ve definitely got speed in
the backfield,” Pe Ell/Willapa Valley coach Josh Fluke said of the
Hyaks. “They’ve got just about everything you need in a football team.”
In its first year as a combine, Pe Ell/Willapa Valley has reeled off a
seven-game winning streak in which its average victory margin has been
36 points.
“I think they took, four-five-six weeks to jell and now they’re
playing,” North Beach coach Todd Bridge noted. “I think if they had
Napavine and Toledo (the two teams that have beaten the Titans) at the
end of their schedule, they would have shaken some things up.”
The Titans are also deep in the backfield, with Trevor Cook, Kaelin
Jurek and Seth Flemetis productive ball-carriers. They have also taken
the unusual step of rotating their quarterbacks, with Jason Fluke and
Aidan Arrington splitting time at that position.
“They can both throw at any time and they’re pretty good runners,”
Coach Fluke said. “We like to switch them up and it’s been working
pretty good.”
Friday’s winner will go on the road next weekend to take on either Toledo or Concrete.
- See more at: http://m.thedailyworld.com/sports/local/six-twin-harbors-teams-begin-state-quest-weekend#sthash.orNH6c2K.dpuf
*********** After two weeks of more or less steady rain and wind, we
opened practice on Monday with unusual weather conditions - sunny, with
crystal-clear skies and dry air. Yeah, dry. Dry and cold
and coming at us out of the east at up to 35 mph. Some of it's
good - it's been almost been enough to dry off our field. And
some of it's bad - it plays hell with our passing game.
Our first-round playoff game Friday night against Pe Ell/Willapa Valley
is set for seven o'clock at Aberdeen's historic Stewart Field.
Stewart Field is unique in that its wooden grandstands - all covered,
as is the norm in the Pacific Northwest - surround three sides of the
field, and, with no running track, are quite close to the field.
I coached a game here in 1980, in November, and the condition of
the field was atrocious. Not a problem now, though - it's
now a Field Turf surface.
We were on it last Friday, and we'll practice on it again today (Thursday).
The Pe Ell/Willapa Valley Titans qualified for the playoffs by shutting
out Rainier, 36-0, in a play-in game.. Their offense is primarily
Double Tight, Full-House, with, as you might expect, a heavy emphasis
on the running game. All three of their backs - and their
quarterback - are breakaway threats.
They pass sparingly, but when they do, they are extremely effective.
Many - including the local newspaper - favor the Titans because
although they have two losses they play in a tougher league than
we do.
***********
We won't have to worry about any guano on the field when we play at
Aberdeen's Stewart Field tomorrow night. Wiley the coyote will
see to that. Apparently, if not for him, the gulls would rest on the
logo because the paint retains warmth from the run. But old Wiley (the
groundskeeper says he doesn't actually have a name) keeps them
away. He actually swings in the wind, and his tail wags.
And his eyes are scary as hell.
*********** Oh, dear. Even our local paper, the Aberdeen Daily World, has lost faith in the Hyak Magic…
Class 2B
North Beach Hyaks (9-0) vs. Pe Ell/Willapa Valley Titans
(8-2): This is the “Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object”
match-up of the state playoffs. The Titans, in their first year as a
combine, are the irresistible force as the hottest team from the
Central 2B League. They have given up the second-fewest points in what
is known as the best 2B league in the state. The Hyaks, the Pacific 2B
League champions, are the immovable object as the team of destiny on
the beach. They are in the midst of their best-ever football season.
What will give first? … Titans 28, Hyaks 27.
********** With no school on Veterans' Day, we elected to practice in the morning, from 9 to 11.
At 11, we stopped practice and spent a few minutes talking with our
players about the origin of Veterans Day, going back to the Armistice
that marked the end of World War I, in 1918, on the 11th hour of the
11th day of the 11th month.
As we talked, one of our senior captains, tackle Daniel Fruh,
mentioned that at the assisted care facility where his mother worked,
there were some World War II veterans, and said it would "make their
day" if some of our guys were to pay them a visit on Veterans' Day.
That was all it took to round up six players, plus a younger brother, and we all met at the facility at 12:30.
There, we were introduced to Mr. Leo Shumard (seated) and Mr. Woody Howard.
Mr. Shumard was on the Battleship USS Maryland when Pearl Harbor
was bombed. He had just finished breakfast when he heard "this terrible
racket." He recalled looking out a porthole and seeing a plane
fly by, almost close enough to touch.
Mr. Howard, a fighter pilot, was shot down over occupied France.
He was discovered and cared for by the French Underground until he
could be rescued.
He grew up on a farm in Maine, and said that the little bit of French
he'd learned in high school saved him when he told his French rescuers,
"Je suis un pilote américain." (I'm an American pilot.)
It was a wonderful way for those young boys (and a coach and his
wife) to observe Veterans Day by personally honoring two heroes -
who were once young boys themselves.
*********** Should we defeat Pe Ell/Willapa Valley (PWV, as it's
becoming known), our quarter-final opponent would be the winner of
Saturday's game between Toledo (9-1) and Concrete (9-1).
Looking
ahead, last Friday night I was in Centralia, Washington to take in the
Toledo-Ilwaco "play-in" game; so, too, were two coaches from Concrete:
on the left, assistant coach Chad Clark, and head coach Ron Rood.
Coach Clark and I go back at least ten years, when he was coaching his
son's team and he bought some of my materials, and we've corresponded
and swapped video over the years.
From a personal point of view, I'd rather see Concrete win, because
those guys are friends. From a football point of view, it's a
tossup, because Toledo was downright scary in their 55-14 win over
Ilwaco (whom we beat, 52-0 in the first game of the season), while
Concrete runs that $%#@$% Double Wing.
You know - that Pop Warner offense?
Oh, well. If things break so that we wind up playing Concrete,
we'll just have to go on the Internet and get some ideas from all those
geniuses on there who've boasted over the years about the "great
success" they've had against the Double-Wing by, um, blitzing,
crabbing, cutting the fullback, pinching, cross-keying, slanting,
stacking, penetrating, reading, stemming, with odd fronts or even
fronts, man coverage or zone coverage, two-deep or three deep
secondaries, etc.
I'll be on all the forums to let you know how we did. My screen name will either be DBLWNGKILLER or DBLWNGKILLEDME
*********** Out as MIchigan AD is Dave Brandon, whose experience as CEO
of Domino's Pizza didn't seem to prepare him for the task of running a
major college athletic department.
Writes Andy Staples, in Sports Illustrated,
"He reportedly responded to emails from a angry fans by suggesting they
find another school for which to root, one of many indicators that he
didn't "get" college football. He failed to understand that rooting for
Michigan and not Ohio State is not the same as choosing Domino's over
Pizza Hut."
*********** I saw a wonderful ad for Shriners' Hospitals in which a
grateful mother of a young child tearfully thanks the Shriners.
Understandable. They saved her little boy.
And now, she says, "He wants to be a race car driver some day."
Yeah, but she probably won't let him play football because he might get hurt.
*********** Hugh, I have learned from you and others how you document
and how you teach something very well. You never know when it will come
up. My AD is always stunned at what I do and he said he has never seen
that in his time. I told him I have learned and my advice is make
others in this school district start doing those little things. On a
side note I used your "talk it, walk it, run it, rep it" in discussion
today in the faculty in-service. It was in response on how do you
teach, and an old teacher said "it blows that outcome-based sh-- out of
the water." Thought you enjoy that. Thanks for the insights..
Mike Foristiere
Mattawa, Washington
*********** Great scene in The Boz documentary -
he's showing his son all the recruiting letters he got and shows him
Princeton and his kid can't believe he didn't go there. "You could have
gone to an Ivy League school!?!"
Hilarious. Great doco.
Love, Ed
(Ed Wyatt, Melbourne, Australia)
************ They even know about the Hyaks Down Under
https://soundcloud.com/sen1116/ed-wyatt-on-north-beach-football
*********** It appears that I was right all along on the NCAA's
outrageous, unauthorized overreach in the Penn State/Joe Paterno
case:
That
the NCAA overreached in penalizing Penn State is now evident from its
internal discussions. Emails obtained in litigation show that NCAA
officials doubted their authority to sanction Penn State at all. The
NCAA was relying not on its legitimate authority, but rather on its
correct perception that Penn State was “so embarrassed [it] will do
anything.”
Bastards.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/11/forfeit-this-ncaa.php
*********** My grandson, Matt Love, is off to Japan to teach
English. Knowing that my wife and I actually lived in Finland, he
asked me if I had any tips. I wrote,
If I could give you any advice, it would be this:
1. Learn as much as you can about where you are and do as much as you
can to show your appreciation of it. Do everything you can to
learn at least a little of the language. I think that you will
find people helpful if you will show them that you're genuinely
interested. Of course, you will, I'm sure, find a lot of
Japanese, especially young ones, eager to learn English from you.
2. Avoid the opposite of showing appreciation, which is making a big
deal of all the things that they don't have - the things from home
that you miss, whether it's food, music, TV, whatever. Be open to
anything. I've seen a lot of young Americans miss out on a great
opportunity to enjoy a foreign culture because they were obsessed with
the things from home that they didn't have.
*********** Okay, so I'm a "yeller." It's the way I was brought up.
Football is not a passive game. Raising my voice is a part of the
intensity that makes me who I am.
I also know that in our culture, kids grow up rarely hearing someone
raise his or her voice. Look askance at a kid nowadays and he'll
tell people that you "yelled" at him.
But while hollering is not necessarily in synch with the direction our
culture's headed, it's still necessary to have people's attention if
you expect to teach them anything, and sometimes, in the near-chaotic
conditions of a hard practice, it's the only effective way to
communicate.
Asked by Dan Patrick in Sports Illustrated when the last time was
that he yelled at his QB, Dak Prescott, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen
answered,
"Yesterday at practice. I probably yelled at him three or four times. I
have a pretty high standard. Its a friendly yell. I would call it
'loud constructive criticism.'"
*********** Coach,
As usual I have been reading your news.
On Tuesday’s edition You said:
***********
Poor LSU fans. Saturday, their Tigers blew a lead and lost to Alabama
in OT. To make matters worse, most Tiger fans are also Saints'
fans, and Sunday they had to live through a repeat of Saturday's
debacle.
The
lead they blew was the result of a fumble gift on the 10 yard line by
T.J. Yeldon, with 2 minutes remaining and the score tied 10-10.
(As you have often said, ball security is ALL that matters in the 4
minute drill! Not straining for extra yardage.) resulting in a field
goal (thank goodness it wasn’t a TD) and the lead with 51 seconds
remaining.
The lead they ‘blew’ was a drive by BAMA for a tying FG by what had
been the worst offensive half of BAMA football since their last trip to
Baton Rouge in 2012 (which eerily had a very similar ending).
Then, the OT victory. Roll Tide!
Hope you are well, Coach. Keeping up with your team at Ocean Shores I’d say you are doing ‘quite well’! Congratulations.
Emory Latta
Providence Christian
Dothan, AlaBAMA! lol
I count on Coach Latta to keep me
grounded where Bama football is concerned! And yes, although from the
LSU perspective they "blew" the lead, to Alabama's credit, it took a
great drive to set up the field goal that sent the game into OT.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014 - “To
understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand
this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals
think conservatives are evil." Charles Krauthammer
Honor our veterans on Veterans Day -
and the other 364 days.
*********** Another highly intellectual college cheer, sent by Charlie Wilson, Crystal River, Florida
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
E to the x, dy/dx,
E to the x, dx
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine
3.14159
Square root, cube root, log of pi
Disintegrate them, RPI!
*********** Coach Wyatt, I was forwarded a Black Lion Award Nomination
submitted by our Mighty Mite team offensive line coach Master Sgt. Mike
Sears on behalf of Brady Hansen from the Brighton Township Bear
organization located in PA. Coach Sears is a fine line coach but his
service to our Country is best described in the article below. Knowing
your great respect for our military service men and women, I thought
you might enjoy reading about what Coach Sears does when he is not
teaching 11-12 year olds how to block. He is a great mentor for our
young people and our organization is blessed to have him as a coach.
Take care Coach and thanks for all you do for youth football!
David Thompson
Brighton Township, Pennsylvania
Sears heroic actions under enemy fire helps fellow members survive attack
by Staff Sgt. Wayne Woolley
5/2/2013 - TRENTON,
N.J. -- When an explosive ordnance disposal team rolls out
for a combat patrol, their objective is to defuse bombs and gather
intelligence about the bomb-makers. It's not to engage the enemy.
But
as New Jersey Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Mike Sears put it,
sometimes, there's no choice. Sept. 29, 2012 was one of those days.
A
three-man Air Force EOD team led by Sears found itself in the middle of
a complex ambush on a dusty road in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. Over
the course of a two-hour firefight, Sears provided life-saving aid to a
fallen coalition soldier from Poland; ran five times through a 150-yard
open area riddled with enemy machine gun fire to direct his team in
returning fire; and continued on with the fight even after being
knocked temporarily unconscious by a rocket-propelled grenade blast.
On
Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Michael L. Cunniff, The Adjutant General, awarded
Sears the Bronze Star and Purple Heart at a ceremony at the State House
in Trenton.
In
an interview, Sears, 36, credited his Afghan team, Staff Sgt. John
Hurley, a fellow member of the 177th Fighter Wing, and Staff Sgt. Josh
Jerden, an active duty Airman, with fighting hard to allow them all to
survive the ambush.
On
the day of the attack, Sear's team had been on patrol with a team of 90
Polish infantrymen and sappers, also known as combat engineers or
soldiers who perform various military engineering duties. They had come
across a massive improvised explosive device packed with 80 pounds of
explosives. After Sears had investigated, Hurley used a robot to
detonate the device. Sears went back to ensure the bomb had been
defeated and instead found two more devices triggered by "pressure
plates. He was able to diffuse them on his own and collect evidence to
be used to try to identify their manufacturer.
Evidence
collected, Sears's team and the Polish unit were preparing to return to
their base when they came under machine gun and rifle fire. After a
short lull, an RPG round whistled past their vehicle, missing Hurley by
two feet and hitting a Polish vehicle, clearly badly injuring one of
the Polish soldiers, a sapper Sears had grown close to during the
deployment.
"I saw that RPG coming, but there was nothing we could do but hold on and pray," Sears said.
When
he realized the RPG had badly injured his friend, Sears took off
through the machine gun fire to provide aid. It was clear that no one
from the Polish team knew one of their men had been hit. As he pulled
the 250-pound Polish soldier from the truck, Sears felt something in
his shoulder tear. What Sears saw next helped him push through his
pain. The explosion had severed the Polish soldier's leg.
Sears
propped up the Polish Soldier with one arm, returned fire with his M4
and the other and tried to drag him out of the direct enemy fire. Sears
helped the soldier to the ground and applied a tourniquet. Bullets were
still landing all around them. Sears shielded his buddy with his body.
"People
have asked me how long I was on the ground with him and I tell them it
felt like an hour with all those rounds coming in," Sears said. "It
probably was only a few minutes."
During
those minutes, another RPG landed within a few feet of Sears and the
Polish soldier. The concussion knocked Sears out. When he came to,
Sears knew his buddy needed more help than he could provide. He made
another trip through open terrain and under fire to get a Polish
medic's attention and get him to the location of the wounded soldier.
Sears
made several more trips through that guantlet of fire to get more
Polish soldiers and their litter team to the wounded man and another
trip to assist his EOD team as they returned of fire at an enemy that
continued to attack from two directions.
Ultimately, two Polish attack helicopters arrived with enough firepower to drive the insurgents away.
The
EOD team and Polish convoy drove four miles for a secure location for a
medevac helicopter to land. Sears had strongly recommended they not try
the medevac at the scene of the ambush.
"My
previous experiences had been the sound of a helicopter gets the
attention of every bad guy in the area and they're going to try to
light it up," he said. "They'd rather take down a helicopter than shoot
at us and on that day; we'd already had one casualty. A downed
helicopter would have been a mass casualty we really didn't need."
Sears, the father of three, served as a Marine infantryman on active duty before joining the National Guard.
In civilian life, he works as an explosive ordnance technician for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
On the day of the ambush, Sears expended 190 rounds. The two other members of his team expended even more.
"Our main objective is not to engage the enemy," he said. "But when they come after us, we have the training to respond."
http://www.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123346818
******************
There are coaches who seem not to grasp what it says about their
coaching when, after finishing 3-7, they nominate seven of their
players to the all-league team.
(Just to give you an idea of what takes place at all-league meetings,
where players you don't even remember seeing on the field sound, in
their coaches' words, like the reincarnation of Red Grange.)
And to give you another idea of what can result from the horse trading
that takes place, the quarterback from our league's fourth-place team
wasn't named first team All-League (our quarterback, Alex McAra, was)
but wound up being named Most Valuable Offensive Player.
It's seldom that all-star foolishness gets thrown back in the faces of
the voters the way this one did, but on Friday night, in a district
play-in game, the Pacific League's Most Valuable Offensive Player
carried 14 times for 57 yards, and completed four of 16 passes for 14
yards and his team went down to a 36-0 defeat.
The league sportsmanship award was shared three ways.
One of the "winners" was the team that refused to play us. WTF?
Some sportsmanship. They blew off their game with us in order to
keep their kids healthy for their homecoming the next week.
Poetic justice: They lost, 20-19 - to a team that hadn't won in two years.
But the coaches did get one thing right: North Beach Todd Bridge was
voted Coach of the Year, an honor richly deserved. Coaches, H.
Wyatt included, haven't generally stayed long at North Beach,
and without my checking, it's possible that in Todd's four years
as Hyaks' head coach, going from 3-7 to 4-6 to 7-3 to 9-0, he has
become the winningest coach in school history.
*********** After being out of coaching for ten years a long time
Hanover Park Hurricanes coach asked me to come out and help. He
was running a power I/Spread and became very predictable with his
offense.
After three weeks now of running double wing we've made it to the League championship game again.
We just have to get better as this is a great program we're playing.. They've yet to be scored on all year.
Big plays this weekend were Criss Cross and 59 Keep G.... We bowled em over with wedge and 6G.
Still have to get better on 88 and 99 SP.
I'll let you know how we do. I forgot how much fun this
was. Kind of emotional for me as I had to retire from my job and
coaching because of health reasons.
Thanks for all your help over the years.
The parents are ecstatic.
Regards,
John Urbaniak
Hanover Park Hurricanes
Once a coach, always a coach! HW
*********** Jonah Goldberg says fremdschämen is "the best German word ever."
He writes,
So what does it mean? It means feeling embarrassed for someone else.
But more than that, it means feeling embarrassed for someone
else because that someone else doesn’t realize he should be
embarrassed.
I think that’s where we’re heading with Obama. (Let’s face it, we’ve been there with Biden for years.)
************* Christopher Anderson texted me- Iowa takes a timeout and Beth Mowins says "Hayden Fry wants to talk about it."
MIssing a gem like that is the price I pay for refusing to listen to her harsh, grinding voice.
*********** Lip Reading 101: Anybody else watch the end of the
Jets-Patriots game and see Rex Ryan holler to someone what I'm sure
he'll tell the commissioner was "4-Q?"
*********** Thanks to Gabe McCown in Piedmont, Oklahoma
Differences between Canadians and Americans...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E064kb3UnU&feature=youtu.be
*********** The Masai people of Kenya and Tanzania are warriors - real
warriors, who would make the toughest NFL players look limp-wristed.
Masai culture dictates, as it always has, that a Masai boy
doesn't become a man until he has killed a lion. With a spear.
Unfortunately, lions are growing scarce, and the tribal elders, in
their wisdom, began looking for some other way for younger males to
prove themselves.
What they hit on was the Masai Olympics, a series of contests designed
to test assorted skills (including spear throwing). Amazingly, it
appears to be changing the Masai's definition of what constitutes
manhood.
What does this have to do with us?
Football is under attack, and if you think that we have nothing to fear
- that football with always be a part of our American culture - I
submit in evidence the Masai Olympics.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/at-the-maasai-olympics-leaps-take-the-place-of-lion-killings-1415300961
*********** The Oregon Ducks defeated Utah Saturday night, but
the win came at a steep price - they lost All-American center
Hroniss Grasu and star tight end Pharaoh Brown to serious leg
injuries.
From the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard:
Steve Greatwood quickly looked for some wood to knock on.
Oregon’s
offensive coordinator didn’t find any so he knocked on his head when
asked earlier in the week about center Hroniss Grasu being a rock in
the middle of a football M.A.S.H. unit this season.
“He
has been, for quite some time, the glue that holds it all together,”
Greatwood said. “I think he’s playing some very good football. His
leadership skills amongst the group are unquestioned.”
Now
it appears the Ducks have lost the all-American to a knee injury
sustained in the fourth quarter of No. 5 Oregon’s 51-27 victory
Saturday against No. 20 Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
http://registerguard.com/rg/sports/32395275-81/grasu-injury-another-blow-for-patchwork-line.html.csp#
When a win doesn't feel like a win!
http://www.addictedtoquack.com/2014/11/9/7180223/oregon-utah-pharaoh-brown-hronnis-grasu
*********** You've probably seen it. It even made the network news shows.
Utah led Oregon, 7-0, and when the Utes' QB his wide -open receiver up
the middle, the Ducks' were looking at a two-touchdown deficit as he
streaked to the goal line.
And then - where do they find these guys? why do they recruit
them? how do they coach them? - the student-athlete
casually dropped the ball… a yard short of the goal line.
And then, relieved of all that weight, he went into his little celebratory act.
Meanwhile, an alert Oregon defender picked up the ball - and returned it 99 yards for a Ducks' touchdown.
Just like that, what should have been 14-0, Utah, became a tie ballgame.
And then I heard someone say something about Utah not chewing him
out because they didn't want it to affect his confidence.
Later, he gave a Hillaryesque "apology," saying "I take full responsibility…"
Well, I guess. Like, who the hell else would be responsible for your selfish, egotistical act?
I like Kyle Whittingham, and I like what he's done at Utah, but are you
telling me they didn't KNOW that guy was capable of that sort of antics?
*********** Auburn's luck finally ran out. Or maybe it hasn't been
luck. They are very good, but over the last couple of years they
do seem to have been the beneficiaries of some bizarre and and
amazingly fortunate plays.
It sure looked as if the Tigers' luck was holding up Saturday. Late in
the game, they trailed Texas A & M, 41-38, but they were driving,
deep in Aggie territory, when they fumbled, and A & M recovered.
Now backed up, the Aggies got nowhere, and on third down it
looked as if Auburn had sent
in their play: standing just across the goal line, the A & M QB
tossed the ball - backward - to his running back. He was hit in
the end zone, and barely made it across the goal line and back into the
field of play.
Auburn's luck held - A & M had to punt.
Taking over in A & M territory, the Tigers were a couple of first downs from the tying field goal, and they had time.
But then their luck ran out. As their QB shouted out whatever he was
shouting, the Auburn center snapped the ball to him.
Unfortunately for Auburn, his hands weren't where the center
expected them to be. Fumble.
A & M recovered and ran out the clock, and there - probably - went Auburn's shot at a national title.
*********** Nice comeback, Notre Dame, but you were outplayed by
Arizona State. So what's that say about the Seminoles, whom you
had beaten?
*********** Poor LSU fans. Saturday, their Tigers blew a lead and lost
to Alabama in OT. To make matters worse, most Tiger fans are also
Saints' fans, and Sunday they had to live through a repeat of
Saturday's debacle.
*********** Finally, the Army offense looked the way it's supposed to
look, and the Cadets, with the help of a last-minute 99-yard
interception return, defeated UConn in Yankee Stadium.
http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-uconn-army-notebook-1109-20141108-story.html
*********** Ian Shields, former Army offensive coordinator, landed on
his feet as head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne College, in Hickory, North
Carolina. His triple option attack is in high gear - his Bears are now
10-0 and lead all of Division II in rushing with 410.7 yards per game.
*********** The West Point Corps of Cadets marches under the "El" on its way to Yankee Stadium Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WX0GLJoENA
*********** Browns' coach Mike Pettine, Jr. to SI's Austin Murphy -
"I know the fashionable thing is to spread the field and throw it all
over the place. But at some point you're gonna have to play in bad
weather… or convert a fourth-and-one. I'd rather build from there and
work backward to the passing game."
*********** Michael Powell, in the New York Times, nailed it on
Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones: "Jones speaks with the sublime
assurance of a man who just might have no idea what he is saying."
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014 - "When
I see some of the bonehead plays by professional football players, I
cannot understand why guys getting paid millions of dollars cannot stay
alert for two hours, once a week." Dr. Thomas Sowell
***********
I believe I said a few weeks ago that a major part of coaching special
teams is making sure that the players understand the rules that apply
to the kicking game.
And there was the proof Thursday night, on national TV for all to see,
as the Wake Forest punter, an Australian kid, made a JV mistake,
touching his knee to the ground as he fielded a low snap.
***********
Republican Ed Gillespie shocked the political world by nearly winning
the Senatorial race in Virginia, a state where Republicans were
given no chance at all.
Political insiders believe a major factor in his strong finish was an
ad his campaign ran during last week's Redskins' game, mocking the US
Senate - including Gillespie's opponent - for focusing its
attention, with all the major problems our country faces, on the name
of a professional football team.
Virginians, you see, are devoted Redskins fans. The Skins train in
Richmond, and since the days when the Redskins, the NFL's
southernmost team, televised their games throughout the South, they've
been Virginia's team.
And polls show that Redskins' fans are absolutely opposed to changing their team's name.
*********** Wednesday the President gave us one of those "I'm not going
to rest" talks about how he would work non-stop to make the lives of
Americans better. (With time out, of course, for golf and fund
raisers.)
Thursday he took a small step - a very small step - toward making our
lives better by going on national TV to award the Congressional
Medal of Honor - posthumously.
To a soldier. From the f--king Civil War.
 |
|
ARCHBISHOP CURLEY JV FRESHMEN
|
ARCHBISHOP CURLEY JV SOPHOMORES |
*********** In Baltimore, the Archbishop Curley HIgh JVs, coached by an
old friend, Brian Mackell, won the MIAA-B Conference championship
Thursday with a 22-7 win over St. Mary's. The Friars finished
8-2, scoring 322 points and giving up 95. Isaac Clarke, son
of friend and longtime Double Winger Jason Clarke, shared
quarterbacking duties for the Friars.
*********** If you are poor, WORK. If you are rich, WORK. If you
are burdened with seemingly unfair responsibilities, WORK.
If you are happy, continue to WORK. Idleness gives room for doubts and
fears. If sorrow overwhelms you and loved ones seem not true,
WORK. If disappointments come, WORK.
If faith falters and reason fails, just WORK. When dreams are
shattered and hope seems dead - WORK. WORK as if your life were in
peril; it really is.
No matter what ails you, WORK. WORK faithfully, and WORK with
faith. WORK IS THE GREATEST MATERIAL REMEDY AVAILABLE.
WORK will cure both mental and physical afflictions.
Carm Cozza
Legendary Yale Football Coach
*********** Just think - somewhere there's a congressman who
could very well have prevented the rescue of the young woman
grabbed off a Philadelphia street. (For what it's worth, her abduction
took place the in Germantown section of Philly, where I grew up.)
They found her in Maryland, having tracked her down through a GPS
device installed in her kidnapper's car by the dealer - because the guy
had poor credit. (Or "Bruised credit," as our local used car dealers
like to say.)
Evidently, the kidnapper wasn't aware of its existence.
I can just see that congressman (or woman) now, delivering a tirade
against "the greedy bankers and automobile dealers who prey on the
working poor, invading their privacy with snooping devices… "
Just think - if that guy had had good credit, he'd never have been
caught. Bur wait - what are the chances of a guy like that
having good credit?
************* This is a bittersweet time of year for me - There I'll be
sitting, watching a football game on TV, and damned if the NBA
scores don't come crawling across the bottom of the screen, reminders
that bleak days are just around the corner.
***********
Coach I just wanted to let you we won OUR first super bowl 11-2-14
using the DW. My kids ages are 11-12 year olds. We struggled early -
they ran a 6-2 defensively, guards in the A gaps bear crawling, tacking
my guard & tackles. They must have jumped offside 8-10 times.
The other times they were offside & not called for it. My center
told me he couldn't block back on the guards - they were too quick
for him. At half I told them let's just try running everything base. We
went to spread one series in the first half with only three plays &
scored. Second half all DW base even on power & SP. We scored on
47c (fullback lead base) is what I called it to put us up. I just
wanted to thank you I have most of your material over the past 5 years.
The expression on my kids' faces was priceless. Last year we lost to
the same team in double overtime on a called touchdown that their kid
clearly trapped in the end zone on a pass. I wouldn't watch that game
until 2 months ago . But I had to for the regular season game. Okay I
am done rambling on - I just wanted to let you know I am DW FOR life. I
heard it all over the past 5 years - kids can't run this offense at
this age. My ass.
Your friend
Dennis Bellish
Austintown, Ohio
Thanks for the note and the photos. I'll post the team photo on my site.
Congratulations on winning your Super Bowl. It really is priceless to see those kids when they've won.
And it's a special bonus to be able to coach your own son!
You're also to be congratulated for
staying with a system and getting better at teaching it. Some
guys are always looking for a quick fix but there's no quick and easy
way.
*********** Jim Geraghty, National Review Online, writes...
In 2012, voters from 18 to 29 made up 20 percent of the electorate in
Colorado. That year, Colorado voters legalized marijuana through a
popular initiative.
In 2014, voters from 18 to 29 made up 14 percent of the electorate in Colorado.
Hm. Once you legalize marijuana, the youth vote drops. Perhaps I have
been completely off base in my wariness about legalizing weed.
Heck, give it away for free on college campuses in early November!
*********** In reference to my dig at the Ivy League (and the "Fight
Fiercely!" cheer), Paul Herzog writes from Woodbury, Minnesota...
Hi Hugh,
At Augsburg College, some faculty would occasionally get together at
games and chant, "Repel them! Repel them! Make them
relinquish the ball!"
Years ago I heard of this one from the University of Chicago
Pheidippides, Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War;
X squared, Y squared,
H2SO4!
And this one from MIT
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine,
3.14159.
Integral, radical, mu dv
Slipstick, sliderule, MIT.
*********** We're playing in a national championship game the weekend
of January 18th in Miami against the Puyallup Nation Kings semi pro
team out of Washington. Do you know anything about them?/
Pete Porcelli
Troy, New York
Pete,
I gather from the name that they are
sponsored by the Puyallup nation (tribe) a fairly wealthy tribe located
near the town of Puyallup (pronounced Pyew-AHL-up). Puyallup is
just outside Tacoma, a very good sports town, and nearby are Fort Lewis
(army base) and McChord Air Force Base, which gives them access to a
lot of talent.
They have always had some decent
semi-pro teams up there. The best team has usually been the
Pierce County Bengals, which I guess these guys beat.
They could be pretty good.
*********** Want a college coaching job? Start your own college! (Be prepared to lose.)
http://www.theledger.com/article/2014411025001
*********** Perhaps you remember an article I wrote about Louisana
Governor Huey P. Long very cleverly expanding LSU's Tiger Stadium
despite being unable to secure funding for it from the state
legislature. Governor Long took money earmarked for dormitories and
went ahead and built them - inside the new addition to Tiger Stadium.
http://www.si.com/college-football/2014/10/24/stadium-spotlight-lsu-tiger-stadium
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 - "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see." Winston Churchill
***********
I don't know what I expected a bunch of Ivy Leaguers to say before a
football game. Maybe "Fight Fiercely, Fellows," or something of
that sort.
But I do have to admit I found it a bit incongruous to hear Harvard's
team break their pre-game locker room huddle with a loud "KICK
ASS!" - just like the rest of us commoners.
(That's actually a lame joke. The truth is, there are some pretty
good football players on the top Ivy teams, and Harvard has more than
its share.)
********** Back in the spring jamboree that we took part in, North
Beach took it to some of the other schools, all of them quite a bit
larger than us. One of my coaching friends who attended the
jamboree said that we were the talk of the people in the stands, most
of whom wanted to know "Where the hell is North Beach?"
They were probably saying that at the Seahawks' game Sunday, too, when
the scoreboard informed the crowd that Todd Bridge, of North Beach
High, had been named the Seahawks/National Guard Washington High School
Coach of the Week.
Last Friday after school two National Guard representatives were on
hand to make the presentation in front of the kids. (On the
left, that's the North Beach staff - one assistant couldn't be there
- and the two Army National Guard sergeants who made the
presentation. On the right are Todd and his wife, Chris, an all-star
of a coach's wife.)
Listen - I know why the Seahawks are doing this and I know that
it's self-serving and all that, and I'd like the NFL to stick to its
own business and leave us alone, but still… I'm very pleased that Todd
has been recognized for the job he's done and I'm very proud to be
associated with him.
And maybe, just maybe, a few more people now know where the hell North Beach is.
***********
It's rained on us eight of our last ten practices. It rained all
weekend here in Ocean Shores, and it rained on Monday, too. Our
field was "marshy," to say the least, and the wind was blowing, and we
were cold (but not wet, because one ting we do know how to do out here
is dress for the weather) but still we had a good Monday
practice.
We have next weekend off. Our first round playoff opponent the
following week will be the winner of a Friday district "play-in" game
between our league's fourth place team (Rainier, whom we beat, 44-7)
and another league's third-place team, Pe Ell/Willapa Valley.
A first-year combine, PWV came about when declining enrollment at
Willapa Valley, a farm community whose teams used to be a power in our
league, meant either dropping down to play 8-man, or forming a
football-only combine with another school. The Valley people were
way too proud of all their championship teams over the years to take a
demotion, so they went for the combine.
The logical partner was nearby Pe Ell (the name is believed to have
resulted from the local natives' pronunciation of the name of an early
settler, a French Canadian trapper named Pierre), which has also had a
decent program through the years.
The two schools continue to operate independently of one another, and
their combined enrollment has enabled them to still compete in
our class.
I don't know how or where they practice - the two schools are about 20
miles apart - but this year they played half their home games at
each place, and each school had its homecoming game.
The coaching staff appears to be a blend of the former two
staffs. To us, the combine looks a lot like the "Valley" teams of
old - full-house T, 4-4 defense - supplemented with some very good
players from Pe Ell. Called the Titans, they're now 7-2, and on a
six-game win streak in which they've averaged over 40 points a game and
given up just five touchdowns, one of them a kick return.
Needless to say, we'll be watching the game. It'll be played at
Valley's field, which is just a short drive - only an hour and a half.
My guess is that PWV will win big.
A couple of our players are nicked up and the week off will be really helpful.
*********** Louisville had a great shot at defatting Florida State,
until, down by four with three minutes to play and facing a 3rd
and 2 - they threw a f--king fade! It was unsuccessful, but what the
hell, let's roll the dice again. They'll never expect another pass on
fourth-and-two. Incomplete. Game over.
*********** Let's talk tackling. I would like to introduce into
evidence the Florida State-Louisvlle game, and FSU's 38 yard
go-ahead TD run by Dalvin Cook.
One Louisville man had a shot at him but he missed what turned out to be an arm tackle.
Why? A pretty simple fundamental mistake, based on the way most of us
were taught: he didn't have his helmet "across the bow" of the runner.
Interestingly, a young acquaintance of mine tells me that's how the
coaches at his college are teaching him to tackle (undoing, I
might add, everything we taught him, every day oif practice, for his
entire high school career).
I suspect this is either the work of some young coaching genius who
thinks he just reinvented the wheel, years of doing it another way
notwithstanding, or they are perhaps preparing those kids for the "next
level," The League, where you seldom see an authentic tackle anyhow.
*********** I go absolutely ballistic when I see a kid try to reach out
for extra yardage. I'll tell him "We're good enough to get that
extra foot on the next play if we have to."
So naturally I went ballistic when Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace
reached out to score Saturday - and lost the ball to Auburn. Grrr.
It's the NFL/SportsCenter influence. Thursday night an opposing player
got up after a pass was broken up, and raised his arm, flipping his
wrist in the "throw the flag for interference" signal.
I'm really surprised that football officials have such tolerance for that crap, and I'm disappointed in coaches who tolerate it.
*********** Can't blame the Ole Miss faithful if they think they're
jinxed. Last week, their latter comeback against LSU came to a
screeching halt when they eschewed a long field goal and went the Hail
Mary route instead.
This past Saturday, they lost to Auburn, but not until their
quarterback lost the ball on the one yard line as he reached the ball
out, and then, in the closing minutes, their standout receiver Jaquon
Treadwell appeared on his way to score after catching a short pass
and breaking a tackle…
when he was dragged down from behind by an Auburn player and lost the ball after crossing the goal line…
Or did he?
Uh-oh. Video replay showed that the ball came out before he
crossed the goal line, and it was recovered in the end zone by
Auburn. Touchback. Auburn's ball. End of story.
Worst of all, though, the tackle - not a horsecollar, not illegal -
bent Treadwell's legs back in a gruesome position and he suffered a
dislocated ankle and a broken fibula.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/11/ole_miss_laquon_treadwell_suff.html
*********** Lameass: CBS announcer Adam Archuleta watched an Air
Force defender hit an Army receiver in the jaw, knocking him cold.
Anybody could see, from the numerous replays, that it was helmet-to-helmet. Not targeting, but clearly helmet-to-helmet.
Archuleta refused to acknowledge what we all cold see, and actually
said, "The hit was okay but he hurt himself when his helmet hit the
ground."
Sheesh.
*********** When Maryland beats Penn State for oh, maybe the second
time in oh, maybe 30 attempts, it's understandable if Maryland people
get carried away.
But not before the game:
Maryland
wide receiver Stefon Diggs has been suspended one game by the Big
Tenfor violating the conference's sportsmanship policy prior to
Saturday's 20-19 victory over Penn State.
Diggs,
the Terrapins' leading receiver with 52 receptions for 654 yards and
five touchdowns this season, was involved in a pre-game scuffle with
Penn State players. Diggs also appeared to make contact with an
official during the altercation.
Diggs
and two other Terrapins captains later refused to shake hands with
their Nittany Lions counterparts at the pre-game coin toss. Maryland
(6-3) has a bye this week, meaning Diggs will sit out the Nov. 15 home
game with Big Ten frontrunner Michigan State.
Said the Big Ten office (yes, I know, it's hard to believe that
Maryland, never a good actor in the ACC, was actually sought
after by the Big Ten)…
"For
many, many decades the intercollegiate pre-game handshake has been in
place to reflect a spirit of good will and utmost appreciation for your
opponent, the game and the institutions that sponsor your sport.
Selection as a team captain is an honor that carries with it a greater
responsibility to act in a manner consistent with those principles."
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/11/maryland_wide_receiver_suspend.html
*********** ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????????? Wrote my friend
Lou Orlando of Sudbury, Massachusetts, sending me a link to a video of
a Utah team that gave away the game at the end by not simply taking a
knee and letting time run out. Instead, the QB ran around until time
ran out, then seemed to pull up, thinking the game was over. It
was not - he hadn't gone down, and the whistle hadn't blown. An
opposing player knocked the ball out of his hand, and a teammate picked
it up and ran it in for the winning touchdown.
Question: WTF was wrong with taking a knee?
Answer: They're probably never under center, so they probably never practice it.
Suggestion: Even if you're a shotgun team, you need to practice the
under-center snap, if only for two situations (1) Taking a knee, and
(2) Spiking the ball.
(There's a third reason, a reason good enough for famed single-wing
coach General Robert Neyland, of Tennessee, to spend his latter years
experimenting with the so-called "side-saddle T" - for all the power of
his single wing, he envied the T-formation's ability to run
a quarterback sneak.)
http://thebiglead.com/2014/10/29/utah-high-school-football-game-has-the-most-unbelievable-ending-you-will-ever-see/
************* A man lies in a Pittsburgh hospital in serious condition
with brain injuries suffered in a beating by five - FIVE -
"student-athletes" on the California State (of Pennsylvania) football
team, prompting the school's president to cancel Saturday's game
with Gannon.
Update: it's now SIX courageous student-athletes.
http://triblive.com/mobile/7062818-96/university-game-student
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014 - “Any
good teacher knows that you want to get the kids to behave in the first
place, rather than try to referee a dispute that breaks
out.” Andrew L. Oros, Washington College, Chestertown, Md.
***********
Giants' pitcher Madison Bumgarner is from Hickory, North Carolina, and
he's so North Carolina that, hearing him interviewed after his
sensational Game 7 performance, I fully expected him to say, "I
want to thank the pit crew and the team and the owners of the Number
Five Old Spice Stick Deodorant car…"
*********** The North Beach Hyaks defeated Ocosta Thursday night, 62-8, to finish unbeaten for the first time in school history.
The Hyaks (9-0) drew first blood, scoring three minutes into the game
on a 26-yard pass from Alex McAra to 6-5 tight end Steven Fry,
After a breakdown in the secondary allowed an Ocosta touchdown, the
Hyaks answered with two more scores in the first quarter, one a 10-yard
keeper by McAra, the other an 11-yard run off-tackle by Elijah Towery,
and led, 24-6 after one quarter.
The Hyaks scored three more times in the second quarter on two runs by
B-Back Cameron Keller and a 15-yard pass from McAra to Jordan Chong to
take a 46-6 halftime lead - and bring on the running clock.
North Beach scored twice more in the third period before the JVs took
over the rest of the way. A fourth quarter Ocosta safety
following a goal-line interception ended the night's scoring.
The Hyaks rushed 27 times for 303 yards, led by Keller's 132 yards on
10 carries. McAra completed eight of 10 to five different
receivers for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
There were no North Beach turnovers.
On defense, the Hyaks gave up 150 yards in passing but sacked the
Ocosta quarterback four times and intercepted him three times.
They held Ocosta to -11 yards rushing.
While most teams in the state will be busy next week with "play-in"
games, our first-place finish in our league has earned us a bye, and an
automatic spot in the first round of the state playoffs. Since the
state requires that all playoff games be played on artificial surfaces,
our first round "home" game will be played in Aberdeen, 20 miles away.
*********** A nice local article about the North Beach Hyaks…
http://www.graysharbortalk.com/2014/10/30/north-beach-football/#comment-2278
*********** Chicago Bears' defensive end Lamarr Houston is done for the
season after rupturing the ACL in his right knee - while celebrating a
sack.
Not to say his act was a bit self-centered, but at the time, the
Bears were losing by 25 points with only three minutes left in the
game.
Bears' General manager Phil Emery says the Bears are "disappointed for him and in him."
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/bears-lb-lamarr-houston-officially-out-for-year-after-celebration-dance-102714
*********** Ho hum. Another day, another "incident" at Good Old FSU.
Monday's news: The Tallahassee Police Department said Monday that
Florida State tailback Karlos Williams is being investigated on
accusations of domestic battery.
From the Lakeland Ledger…
While
Tallahassee police announced the investigation Monday, Miranda Wilhelm
— whom media reports identify as Williams' girlfriend and the mother of
his children — posted photos of her bruised arms to Facebook on Friday.
Williams
was never named, but the photo caption said: "This was done to me 2
nights ago by a man i have lived with for two years and bared two
children by," the post included. "Hopefully therapy will help you one
day fix this and your sons never even work their hands to hurt a women,
mind you a pregnant women, to this extent."
Wait a minute.
"Children?" "Pregnant?"
They must pay well at FSU for a guy to be able to support such a large and growing family.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20141027/SPORTS19/141029424/1002/sports?Title=FSU-Football-Ex-Ridge-Star-Williams-Faces-Investigation
*********** It's been less than a week since the school shooting at
Marysville-Pilchuck High School, north of Seattle, and this article,
from the Everett Herald, is the most enlightening one I've yet to read
on the subject.
By Andrew Gobin
Everett Herald
Editor’s note: Herald writer Andrew Gobin is a member of the Tulalip Tribes and grew up on the reservation.
TULALIP — What do you say about a young man whose actions forever
changed the lives of so many? You can seek rhyme and reason, you can
analyze his troubles, you can gaze into the abyss of disbelief.
This is not about gun control, this is not about how a community failed
a young man, and it’s not about using his troubles to solve everyone’s
problems.
Strangers are telling Jaylen Fryberg’s story. Strangers who never met him.
What do you say about a boy? You say who he was.
Jaylen Fryberg came from a large, influential family on the Tulalip
Indian Reservation. His grandfather, Ray Fryberg Sr., sat on the tribal
council and is the director of Cultural and Natural Resources for the
tribes. His grandmother, Sheryl Fryberg, was an executive with the
tribes for many years, most recently the general manager of tribal
government operations. His father, Ray Fryberg Jr., also works in
Natural Resources for the tribes. His mother, Wendy Fryberg, a former
Marysville School Board member, is deputy general manager for tribal
government operations. He has two sisters, Tenika Fryberg and Mekyla
Fryberg, and two brothers, Anthony Gobin and Julian Fryberg.
Jaylen was grounded in the traditions of the Snohomish people, his
people, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. He was a star wrestling and
football athlete since he was young, competing with his cousins. He was
an avid hunter and fisherman, from a place where rites of passage
include those skills.
Jaylen came from a traditional family with a strong presence not only
at Tulalip, but with tribes up and down the Pacific Northwest coast. He
sang and drummed with the men of his family, learning to lead the group
at a young age. His father and grandfather were dedicated to grooming
Jaylen to be a strong leader, like so many of his elders.
His great-grandmother, Della Hill, was a strong spiritual leader in the
Shaker faith throughout Northwest reservations. That was a path Jaylen
and others in his family followed.
As he grew, Jaylen learned to revere traditional dances, earning his
dance shirt and feather headdress. The shirt is embroidered across the
chest and along the sleeves with small paddles hand-carved from cedar.
The paddles clacked as he danced. The shirt and headdress were
presented to him by tribal elders who chose him to be a lead dancer.
Along with these came the responsibility to carry on tribal traditions.
He wore the dance shirt and headdress often, at tribal ceremonies and
the annual Canoe Journey, a summertime celebration of cultural heritage.
From the time Jaylen was 5 or 6, he was involved in sports. He wrestled
on the tribe’s team and played football on city and school teams,
including this year as a freshman with the MPHS Tomahawks. His
teammates, often cousins and friends, were closer to him than brothers.
Jaylen always made time for them.
He learned to fish for salmon using gill nets with his father and grandfather. Many Tulalip families are fishing families.
Throughout the fall and winter, Jaylen was an avid hunter. He hunted
deer and elk with his dad and brother, never failing to bring an animal
home. He hunted for many reasons, including to feed families in their
times of sorrow. Tulalip people find comfort and connection to each
other in sharing traditional foods.
At 14, Jaylen started high school at Marysville Pilchuck. He seemed to
have it all. He was in a long-term relationship with a great girl, was
part of a strong family, pulled down good grades and was on the
football team. High school can be stressful, but he seemed to be
handling things well enough. The truth is, no one saw this coming. A
few outbursts on social media, a few scuffles, normal freshman angst
that came with normal consequences. After Friday’s events, we are left
with questions that may never be answered.
Jaylen got in a fight and was suspended from the football team just
before a crucial game. Two of the boys he shot — Andrew Fryberg and
Nate Hatch — were his cousins and also on the football team. Were they
targeted because they would play in the championship game that night?
We don’t know.
He had separated from his girlfriend, and it is speculated that caused
an argument. Contrary to many news reports, his girlfriend did not
attend Marysville Pilchuck. She was not among those shot.
And there is talk of bullying. All six of the students involved were
close. They grew up together. They competed together. They went to
homecoming together only a week before.
Did they tease each other? Of course. That’s what cousins are for.
We know Jaylen became troubled. Why is not clear.
What he did in that cafeteria was monstrous.
His uncle, John Dumonte, told TV reporters, though, that Jaylen wasn’t a monster.
As someone who walked with him in this community, who knew him from the time he was small, I understand that sentiment.
Culture and tradition can fall away. Not for Jaylen. He was viewed as living hope for the tribes’ future.
Now he is gone.
The shaken community on both sides of I-5 now must put the pieces
together, to help each other learn how to heal from this, to understand
why.
http://m.thedailyworld.com/newswire/northwest/school-shooter-raised-tulalip-traditions-his-actions-defy-explanation#sthash.049XOCWt.dpuf
*********** The Redskins-Cowboys Monday night game was a really good
one. It was especially exciting for me because the Redskins showed
signs of life, especially on defense, and Colt McCoy, after a slow
start, showed that he has the ability to play in the NFL.
We even had the privilege of seeing an owner leave his luxury skybox to
go down on the field to personally give the word to his coach that
their injured QB was good to go…
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/28/jerry-jones-went-on-field-to-tell-jason-garrett-that-tony-romo-was-ok/
***********
Stephen Paea is a defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears. Next to his
name on the roster, he's listed as coming from "Oregon State."
But it's a bit more complicated than that.
He was raised in Tonga, but he was born in New Zealand, and he once dreamed of playing rugby for the famed All Blacks.
And then he found out about American football...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11349576
***********
Dean Loucks was the quarterback of Yale's 1956 Ivy League championship
team. That was my freshman year, and he was my idea of the
mythical Yale man. He was big and strong, friendly, good-looking in a
manly way, and self-assured without being cocky. He was a good
student and a very good athlete, a star on the football team and a
regular on the basketball team.
Dean Loucks died last week at 79.
Dean Loucks turned a weakness into a strength.
He
was born without the use of his right arm; years later, after
first learning to do everything left-handed, and eventually
gaining full use of his right arm, he was an All-East quarterback at
Yale, able to throw with either arm.
Playing for his father, Glenn Loucks, a coaching legend at White
Plains, New York High School, he led his team to three consecutive
undefeated seasons in the 1950s, and was a high school All-America
quarterback his senior year.
"He begged his father not to let other people know that he had this
paralyzed arm," his daughter Kathy Loucks said. "He used his left arm
so that it grew strong, but as they continued to go to doctors and
specialists, he regained use of his right arm. And later on when he was
a quarterback, he could throw with both arms."
THE
YALE BACKFIELD ON THE SIDELINES AT THE 1955 YALE ARMY GAME, A 14-12
YALE WIN OVER THE DON HOLLEDER-LED ARMY SQUAD. From left: Fullback Gene
Coker, Albany, Texas; Left Halfback Denny McGill, Jersey City, New
Jersey; Quarterback Dean Loucks, White Plains, New York; Right Halfback
Al Ward, Glencoe, Illinois (Note that face masks had yet to be
introduced.) No one has ever been able to give me a good
explanation of why, for years, we wore those pumpkin-colored
pants. If it were nowadays, I'd blame it on Nike.
From "A BOWL FULL OF MEMORIES" by Rich Marazzi
"I
played quarterback and linebacker for my father, Glenn Loucks, at White
Plains High School in New York. He had a legendary reputation and was
very influential in my life. College coaches from all over the country,
including Jordan Olivar, would visit our house to learn his Split-T
offense.
"At
Yale I called the plays just before the snap at the line of scrimmage,
and nobody ever picked it up. Our offense was a combination of the
Split-T and the Belly-T. I would fake to either Denny McGill, Al Ward,
or Steve Ackerman and keep the ball. McGill and Ward were amazing
players, and Ackerman was the straight-Ahead guy who held the
linebacker in place. If I rolled left I would on occasion pass with my
left hand because I was ambidextrous. When I dropped back, Coach
Jerry Neri insisted that I throw with my right hand."
From the Yale Class of 1957 50th Reunion Book
After
my graduation from Yale in June of 1957, I had decided to go to law
school. I loved Florida at that time and was considering living
there. As a result, I enrolled in the Florida State University
Law School.
I
had gotten married and continued my sport of choice - four-wall
handball. However, somehow my quarterback experience in high school and
at Yale became public knowledge and I was asked to coach the DKE
fraternity football team. We won our league, and the players became
great friends. I believe this event had a tremendous effect
on my immediate future.
I
deduced the next year to go back, both to football and White Plains, my
city of birth, and teach history and coach football at White Plains
High School. I also eventually began a summer business of
overnight camping, from July through August. The camping business
contributed greatly to my future business life.
I
coached and taught at White Plains until 1970, when I was asked to be
an assistant coach at Iona College, in New Rochelle.
Subsequently, in 1972, I was offered the head coaching job at Fordham
University in The Bronx. Meanwhile, I had built a large summer
business which involved boys' and girls' overnight camping. I now
owned two separate properties in New Hampshire and was happily involved
with sharing time with my family and the children of many other
families. My son became a strong lineman and eventually went to
Yale. My daughter is a University of Michigan graduate and also
displayed many competitive skills and eventually became a TV sports
promoter.
I
became very occupied as an entrepreneur. In 1975, I accepted a
job with Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in Manhattan. I chose to
terminate my coaching and eventually my camping business. I had become
fascinated with "mass marketing." My search was to find the market both
that I enjoyed and that had a financial future. From 1975 on,
that was my obsession.
I found it gradually, and developed it for about 32 years. The 32nd year is 2007.
My
business is now known as Don Pedro Management Service. The market is
heavily supported by Latinos and Americans of blue-collar industrial
background. It features sales marketing and real estate servicing.
I
feel comfortable and happy with my present lifestyle, and always look
to the many memories of Yale and the great friendships I was lucky to
make. Great guys, great experiences, and a personal impact that
leaves me so grateful and thankful today.
http://www.lohud.com/story/sports/high-school/2014/10/21/glenn-dean-loucks-fondly-remembered-white-plains/17694919/
http://www.mcmahonfuneralhome.com/book-of-memories/1965064/Loucks-Glenn/view-a-photo.php?PhotoId=3033792
*********** Jim Geraghty, in National Review Online, writes...
We
have a pattern of patients not being honest and upfront about their
exposure to their disease and their actions after exposure. Thomas Eric
Duncan lied. Dr. Nancy Snyderman broke quarantine to go out for some
soup. Dr. Craig Spencer lied about how much he traveled the city.
I understand it’s quite inconvenient to have to stay home and minimize
your interaction with people for a three-week period. But it’s less
inconvenient than giving other people Ebola. See, your ability to live
your life “normally” with access to bowling and your favorite soup and
all that stuff is a high priority to you, but it’s not a particularly
high priority to most of the rest of us. Not getting Ebola is an
extremely high priority to the rest of us. If she’s right, and she
doesn’t have Ebola, we’ve forced her to waste three weeks of her life.
If she’s wrong, and she has Ebola, she runs the risk of exposing other
people to it. The scenario that includes her sitting around bored for
three weeks for no good reason has the advantage of no one enduring
liquefying internal organs.
Meantime, given the ingenuity of American lawyers, I fully expect a
raft of lawsuits by people in assorted European countries who were
deprived of American citizenship because some ancestor of theirs was
turned back at Ellis Island after it was discovered they carried
some communicable disease.
*********** Hey, relax - it's not that easy to catch Ebola.
Except maybe it is…
Wait a minute - are you telling me Our Government would lie to us?
http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/cdc-admits-droplets-from-a-sneeze-could-spread-ebola/
***********
Democratic strategist James Carville said, back in 1992, "Between
Paoli and Penn Hills, (suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,
respectively) Pennsylvania is Alabama without the blacks."
He was remarkably observant.
When
I was a kid, I used to hear people use the term "Pennsyltucky" to
refer to that vast area of small towns, farmland and wooded hills and
valleys roughly in the shape of a "T", excluding
Philadelphia in the lower right-hand corner, and Pittsburgh in
the lower left-hand corner. It may have been located inside the
borders of an eastern state, but culturally, it was Appalachia.
Still is.
This is where live the people whom a presidential candidate once dismissed as "clinging to their God and their guns."
Also, unfortunately, where 14-year-olds risk the lives of little kids on ATVs.
http://www.wpxi.com/ap/ap/pennsylvania/coroner-identifies-girl-4-killed-in-atv-crash/nhtjL/
*********** Hi Coach
My Congratulations on a memorable season thus far in North Beach. May it be etched in your players memories forever.
Knowing
your feelings about the kicking game, came across this tidbit from the
Woody Hayes biography, "A Fire To Win." He sent a letter home to all
his players regarding the start of pre-season practice...
"Hayes
then closed the letter by reminding his players to bring their own
shoes and any spare footballs, “regardless of their condition,” for the
kickers to use. It was classic Hayes. Here was the head of one of the
biggest football factories in the country, an organization that could
afford to buy an endless supply of footballs, yet the frugal pragmatist
ingrained in Woody from his childhood compelled him to ask his own
players to donate old footballs for the kickers. The odd request also
spoke volumes on how Hayes felt toward his place kickers, having them
resort to using scuffed footballs."
Stay Well...
Ed Campbell
Land O' Lakes, Florida
My "feelings about the kicking game" are easily summed up:
Kicking
specialists - and their high percentages of success - make for boring
football and have way too much influence on the outcomes of games.
***********
While hundreds of thousands of the children of America's peasant class
reject the allegedly healthful but unquestionably unappetizing
school lunches prescribed by Our First Lady, Sidwell Friends
School, which the Obama girls attend, has chicken wings, chip and
Philly cheese steaks on its upcoming menus.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/10/28/chicken-wings-and-chips-for-lunch-at-sidwell-friends/
***********
The decision to put a dozen American soldiers returning from Liberia
into quarantine for Ebola at their base near Venice rather than in the
United States has Italians understandably pissed.
So
American soldiers who may or may not have been exposed to Ebola are
quarantined in Italy, while health care workers who have had actual
contact with Ebola patients are allowed to return to the US and traipse
around as they please, lest we violate their "basic human rights."
*********** There are certain words and phrases in the English language that lend themselves especially well to translation by lip-reading.
And so it was that a national TV audience "heard" the Cowboys' Brandon Weeden call a Redskin a mortar forker.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014 - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Robert J. Hanlon - Hanlon's Razor
***********
If you had any doubt about Jameis Winston's "character issues" possibly
interfering with his winning another Heisman Trophy, remove all doubt.
Just take a look at Nissan's latest "Heisman House" commercial and
tell me the Heisman people have any shame left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgLdVLw9Fns
If that a&&hole Johnny Football ever makes it as an NFL
quarterback, God help us all. There will be no end to the way sponsors
inflict him on us.
***********
In the wind, mud and rain of the North Pacific Coast, the North
Beach Hyaks reverted to Old School Football Friday night, running
54 times for 381 yards, not throwing a single pass, to defeat
Life Christian Academy of Tacoma, 38-6.
The Hyaks moved to 8-0, while the Life Christian Eagles fell to 5-2.
The win had enormous historic significance for North Beach, whose
program has been so down over the years that this year marks only the
second time in school history that the football program has been able
to put together two consecutive winning seasons. The last time
was 1989-1990.
For the first time all year, we came out of the gate at a gallop,
taking the opening kickoff and driving 75 yards in 10 plays to take an
8-0 lead.
After two second-quarter touchdowns, one a long run and the other set
up by one, we appeared comfortably in control of things, leading 22-0
going into halftime, when one of our defenders lost his footing and
missed the tackle on a hook pass, and the receiver ran on for 36 yards
to our five. We stood firm for three downs, but gave up a score with 10
seconds to play, and went in at the half to make a defensive adjustment
or two.
Adjustments made, we controlled the second half, putting pressure on the opposing passer and forcing two turnovers.
We managed to stay turnover-free for the first time all year, and with
weather conditions dictating conservative play, we relied heavily
on the Double Wing, controlling the ball until, after going ahead 38-6
with six minutes to play, it was the JV's turn.
At game's end, after a moment of fellowship and thanks together with
the kids and staff from Life Christian - a very nice touch - the
celebration began. It was senior night, the last home game for
the handful of kids who'd started out with us four years ago as
freshmen, and it marked a huge milestone in their long path from being
members of one of the worst small-school teams in the Northwest to one
of the best.
With one game left to play, next Thursday at Ocosta, we have locked up
our league's Number One berth in the state playoffs. Although a
loss to winless Ocosta would leave us tied for the league lead with
Raymond, we would capture the the Number One seed by virtue of our
overtime win over Raymond earlier in the season. With a win over
Ocosta, we would capture our first outright league title since 1957.
Most important of all, our league title earns us an automatic berth in
the state playoffs, and a bye in week ten of the regular season, when
all but league champions engage in "play-in" games for the right to go
on to the state playoffs.
***********
By Rob Burns
The Daily World
OYEHUT — Celebrating in the rain that fell from the opening kickoff to
the final whistle, North Beach handed out 2014 Pacific League
championship shirts to all of its players Friday night.
It may be one week early for the Hyaks to break out the sideline
shirts, but after a 38-6 league victory over Life Christian, it was
tough not celebrating what they accomplished.
“We get the No. 1 berth and that’s why they get the T-shirts,” North Beach head coach Todd Bridge said.
Rumbling for 378 yards before the junior varsity offense took over the
playing duties with 5:45 left to play, third-ranked North Beach (7-0,
8-0) gained a share of the league title and the league’s automatic
berth into the state 2B playoffs with the win. This is the first shared
league title since 1990, when the Hyaks and Willapa Valley split the
league crown.
Next week, North Beach can clinch its first outright league
championship since it was Moclips High School in 1957 with a win at
Ocosta.
It was North Beach’s game from the opening drive.
The Hyaks ran 10 plays for 74 yards, all on the ground, for the first
touchdown of the game, a 5-yard plunge by Jordan Chong. Alex McAra ran
in the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the
game.
North Beach’s rushing offense was in full gear in the mud and rain. Lt.
Jim Davis Field was a muddy quagmire in between the hashmarks, exactly
where the Hyaks ran the ball on the Eagles (5-2, 5-2).
“We wanted to switch things up and the idea was to just wear them
down,” Bridge said. “We scored some points on them in the second half,
because we wore them down.”
A plethora of running backs — Chong, Elijah Towery, Cameron Keller,
Saul Gonzalez and Skyler Wells — negotiated the mud and the Life
Christian defense. The Hyaks didn’t finish with one 100-yard rusher,
but all five rushed for more than 50 yards. Towery led the team with 82
yards and Wells added 81 yards.
Towery made it 16-0 midway through the second half with a 3-yard
scoring run. Chong’s 51-yard burst through the middle of the line would
have scored for North Beach had not Life Christian’s Jeremy Pallwitz
tackled the speedy senior from behind. Chong ran in the 2-point
conversion.
Gonzalez did it all himself in 19 seconds on two runs — a 21-yard
inside burst and a 31-yard touchdown run on a double handoff counter
play — for a 22-0 lead.
Life Christian put itself on the board with a 57-yard drive in the
final minutes of the first half. The Eagles had trouble getting through
the Hyak defense, but found time and space with the passing game.
Quarterback Jack Hohlmer connected on three passes for 49 yards to set
up Wyatt Dunlap’s 1-yard plunge with 27.3 seconds left. The point-after
kick failed, ushering in a 22-6 halftime score.
The Eagles had just 78 yards of total offense in the first half, 63 of them on Hohlmer passes.
“I’ll be afraid to find out the team that can run between the tackles
(on us),” Bridge said of his defense. “We’re big. We rotate our nose
guards around. Caleb (Bridge), Daniel (Fruh) and Tim (Poplin) did a
great job. Johnny Law is quick and he made things happen tonight.”
Life Christian received the second-half kickoff and threatened to close
the gap. Hohlmer’s timely completions to Dunlap and Sam Absten kept the
Eagle moving, but the drive stalled on a fake punt at the Hyaks’
25-yard line.
Two plays later, Wells brought the home crowd to its feet with a
71-yard touchdown run around the right end. The junior running back
slipped out of a tackle and tip-toed the sideline at the 20-yard line
to get into the end zone. McAra hit Steven Fry for a 2-point conversion
pass at 30-6 with 5:10 left in the third quarter.
McAra finished the scoring when he capped a bull-rush drive for a
13-yard touchdown run off an option keeper at 38-6. Keller made most of
the drive, running behind several offensive linemen in convoy on four
straight carries for 40 yards to set up McAra’s score with 6:35
remaining.
From there, it was just a matter of celebration.
Senior wide receiver Gabe Hernandez was out for the contest due to
“inter-disciplinary actions,” according to Bridge. Hernandez won’t be
eligible for next week’s game at Ocosta.
- See more at: http://thedailyworld.com/sports/local/north-beach-runs-down-state-berth-38-6-win-over-life-christian#sthash.x0r1lYQy.dpuf
***********
One of the late Paul Brown's many contributions to the game of football
was a clever way of maintaining a reserve squad of players who'd been
cut in order to meet league-imposed roster limits.
Brown
(for whom the Cleveland Browns were named), persuaded Cleveland owner
Mickey McBride to put his reserve squad players on the payroll of his
taxicab company so they could afford to stay around Cleveland in case
they were needed. None of them ever actually drove a cab, but still,
they came to be known as the "taxi squad," a term that lives on in NFL
jargon.
No longer a member of the Denver Broncos' practice squad is John
Boyett, released by the Broncos from their practice squad last week
after being arrested for assaulting - a cab driver.
http://sportsnaut.com/2014/10/ex-bronco-john-boyett-punched-cab-driver-told-cops-call-elway/
MIckey McBride. http://clevelandsportshall.com/mcbride-arthur-b-mickey/
***********
Based on the way things have been going lately for Texas A & M,
maybe they're looking for a few D-III schools instead...
The long-awaited football series between the Texas A&M Aggies and Oregon Ducks is off.
Aggies
athletic director Eric Hyman exercised a clause in the series contract
that could void the agreement if the Aggies switched conferences, FOX
Sports reported Thursday, and Texas A&M moved from the Big 12 to
SEC in 2012.
Craig
Pintens, Oregon senior associate athletic director for communications
and marketing, confirmed Thursday afternoon that Texas A&M withdrew
from the series via its change-of-conference clause.
"We
are disappointed in Texas A&M's decision," Oregon athletic director
Rob Mullens said in a statement. "We want to continue to provide
marquee non-conference matchups for our fans. Scheduling is very
difficult and when a team cancels a game we need to work even harder to
find a suitable replacement."
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2014/10/report_texas_am_wont_play_oreg.html
***********
Dak Prescott had a great game for Mississippi State against Kentucky
Saturday. Not that anybody east of the Mississippi stayed up to watch
Oregon vs. Cal on Thursday night, but Oregon's Marcus Mariota didn't do
too bad, either.
***********
I seldom watch an SEC game from start to finish, but the LSU-Ole Miss
game was absolutely captivating. It was unbelievably hard-fought,
bodies flying all over the place on defense.
On
a day when the real Michigan program sank to a new low, LSU coach
Les Miles' team reflected his Michigan roots, putting on a
display of tough defense and meat-grinding offense that his old coach,
Bo Schembechler, would have approved of.
***********
The real Michigan program (if there still is one) slunk out of East
Lansing, beaten soundly on the field by instate rival Michigan State
after a childish stunt designed to fire up the Wolverines had the
opposite effect instead, enraging the Spartans.
A
string of insults dating back to at least 2007, when a Wolverine
referred to Michigan State as "our little brother", came to a
head before Saturday's game when some clown from Michigan threw a stake
or a spear or some such pointy item into the grass of Spartan Stadium.
Game
on. The Spartans turned it on and didn't let up until they had
beaten their big brothers into submission, refusing to take a knee at
the end and instead pounding in one more score.
"You
might as well just come out and say what you are feeling at some point
because you can only be diplomatic for so long," Said Michigan State
coach Mark Dantonio. "The little brother stuff, all the
disrespect, they didn't have to go in that direction."
Michigan
coach Brady Hoke, already in a fight to save his job, was vague about
how much he knew about the incident, but either way it doesn't look
good for him . On the one hand, if he knew what the kid was going to
do, he is probably dead meat. On the other hand, if he didn't
know, and the kid felt he could pull a stunt like that on his own -
what's that say about the discipline in the program?
http://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/jeff-seidel/2014/10/25/michigan-throws-pregame-spike-spartans-crush-wolverines/17939983/
*********** To play in London Sunday, the NFL went 4,000 miles east… and 40 years back.
The
Lions-Falcons game kicked off at 6:30 Pacific, so we missed a good bit
of it. And when we learned that the Falcons were leading 21-0, we
fed the dogs and walked them.
When
we came back, we learned that the game was close, with the Lions
driving for what could be the winning score. And that was all.
How close was it? Who knew?
How much time was left? Who knew?
The
Fox production was lame - no graphics whatsoever. Other than the
fact that the telecast was in color, for viewers it was like a trip
back in time, back before all we had to do was glimpse at the screen to
see score, quarter and time remaining.
But
what our time travel didn't include was the announcers from 40 years
ago, who knew it was their job to keep us informed of those
things. Or directors who made it a point to remind announcers
when they neglected to do so.
Lame. Very lame.
***********
What sheep the English people must think we Americans are. Then
again, what would you think of people who pay large sums of money,
ostensibly to watch a football game, then allow themselves to be
manipulated by some creep in a control booth who remotely operates a
signboard that repeatedly flashes: MAKE… NOISE… MAKE… NOISE…
MAKE… NOISE…
The day is not far off when seats will be wired to give you an electric charge if you don't comply.
***********
Kentucky QB Patrick Towles is not bad. But then, as Kentuckians
say about their race horses, he's got good blood lines.
His
grandfather is Jim Bunning, whose 16-year Hall-of-Fame career as a
pitcher included a no-hitter in both the American and National
Leagues. His no-hitter for the Phillies against the Mets in 1964
was a perfect game, the first one in the National League in 83 years.
He
went on to a career in politics, serving 12 years in the House of
Representatives, and 12 years as a US Senator from his native Kentucky.
Grandson Patrick Towles wears Number 14, his granddad's number.
***********
Hines Ward definitely wouldn't have recognized those guys
wearing those hideous yellow-and-black striped jerseys.
But in the interest of authenticity, back when the Steelers wore those clown suits, they didn't wear gold shoes.
*********** Stolen valor…
For more
than a year, Democratic congressional candidate for California’s 50th
district James Kimber wore an unearned Navy SEAL trident.
Known
as stolen valor, wearing one of a number of unearned medals is a crime,
if it is done with the intent of obtaining some form of tangible
benefit.
Twenty
years ago, Kimber hurt his back and was unable to continue on in his
intensive six-months long SEAL training. However, he did continue to
wear the unearned Navy SEAL trident, until a group of Navy SEALs called
him out on it.
At
that point, he was called in front of the ship’s crew and reprimanded
by the ship’s captain. He was 32 years old at the time of the incident.
It could have cost him his military career, but it didn’t. He ended up
serving in the military for more than twenty years.
Now
as a candidate for public office, the old news has become new. Since
this became public, Kimber has apologized and admitted he knew what he
was doing when he did it.
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/191966-stolen-valor/?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%7BCAMPAIGN_ID%7D&listID=%7BlistID%7D
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014 - "Where nothing is unspeakable, nothing is undoable." Alexander Bickel, "The Morality of Consent"
***********
I know you won't believe this, knowing what you know about the
mentality of NFL football players, but some of the more exhibitionistic
among them have paid as much as $1,000 - to customize their shoes.
Surprise - there's not a center in the bunch.
Says
a custom decorator named Marcus Rivero, who has done work for such NFL
luminaries as DeSean Jackson, Reggie Bush, and Marshawn Lynch, the
NFL's stuffy policy of insisting that players on the same team dress
the same has created a business for him.
"It's really the only way they have left to express themselves," he
told TMZ. "They can push the envelope with the cleats in ways they
can't do with their uniform."
Meanwhile, the rest of us chumps have to settle for "expressing ourselves" in speech and in writing.
http://instagram.com/solesbysir?modal=true
*********** North Beach Hyaks report: With a rare mid-season bye,
brought about by an opponent's electing to take a forfeit rather than
play us, we've been two weeks without a game, and our kids are itching
to play football.
This week, it's Life Christian, of Tacoma, 5-1 overall and tied for
second in our league. A win over Life Christian leaves us with one
regular season game, next Thursday against our cross-harbor rival
Ocosta, which has been having a tough season. At that point, even a
loss to Ocosta would still give us the first league title in school
history, by virtue of our having beaten the two closest contenders. A
loss to Life Christian, on the other hand, would throw us into one of
those awful three-way-tie deals that have to be resolved by a Tuesday
night Kansas Plan playoff.
One factor in our favor: they've played four of their six games on
their home field, on an artificial-turf surface. The other two
games were played on grass surfaces in pleasant weather conditions.
Our field is real grass - sort of. There are a few bare spots.
Our high school and middle school practice on it, and we both play our
games on it. Thank God we don't have soccer.
It's been raining in Ocean Shores all week. Really raining. Sideways.
Tuesday's and Wednesday's practice conditions would have been enough to
chase most non-Northwesterners off the field. Maybe out of coaching.
Our field normally drains well, but even it couldn't keep up with the
deluge.
Oh - and then there's the wind. If it's blowing Friday night the way it has this week, passing may not be a wise choice.
Welcome to football the way the old-timers played it.
*********** North Beach is ranked 3rd in this week's AP poll of
Washington Class 2B teams. Of course it's purely subjective, and
I know that the two teams above us, one of which is the defending
state champion, are very good. So, too, I might add, are several
teams ranked below us. Nevertheless, it's nice recognition
for a school whose program has been so down for most of its history
that this year is the first time since 1990 that a North Beach team has
put together back-to-back winning seasons.
*********** The WIAA, the Washington high school sports governing body, has released its first league standings in all classes.
http://www.wiaa.com/DirStandings.aspx?SPID=4
*********** North Beach's Historic Start
By Rick Anderson & Rob Burns
The Daily World, Aberdeen, Washington
Possessing a 7-0 record, North Beach’s football team is off to its best start in a long time.
How long? Long enough that the last previous 7-0 mark occurred before the school was even known as North Beach.
According
to state prep historian Ralph Lovelace, the Hyaks last won their first
seven starts in 1966, when the school was still called Moclips High
School. That campaign, however, did not end happily as Ilwaco downed
the Hyaks in the season finale to win the Pacific League championship.
North
Beach can clinch at least a share of the league title and a state
playoff berth with a victory at home against Life Christian on Friday.
An eighth win, according to Lovelace, would equal a school record set
in 1951 and matched by Dan Oppelt’s 2004 squad. No North Beach/Moclips
team has ever won nine games in a season.
Regardless
of what transpires the rest of the way, the Hyaks are assured of their
second consecutive winning season. Lovelace notes that hasn’t happened
since the 1989-90 campaigns, when they were directed by state Hall of
Fame coach Del Talley. The school name had long since been changed to
North Beach by this time, but the Hyaks were still playing at the
Moclips campus.
One
oddity is that this team has already matched the victory total of North
Beach’s 1980 state 2B runners-up. That squad, which lost the title game
to Ritzville on a last-second touchdown pass, wound up with only a 7-6
record. The Hyaks were 4-5 in regular-season play that year before
catching fire in the playoffs.
- See more at: http://m.thedailyworld.com/sports/local/prep-notebook-north-beach-historic-start-football#sthash.u7BpBog7.dpuf
*********** I heard Our President refer to the killing of a Canadian soldier by a "radicalized Islamist" as "tragic."
Yeah, "tragic," which is just one small step up in seriousness from a "damn shame."
He also called it "senseless violence."
No, no, no Mr. President. Violence by certain "Islamists,"
given their sworn mission to kill Westerners, is NOT
"senseless."
Despicable though it may be, it makes perfect sense, and
certain spineless "leaders" have to stop their
politically-correct, mealy-mouthed way of referring to it.
*********** "Diversity is our strength," or so our betters in
government keep telling us. In the 300-unit Dallas apartment
complex where the first US Ebola patient lived, health workers going
door-to-door with leaflets explaining the disease had to translate them
into eight different languages…
*********** It pains me to see the way the University of North Carolina
has allowed itself to be debased by an athletic department and its
puppet academic advisors, creating sham classes in the school's African
Studies Department that its athletes - mostly football and men's
basketball players - could "take" and then "earn" the grades necessary
for a 2.0 overall GPA.
(Aside: If I were King, no serious academic institution would
have a department with the word "studies" in its name.)
It pains me because, although I'm a big fan of archrival Duke, I
have long respected North Carolina as a top state university, the sort
of school of which I'd be proud to be an alumnus.
The practice went on for years, but naturally, the suits in the front
office - the President and the Chancellor, had no idea this was going
on.
Well. That sure sounds to me like the very definition of what the
NCAA considers to be the mortal sin of college administrators: lack of
institutional control. The extent to which North Carolina has
allowed the corruption of big-time sports to infect its academic
side is without precedent.
Considering how a peripheral connection between Penn State
and a retired coach named Jerry Sandusky was used by the NCAA to
bludgeon and smear a great university and its coach, and to impose
draconian sanctions by threatening its football program with the death
penalty, it's hard to see how it can do anything less to Carolina
without losing whatever credibility it has left.
Question: Does the NCAA still have any fangs?
I hate to say this, but maybe getting free from annoying NCAA
oversight of such trivial matters as academic corruption and
devaluation of the meaning of a school's diploma is what the Big
65 football schools had it mind when they gained autonomy.
Recommendation: Death penalty for football and men's basketball
Prediction: North Carolina skates.
It would never happen if Mark Emmert were still alive.
PS. North Carolina had better do everything in its power to make sure
that the public never gets to see the papers that those guys
"wrote."
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/sports/university-of-north-carolina-investigation-reveals-shadow-curriculum-to-help-athletes.html?referrer=
*********** On September 19, members and friends of the Black Lions
received sad news from Colonel Billy Murphy, Honorary Colonel of the
Regiment… The subject line read, "My Number Has Been Called," and it is
one of the greatest examples I have ever seen of facing one's
death with courage and dignity…
Dear Friends,
There
comes a time when all earthly options have been exercised and it is
time to move on to the great beyond, wherever that is.
That
time has come for me. As most are aware I have been hospitalized
for the last three weeks with some reasonably serious medical issues.
The doctors have been faced with bad situation after bad situation with
no good medical alternatives for cure.
And
then the killer blow--cancer metastisized to the liver and to the
colon. Add this to the prostate cancer I have been fighting for
more than 19 years and it is more than the doctors can handle and more
than my body can take.
I
met with the doctors this afternoon and they all agree that there is
nothing more they can do and that my days are numbered on the short
side. I don't know if that is a week or two, but the time is
short.
My
intentions are to go home for a couple of days then into a hospice
program. My desire is to be buried with full military honors at
the Leavenworth VA cemetery.
A
burial/memorial service at the main post chapel is probably
appropriate. I would like to have the colors of the 28th infantry
present.
Someone
please ensure a survivor officer is appointed to assist Barbara. I have
led an incredible life and I am proud to have known all of you. I would
not change a thing.
Your friend,
Billy
Less than a week ago, On October 17, the anniversary of the Battle of
Ong Thanh and a day of remembrance for Black Lions everywhere, Colonel
Murphy's daughter wrote …
Dad
has been at the Hospice Home for two and a half weeks now, and
continues to amaze and baffle medical minds. Though still alive, he is
seldom conscious now, and when he is, we don't know his awareness
level, other than for pain. We ask for prayers of mercy for him, that
he be allowed to pass and get out of this pain. We've been told that
some people at the end of life are "holding out" for something to be
completed before they can pass - we're not sure if we believe that, but
just in case, we've made sure that Dad knows that the two things that
we thought could possibly be his "hold-outs" were complete. First, we
have made sure that he knows that his beloved Royals have won the
pennant (woo hoo!), having given him a play-by-play of every
post-season game and reading all the newspaper articles to him. Second,
yesterday, Dad was supposed to have given a speech in Nevada to a
gathering of 28th Infantry veterans - the speech, and this particular
audience, meant a lot to him - and last month when he realized that he
would not have the health to go to Nevada and deliver it in person, my
sister arranged for a videographer to record Dad delivering the speech
while he was still in home hospice. We played the video for him
yesterday at the same time that the men in Nevada saw it so that Dad
would know that this was "checked off the list". Technology is amazing
- and Dad was alert to the video much of the time while it played. But,
if Dad has any control of his own passing and is "waiting for
something", this wasn't it. Regardless, many have asked to see the
speech, and now that it has been delivered to it's originally intended
audience, we would like to share it with you. It is truly amazing that
he did this only three weeks ago, and that he was so clear and
articulate - Dad has always been an amazing and respected speaker, and
to have this speech recorded is a treasure for us all. Most of the
speech is about the history of the 28th Infantry Regiment, but even if
you have no interest in military history, I encourage you to watch all
23 minutes of it - if you can only watch a few minutes though, make
sure to catch the end, starting at about the 18 minute mark - it is a
powerful ending that will apply to everyone.
Here is the link to Colonel Murphy's speech.It is powerful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WZHEbG4rVE
Sadly, COL Billy Murphy died on Tuesday. May God bless him and
keep him. I urge you to watch the video, if only to get
some idea of the kind of man we lost.
Memorial contributions can be made in Col. Murphy's name to The
Wounded Warrior Project or Kansas City Hospice House and Palliative
Care.
*********** Not to say that induction into the College Football Hall of
Fame isn't a highly prestigious honor, but it's going to go down a bit
in my eyes if two recent nominees get in: Brian (The Boz) Bosworth and
Keyshaun ("Just Give Me the Damn Ball") Johnson.
*********** A nice article about the impressive turnaround (in which
the Double Wing has played a part) at Hoosic Valley, New York…
http://m.troyrecord.com/troyrecord/db_280735/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Zd1g8Zqk&full=true#display
*********** A radio guy (I think it was on FOX) was having a lot
of fun mocking Seattle TV station KOMO, and rightly so, for celebrating
Peyton Manning's breaking the all-time touchdown pass record by
mistakenly showing a photo of Gary Payton. (Hint to the person -
probably a station intern - who posted the photo, and may or may
not have been celebrating Washington's legalization of pot, but
definitely does not know sports: Gary Payton was a basketball
player. A very good one. Also, Gary Payton is black.)
But no more than a minute after having his laugh at KOMO's expense, he went on to talk about someone beating "Webber State."
Now, I'm not a fan of people - or schools - choosing at whim to
pronounce their names in some offbeat way ("Mon-tay Ball") and
expecting us to fall right in line, but it does show how shallow is the
sports knowledge of some of today's media people when they don't know
that it's "WEE-ber State."
*********** If New York is the crossroads of the world, then its Port Authority Bus Terminal is a crossroads of another sort…
Take a look at this series of interviews by Jesse Watters at the Port
Authority Terminal and tell me how good you feel knowing that
"getting out the vote" really means that any one of these people can
pull a lever and cancel your vote.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/10/20/watters-world-ebola-edition
*********** Hello sir, My name is Jeramiah Komlofske and I am head
coach of the 8-9 year old rookie squad Killeen Patriots in Killeen
Texas near fF Hood. We are a military town with lots of football
competition. We are currently in TYFA division 2 and I have
adopted your double wing this year. I'm in love with it to say
the least. We are an undersized squad and we need this in order
to compete. We are 3-3 at this point and still unable to defeat
the physically superior teams but my problem is this...the Refs.
I am fighting them every game. My wedges cannot be stopped no
matter who we are playing but I get flagged for arm locking when we
dont, at all. I've had 3 scores called back and countless yard
removed because of this. Refs do not understand the formation and
will not let my line sit back from the los. They call me for too
many in the backfield. It's killing my team. I'm sure I'm
not the only coach to have gone through this. Need some advice.
Thank you for your time.
Hi Coach,
Thanks for writing.
Your problems are not uncommon, but usually the officials come around.
You might show them this clip of my
team back before we put pads on. We're running it from a
different formation, but it illustrates how we teach the wedge
blocking, and you won't see any locking of arms.
As for being back off the ball, the
rule is clear that they are on the line so long as the top of their
helmet penetrates an imaginary line drawn through the center's
waist. But if it's clear that you won't win this one, ask the
officials to take a look at your kids and tell you what's legal,
because you want to make sure that you comply, blah, blah, blah.
It's all about power, and you're not going to win, so you might as well let them know that you will do what they require.
Hope this helps you some. Let me know how it works out.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014 - "I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability." Oscar Wilde
***********
Army keeps finding ways to beat itself. Saturday it lost to
previously winless Kent State, and one factor was something I hadn't
seen before. Army uses the so-called shield punt, in which three
protectors line up shoulder-to-shoulder, about 6-7 yards deep.
In order to provide a gap for the snap to get back to the punter, one
of the three protectors must stand aside until the ball passes, then
close the door.
Alas, on Saturday, Army's man closed the door too soon.
And as he was taking his place in the shield, the snap hit him…
*****************
After years and years of watching Notre Dame benefit from questionable
calls by officials, I find it quite ironic that Irish coach Brian Kelly
acts as if Notre Dame really got shafted when they were called for
offensive pass interference in the last minute of play Saturday
night. The call cost the Irish the winning touchdown.
Well, yes, but a touchdown they wouldn't have had if they hadn't interfered. (I hesitate to call it cheating, but…)
I didn't see the game live, and since the game I've heard what the
Notre Dame receiver did called a "rub" and I've also heard it called a
"pick."
But I didn't hear anybody except Brian Kelly and Notre Dame faithful say that it was a bad call.
Sunday, I watched the video.
That was no "rub." That was no "pick." A rub is subtle. So is a pick.
There was no sublety here.
What it was was a f--king BLOCK. A good one at that, one that I'd
be very proud of it that were one of my receivers, but a block
nonetheless. And blocking downfield on a pass play is
verboten. Sorry, Notre Dame. It wouldn't have been a
touchdown without the interference.
Verdict: good call.
Hell, if that sort of blocking downfield on passes was legal, we'd never see another running play.
Coach Kelly has been successful everywhere he's been, and I found him
somewhat likable in those days. But there's something about Notre
Dame that affects even likable coaches. (Anyone out there old enough to
remember Lou Holtz from his NC State or Arkansas days?)
I actually read that he's blaming Florida State for the call. Seems that they "blew the coverage."
What's worst about the whole deal is that Coach Kelly has seen the video and still says the Irish did nothing wrong.
I am very disappointed in Coach Kelly. If he can look at that
video and not see anything wrong, he either doesn't know the
rule, or he does, and he's teaching his players to ignore
it. I hate to think the latter is the case, because that
would make him a cheater.
And if he wants to continue his tirade against ACC officiating, I'd
invite him to take a look at the play before that one - the short pass
to the slot back on the left while the split end is taking care of
coverage by blocking - and tell me that that wasn't offensive pass
interference, too. (Actually, based on what he's said, I guess he
would.)
That one, the officials missed. (Maybe that's what he meant by bad officiating.)
I imagine the real reason that Coach Kelly is upset is that he knows
that if the game had been played in South Bend, Notre Dame would still
be unbeaten.
*********** Didja see the Texans line up in punt formation, then
short-snap it and run a wedge for a first down against the Steelers?????
*********** I was out scouting Saturday night and I missed both
Oregon-Washington and Notre Dame-FSU. Sunday I looked at the last five
minutes of ND-FSU, and I saw so many closeups of that f--king Jameis
Winston (guess they had a JameisCam dedicated to him) that I can't
imagine having to watch the entire game.
*********** Hugh, How you doing??? Saw your news this morning. Anyway
saw your game was canceled, too bad but I also hear the other side. I
just know the young kids don't get reps.
As of the part of Greg Koenig having a pss fest with officials and the
tactics of the other coach, I went thru that in Chelan last week. I
called time out after the 4th play on our first Offensive drive when I
saw the OLB crashing in and cutting our B-Back below the waist and also
leading with the Crown of his helmet. I told the white hat who gave the
same conversation to me that the Official did to Coach Koenig. I should
have approached the HC for Chelan and told him not only was his
tactics endangering my kids but his kids as well. Also their nose
guard would line up 4 to 5 off the ball and at the snap would
come crashing into my center with his head down at the snap of the
ball. Hindsight told me I should have pulled my team off the field but
I didn't know I could do that.
On Monday my AD came in and went thru the film with me and was
absolutely appalled by what he saw. He emailed the Washington Officials
Assocation and the white hat at our game was the head of it. Long
story short - we sent them the film, because he said he didn't see it.
Our AD said it was plain as day and the fact that blew our AD away was
he was not aware of the rules behind blocking or cutting below the
waist. He tried to say "under our interpretation," but our AD said
"there is no interpretation - it states this," and he read verbatim
what you had written and the white hat all of sudden started to back
pedal, especially when my AD got on about safety and the big aspect
this year of head injuries and targeting etc etc.
I had to document what clips they were to look at and also the
infraction and who was committing it. Hugh, after a quick run
thru I had 28 clips and 90 per cent was one kid attacking my B back
below the waist and leading with the crown of his helmet. Don't
know what to expect.
The AD at Chelan defended his coach which I felt was shi--y, especially
when I told him after the game - and he had played At WSU. Might say it
all.
When their JV team came down I told their coaches with the officials
for the game present that those tactics would not be tolerated. I now
have full permission of my principal and AD to take my team off the
field if these things persist and are not dealt with.
Take care
Mike Foristiere
Mattawa, Washington
Mike,
As you are no doubt finding out in
your first year as a head coach, there are a$$holes in coaching, just
as there are in every business, and when you complain about them, the
officials often act as if YOU'RE the bad guy for simply requesting that
they enforce the f-king rules.
On officials' behalf, I must say that
Greg Koenig found a local supervisor of officials to be very
fair-minded and willing to address his concerns, as did my head coach,
Todd Bridge, when he sent video to the rules interpreter of the South
Sound Officials Association.
We have no right to insist that
officials always rule in our favor, but when fair play and players'
safety are involved, we do have a right to be heard and to receive a
measured and professional response.
Something to the effect of "that's
enough out of you, coach," does not defuse things, and could be
interpreted by coaches (such as me) as meaning "you may be right, but I
have the power - and don't you forget it."
*********** At Lindbergh HS, in Renton, Washington, a student was given
detention - and an F on a test - after being caught with a "cheat
sheet" in her back pack.
Apparently there was no indication that the kid actually looked at the cheat sheet.
The kid's parents appealed, and the punishment was rescinded - but the grade stands.
Here's the problem : the kid can appeal a disciplinary action but not a
grade. So by punishing the kid by giving here an "F", they are
handing out discipline that can't be appealed.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Lame, lame, lame.
I think the school is going to lose this one.
If a kid had a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, could you suspend him for smoking in the boys' bathroom?
*********** Imagine - an accused rapist playing on your team as if
nothing' had happened. And we're not talking Florida State.
It's Hoquiam, Washington, the next town to the east of us…
By Jake Schild - The Daily World
Hoquiam
School Superintendent Mike Parker said Tuesday night that the Hoquiam
High School football player who was charged with two counts of rape in
late September has voluntarily removed himself from the team for the
rest of the season.
“He
didn’t want to have the charges distract the school, the district, or
the team in any way,” Parker said after the school board meeting.
Tyler
Smith, 18, was charged on Sept. 26 in Grays Harbor Superior Court for
allegedly forcing a young woman to have sex with him after she
repeatedly said “no” in July. Smith is charged with a second count of
rape for allegedly forcing a different woman to perform oral sex in
December of 2012.
After
the charges were filed, Smith was released on $10,000 bail and has been
allowed to play in the team’s last two games. Parker stressed the fact
that Smith is “innocent until proven guilty” in an interview last week
with The Vidette, which first covered the story.
Superintendent
Parker said he met with Smith and Smith’s father Tuesday and the teen’s
father told Parker that his son would remove himself from the team for
the duration of the season.
According
to Parker, Smith said he made the decision to leave the team in hopes
of taking some pressure off the school and his teammates.
Smith is scheduled to go to trial in December.
- See more at: http://thedailyworld.com/news/local/hoquiam-football-player-charged-rape-removes-himself-team#sthash.gveiC52p.dpuf
It's time that we all got a good hold on this "innocent until guilty" business.
It is a concept in our system of justice, in which the accused is
entitled to trial by a jury that, going in, is expected to presume his
innocence.
The
presumption of innocence, an ancient tenet of Criminal Law, is actually
a misnomer. According to theU.S. Supreme Court, the presumption of the
innocence of a criminal defendant is best described as an assumption of
innocence that is indulged in the absence of contrary evidence (Taylor
v. Kentucky, 436U.S. 478, 98 S. Ct. 1930, 56 L. Ed. 2d 468 [1978]).
Here's where so many do-it-yourself lawyers get tripped up:
It
is not considered evidence of the defendant's innocence, and it does
not require that a mandatory inference favorable to the defendant be
drawn from any facts in evidence.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/presumption+of+innocence
Is that clear? The presumption of innocence is NOT considered evidence of a person's innocence.
"Innocent until proven guilty" is a sham phrase, a distortion of its real meaning.
It does NOT mean that you can't fire an accused child molester from his
job as a camp counselor. It does NOT mean that you can't decide
that, based on a criminal charge, a person's presence may endanger your
other employees, or cost you customers, or reflect poorly on the
image you wish your organization to project.
It does NOT mean that a person charged with a crime - murder, rape,
whatever - has a right to play on our team until he's been
tried and found guilty.
It means that there is no obligation for the rest of us, outside the
legal system, to treat a person who's been charged with a crime as if
he's the embodiment of innocence.
*********** Hugh,
Good luck this week. Wait, I guess it's good luck next
week. Anyway, enjoy being a "fan" tonight as you get a change to
have a pork chop at a game.
We beat our neighbor Farmington Farmers last Friday by a score of
63-34. We were not at our best defensively, but we were certainly
on offensively. We scored on all but one possession when the
starters were in. 360 yards rushing and 120 passing. Layne
Wyatt rushed 16 times for 214 and 2 td's and caught four balls for 84
yards and 2 tds. Our other wing rushed 22 times for 111 yards and
2 tds.
Farmington runs a spread and has a very athletic quarterback. The
game certainly showed our kids that proper footwork is really important
against skilled opponents. The good thing is, we play another
spread team this week. The Abingdon-Avon Tornadoes are 7-0 and
ranked #5 in 1A. Farmington went a long way to helping us get
ready for the Tornadoes. We've had our way with them the last
three years, but this is a special group for them and they feel it is
"their year" to get us. Their skill kids are pretty good and
fast. Our line will be dominant. Should be a fun contrast
in styles.
Todd Hollis
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
Hahaha.
I wish. I first heard about pork
chop sandwiches at a football game in 1989 or 1990 when I was in Macomb
to do a Portland State-Western Illinois game and on Friday night before
the game we were listening to a HS game on radio.
Man, did that sound good!
To date myself, Brian Cox was playing for Western.
Good luck to you tonight!
*********** Indiana has worked so hard to climb out of the Big Ten cellar…
So why would some marketing genius try to make the job tougher by
putting helmets on the Hoosiers that looked like those red-and-white
striped peppermint hard candies that restaurants leave in the bowls
next to their cash registers?
*********** Number 1-ranked Queensbury, New York, defending state
Class A champion, moved to 7-0 with a decisive 42-0 win over perennial
power Burnt Hills. Queensbury rushed 57 times for 363 yards and
six touchdowns, while holding Burnt Hills to just 48 yards rushing and
114 overall.
http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Queensbury-football-snaps-Burnt-Hills-streak-5831050.php
*********** Dad
This came from a guy I know...any suggestions? Thanks! Love, Ed
Do you know of a book, or can recommend something, that’s a great history of pro football and is also a great read?
I’ve
already come across ‘America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football
Captured a Nation’ by Michael MacCambridge, ‘Pigskin’ by Robert W
Peterson and ‘NFL Football: A History of America’s New National
Pastime’ by Richard C Crepeau (was only published on 15 October this
year. Looks very dry - almost like a thesis).
Ed Wyatt
Melbourne, Australia
I really can't suggest anything good that deals with "recent" NFL history. An awful lot of it is junk.
I'm big on the history of the 20s,
30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Most of my collection - and most of
my interest - ends in the 70s or 80s.
Most of the books I like (and collect) are out of print.
I'm big on biographies. I'm
interested in the people who played the game and made the
game. For me a good read is a good biography or some
old-timer's recollections of his playing days.
Two good collections of remembrances...
Pro Football's Rag Days, by Bob Curran
The Game That Was, by Myron Cope
Three good biographies I recommend:
Halas by Halas
Rooney: A Sporting Life by Ruck, Patterson, Weber
PB: The Paul Brown Story - with Jack Clary
There are plenty more, but those would be starters.
Love,
Dad
*********** If you're a special teams coach, better get your resume up
to date - after getting caught napping twice in punt situations Sunday,
the Seahawks can't be happy with their situation.
*********** Hugh,
Read your latest news with great interest. Especially the piece
on Greg Koenig and having his FB get his knees taken out by a DE trying
to stop the Power.
I tried to explain that very same thing to the officials down here
because we had one team in a previous game doing that to our FB.
Unfortunately, I was citing NFHS rules, and eventually realized in my
conversation with the official that down here in Texas we play by NCAA
rules, not knowing that that particular rule is similar.
Fortunately prior to the start of the next game (prior to pre-game)
I met with the officials to discuss the rule, and they actually
went back to the locker room to check the rule book! When they
came back out the white hat brought out the rule book, and according to
the rules if the two players start inside the free blocking zone they
can cut block each other. So…I instructed my FB to align one yard
deeper than normal during pre-game, had the official look at where he
was lined up and the official told me our FB was lined up outside the
free blocking zone, and that the DE would not be able to cut him.
First offensive play from scrimmage we called Power - their DE came
charging in to cut our FB - FLAG! They tried it again -
FLAG! Officials explained it to the opposing coach who became
furious, and guess what? Didn't see that tactic the rest of the
game, and we won 38-6.
While I would prefer to keep my FB aligned in the traditional DW close
to the QB, the "Texas adjustment" hasn't proven to throw our timing
off. So…we no longer have to worry about DE's/OLB's cutting our
FB anymore. If the two rules are similar maybe Greg can back his
FB up some? We still have our FB "J route" to the kick-out block,
but as I said it hasn't thrown our timing off.
Joe Gutilla
Head Football Coach
St. Dominic Savio Catholic High School
Austin,Texas
Hi Joe-
Welcome to the world of football with thtree different sets of rules. Mass. is the other state that uses NCAA rules.
Your solution is a great workaround.
One reason why I have resisted moving
the B-Back is that under our rules, he is protected simply by not
having lined up on the LOS. Two others are first that I use him
as the landmark for men going in motion, and second because with my QB
doing his "hockey stick" path, he and the B-Back would collide.
Problems with people undercutting the
B-Back - and officials doing nothing about it - not to mention concern
about an underpowered B-Back being overpowered at the point of kickout
were two of the many reasons why I felt the neeed to diversity my
offense. I needed not only to vary the B-Back's angle of approach but
also to threaten the force man with a variety of blocks by different
people.
We still run power off-tackle, but
where formerly we needed the B-Back to make the key block 20 or more
times a game, now it's as likely to be one of the guards doing it.
Keep up the good work!
*********** Sign in the BC Lions' locker room:
Leave your ego at the door
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 - "To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day." Winston Churchill
***********
At 10:16 on Thursday (10:16 on 10/16, get it?) Ocean Shores held
its annual Tsunami Warning Test. It works. We hear it.
Great.
Given the fact that there's just one two-lane road leading out of our
town, with about 5,000 year-round residents, and given the additional
fact that we're about five miles down a peninsula from that road, the
calculations are that if we have a real Tsunami, it will take us about
an hour and a half from the time we hear the alarm until we get to high
ground.
Sure hope it's a very slow-moving Tsunami.
*********** It's official. The local sports historian has
completed his research and declared that North Beach HIgh's 6-0 start
is its best since 1966. At that time, the school was located about 20
miles north of its present location in Ocean Shores, in the town of
Moclips. Not long after, a new school was built in Ocean Shores, and
the sizable number of Native Americans who lived in the area to the
north of us chose not to send their kids to the new high school and
instead started their own high school in the town of Taholah.
But I digress. Better make that 7-0.
While I was typing, I just got word that our Saturday night opponent,
Tacoma Baptist, called to tell us they have to forfeit. Earlier
their AD had called our AD "hoping" we'd go easy on them. WTF?
Our reply was, nothing doing - we don't know how to teach any other way
than to play hard, and our coach called their coach and conveyed that
to him. I suspect that after their conversation he might have
phoned his AD.
I understand their position. They had a light turnout this year
and had to forfeit their first two games because they didn't have
enough kids eligible, and now, after we worked them over, they
faced the distinct possibility of not having enough kids to field a
team for their homecoming game next week - against a team they have a
chance of beating.
Such is life in the minor leagues. In all my years of football - and
I've been in some shaky situations - this is the first forfeit I'v ever
experienced. It feels weird.
It's actually a blessing for us because as it was, we'd have had to
travel three hours each way, to put some insane score on them, get
accused of running it up, and maybe get some of their kids hurt
and ruin the rest of their season.
Or even worse, get some of our kids hurt and ruin the rest of OUR season.
So tomorrow night (Friday) three of us coaches will scatter out around
the countryside to get video on possible playoff opponents, and on
Saturday night we'll get a look at next week's opponent, Life
Christian, who's now 5-1.
**********
My friend Greg Koenig sent me some video of an opponent whose defensive
end somehow discovered that he could mess up Super Power - not to
mention Greg's B-Back - by taking out the B-Back at the knees.
Greg wrote,
I
was angry during the game when I told the official on our sideline
about the DE cutting RJ. (Our B-Back) I was even more angry when he
came back after visiting with the white hat and told me that the white
hat said that the contact was starting above the waist and RJ was
pushing the defender down to his knees. My anger didn't diminish when,
at halftime, I asked the official on our sideline what the hell RJ was
supposed to do when the defense attacks his knees and his response was
to tell me that he had heard enough and wouldn't put up with anything
else from me for the rest of the night. I'm now really pissed off after
watching the film as things were much worse than I thought
I
have had a few instances like that, and my approach has been to send
clips to the opposing coach and AD and say something to the effect
of "Perhaps you didn't see this on your video, so I wanted
to bring it to your attention. I'm sure that you don't condone
illegal tactics, and I'm sure you're aware of the unfortunate
repercussions if a player were to be injured as a result."
Todd Bridge (my head coach) did it
this way recently when an opposing guard chop-blocked a defensive
tackle several times, and the opposing coach handled it very
professionally
I guess cutting the B-Back is a cyclical thing. Some young coach
comes along and says, "Hey! I've got it! The way to stop the
Double Wing! Take out the B-Back at the knees!"
He may not know that blocking below the waist is illegal unless it
occurs (1) in the free-blocking zone; (2) before the ball leaves the
free blocking zone; (3) between two players who were both on the line
of scrimmage at the snap.
But not knowing that is not an excuse. The rules are in place to
make the game as fair as possible and as safe as possible and as
coaches we're expected to know them.
Now then, there is the real possibility that guys know that it's
illegal and they teach it anyhow. They are cheating
bastards. They are teaching kids that in the interest of gaining
an unfair advantage over an opponent, it's all right to lie, cheat and
steal. They need to be identified and run out of the game.
(Funny how officials are so caught up in the concussion hysteria that they don't recognize this as a safety issue, too.)
*********** Yale has an interesting undergraduate residential
setup. All freshmen live in dormitories on the "Old Campus," but
then spend their remaining three years in one of twelve
"residential colleges."
(There are no residential fraternities, and off-campus housing is discouraged.)
Modeled after Oxford University in England, the original plan, 70 years
ago, was for them to be small colleges within a large university.
Unlike Oxford, though, while students live and eat most of their meals
in their home colleges, they attend classes in common with students
from the other residential colleges.
With the recent announcement of plans to build two new colleges - the
first since the early 1960s - the problem of naming them has taken on
importance.
This is not an assignment undertaken lightly. One college has been
named for a founder of the school, another for one of its first
presidents, another for an early governor of Connecticut. Some
were alumni who gained fame in government (John C. Calhoun), religion
(Jonathan Edwards) and the arts and sciences (Samuel F. B. Morse). Bet
you didn't know Mr. Morse, in addition to inventing the telegraph, was
also a great artist.
Forget buying naming rights. No one is going to buy his way into this one.
There has been some mention this time of Noah Webster, probably the
single most important person in the development of a distinctly
American culture.
And there will undoubtedly be some pressure to name one of the new
colleges after a woman. (Women were first admitted to Yale in 1969.)
At the suggestion of Bob Barton, a fellow Yalie and a long-time writer
for the New Haven Register, I have taken it upon myself to nominate a
distinguished Yale graduate who was - gasp! - a football player!
Dear President Salovey,
I'm
writing in the hope of persuading the persons charged with naming the
new residential colleges to consider honoring Mr. Levi Jackson, of the
Class of 1950.
Mr. Jackson first came to the nation's attention as a football player. A black football player.
Yale's
pioneering role in the history of American football cannot be
overstated, and Mr. Jackson's role as the first black man not only to
play football for Yale but to ascend to its team captaincy was not only
a significant step in the integration of college football, but also in
Yale's evolution from a school for the sons of the wealthy to the more
democratic institution it aspires to be today.
But
far more important than his achievements in football was his
representation of Yale out in the world, where he devoted years of
service to his employer, to his community, and to his country in
helping advance the cause of equal opportunity.
What
better way to demonstrate Yale's commitment to equal opportunity and
diversity than to recognize one of her own - and a New Havenite at that
- who embodied what can happen when a person of ordinary means but
great talent and character is given access to the Yale experience?
I urge whoever must make the naming decision to give all due consideration to Mr. Levi Jackson.
I submit on his behalf an article I wrote at the time of his death:
http://www.coachwyatt.com/levijackson.htm
My best wishes to you in your most challenging assignment as President of Yale University.
Respectfully,
Hugh Wyatt
Yale College 1960
*********** Jameis Winston is from Bessemer, Alabama. Another son of
Bessemer, a fellow named Bo Jackson, tried to give young Mr. Winston a
bit of fatherly advice about cleaning up his act, and says he got blown
off…
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11705966/bo-jackson-says-jameis-winston-florida-state-seminoles-blowing-advice
*********** Today - October 17 - marks the 47th
anniversary of the Battle of Ong Thanh, in Vietnam, the bloody ambush
which first made me aware of the Black Lions - the 28th Infantry
Regiment - and the battle in which Army Major Don Holleder, former West
Point All-American, lost his life along with 63 others.
It's a day when the survivors will call each other and share
their friendship, and memories of their comrades who died that day.
David Maraniss' "They Marched Into Sunlight" deals with the battle. It's a great read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ong_Thanh
http://www.warbirdforum.com/ongthanh.htm
*********** If there were a 16-team playoff...
FWAA-NFF GRANTLAND RICE SUPER 16 POLL
1. Mississippi State 625 30 4
2. Florida State 585 8 2
3. Mississippi 581 2 3
4. Baylor 519 --- 5
5. Notre Dame 459 --- 6
6. Auburn 429 --- 1
7. Alabama 364 --- 7
8. Michigan State 329 --- 8
9. Oregon 325 --- 10
10. TCU 269 --- 9
11. Georgia 256 --- 13
12. Oklahoma 231 --- 11
13. Arizona 126 --- 12
14. Ohio State 116 --- 15
15. Oklahoma State 75 --- N/A
16. Kansas State 65 --- N/A
ABOUT THE FWAA-NFF GRANTLAND RICE SUPER 16 POLL: The FWAA-NFF Grantland
Rice Super 16 Poll ranks the top 16 teams in the NCAA Football Bowl
Subdivision, polling a diverse group of experts for their insights into
the top teams each week during the regular season. The pollsters
consist of FWAA writers, College Football Hall of Famers, NFF
Board Members and highly regarded collegiate administrators who were
selected to create a balanced-geographical perspective as well as a
diversity of viewpoints from the different roles associated with the
game. The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and the
National Football Foundation (NFF) launched the poll at the start of
the 2014 season, and the results, including the votes of the individual
members, are made public each Monday. The 2014 poll began Sept. 15 and
will conclude with a final ranking on Dec. 7.
*********** He had to do it. Poor guy's only making $490,000 a year.
Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle was arrested for shoplifting
- stealing underwear and cologne from a Dillard's store in
suburban mall Monday night.
Didn't say whether he went to Florida State.
http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11699736/dallas-cowboys-rb-joseph-randle-arrested-shoplifting
*********** NC State announced Monday that it had suspended seven
players for its game against Louisville this weekend after a BB
gun incident. Bet Jameis Winston is glad he didn't go to NC State.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11694407/nc-state-wolfpack-suspend-seven-players-game-louisville-cardinals
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014 - "Everybody
keeps calling for Excellence — excellence not just in schooling,
throughout society. But as soon as somebody or something stands out as
Excellent, the other shout goes up: "Elitism!" And whatever produced
that thing, whoever praises that result, is promptly put down.
"Standing out" is undemocratic." Jacques Barzun
***********
The Chicago Bears' defender hit the (defenseless) Falcon receiver
- launched off of two feet and hit him, helmet-first, in the helmet
(the definition of targeting) and I'll be damned if the referee didn't
say, AFTER REVIEW, "There is no foul… the contact was with the
shoulder."
Amazing. In the interests of player safety, officials are
supposed to make the call if there is any doubt. And there could be no
doubt here. If ever a call was obvious, this was it.
The announcers were astounded, as was I.
Now, I ask you - do you want a guy who can't look at a TV monitor and
tell a helmet from a shoulder, as millions watching the telecast were
able to do, to be officiating a professional football game?
*********** North Beach Hyaks Report…
It was homecoming, a time when the unexpected sometimes happens, but
fortunately for us, things worked out as we'd hoped they would, and we are now 6-0.
To say we had an easy time of it would be a great understatement.
We beat Chief Leschi, 75-0. It was 61-0 at the half.
Our varsity offense got to run just 20 plays - for 320 yards and 8 TDs.
We threw only twice, completing both passes, for 70 yards and a
TD.
Our "drives" lasted 3, 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 3 and 2 plays, respectively.
Between the low number of plays and the fact that the game got out of
hand quickly, with a running clock the entire second half, we didn't
get to look at a whole lot of stuff. I made the mistake of not throwing
early, because once the game was out of control we had to rein in the
passes and counters and stay basic, and then get our JVs in.
I hope that hasn't sounded like whining. I've been on the other end of
games like this, and I much prefer being on the winning side.
It's not often that you're able to let your kids stand outside the
locker room at halftime and watch the homecoming goings-on, but at 61-0
there was no need for any adjustments; our major concern was making
sure that the JVs were ready for varsity action in the second half.
They played most of the third quarter and all of the fourth quarter.
They played good enough defense to preserve the shutout (our third),
and ran 11 plays for 79 yards and a TD.
We also had a "pick six" and a punt return for a TD - an 18-yard punt
return, which has to be one of the shortest ever for a touchdown.
Another punt return for a touchdown, a long one, was called back, but
no matter - we scored two plays later.
As in every game so far, our defense really played well. Chief Leschi
had net zero yards. In six games, our varsity defense has allowed only
three touchdowns.
Our next game is Saturday night, at Tacoma Baptist. Once a power,
they're rebuilding with a new coach and younger players. Without
intending to sound boastful, I think they are going to have trouble
with our size and speed and experience.
*********** Saturday's Oregon win over UCLA had to be very sweet for
Ducks' offensive line coach Steve Greatwood, whom I've known since the
days when he was a G.A. under Rich Brooks, and I was working at the
Ducks' summer camp.
A lot of the blame for the Ducks' performances had been directed at the
offensive line, and by inference at Steve (like he arranged to get four
of his starters hurt), and it was great to see the Oregon offense back
on pace Saturday.
The really interesting thing about the game was that at the same time
the Ducks revived, the Bruins, whose Jim Mora had been praised for his
"professional" approach, appeared to come apart, with Mora and his DC
taking part in a rather heated exchange on the sidelines.
So just like that, with all the upsets that have taken place throughout college football, the Ducks are back in the race.
The toppling of major powers has sent a powerful message to teams
everywhere to keep punching - one loss isn't going to kill anyone.
*********** Wrote Jason Quick in the Portland Oregonian about Oregon's win over UCLA…
Saturday can also serve as a good lesson for the Oregon fan base, which
has become almost unbearable in its entitlement, arrogance and
viciousness.
Weeks ago, (Steve) Greatwood and I were reminiscing about Kenny
Wheaton's pivotal interception against Washington, which helped ignite
the rise of the 1994 season - and the future of the program - from
mediocre to mercurial.
Greatwood has been with Oregon for 33 seasons as a player and coach,
and he remembered how tumultuous Ducks football used to be. There were
horrible losses, and memorable wins, but each win was celebrated like
it was the Rose Bowl.
Today? The Ducks are expected to win, almost to the point where
victories are sometimes dismissed as easily as a penny at the 7-Eleven
counter.
"There was a point in time when we had such highs and such lows,''
Greatwood said the week before this year's Washington State game. "It
was a roller coaster, so emotional. I kind of miss that a little bit,
because we are at such an easy plane right now.''
*********** Economist and author Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of my heroes. I have quoted him on numerous occasions.
He's a black man. Raised in Harlem, he was educated at Howard
University, and then at Harvard. He's 83 years old, which means
he can remember a time when he couldn't stay in whites-only hotels or
eat in whites-only restaurants.
He is a conservative, and a very articulate one, which makes him dear
to me, but anathema to those who think that a black man can't have a
mind of his own.
A few of his recent opinions…
"I must have heard the word 'diversity' proclaimed in ringing tones as
a great benefit to society at least a thousand times - and probably
closer to a million - without even once hearing a speck of evidence
provided, or even suggested, as a way to test whether that is true or
false."
"Professor Sterling Brown remains as much a hero to me in my old age as
he was when I was a freshman at Howard University. He wrote
bitterly eloquent attacks on racism - and yet, when I was preparing to
go off to Harvard, he said to me, 'Don't come back here and tell me you
didn't make it 'cause white folks were mean.'"
"The fatal weakness of most clever people is that they don't know when
to stop being clever. The past cleverness of President Obama is finally
starting to catch up with him."
*********** Hello,
My name is Jason Renfroe and I ordered your playbook (and a TON of your
additional material) and just wanted to say, “thanks!” I am a
first-year coach who had played a little in high school and was really
nervous about taking on the challenge of coaching football. Well, after
watching your Installing The System DVD, I became a disciple of your
techniques and have successfully converted ALL of my assistant coaches
(they were really skeptical at first). Our team has the highest scoring
offense in the league and is currently 3-1 (should be 4-0 as our
defense needed more work). The insight you provided really helped as we
have players, parents, and coaches fully invested in the system. Other
coaches are even asking how I’m able to get a team of 7-9 year-olds to
run such a complex offense.
I believe we have a real good shot at winning the whole enchilada!
Visible proof:
Tight Rip 47-C (This is my son’s favorite play…he’s the “C” back). This
was our first game and our “A” back forgot to run the motion. Still
effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypnOPHkxgE4&list=UU-Ldc119qkiTVQTosJaEeTg
Tight Rip 47-C from our last game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSRZSZhqRFk&index=1&list=UU-Ldc119qkiTVQTosJaEeTg
Thanks again!
Jason Renfroe
Redmond, Washington
************* If you're not bothered by the thought that GM seems to
announce a new recall every month or so, you'll have no trouble at all
getting into a driverless car and going for a ride on an Interstate.
*********** Take a look at the "crowd" at the Miami Hurricanes' game
against Cincinnati and tell me how smart "The U" was to make that move
out of "The O.B." to a pro stadium way, way north of Miami.
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/10/11/6962393/miami-hurricanes-football-attendance-cincinnati
*********** A Wyoming guy hijacked a train and crashed it into another
train because he was pissed off at his employer, a mining company.
Also, he said, he was having a bad day.
http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/local/article_53a59dd3-6d5c-5353-a3f4-3e1d53c83398.html
*********** Am I the only person who's angered by the number of
instances I see of offensive linemen running into a pile from
behind, often providing the momentum needed to get a first down?
Or a touchdown?
We really should expect the announcers to know the rules, but since
they don't, we should at least expect the officials to know them (which
I think they do) but also to enforce them (which I know they don't).
The rule about assisting the runner is pretty clear, but it seems as if
the only official with the guts to make the call is the guy who
officiated our game against Ocosta two years ago. (Except we
weren't assisting. Cost us a touchdown.)
(NFHS) RULE 9 Section 1 - HELPING THE RUNNER
"An offensive player shall not push, pull or lift the runner to assist his forward progress."
(NCAA) RULE 9 Section 3 Article 2b -
b. The ball carrier shall not grasp a teammate; and no other player of
his team shall grasp, pull, push, lift or charge into
him to assist him in
forward progress.
(NFL) Who gives a sh--?
I can hear the lawyers now: "But he wasn't pushing the runner. He was pushing the pile."
*********** I'm happy for MIchigan, after all that's gone on there, but
I wish it hadn't taken a bad call to seal their win over Penn State.
The Lions trailed 16-13. Stuck on their own one after a
sack with less than two minutes to play, they elected to take a safety
so they could then onside-kick from their 20.
Damned if they didn't recover the kick.
And then another one of these officious asses who can miss the most
obvious of fouls but somehow find others where none exist, said that a
Penn Stater was offside. Five yard penalty and re-kick.
Replay (but not review - it was apparently not reviewable) did not confirm the call.
MIchigan recovered the re-kick. Game over.
Michigan probably would have won anyhow, but Penn State earned the
chance to make one final desperation drive, and it behooved the
officials not to lose sight of their obligation to be right.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/10/11/6963685/penn-state-michigan-football
*********** Once every ten years or so I find myself rooting for Notre
Dame. That's when the Irish play someone I despise. I mean
really, really despise.
So this Saturday, I'll be pulling for the Irish. That's because they'll
be playing against a bunch of dirtbags that Florida State allows
to wear its football uniforms. HINT: One of them is a Heisman Trophy
winner.
I may even wear green.
(If you think I'm a bit harsh on the Seminoles, you either don't know
what's been going on in that corrupt athletic department of theirs, or
in your paranoia you really believe the media have it in for your
beloved Noles.
Yeah. Media such as the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/us/florida-state-football-casts-shadow-over-tallahassee-justice.html?_r=0
***********
With all their budget problems, Detroit police may be slow to respond
to calls, but they caught the genius using the lazer at Lions' games.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11669862/police-catch-alleged-laser-culprit-detroit-lions-game
***********
I've known Coach Paul Herzog of St. Paul, Minnesota for more than 15
years, and I remember his three daughters when they were little girls.
They're young women now, and one of them, Emma, works in the football
department at the University of Minnesota, and she got to pose with one
of the most famous trophies in all of football, the Little Brown Jug,
awarded to the winner of Minnesota-Michigan games since 1909.
*********** Defending New York state Class 2A champion Queensbury made it 6-0 after defeating South Glens Falls, 62-12.
***********
Behind 20-0 halfway through the first quarter, Hoosic Valley (New York)
stormed back to upset previously unbeaten and 9th ranked
Whitehall, 41-26 Saturday.
Hoosic Valley, now 5-1, had 399 yards rushing on 61 carries and 83 yards passing on nine attempts.
According
to Coach Pete Porcelli, I said, ‘Guys, just keep chopping. Just
keep chopping away at the tree. We’re going to keep chopping and we’re
going to come back.’ Slowly but surely we started getting the points
back. It was a great day for the seniors, it was senior day, their last
home regular season game. What a way to go out, by beating Whitehall.”
http://www.troyrecord.com/sports/20141011/hoosic-valley-rally-stuns-undefeated-whitehall-41-26
*********** A gem from Jim Geraghty, National Review Online…
What’s
with the Centers for Disease Control? They keep telling you “we’re
going to stop Ebola in its tracks here” and then there are new cases.
The NIH Director seems to think he’s reassuring us by telling us “the
system worked” as we learn about new infections. Then there’s that
enterovirus 68 floating around, killing kids. Terrifying,
heartbreaking. Hey, guys, maybe a little less time studying gun control
and a little more time spent on, you know, disease control? That’s your
job.
What’s
going on with everybody who’s supposed to be protecting us? First Obama
says “We don’t have a strategy yet” — why not? Don’t we spend billions,
even trillions, on national-security agencies, intelligence agencies,
and a Department of Defense? Isn’t somebody in those vast, expensive
organizations supposed to come up with a strategy? Then he said “they
underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” — isn’t that their
job? Wasn’t anybody watching?
Now
they’re saying the airstrikes over in Iraq and Syria aren’t doing
enough, and the Islamic State is knocking on the door of Baghdad.
Sunday morning, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said we’re not
reassessing our strategy. Well, shouldn’t somebody? Just in case?
Doesn’t anybody over there believe in having a Plan B? Isn’t that the
job of a national-security adviser?
How
the hell did the top guys at the Department of Veterans Affairs not
know about the waitlists and that veterans were dying, waiting for
care? That’s their job.
How
the heck did the federal government AND so many state governments
manage to spend so much money and not build insurance-exchange web
sites that worked? That was their job.
The
president keeps insisting that test scores are up and that college
attendance is up, when it’s actually been the opposite. Obviously, the
public schools aren’t good enough for his kids. He promised the moon
when it came to improving schools back in 2008. Wasn’t that his job?
In
your life, failure is not an option. If you don’t pick up the kids from
school, they’re stuck there. If you don’t go shop for groceries, the
kids don’t eat. All around you, every day, you see things that have to
get done, and you do them. You don’t tell the kids, ‘well, our
intentions were good. We tried. We had some glitches.”
You
don’t get to blame your predecessor or the opposition party. You don’t
get to tell them, or your spouse, or your boss, that the situation is
the same, as normal, and that they’re “just noticing now because of
social media.”
Where
is this “get it done” attitude in Washington? Every time you turn
around, it’s some new excuse. Americans do not accept this kind of
incompetence and unaccountability in their personal and professional
lives. Why should they accept it from Washington?
*********** JImmy Feix died last week at the age of 83.
He spent 41 years at Western Kentucky as player, assistant coach, head coach and athletic director.
As a senior quarterback, he led the Hilltoppers to a 9-1 record and the Ohio Valley Conference title.
As their head coach for 14 years, he won 106 games, most in school history. HIs overall record was 106-56-6.
Six
of his teams won or shared the Ohio Valley Conference title, and his
1973 and 1975 teams made it to the NCAA Division II final game.
Coach
Feix was named Kodak College Coach-of-the-Year for Division II in 1973
and `75. And, he was Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1973,
1978 and 1980.
I
will forever be grateful to Coach Feix and his staff for the materials
they provided me when I expressed interest in their unique,
tackles-tilted, split-four defense. It has been good to me over
the years.
Many thanks to Coach David Crump of Owensboro, Kentucky for bringing Coach Feix's passing to my attention.
http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=11651715&src=desktop
http://m.wkusports.com/m/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/100514aaa.html
***********
Don't know about you, but we got an email from the Seahawks, telling us
about their wonderful new way of teaching tackling. Said they
learned it from a rugby team.
Seahawks'
coach Pete "Good Luck With the Sanctions, USC- I'm Outta Here" Carroll
was so excited at his discovery that he just had to show us video of
his "new" tackling technique. It was as if they had discovered
the forward pass, and since they are the defending Super Bowl champs,
all the newspapers picked up the story: The Mighty Seahawks Share
Their Secret.
Since
then, he's been busy taking bows, pleased as punch at being able to
share this great advance in fundamental football with us, unaware
that many of us small-dollar guys have been way teaching sound tackling
for years - and teaching it better than Carroll and his high-paid
staff.
Let
the results speak for themselves. Anybody else see the Cowboys
rush for 150 yards against the great-tackling Seahawks on Sunday?
*********** 30 seconds left in the half and the 49ers, down 14-3, are
70 yards away from the end zone, when - pow! - a Rams' corner
bites on a simple out cut and gives up the bomb.
Halftime score: 14-10. Should have been: 14-3.
So answer me this: if NFL teams, with their 20-man coaching
staffs - assistant coaches with their own assistant coaches - can't
free up one f--king guy to tell that dumbsh-- to "stay back,"
what the hell are we high school coaches supposed to do?
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014 - "Whatever it is, I'm against it.” Groucho Marx
***********
On Friday night, it's homecoming in Ocean Shores, Washington, where the
North Beach Hyaks host the Chief Leschi Warriors from Puyallup,
Washington.
Chief Leschi, the Puyallup Nation tribal school, has had hard times in
football. The Warriors (0-5) have given up 239 points this season;
the Hyaks, on the other hands, are 5-0 and have scored 220 points.
It wasn't so long ago that we were the Homecoming Opponent of Choice
for as many as four teams on our schedule, but even when we
semi-sucked, we managed to win our own homecoming games.
We're hoping to make it
four homecoming wins in a row on Friday.
*********** It wasn't the Tournament of Roses Parade, but for Ocean
Shores, a homecoming parade down the main drag on Wednesday night was
big as it gets. Organized by several of the town merchants, it
was small town America at is best, featuring the school marching band,
floats carrying cheerleaders and football players, and classic cars
with the homecoming court on board.
Standing and watching, I struck up a conversation with a
gentleman who said he was retired from a job with the Port of Tacoma.
He turned out to be one of our fans, and he happened to ask me if it
would be all right if he brought "a siren" to our games. A
50-pound siren off a fire truck. I told him that I'd clear it
with our head coach, who just happened to be driving his pickup in the
parade. As he came by, I stuck my head in the window of his rig and
told him about the offer. It's a deal. Every time we score a
touchdown, the siren goes off. Thus are traditions born.
*********** North Beach offensive stats after five games.
RUSHING
PASSING
30 plays 457 yards 7
TD
6-7-66
28 plays 317 yards 4
TD
9-10-136 - 3 TDS
29 plays 382 yards 6
TD
3-5-186 (1 int) 2 TDS
45 plays 164 yards 0
TD
3-4-36 - 1 TD
38 plays 332 yards 6
TD
3-6-42 - (1 int)
total:170 plays 1652 yards 23
TD total: 24 - 32 -
466- 6 TDs - 2 INT
TOTAL OFFENSE - 202 plays 2118 yards 29 TDs
*********** HIgh school football evidently is big in Sayreville, New
Jersey, a town near New Brunswick (where Rutgers is located) with a
long string of winning seasons.
Over the past five seasons, from 2008 through 2012, Sayreville lost just nine games.
This year, though, they've already lost eight games. All by forfeit.
Bearing in mind that nothing has yet been proven, there sure
seems to be some ugly sh-- going down in Sayreville, because charges of
the most disgusting sort of hazing were evidently credible enough to
prompt the school board to shut down the entire football program -
varsity, JV, freshman - for the season.
I haven't the slightest idea what it is nowadays with kids and "digital
penetration," but apparently that's what we're dealing with here.
Seniors against freshmen. Lights out in the freshman locker room,
while youngsters were violated by upperclassmen in a manner not unlike
prison rape.
Read the accounts, if you will, and I think you'll come up with pretty
much the same questions I have, which I'm sure that an army of lawyers
is just itching to ask:
1. Is it possible that the coaches knew this was going on?
2. Did the coaches do ANYTHING to advise their players that hazing of any sort was not going to be tolerated?
3. Did the coaches do NOTHING to promote an atmosphere of mutual
respect such that upperclassmen would not look on freshmen as prey?
4. Could there possibly have been such a chronic lack of supervision on
the part of the coaching staff that players were given the opportunity
to regularly engage in the perverted acts of which they're accused?
5. Did anyone in the school administration, from the superintendent to
the principal to the athletic director, make it clear to the coaching
staff that part of their generous stipends (the head coach is paid
$11,700 and none of his eight assistants makes less than $8,187)
includes supervision of their charges? (For the record, I will make
$2,449 this season. Not complaining, you understand. Youth
coaches make $2,449 less than that.)
6. Was there a criminal atmosphere so pervasive that not ONE SINGLE
DECENT KID on that team was willing to denounce the crimes he witnessed?
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/10/sayreville_high_school_football_hazing_parent_reveals_sexual_nature_of_locker_room_ritual_exclusive.html
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/10/sayreville_football_coaching_staff_salaries_hazing_allegations.html#incart_story_package
*********** When Army's Rich Ellerson got fired, most of his staff lost their jobs, too. That's usually the case.
Former offensive coordinator Ian Shields, whose teams led the nation in
rushing during much of his stay at West Point, landed the head coaching
jb at Lenoir-Rhyne, in Hickory, North Carolina.
Lenoir-Rhyne made it to the Division II Final Game last year, and this year, the Bears are off to a 5-0 start.
And they're second in NCAA Division II rushing, with 388 yards per game.
Coach Shields' experience with the triple option is as extensive and
hands-on as anyone's in the game, going back to his high school ball,
when he played quarterback for legendary coach Don Requa in Pendleton,
Oregon, and then in college when he ran Jerry Pettibone's wishbone
attack at Oregon State.
How's this for a high school coach's influence? When I wrote to
congratulate him on his most recent win, he said, "Coach Requa would be
proud."
*********** You might want to catch the Duke-Georgia Tech game
Saturday, if only to see the post-game coaches' handshake. If there is
one.
Writes Matt Eppers in USA Today,
Georgia
Tech coach Paul Johnson and Duke coach David Cutcliffe have added a
little something extra to their teams' Saturday matchup with some
verbal sparring on the rough-and-tumble world of college football
recruiting.
One
day after Cutcliffe questioned Georgia Tech's ability to attract wide
receivers and other "high-end players," Johnson offered a retort.
"How
many receivers have they put in the NFL? I can tell you. None," Johnson
said after practice Wednesday,according to The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.
"... He probably ought to worry about his own business."
My, my. Getting a bit touchy, are we?
I have to confess to once having heard Coach Cutcliffe say basically
that, which I assume to be the standard line all rival coaches use
against Georgia Tech when recruiting wide receivers and defensive
backs: if you're a wide receiver, they aren't going to throw enough for
you to be evaluated by the pros; if you're a defensive back, you're not
going to be going up against top-quality receivers and passers in
practice.
Makes sense to me. A triple-option offense certainly has its strong
points, but Coach Cutcliffe's is a valid knock on it, and if I
were going after a kid that Georgia Tech wanted, I'd be sure to point
it out.
*********** I heard from a young coach whose first season is going
pretty well, considering what he took over. But he sounded a bit
discouraged because things aren't progressing at the rate he'd like,
and I felt I had to give him some encouragement but at the same time a
dose of reality…
Coach,
In my opinion, it sounds as if you're doing a heck of a job, and building something. This is not a one-season project.
Realistically, given what you inherited, you are probably right about
where you should be, which is way ahead of where they'd have been
without you.
You have to remember that this isn't really "your team" yet. They
may be executing your offense and defense, but unless kids are really,
really tough and they've just been waiting for the right coach to come
along, turning them from pussy cats into tigers isn't a six-month deal.
It took them a lot longer than that to get to being this way, and
they've had plenty of teachers. Even when things are going well,
the old traits still linger below the surface, ready to reappear when
things get really tough.
I would consider it a major step forward for your program for your kids
to play good teams tough for one half. At this point they simply
don't have it in them to stand in there with a bully for 15 rounds, and
with the older kids that's not likely to change.
Many of them by now are hard-wired to be like this, and there's not a
lot you can do except to keep plugging away and hope that the younger
kids are listening.
Please don't think I am suggesting resigning yourself to things being
this way. It's essential to keep pushing hard, because some kids
are getting your message, and they're the ones that you're eventually
going to win with.
*********** I don't understand why the Republicans aren't trying to
educate (or would that be "re-educate?") school kids, using the
MIchelle Obama Healthy But Inedible Lunch Program Edict as a prime
illustration of how big government increasingly intrudes on peoples'
lives. Unfortunately, as soon as lunch is over, the kids go back
to their classrooms and their liberal teachers and hear how evil those
Republicans are.
*********** Funny how the first instinct of people with Ebola seems to
be to come to the United States and its supposedly broken health system…
*********** So the Spanish kill an innocent dog because he MIGHT carry
the Ebola virus… while here in the US, our government not only allows
tens of thousands of people carrying God-knows-what kind of diseases to
cross our border, but then makes sure to disperse them throughout our
country.
*********** You might enjoy a video clip from David Marbut - GHWEBTV -
of our last-play-in-overtime touchdown two weeks ago. Bear in mind that
this was QB Alex McAra's fourth game game as a quarterback at any level.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202778555657355&set=o.264654933627680&type=2&theater
*********** After Ole Miss' fantastic Saturday - starting out with ESPN
GameDay's first-ever visit to Oxford and culminating with the Rebels'
huge win over Alabama, I had to call my friend Mrs. Perian Conerly.
Mrs. Conerly, who lives in Clarksdale, Mississippi, is the widow of one
of my all-time favorite NFL players, long-time New York Giants' QB
Charlie Conerly, often called (and not just by me) "the Greatest NFL
Football Player Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame." It's
somewhat of a shame that sacks weren't being counted when he broke into
the NFL because in 1952, a Philadelphia newspaper counted Charlie
Conerly being sacked 17 times in one game - by one player, the Eagles'
Norm "Wild Man" Willey.
We both marveled at how, surprisingly, ESPN had focused on the
pageantry and tradition of Ole Miss football, for once passing up the
chance to take a gratuitous shot at both Ole Miss and the state of
Mississippi for its troubled racial history.
Actually, earlier in the week the SEC network ran a beautifully-done
story about the late Chucky Mullins, an Ole Miss defensive back who was
paralyzed when making a tackle against Vanderbilt, and died a little
more than a year later. Chucky Mullins was a black kid
whose brave attitude toward life after his injury, and then his tragic,
unexpected death, played a great part in the racial the racial healing
that has taken place at a school where federal troops once had to be
called in to assure the safety of a black student attempting to attend
the university.
Talk about a tear jerker of a documentary.
In closing, Mrs. Conerly did want me to remind anyone I spoke to
that Charlie batted .467 his senior year at Ole Miss - still a school
record.
Read my article about Charlie Conerly
http://www.coachwyatt.com/CharlieConerly.pdf
*********** An old friend wrote and told me,
I had to do the hardest thing I have ever done as a coach. I had to Fire my Defensive Coordinator, who is also a friend.
I wrote,
Coach,
Toughest thing imaginable.
I read your email and then went and
re-read Bobby Dodd's autobiography ("Dodd's Luck") where he told about
having to let two assistants go. Two close friends. Very
close friends. Old friends.
One guy's wife was Coach Dodd's wife's
best friend. The three coaches and their wives used to go out to dinner
together after every game.
But he knew he had to do it. Tech had just finished 1950 5-6 and his own job was at stake.
He put Ray Graves in charge of his
defense, and Graves installed his ne defense which came to be known as
the "monster." And he brought in Frank Broyles to run the
offense. And Broyles installed the Belly system, which would take
college football by storm.
In 1951, Tech went 11-0-1.
Over the next six years, Tech was 59-7-3. Their worst year in that stretch was 1954, when they were "only" 8-3.
If that helps any.
*********** Camille Paglia is one brilliant, outspoken woman, and she
says colleges are wasting way too much time on "campus rape,"
which she calls mostly "hookups gone bad." She says that instead, we
should be educating our young women about the way their false
sense of empowerment makes them vulnerable to the real monsters of
society.
Too
many young middle class women, raised far from the urban streets, seem
to expect adult life to be an extension of their comfortable,
overprotected homes. But the world remains a wilderness. The price of
women’s modern freedoms is personal responsibility for vigilance and
self-defense.
Misled
by the naive optimism and “You go, girl!” boosterism of their
upbringing, young women do not see the animal eyes glowing at them in
the dark. They assume that bared flesh and sexy clothes are just a
fashion statement containing no messages that might be misread and
twisted by a psychotic. They do not understand the fragility of
civilization and the constant nearness of savage nature.
http://time.com/3444749/camille-paglia-the-modern-campus-cannot-comprehend-evil/
*********** Where does this sh-- stop?
Coors is actually MolsonCoors, a Canadian firm. Anheuser Busch, maker
of Bud and Bud Light, is a part of AB Inbev, a Belgian
corporation. Miller is owned by SAB Miller, and English company
(the SAB once stood for "South African Breweries).
Those were once the three largest "American" brewers. Gone.
Now, an American brewer which has been making and selling beer under
the labels of once-popular brands such as Pabst, Olympia, Rainer,
Schlitz, Old Milwaukee and Colt 45 has been sold. To a Russian firm.
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024579433_apxpabstbrewingsale.html
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014 - "We
always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more
difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty." Margaret Thatcher July 1984.
***********
All of you who thought that video review would end bad calls - you'd
change your tune if you watched the Michigan-Rutgers game.
Michigan was driving. A Michigan kid caught a sideline pass, but when
he hit the ground out of bounds, the ball came loose. The ruling?
Incomplete.
Several replays showed that the kid caught the ball and took two steps,
plus a toe-tap for good measure, before falling out of bounds,
whereupon he lost the ball.
Even the announcers, who usually are such wimps that they refrain from
criticizing officials, knew that this one would be overturned, and said
so. Over and over.
And then the stripe comes on and said, "The ruling on the field is confirmed."
For that, we wasted all that time?
*********** The North Beach Hyaks are now 5-0, after defeating Rainier on the road Friday night, 44-7.
We started out like a team coming off a big game, which we were.
We bobbled the opening kickoff and let it roll out of bounds on our own
nine yard line, and three plays later, we fumbled a simple exchange and
turned the ball over on our own 18.
Fortunately, Rainier gained only three yards in three plays, and on fourth down they missed a field goal.
We managed one first down on the next series then had to punt,
and Rainier then drove 60 yards on eight plays, scoring on an 18-yard
pass. The extra point made it 7-0, which was the score after one period.
Following a nice kick return, we drove 56 yards in six plays. Skyler
Wells scored on a nine-yard run, then ran in for the
two-point conversion to give us an 8-7 lead less than a minute into the
second quarter.
A fumble recovery set us up in Rainier territory but a certain
offensive coordinator got greedy and we threw an interception that blew
the opportunity.
After holding Rainier on downs at midfield, we drove 49 yards on six
plays, Saul Gonzalez punching it in from the one with four seconds
remaining to give us a 14-7 halftime lead. The key play in the drive
was a 22-yard catch-and-run by split end Gabe Hernandez.
We started the second half slowly, too, having to punt on our first
offensive series, but our defense stood firm, and after a long punt
return by Gonzalez, we drove 57 yards in six plays to extend our
lead. The big play of the drive was a 22-yard run by Wells, and the
score came on a 10-yard run by Cameron Keller.
Wells' interception set us up at the Rainier 41, and from there it took
us six plays to score, Gonzalez taking it in from five yards out.
Gonzalez' run for the PAT made it 30-7 with 51 seconds left in the
third quarter.
We had the ball for only two short series - one of them very, very short - in the fourth quarter.
Unveiling a strange new formation with two tight ends and two wingbacks
and the quarterback under center with a fullback right behind him, we
gained 37 and then 13 yards on two runs to the right, and scored on a
33 yard run by Wells on a run to the left. In all, the drive covered 83
yards in three plays.
The next drive also started at our own 14-yard line, but this one
lasted just one play. We held Rainier on downs, and then, still
running from this "new" formation, our QB flipped the ball to Gonzales
running off right tackle. Gonzalez, a sprinter on our track team,
broke to the outside, then outran the entire Rainier team up the
sideline to score with 1:11 remaining.
In the newspapers, it may have read like a slaughter, but Rainier was
well prepared and gave us a good scare until we settled down and played
the kind of football we're capable of.
We rushed 38 times for 332 yards and six touchdowns,
and we completed three of six passes for 42 yards.
Uncharacteristically, we lost two fumbles and threw one interception.
While our offense sputtered at times, our defense continued to play
extremely well. In five games, we've given up just four touchdowns, and
in fairness, one of those was scored against our JVs when the outcome
of the game was no longer in doubt.
About that "strange new formation"… As our season has progressed, we've
devoted a little time every day to a very simple Double Wing
package - 88 Super Power /99 Super Power /2 Wedge.
We unveiled it in the fourth quarter Friday night - we ran
99 SP once for a 33 yard TD, 88 SP four times for 145 yards including a
87 yard TD, and 2 Wedge once for a 2 PT PAT. That's 178 yards and two
TDs in five carries.
It took me back to my early days of running the Double Wing, when
nobody knew what the hell it was. Lemme tell you - a simple, well-run
Double Wing can be really nasty against a team that's spent a
whole week preparing for something else!
if you know what you're doing and if your kids know what you're doing
(especially if they're already using Double-Wing blocking rules up
front), a little practice time devoted to it every day is time
well spent.
Counters, sweeps, traps and passes are in the works but they weren't ready for prime time Friday.
Hey - we're 5-0 and we haven't needed a bit of help from the NFL or USA Football.
*********** At North Beach we could very well have the most
diverse football team in America that doesn't have a single black
player on the roster.
On our 30-man roster, we have two Hispanics, two Asians and nine Native Americans. Six of the minority kids are starters.
The Quinault Indian Reservation is 30 miles to the north of us, and
although there is a high school in Taholah, the main town on the
reservation, open enrollment has resulted in some of the tribal
kids coming to North Beach.
Their families are justifiably proud of their boys, and while
they were taking a group photo after last Saturday's game, I slipped in
and took one of my own.
(From Left to Right) Nolan Charley, Dawson Bastian, Harvey Anderson,
Tim Poplin, Jonny Law, James Bastian, Ben Poplin, Tavo Muro, Max Howard
The Quinault Nation: http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/
*********** What an incredible weekend of college football…
Oregon loses on Thursday night…
The BYU loses on Friday night - and, even worse, loses Taysom Hill to a broken leg.
And then, within hours on Saturday…
MIssissippi State crushes Texas A & M…
Oklahoma goes down at TCU
Alabama loses to Ole Miss
UCLA loses to Utah...
Kentucky beats South Carolina
Northwestern beats Wisconson
Arizona State beats USC on a last-second, 50-yard Hail Mary. Take that, Sark.
Did I miss anything?
You could watch a month of NFL "action" and not see a game to compare
with Ole Miss-Bama. Or TCU-OU. Or ASU-USC.
My personal lowlight? (Other than Stanford's rushing only three on fourth down against Notre Dame.)
Washington State.
The Cougars was able to put up more than 700 yards of total offense but
couldn't get the one yard it needed to win - in two tries! - and then,
snapping from the one with 0:01 on the clock, missed an eighteen yard
field goal to lose to Cal, 60-59.
Apart from the fact that that is the very definition of what
Washingtonians call "Cougin' it" - snatching defeat from the jaws of
victory - if that's the future of football, I'm switching to
cricket. (But not soccer. Never.)
The Cougars gave up TWO touchdowns on kickoff returns. (NOW do
you experts in the stands understand why we squib kick?????)
Yes, they can pass to beat hell. But they can't play defense,
they can't run the ball, and their special teams are for sh--.
If ever there was a one-trick pony, it's a Mike Leach-coached football team.
http://www.dailycal.org/2014/10/04/washington-state-misses-potential-game-winning-field-goal-cal-football-beats-cougars-60-59/
*********** Hugh
Three words describes that Houston quarterback's attempt to launch
himself into the end zone: Sports Center Next. Andy Warhol talked
about fifteen seconds of fame. That's about how much time each person
gets when they appear on a Top Ten List. Even the high
schoolers are getting in on the act. It's not Madden who causes these
boneheaded plays, it's ESPN.
Jim Franklin
Flora, Indiana
Got to agree. Madden provides the technique, but without ESPN it doesn't happen.
Army looked like a good football team Sunday, defeating Ball State 33-24.
The Army offense, second in the nation in rushing, ran for a total of 425 yards.
Larry Dixon, (pictured) from (ahem) Bremerton, Washington, carried 27 times for a career-high 188 yards.
At 5-11, 240 pounds, he is the prototype wishbone fullback. In four games, he's carried 90 times for 526 yards.
The photo of the two Washington guys was taken at Army's spring game.
Hey - he not only knew where Ocean Shores was, but he said his family used to go there on vacation!
*********** In the Army commercial, the hardass drill sergeant gets in
the face of the thin, sensitive-looking private and
screams, "You joined the World's Greatest Army to become a
graphic artist? Outstanding!"
And the pencilneck recruit looks at us with a coy smirk and
flutters his long eyelashes - the only thing missing is the wink - and
I can almost hear him thinking, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you
President Obama."
*********** In a Heineken Light commercial Doogie Howser jokes about
not being able to be shown actually drinking, then trolls (for gays?)
by saying "I'm not wearing any pants."
In a Clorox commercial, two guys in a park hold babies and sniff their
butts, trying to figure out where the obnoxious smell is coming
from. They look around and see a little kid standing nearby and
we are left to conclude that the kid has either cut one, or taken a
dump in his drawers.
The FCC, which polices the airwaves, has no problem with crass, coarse stuff like that.
You're offended by it? Tough.
But the name of that "Washington team?" Got to go.
We're from your Government and we're here to make sure that no one (except people with good taste) is offended..
*********** Text from a friend who assists on a youth team…
I show up to the game warmup just now and they've got pink wristbands for the kids to wear
W T F
Football has become a feminist guilt trip.
Things were a lot better when the NFL just played football. Most
of us watch it to take our minds off the sh-- that's going on out in
the Real World.
*********** The guys we played last night wore pink stockings. I was
reminded of some of the teams I used to see in Finland. They just
didn't quite understand what, exactly, an actual American football
uniform should look like.
My wife got a big charge out of hearing the P-A announcer say,
'The team is wearing pink stockings tonight in honor of breast awareness."
She swears that's what he said.
We both agreed that pink stockings weren't needed to make teenage boys aware of breasts.
*********** So the Jets make Geno Smith their QB. And damned if
he doesn't miss a team meeting. Just what you want in your
quarterback.
But, hey - he's sorry. He went to a movie, and he forgot he was on Pacific Time.
Happens to me all the time.
*********** I confess to being prejudiced in favor of Jake Locker… but
I can't believe what the Browns were allowed to get away with against
him - a forearm shot to the head after he'd crossed the goal line, and
a blow to the head after he'd released a pass, and all it cost them was
a lousy 15-yard roughing the passer penalty.
*********** Hoosic Valley, New York, dropped a 36-20 decision to
Renssalaer. Hoosic Valley is now 4-1, with more wins this season
than in the previous four seasons.
*********** To think that all these years, Golden Tate was plain old
Golden Tate (if a name like "Golden" can ever be considered plain).
No more. Now, according to his jersey, he's "TATE III"
And Steve Smith is now Steve Smith Senior.
Hey - Can I get in on this sillyass fad, too?
I could change my father's name posthumously, from William to Hugh, making me "WYATT JR."
How? Come on. With enough money, you can hire a lawyer to get anything done.
But wait - is it possible to have TWO "Juniors" in the same
family? Because if not, I'd also have to change my late brother's
name to Joe, or Fred, or Bob, since he was William Wyatt, Jr.
*********** Good morning, Coach.
Congrats on your big win last weekend. Got to watch the first half on
youtube and – holy smokes – there was some hitting going on in that
game!
Watched the Ducks lose last night. Was laughing my head off at the
announcers and all the “you can’t call that at this point in the game”
crap.
In our 7th grade game on Wednesday, we had a defensive lineman who
blasted through the line on a 3rd and long and sacked the opposing QB
for a big loss. He stood up and put both his arms in the air in a
touchdown signal as he was walking back towards the line. We only have
one sub for that team, but (you know me) that sub was headed out within
about a half second to replace the little grandstander. And when he got
to our sideline, I made it very clear to him that “WE DO NOT DO THAT
CRAP”. During film yesterday, we paused and rewound several times and
just sat looking at the kid. He promises me that it will not happen
again.
Wonder if the Ducks staff is having that same kind of conversation with their little superstar?
DJ MIllay
Vancouver, Washington
So I suppose you're one of those guys
who're trying to kill our game by taking all the fun out of it!
Who's going to want to play football if coaches like you won't let kids
strut and pose like their heroes in the NFL?
*********** Nowadays, they call it "buy-in," but Bill McCartney once said it this way (I paraphrase):
"A coach's biggest job is convincing his players that the play didn't work because they didn't execute it correctly."
*********** Coach,
The Elmwood/Brimfield Trojans improved to 5-1 with a 55-0 victory over
the visiting Beardstown Tigers on Friday. The Trojans did the job
they had to do against an outmanned Tiger's squad.
The past three weeks have been that way, and I am very proud of the
fact that our kids have focused on the consistent challenge to "focus
on fundamentals and not the ability (or lack thereof) of the team you
are playing." We have been businesslike and have had few of the
mental mistakes or letdowns that are typical with blowout games.
Anyway, Friday night we rushed 40 times for 493 yards and completed 1
of 3 passes for 17 yards and a touchdown. Defensively we allowed
13 total yards on 35 carries. Like I said, we did our jobs.
We played 40+ kids on Friday night.
This week we play our neighboring rival Farmington Farmers. I
know you have a bit of history in Farmington, so my emails regarding
them always bring a smile to my face. They beat us for our only
regular season loss last year and then defeated us again in the
playoffs. It's one of those games that playing within yourself is
key, especially early in the game. (Over)emotion doesn't win
games, but it sure can lose them.
Good luck to you and the Hyaks this weekend.
P.S. Layne Wyatt has now gone over 1000 yards on the season with
1018 on 93 carries and 16 touchdowns. He credits Uncle Huey you
with all of his success.
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
(Layne Wyatt obviously owes his performance to good genes. HW)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014 - "We have PC'd the physical standards." A
former Secret Service agent explaining on Fox News how it was that a
female Secret Service agent in the White House was overpowered by an
intruder.
*********** Grrr. This sh-- must have its origins in video games…
It was 17-12, UCF over Houston, Thursday night, when with 24 seconds to
play, the Houston QB scrambled outside and headed for the corner; at
the 5 or so, he launched himself though the air toward the end zone,
extending his arms to reach the ball over the goal line, when it was
batted out of his hands a foot short, and wound up in the end zone,
fallen on by a UCF defender for a touchback.
Game over.
I mean, come on. What price showmanship? If he had just
protected the ball and gone down, Houston would have had the ball at
the one with a first down and enough time to run two or three plays. I
believe they had a time out.
It was an agonizing loss, but my feeling is that any team that
tolerates that sh-- deserves the consequences But hell, it works
in Madden.
***********
North Beach's opponent Friday night is Rainier, at their place, about
90 miles due east. Rainier (3-1) has dropped down a class
this year, and was originally thought to be one of the favorites to win
our league, but Rainier has lost to Raymond, whom we defeated in
overtime last Friday/Saturday.
We're now ranked 8th in the state by the Tacoma News-Tribune. Whoopee-doo.
Just three years removed from hoping that we could hang with a good
team and not get blown out, our being at the top of our league is an
unaccustomed spot, but it doesn't seem to have affected our kids in the
slightest.
The kids have been quite focused this week, maybe even more so
than last week when, frankly, there was some question among the coaches
as to whether they might be too wrapped up in the mystique of an
opponent they'd never beaten.
I'm well aware of the tendency of college teams to play down after a
big win, and I'm sure that it's the same for high school kids.
This is our kids' first time coming off a big win, so we will see...
*********** Thanks, Oregon, for reminding us that we have a month of
f--king pink to look forward to. Thanks also for the pink numbers, the
pink shoes, even the f--king pink "O".
Nowhere to be found on those Ducks' uniforms, black with silver trim
and pink flourishes, was even one of the Oregon school colors -
yellow and green.
That sh-- doesn't look so flashy when you lose, does it?
*********** An Oregon kid sacked the Arizona quarterback, forcing
Arizona into a 3rd and long as hell, and he just HAD to celebrate.
So he did what any undisciplined kid would do - ran 30 or 40 yards out to the middle of the field and bowed to the crowd.
Bingo. Unsportsmanlike conduct. Half the distance to the
goal and an automatic first down. And, a couple of plays
later, an Arizona touchdown, The winning touchdown.
Basically, that one player's selfish, everybody-look-at-me antics cost his team a game. And maybe a lot more.
But more to the point, what kind of team discipline do you have when a player will pull a stunt like that?
I'm sorry, but it's about C-O-A-C-H-I-N-G.
If you aren't coaching to eliminate the things that beat you, those things will beat you.
*********** Coach,
Congrats on the big win last weekend. I am sure it means a lot to your football team. Crazy circumstances also.
You made an interesting comment regarding Charlie Weis and the health
and lifestyle of coaches. It seems like coaching, even at the
high school level, takes its toll on a lot of people in the profession.
I am sure that a lot of professions have similar stress and health
issues. In fact I know that CEO’s deal with a lot of it.
But most professions that face these issues are far more compensated
than the typical high school head coach or assistant coach.
Good luck the rest of the way.
John Bothe
Oregon, Illinois
Coach,
Thanks for the note.
The worst part of it is that the job
is becoming increasingly demanding, what with off-season conditioning
and summer (and, often spring) 7-on-7 competition and summer camps.
It's in our nature to be competitive,
and the natural response to hearing that a rival coach is doing
something we're not is to match - or exceed - his efforts. Whatever the
device that promises to give us even a slight edge, we'll find the
funds for it, without even giving consideration to the time it's going
to demand from us.
Let's not kid ourselves - HUDL is a
great addition to a coach's toolbox. So are end zone cameras.
Now we can watch practice video, just like the college guys.
But somewhere, somehow, a coach has got to find the time to watch all that extra video.
And so it goes. Let's send a manager out for pizza.
I agree on all that. Technology that saves you time is wonderful.
For example the move from VHS to digital was great. Better clarity,
faster copies, smaller cameras, skip right to a part of the game, all
of that was an upgrade over the previous method.
The ability to trade online is nice. No morning film trades to drive to on Saturdays.
When you start diving into the toys like Hudl and end zone cameras is
where is gets time expensive. That’s when the time saver can
become a time waster if you are not careful. In the offseason
also, instead of just talking out an idea with another coach you get a
copy of the films and look them over.
All for the pizza, and find someone old enough to send out for some beverages!
*********** I got an email from a company I've done business with - an online Apple store - and here's how it led off...
History
teaches us all sorts of interesting stuff. For instance, that the best
way to get written up in the history books is to be a dead white guy.
So even though those guys are already over-represented...
Stop, I said. Enough.
I couldn't read any further.
This is the kind of sh--for-brains thinking that infects our entire
society and its self-appointed intellectual elite, and I had to
respond….
I would challenge you to substantiate your claim that "dead white guys" are "overrepresented."
Folks, the "representation," whether it be Mozart, Shakespeare, Homer, Burke, Franklin, Twain, Einstein, was earned.
And, I might add, by your definition they were "overrepresented" in the development of the computer.
(How have those abacuses been selling?)
Time to get down off your diversity-first pedestal, folks.
*********** You may be concerned about our porous border, the
incompetence of the Secret Service, the likelihood of American troops
fighting in the Middle East, an IRS that can lose a year's worth of
emails and the breakdown of race relations, but just to let you know
that at least one branch of Your Government is on the job, the FCC,
despite allowing all sorts of profanity, vulgarity, blasphemy and
sexual activity to enter our homes via the TV, intends to ban the word
"Redskins" from all broadcasts.
Writes Jim Geraghty, in Natonal Review Online…
I mean, if a Native American came along and said, “I’d really like you
to rename the team, because I don’t want my ancestors, friends and
neighbors associated in any way with that many turnovers and an
inability to play defense” . . . that’s the kind of request you would
have to respect.
*********** Two weeks ago, after our game against Seton Catholic, our
head coach, Todd Bridge, ask me if I'd like to meet one of his former
teammates from the University of Washington - a guy named Cam Cleeland.
Well, heck yes, I did. I enjoyed meeting him and his wife. Nice people.
They live in Vancouver, Washington, have two kids who go to Seton
Catholic.
Cam Cleeland was one of a trio of big, athletic tight ends to come out
of the UW at roughly the same time and go on play in the NFL, along
with Mark Bruener and Ernie Conwell.
But as a rookie with the Saints, he was the victim of an absolutely
revolting hazing incident, smacked in the eye by a sockful of coins
wielded by a "teammate."
What happened to him, more than 15 years ago, was one of the most
brutal in the NFL's long history of disgusting incidents, and the next
time you see MIke Ditka pontificating on TV, you might want to consider
that he was the head coach of the gang of animals who brutalized Cam
Cleeland and other Saints' rookies.
Hell of a player… hell of a coach with the Bears… But with the Saints,
Ditka's "team building" produced a 15-33 record in three years, and a
career in broadcasting beckoned.
Cam Cleeland came along too soon. If he were a rookie in today's NFL, he would be contemplating a future as a rich man.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/07/sports/la-sp-farmer-cleeland-incognito-20131108
*********** A person wrote on the Army Football Forum… One play I could
not understand was a Yale kickoff which appeared to be touched by a
Yale player and then rolled into the end zone , where another Yale
player tried to run it out but was tackled in the end zone. Why was
this not a safety instead of the ruling of a touchback? No instant
replay in the stands , so what did I get wrong?
My answer to him...
The touchback/safety rule seems to defy logic, but the key word is
"impetus" - what provided the impetus, or force, that put the ball into
the end zone. If the impetus was provided by the kick, it is a
touchback; if it's provided by the receiver, it's a safety.
In the case you refer to, although the kick was, indeed, touched by a
Yale player, it was the impetus of the kick that put the ball into the
end zone, and therefore, the Yale touching had no bearing and
"touchback" was the proper call.
Had the Yale man fielded the ball cleanly, anything that happened after
that to put the ball in the end zone would have been his doing, and had
he then, say, run into the end zone and been tackled, or fumbled the
ball back into the end zone, it would have been a safety or, if
recovered by Army, a touchdown.
This is a rule that invariably causes considerable controversy whenever
it's invoked, and it would be great if announcers actually knew this
rule. Just another argument against hiring former players, who for the
most part don't know jack about the intricacies of the game.
*********** It was a busy weekend for Pete Porcelli, of Troy, New York, who's been coaching two teams simultaneously.
His Troy Fighting Irish semi pro team came back from a 22-6 fourth
quarter deficit to defeat Lockport, 28-22 to win their fifth straight
league title.
And on Saturday his high school team, Hoosic Valley, defeated
Canajoharie, 40-28. Last year, it was Canajoharir 42, Hoosic Valley 8.
***********
John U. Bacon is a MIchigan guy. He has written extensively and
knowledgeably about things Michigan, and I especially enjoyed his book
"Bo's Life Lessons. Most recently, he has written Fourth and
Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football, a New York Times
bestseller. Check him out at JohnUBacon.com
http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/road-saturday/201409/michigan-wolverines-football-dave-brandon-tickets-problems-corporate
For
some time has been all over the current Michigan athletic director,
Dave Brandon, and the Michigan athletic department, not least because
in their obsession with maintaining Michigan's consecutive sellout
streak, they've actually been "papering the house" - giving away large
quantities of tickets.
Writes Bacon...
The department now has all the credibility of Pravda, and half the charm.
But
that's not the department's biggest problem. When they discount and
dump thousands of tickets, do they expect their season ticket holders
not to notice? When you paid a few thousand bucks for your four
tickets, and the guy sitting next to you got in for a couple of Cokes,
do the department's leaders really think you will pony up for the same
sky-high prices next year?
As longtime fan Peggy Collins Totin told me, "I feel betrayed for being loyal."
Michigan has somehow created a world where loyalty is punished with price hikes, and disloyalty is rewarded with freebies.
Michigan
fans may be irrational about their love for the Wolverines, but they're
not stupid about their money. Their Saturday habit developed over a
lifetime, but they can break it in a week.
One responder to Bacon's blog wrote of his Michigan game experience…
Last Saturday I had the ULTIMATE “WOW EXPERIENCE.”
First
some quick background=I attended the Air Force Game in 2012, the Notre
Dame game in 2013, and then last week’s Utah game with a ticket in hand
for the Minnesota game as my dad and I celebrated his 75th in Ann Arbor
for a week.
Last
Saturday I noticed that the piped in rock music was more frequent and
much more annoying than it was the previous two years, as if Brandon is
“doubling down” on it just to stick it to traditionalists. Michigan
football is bad and inept enough and yet I would have stayed for the
Minnesota game had the game presentation not resembled a minor league
hockey game with blaring noise blasting the millisecond action stops. I
would try to talk to dad between plays and it was impossible because of
the rock music. Michigan football is now presented in a cheap, crass,
and classless manner with the “MAKE NOISE” signs on the scoreboard, the
music, etc. The air plane flyover came off as contrived and when the
jet blasted into full speed I made a sarcastic comment of “WOW” to my
dad.
As
the day went on it was obvious that everything that makes college
football so special was under assault and everything I despise about
pro sports is taking over the Big House. I gladly would have stayed to
watch Michigan’s weak team play Minnesota if Brandon would let the game
breathe and the band play. But I left the Stadium disgusted and decided
it was not worth the 12 hour commitment and all the hassle that comes
with attending a game. Instead of using my Minnesota ticket, I told dad
to sell it for a couple of cokes. And I headed back home. “WOW” Dave
Brandon has ruined what should be the greatest game day experience in
all of college football if not sports itself.
All
of this leads to the ultimate questions….Who said that there cannot be
a moment of silence during the game? Who decided that there must be an
assault of the senses at every play stoppage and what is that based on?
If piped in rock music and fly overs are so necessary, why was the Big
House more empty than it has been in decades? Could it be that such
crassness is NOT a draw but instead a deterrent?
Finally,
as dad and I left the stadium we were walking with the students back to
towards the union. The students were care free, laughing, and having
fun as if nothing was wrong. The only people with long faces of concern
about the poor football were older fans like dad and me. Brandon’s
future customer base is beyond apathetic. The days of half a house at
the Big House are coming faster than you can imagine.
“WOW” college football is so much better at home. Thanks, Dave!
*********** I saw the NFL announcement :
"Together we can end domestic violence and sexual assault. "
And I laughed.
Sure we can.
We're the NFL. We can do anything.
And
while we're at it, together we can end pollution and traffic accidents
and improve our disappointing math and reading scores and fix our
nation's crumbling bridges and find remunerative, satisfying jobs for
every American and see to it that every American child grows up in a
loving home with a mother and a father married to each other.
Also, together we can get the Russians the hell out of Ukraine and convert ISIS to Christianity.
And, of course, together we can heal the sick and raise the dead.
*********** Coach Wyatt:
I
have received my order and the Beta test DVD and the only thing that I
can say is, “I wish that I would have had this when I first implemented
the DW.” I really like it. Since we are still having some
pulling issues, I will try some of the tactics from the video today at
practice. As for my order, I love it because I feel that it will
help me to broaden my thinking process and will help me to become
a better “Play Caller” which means more opportunities to game more
yards that will ultimately lead to more touch downs. Also the
"Open Wing" is awesome. We were talking about going in the Gun
more and you are coming out with exactly what we need. WOW!
Once I see that your DVDs are ready for sale, I will be one of the first to get a copy.
Thank you very much.
Coach Maurice Wyatt
Newberry, South Carolina
*********** From my January '08 NEWS...
I
first heard it said by Bud Wilkinson, the great Oklahoma coach - you
don't worry about the other team; you worry about your team. That other
team's just over there to help you find out what you have to do to be
very good.
I've heard many other successful coaches put it in different ways, and I was reminded of it when Willie Hoppe's name came up.
The name's pronounced "Hoppy," and you'll be excused if you never heard of him, because he's been dead almost 50 years.
He's the greatest billiards player who ever lived. Not pool, you understand. Not eight ball or nine ball. Billiards.
Billiards
is to pool as New Orleans cuisine is to ramen. You can't even play
billiards if you aren't very, very good with the cue stick.
And
Willie Hoppe was very, very good - so good that by the time he hung up
his stick at age 65, he'd won more than 50 world championships.
When asked the secret to his success, his manager once said, "Simple.
His opponent's always playing Willie. And Willie's always playing
billiards."
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 - "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." William Shakespeare
*********** At least 41,000 people who crashed our border recently
while our President was golfing have disappeared into the American
hinterlands. They were expected (put on the honor system, if you can
believe this) by our government to return by a certain time for
hearings on their status, but - what do you know? - they didn't show.
Just the sort of people we want in our country, at least the one that not so long ago believed in the rule of law.
Now they've vanished, not to reappear until they're out marching in the
streets waving their foreign flags and demanding "immigrants'
rights." And getting drivers' licenses . And registering to vote.
*********** If you can't make halftime adjustments during a 16-hour halftime, you will never be able to make any.
That's how much time we had this weekend when our Friday night game
against Raymond was suspended at half-time because two banks of lights
blew.
At the time, we were tied, 6-6.
We returned Saturday at 1 PM to resume the game, and came away with a hard-fought, double-overtime win, 12-6.
Interestingly, just a little over a year ago, we lost two of our
starting wingbacks, Saul Gonzalez and Elijah Towery, in the same game,
and to the same injury - a broken collarbone.
On Friday, Saul Gonzalez scored on the first play of the game, when he
took back the opening kickoff 91 yards and on Saturday, Elijah Towery
scored on the final play of the game when he pulled in Alex McAra's
18-yard fourth down pass in the corner of the end zone to end the
thriller.
While we were in the locker room at halftime, some guys in "Ocean
Shores Fire Department" tee shirts came in and headed for the light
switches. I took a peek outside the door and saw semi-darkness.
Stepping outside, I could see that two banks of lights were out.
The referee said that if the lights did not come back on promptly he'd
have to suspend the game, and when it became obvious, very
shortly, that the lights were not coming back on, he made his
decision. The time of resumption was dependent on the ability to
secure officials, and since the assigning secretary of the officials'
association was himself working a game that night, we wouldn't know
anything until his game was over.
Gambling on the 1 PM Saturday start that everyone hoped for, we told
the kids to be back at school at 9 in the morning for breakfast, and
sent them home. And then Todd, Bridge our head coach, asked his wife,
Chris if she and a few moms, given very short notice, could provide the
meal.
And then Todd headed to his office to look at the video, and I
headed home to do the same. I worked until midnight, then crashed and
woke up at 3:30 and went back to work. I wish I could go into detail,
but essentially we came up with an offensive package that enabled us to
hit them with more power, and then I had to get the kids' wrist cards
ready so they'd know their assignments.
The kids came in at 9 and the moms served breakfast. BIscuits, gravy,
"cheesy hash browns," sausage and egg biscuits, orange juice. The kids
couldn't finish it all.
Then we went over our adjustments in a classroom, and then walked through them out on the field.
Before we knew it, it was 11 o'clock and time to start getting
dressed, and then, soon enough, the ends and backs went out at 11:45.
I felt that our kids played much better on Saturday than on Friday. I
think that on Friday they were still a bit in awe of the so-called
Raymond mystique (Raymond hadn't lost a league game since 2011) , but
on Saturday they were much more confident - physical on offense,
and absolutely awesome on defense.
We pounded away on offense and picked up some first downs, but we
played very conservatively, mindful of the offensive miscues that had
cost us dearly in our previous three meetings. Not until the fourth
quarter did we attempt a pass. In all, we completed three of five for
36 yards. But when we needed it, the pass was there, a play we've
practiced every day since the first day of camp, a beautiful shot
thrown on the run by our first-year QB who had never thrown a pass in a
game of any sort until three weeks ago.
Also there, on the other end of the pass, was the receiver, Elijah
Towery a tough kid who last year played three quarters of a game with a
broken collarbone ("my grip feels weak" was all he told us).
He rolled on the ground after the catch, but when he got up, the ball in his possession, pandemonium broke loose.
The long wait was over. Our seniors, who'd been playing Raymond since they were in seventh grade, had finally beaten them.
The experience was helpful to us in so many respects.
Not only did we beat our nemesis, but we showed that we could take a
punch. We did not move the ball at will, as we had been
accustomed to doing, and we accepted the fact that this one was going
to go 15 rounds.
We dealt with the long delay between halves, we played in daylight for
the first time (something we are sure to have to do if we make the
playoffs), and we experienced overtime for the first time in our 3-1/2
seasons with the kids.
And, most important of all, it was our first time beating a team that was at least our equal.
*********** By Rick Anderson
The Daily World (Aberdeen, Washington)
OYEHUT
— Just when it appeared that a classic Pacific League football showdown
might never end, Alex McAra and Elijah Towery applied the finishing
touches to a landmark North Beach victory.
Towery
hauled in McAra’s 18-yard touchdown pass in the second overtime to give
the Hyaks a 12-6 victory over Raymond in a battle of unbeatens Saturday
at Lt. Jim Davis Field.
The
Hyaks (3-0, 4-0) notched their first victory over the sixth-ranked
Gulls (3-1) since 2009 and handed Raymond its first league loss since
2011.
This took a while to accomplish. Friday’s game was suspended at
halftime, with the score tied at 6-6, due to a power outage. The final
two quarters of regulation and the first overtime session were
completed Saturday without addtional scoring.
In more ways than one, this was a special triumph for North Beach.
Outgained 193-158 in a bruising defensive battle, the Hyaks owed their
victory in large measure to special teams. Saul Gonzalez had returned
Friday’s opening kickoff 91 yards for North Beach’s lone touchdown in
regulation. The Hyaks also blocked two kicks — the PAT attempt after
Raymond’s only TD and a game-winning field-goal try in the first
overtime.
As improbable as it might have been for two high-powered clubs to have
been limited to less than 200 yards of total offense apiece, the mode
of victory was unlikelier still. McAra hadn’t even attempted a pass
until midway through the fourth quarter.
“The whole summer, I developed my arm with (Assistant) Coach (Hugh)
Wyatt in order to balance everything out and make teams respect the
pass from us,” said McAra, a junior but a first-year quarterback.
After turning away a Raymond threat midway through the fourth quarter,
the Hyaks appeared to scuttle their chances when mishandled snaps in
the shotgun formation resulted in huge losses on the first two plays of
the Kansas Tiebreaker overtime. They eventually lost the ball on downs.
With quarterback Rayce Newman running for one first down, the Gulls
promptly drove to the North Beach 7-yard-line to set up Kason Koski’s
23-yard field-goal
attempt. But senior lineman Caleb Bridge blocked the kick to force a second overtime session.
The fired-up Hyak defense forced a four-and-out on Raymond’s
possession, with Towery sacking Newman for a 12-yard loss on third
down. A fouth-down pass fell incomplete.
North Beach’s second possession also began inauspiciously, with two
motion penalties on the first three snaps. Jordan Chong ran for 12
yards on a pair of counter plays to set up fourth-and-three from the 18.
As McAra rolled to his right, Towery was unable to gain much separation
from his coverage. McAra, however, was somehow able to thread the pass
between defenders and a leaping Towery came down with the ball in the
extreme right corner of the end zone.
“I knew that, on the fly, it was open for sure,” McAra explained. “I
saw two defenders split and that gave us the shot into the corner. So I
went for it. It worked.”
Although the final two quarters of regulation were evenly played, Raymond had easily the best scoring chance of the second half.
The explosive Newman ran effectively on a couple of keepers and a North
Beach personal-foul penalty gave the Gulls first down on the Hyak 12
early in the fourth quarter.
A holding penalty, however, set the Gulls back to the 18. They fumbled
on the next play, with North Beach’s Dawson Bastian recovering on the
23.
We had a lot of opportunities, we couldn’t capitalize on them,” Raymond
coach Luke Abbott glumly summarized. “I can’t say anything (except)
that I’m really proud of my kids. We knew it was going to be a game of
smash-mouth football. Hats off to (North Beach head coach Todd) Bridge
and his kids. They’re a heck of a football team. I have a feeling we’ll
see them again (in the playoffs).”
Todd Bridge returned the compliment.
“I’d play these guys every week,” he said of the Gulls. “That’s what football is all about.”
It was a testament to the defenses that the game’s leading rushers
(Gonzalez and Raymond’s Elliott Murdock) netted only 47 yards apiece.
Newman would have exceeded that total except for several sacks.
Towery, Caleb Bridge, Daniel Fruh and Jonny Law were among North Beach’s defensive standouts.
“(In) a 15-minute halftime that turned into a 15-hour halftime, we made
some offensive adjustments. Defensively, we stayed with what we had,”
Todd Bridge said.
Raymond senior defensive back Marvin So, returning from a foot injury,
made several key stops, as did Koski, Michael McFadden and the Hamilton
brothers, James and Luke.
North Beach travels to Rainier next Friday. Raymond is scheduled to host Tacoma Baptist the same night.
Daily World writer Rob Burns contributed to this article.
- See more at: http://thedailyworld.com/sports/north-beach-outlasts-raymond-two-day-two-overtime-showdown#sthash.BeiFlge0.dpuf
*********** They finally got someone to sing the National Anthem right
on Monday Night Football - The entire crowd at Arrowhead Stadium!
************* Jim Traficant died in Ohio in an accident on his farm. He
was 73. He was a congressman from Youngstown, Ohio, and before that he
was sheriff of Mahoning County. But even before that, he played
football at Youngstown's Cardinal Mooney High, and then, as
quarterback, at Pitt, where among his teammates was legendary tight end
Mike Ditka. He wasn't bad - he was drafted by the Steelers and the
Raiders, but he never played a down of pro football, and went on to law
school instead.
As a congressman, he was famous for the one-minute speeches he would
give on the floor of the House of Representatives. This was one
of his best…
“Mr. Speaker,” he said in one 1998 speech, “the Lord’s Prayer is 66
words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, the Declaration of
Independence is 1,322 words. U.S. regulations on the sale of cabbage —
that is right, cabbage — is 27,000 words. Regulatory red tape in
America costs taxpayers $400 billion every year, over $4,000 each year,
every year, year in, year out, for every family.
“Beam me up.”
*********** Monday was Mountain Day. Mountain Day is a wonderful
tradition at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where my
wife was a student when we first met.
On some random day in the fall, the president of the college declares
that it's "Mountain Day," and suddenly all the women (it was then and
still is all-female) are free of academic responsibilities for a full
day - encouraged to do something outdoorsy and fun.
My wife dropped out of Smith when we got married, and earned her degree
at Hood College, in Frederick, Maryland, but she has always considered
herself a "Smithie," and on Monday, along with thousands of other
Smithies, she received this email from the school's president:
Dear Constance,
This morning I did one of my favorite things:
I called Mountain Day!
The college bells rang shortly after daybreak, signaling to students that classes were canceled and the day was theirs to enjoy.
Mountain
Day is beloved not only by students but also by alumnae, who hold vivid
memories of Mountain Days past--whether spent picking apples in nearby
orchards, hiking in Vermont or, as one alumna did, driving to the coast
to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. Though I don't have the
power to give you your own day off, I encourage you to find some time
to think about Smith and what it means to you. Maybe you'll even plan
your own Mountain Day celebration with some Smith friends.
*********** Kansas Fired Charlie Weis. In midseason. With
two years remaining on his contract. Let's see… between that and what
Notre Dame's still paying him…
There'll be no cracks here about Weis' obesity. Look - I have
very good friends who've had problems with their weight. It
bothered them. One of them, who eventually had surgery to help
him overcome the condition, confided in me that he was
tired of thinking of himself as a fat guy. The conversation
changed me. Those guys didn't just decide one day that they wanted to
become fat. And it wasn't because they were lazy or gluttonous.
It was, simply, a condition that by this point was beyond their
control.
The life of a football coach is not ideal for an overweight guy.
I happen to lose weight during the season - perhaps because of stress
that I'm not even aware of - but as tightly programmed as
football coaches are, especially if they're teaching a full load and
they're married with kids, the chances are that they're not eating as
well as they might, and they're not exercising regularly.
As it is, Charlie Weis's arrogance and totally unfounded belief that he's God's gift to coaching make him enough of a target.
Besides, Mark Mangino, was the best coach Kansas has had in
years, and I thought they made a big mistake running him out of
there. He is (or was) morbidly obese. So what? He's
now the offensive coordinator at Iowa State, and I hope he's happy
there, because as a big Kansas State fan, I'd hate to see him
back at KU.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/09/28/3403556/kansas-fires-charlie-weis.html
*********** With other, more pressing things to do on Saturday, I was
unable to watch the Army-Yale game, something I'd been looking
forward to doing since it was first scheduled a couple of years
ago.
So my friend Doc Hinger sent me updates. 10 of them.
With 6:06 until half Army 14 Yale 7.
With 2:14 until half Army 14, Yale 14
With 13:32 left in third quarter Army28, Yale 14. army returned an interception for the score.
10:05 in the third, Army 28, Yale 22.
8:32 in the third, army 36 and Yale 22.
Army 36, Yale 29 with 5:09 in the third.
Tied at 36 with 19 seconds left in the third. I'm betting on Yale.
I sure hope you set your dvr - with 3 seconds gone in the fourth 43-36 Army.
1:42 left, 43-43!
In overtime Yale wins 49 to 43!
If you're able to watch the game - it was on one of the Fox regional channels - it was one for the ages.
And Yale has a running back named Tyler Varga who is really tough.
*********** In tennis, there's a saying that more points are lost than
won: you may win some points with terrific shots, but you'll lose a lot
more points when those heroic efforts go awry and your smashed go into
the net or outside the lines.
The same applies to football, as I've been saying for years at my
clinics. Far too many coaches lose because they fail to understand that
before you can attempt the spectacular things that may win games, you
first have to stop doing the things that lose games.
When you're in a hole, stop digging. And when you suck, stop sucking.
On offense, it means eliminating turnovers… stupid penalties… dumbass calls.
On defense, it means lining up correctly… understanding the concept of
leverage… pursuing… tackling well… never letting a man behind you
when you've got deep coverage responsibility
In the kicking game, it's eliminating the blocked punt… the long
return… the successful onside kick… jumping offside when the opponent's
lined up to punt on fourth-and-short…
And, in a class all by itself… roughing the kicker.
I'm sorry, but there is NO excuse - NONE - for roughing a punter.
And, yes, we can blame the kid who did it, but let's be honest - who
put him in the game and turned him loose to do such a damnfool thing?
Marv Levy, who while on George Allen's staff in Washington was the
NFL's first full-time special teams coach, once said that the key to
blocking a kick was to find the guy who would do it.
But even more than that, I think of a great California JUCO coach
named Vince McCullough, whom I got to know well when I was coaching in
Finland. Vince's belief, and one that I immediately
adopted, was that only a select few players could ever be trusted to
even go near a punter - the rest had to stay the hell away.
He would say to a player, "YOU have a license to block a punt," and then, turning to another, say, "And you DON'T."
Vince knew what some coaches don't seem to know, and that is that there
is a spot at which a punt is blocked, and it is out in front of where
the kicker stands to receive the snap - WAY out in front. Maybe five
yards in front of where he's standing. And it's six feet above the
ground when it leaves his foot.
Years ago at a clinic I heard Chuck Klausing, whom most of you know as
a wing-T guru, speak at a clinic in Washington, DC. At the time, he was
an assistant at West Virginia, and they had had quite a bit of success
blocking punts that season.
He dwelled on that same point - that you should block the punt where it comes off the tip of the punter's toe.
Yet, although this knowledge is available to all coaches, we
still see guys hitting punters in their plant leg - and often after the
kick's away.
So here are my questions:
(1) What were those guys doing in there?
(2) Why, knowing what coaches know, would one give a knucklehead like that a "license to block a kick?"
There are few things in football more damaging to a team than a roughing the kicker penalty.
Simply apply the risk-benefit analysis:
Look - They're going to punt. Your defense has done its job.
You've stopped them. You're going to get the ball back. The
advantage is already yours. Why get greedy?
Of course, you want to pressure the punter. You don't want him to take all day, especially if you have a return on.
But when you go for the block, you're running a huge risk. Yes, you may
make the great play. But you also may give your opponents a first down
- and a huge boost - while at the same time dragging your defense back
onto the field and asking it to clean up after you.
If you saw the Army-Yale game and saw an Army player rough the Yale
punter - on FOURTH AND FOREVER - you know what prompted me to write
this.
I don't know the statistics, but I would be willing to bet that there
are at least as many roughing the kicker penalties as there are blocked
punts. I don't like those odds.
Yes, there is a place for the punt block. In my opinion, it's
akin to pulling the goalie in hockey. You're fully aware of the risks,
but you're desperate. and you've got to roll the dice.
Otherwise, though, let them punt. I have more faith in our
offense than I do in anybody being able to block a punt cleanly.
*********** The story of the missing UVA student gives me
shivers. I see her pictures and I thank the Lord that my
daughters are grown and safe, and I pray that my granddaughters will
not put themselves in the sort of position that it seems this young
woman may have done, drinking to the point of near-helplessness and
falling into the clutches of some very unsavory individuals.
Apart from the fact that young women (old women are smart enough to
know this) really ARE causing problems for themselves by naively
thinking that they can drink like men without suffering consequences
unknown to men…
Yeah, yeah, I know - I'm blaming the victim. But, uh, at what
point can we put at least some of the blame on the pedestrian who's
looking at his iPhone and steps out into a busy street?
*********** A friend who moved up in class won his first game Friday night.
It's not unlike the "relegation" system that you run into overseas
I've coached in Europe, where if you win your division, you move up to a higher division the next year.
You go very quickly from being a power to struggling. It's a big
challenge. But at least over there, in the off-season you use the
added prestige to add players.
I'm glad his people recognize that!
*********** They were really pushing the Bears-Packers rivalry on
Sunday, but Mike Ditka got it a bit scrambled when he said
"Packers-Bears… the oldest rivalry in football…"
Well, no. Not exactly. Not even close. Not the oldest. One
of the oldest, Harvard-Yale, has been played since 1875. The Bears and
Packers didn't start to play each other until 1921 (when the Bears were
still known as the Staleys). At that time, college football was
well established. Major colleges had been playing football since
at least the turn of the century, and many of them well before that.
Chris Berman spoke next, and straightened things out - sort of - when he referred to it as "Football's longest rivalry…"
Can't debate it when you put it that way. Often playing two and
sometimes three game a year against each other over the years , the two
teams met for the 189th time Sunday.
*********** Hi Coach,
Glad to see your season is off to a solid start.
The Gophers got back the jug for the 4th time in my life, (I'm 41). Does B. Hoke last past Tuesday?
Watching, hoping OSU can beat USC.
I have 3 nominees for worst uni of the weekend: Maryland, they
seem to get the worst prototypes from UA; Nebraska, always sad
when a school with a clean classic look has to jettison
it; Syracuse is my "winner" though, never knew prison
fatigue gray was a Syracuse color.
Take care
Mick Yanke
Cokato MN
Hi Mick,
BIG win for the Gophers after years of
frustration and close calls. I do like what Jerry Kill has done.
A friend whose daughter works in the MN football office likes him
a lot.
BAD times for the Michigan faithful. Especially as MSU continues its run.
Brady Hoke is in trouble and so, I
hear, is the AD, which is understandable considering the way he has
been squeezing money out of the faithful and alienating the student
body, offering a poor product in return.
Couldn't agree with you more on
uniforms. It's getting so I might be missing some good games that
I simply won't watch because some of those teams - Maryland, Syracause
and now Nebraska - look so ghastly.
In my opinion, they are giving away
their future as incentives to sell jerseys and attract recruits.
Why don't they just try cheap jewelry?
But who cares about the future if that means leaving money on the table?
Great to hear from you.
PS - We are pretty good. We are
now 4-0. We just beat the team "we could never beat," 12-6 in two OTs.
Friday night's game was suspended at the half when two banks of
lights blew. We were tied 6-6 and resumed at 1 PM yesterday.
*********** As if Brady Hoke doesn't have enough problems, I just saw
footage of his QB, Shane Morris, taking a really nasty (possibly
dirty) hit after throwing the ball Saturday. The kid appeared to
be knocked groggy, but he stayed in the game.
Based on everything we're being taught these days, it would appear that
a concussion "assessment" by a professional might have been called
for.
Here is what Hoke said post-game: "I don't know if he had a concussion
or not, I don't know that. Shane's a pretty competitive, tough kid. And
Shane wanted to be the quarterback, and so, believe me, if he didn't
want to be he would've come to the sideline or stayed down."
Another thing we are taught, (if we didn't already know) is that kids
are competitive and they want to play and in the case of a possible
concussion they are the worst possible judges of their own
ability to continue to play.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24730378/key-shane-morris-question-was-michigan-qb-medically-cleared-to-return
************* ESPN and Nike and Under Armour, along with the suits who
run college football, relentlessly focused on the bottom line,
seem unaware (or unconcerned) that they are sucking the life out of
college football, killing the goose that's been providing them with
their golden eggs.
Think of all the evil being done to football in the pursuit of TV money:
Noon kickoffs. Thursday night games. Conference realignments.
Think of all the colleges that are allowing the apparel companies to
render their teams unwatchable by all but the most faithful of
followers.
On Saturday, I turned off Nebraska in their ghastly all-red costumes,
and I switched off Notre Dame and that bunch from Syracuse in their
gray jumpsuits. I stopped watching Maryland long ago. What happened to
Washington? Which one is Army?
What is the deal with black becoming every school's main color? Did Nike get a special price on black dye?
Is college football becoming a video game in which little kids design the uniforms?
Yes, yes, I know - teenage boys love all the bizarre color
combinations. Great. Yes, you want to recruit
them. But how much money are they spending on your sponsors'
products?
Yes, it may be all about the kids, but that's a dumbass reason to turn your teams into circus clowns or worse.
For one thing, it's all about the eyeballs - about the people watching
the TV - and they're running the risk of chasing people away when they
don't recognize their team.
For what it's worth, Alabama and USC haven't become caught up in
the wardrobe war, and their recruiting's been going just fine.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 - "What other people think of me is none of my business." Bette Davis
************ I heard some students at Aurora, Colorado High School
being interviewed about their walkout in protest of their school
board's decision to end the practice of teaching in history classes how
bad, bad, bad we evil Americans have been through the years. You
know, that horrible Harry Truman deciding to drop the bomb on Hiroshima
and all that.
One of the kids, a sophomore, expressed a desire to learn about "Everything that's went on."
It pains me as a history major - and history teacher - to say this, but
girl, forget about history for now. You need to go back and take
Freshman English over again.
In the meantime:
Everything that GOES on…
Everything that WENT on…
Everything that HAS GONE on.
Memorize it, Girl. Memorization still works, no matter what your liberal teachers think.
************ It was a 3-1/2 hour trip for our kids to last Friday night's game. For me, it was a two-or three-minute walk.
The game, against Seton Catholic High School, was played in Camas' Doc
Harris Stadium, about as nice a high school stadium as you'll find in
most places, and as the crow flies, no more than 200 yards from our
house.
My wife and I drove to Camas on Friday morning so we could get our
place ready, and after the game we were able to have the team, the
cheerleaders, assorted parents and supporters over to our place for
some pizza and pop (as it's called in the Northwest). The kids
especially enjoyed our club basement.
They hung around until about 11 or so, courtesy of a very understanding
and cooperative bus driver, and arrived back in Ocean Shores at
2:30.
We told the people at Domino's that this week our order won't be as large as last week's.
*********** Honk if you've been suspended by ESPN.
The latest to be banished was Bill Simmons, gone for three weeks.
HIs crime? Essentially, he called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a f--king liar. On his podcast.
Said ESPN, in a statement...
"Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our
editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic
standards. We have worked hard to ensure that our recent NFL coverage
has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a
recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks."
I'm guessing that the suits at ESPN made their decision for one of three reasons:
(1) At ESPN, we're not in the practice of character assassination.
(2) We're paying you good money to say those things on ESPN, not on your own podcast.
(3) Pressure from the NFL.
It couldn't possibly be (1) unless my memory fails me on what ESPN allowed its people to do to Mike Leach and Joe Paterno.
That leaves (2) and (3)
I'm going with (3). ESPN may report on the NFL, but it has such a
symbiotic relationship with The League, paying it enormous sums of
money for broadcast rights - that to report on it objectively would be
hitting itself right in the pocketbook.
It couldn't be (2) if he were to say anything critical of the NFL.
Think the NFL can't bring pressure when it wants to? Remember
"Playmakers," that show about what supposedly went on behind the scenes
with an NFL team? It was one of ESPN's highest-rated shows - but
when the NFL complained, ESPN pulled the plug on it.
That was ten years ago. Maybe you don't remember "Playmakers." But
damned if the outrageous stuff that went on in that fictional show
hasn't all come to pass in those ten years.
But at ESPN? Shhh. Don't say anything bad about the NFL. That's bad for business.
BIll Simmons is a very talented guy and he has guts. I wish him luck. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
http://www.thesportsfanjournal.com/columns/ed-the-sports-fan/the-lost-tapes-season-2-of-gamechangers/
*********** The following was written by a friend who's been a high
school offensive coordinator and for the past several years has been a
middle school head coach in a very successful program. It's in a
one high school town, one in which the high school makes the playoffs
every year, and at every level, the teams teach the high school system.
You
asked how my kids were doing...well, I honestly don't know what to say
in answer to that. It is a really weird year for us. We only have 27
kids out (as opposed to 40 the last few years), and 14 of them have
never played football before. So we have lost our first three games
26-0, 39-0, and 58-7.
Many
of the kids do not even seem to care that they are getting crushed. We
have picked up maybe 10 first downs in all three games combined - and
those have been due to the guts and hard running of our backs. I
actually had a couple of parents tell me that they thought their
respective sons had "played well" in the game we lost 58-7...I
responded by asking those parents exactly what it was that their son
had done well, and one dad said "Well, he looks good in his uniform." I
swear my jaw hit the ground.
These
kids will actually step out of the way of the kid they are supposed to
block because "he is too big". And when we show them that on film, they
just say "Well, I tried".
It
really is the youth sports mentality that has finally caught up with
our little town. Every kid and his parents thinks they are a star -
whether they do their jobs or not they want their trophy at the end of
the season.
It
is the suburban soccer mentality... (My assistant) calls it the
urbanization of (our town). This is the first year that we have the
majority of kids on the team who are not hunters/fishers/campers. They
sit around in their neighborhood development houses and play video
games. This is the hardest most of them have ever worked and they think
we are killing them.
***********
Last week it was photo day, a bit of a pain in the ass at any high
school, but something that a coach neglects at his own peril. I'm sure
it would be just fine with plenty of today's parents if
their kids simply stayed on the team until they had their photo taken - and
then bagged it. (Just one reason why I always made sure to have
the team photo taken during the latter part of the season.)
Todd and Chris Bridge, of Ocean Shores, Washington are definitely not
such parents. They are throwbacks, traditional parents in every
sense.
Todd, our head coach, played offensive line on two Rose Bowl teams and
a national championship team at the University of Washington under
legendary Don James. He and Chris have raised four great kids, and it's
been my honor and pleasure to coach two of them at North Beach High.
(By the way, this is the second time in my career that I've been privileged to coach a head coach's son.)
I took advantage of Photo Day to snap the photo on the left of Todd and the boys.
Todd is standing behind (from left to right) Seth, a sophomore, Ben, an eight-grader, and Caleb, a senior.
They are what we used to call "all boy." They hunt, fish and
camp. They work hard, earning spending money by splitting
firewood. They are top students. They are good Christians.
They are polite and respectful. And if you get in their way they will
knock you on your ass.
Little sister Sarah is a sixth-grader and active in gymnastics and drill team.
Caleb, the state discus champion, has committed to attend the Air Force Academy.
************ I heard some students at Aurora, Colorado High School
being interviewed about their walkout in protest of their school
board's decision to end the practice of teaching in history classes how
bad, bad, bad we evil Americans have been through the years. You
know, that horrible Harry Truman deciding to drop the bomb on Hiroshima
and all that.
One of them, a sophomore, expressed a desire to learn about "Everything that's went on."
It pains me as a history major - and history teacher - to say this, but
girl, forget about history for now. You need to go back and take
Freshman English over again.
In the meantime, young lady: Everything that GOES on… Everything that WENT on… Everything that HAS GONE on.
Remember it. Memorization still works.
*********** Is Portland Christian the canary in the coal mine?
A small, private school, Portland Christian went 12-2 in 2012 and won the Oregon Class 2A state title.
In 2013, Portland Christian went 12 straight before being upset in the state semi-finals.
In 1976, my first year as a high school coach, we went 5-4. That was at
Gaston, Oregon, and it was the school's first winning record since God
knows when. One of our losses was to Portland Christian. My
point is that Portland Christian has been playing ball for a long time.
This year, though, Portland Christian, 24-3 over the last two
seasons, didn't have enough football players to field a team.
Is society's war on football (and maybe Christianity, too) starting to take casualties?
*********** There's no "I' in "TEAM." But there is a "ME."
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000399900/article/cowboys-morris-claiborne-skips-practice-after-benching?campaign=Ext_Email_1st10_20140924&cvosrc=Ext_Email.Epsilon.1st10_20140924
*********** In five seasons - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 - the Hoosic Valley, New York Indians won a total of three games.
Now, in 2014, Hoosic Valley is 3-0.
The difference - a coach with a strong record as a winner who just
happened to be available when the Hoosic Valley head coach resigned
three games into last season.
The coach, Pete Porcelli, was just wrapping up another successful season as a semi-pro coach when Hoosic Valley contacted him.
I
remember the day. It was a Monday morning, and I was on the
way to Ocean Shores when Pete called to tell me about the offer.
I could tell that he was excited about the turnaround possibilities,
but at the same time he was well aware of the possibility that things
might be so bad - shutting down the program entirely had been seriously
considered - that Vince Lombardi himself couldn't have straightened
things out.
He decided to go for it. He'd had success with the Double Wing at
four different high schools, including four section championships in
eight years at Lansingburgh High, he was running it from spread
formation with his semi-pro team, the Troy Fighting Irish, and he
believed that he could make it work at Hoosic Valley.
That he has, and as any football coach - and any smart principal -
knows, a winning football team can change the attitude of an
entire school.
"Being 3-0 makes you feel like a king. It really does," Hoosic Valley Colin Claus quarterback told the Albany Times-Union.
Said sophomore wing back Isaac Sanchez, "We went from people
picking on us to being the only Hoosic Valley fall team without a loss.
Think about that. I knew we were going to win games this year. We
have changed things around here and are building a program."
http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Indians-are-building-winning-attitude-5778990.php
*********** Last week, four NFL teams were quarterbacked to victory by products of the same college program.
To spare you the suspense, the college is Michigan State, a program
that's been so solid, a program whose defense has been so powerful and
its offense so well-balanced, that it's flown below the radar as a
quarterback factory.
But there they were - Drew Stanton quarterbacking the Cardinals, Brian
Hoyer leading the Browns and Kirk Cousins running the Redskins' offense.
Oh, yes - and Nick Foles, Chip Kelly's choice as the Eagles' QB.
Foles, a Texas kid, is only technically a Spartan. He originally
committed to Arizona State, but he de-committed and went to Michigan
State, where Hoyer was the starter and Cousins was red-shirting.
After just one year at MSU, he transferred to Arizona, and that's where he played most of his college ball.
http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/09/msu_as_the_new_qbu_take_a_look.html
*********** Why should anyone be shocked at the aberrant conduct of pro
athletes when a freshman football player "inserts" his finger in the
anuses of three different teammates and his lawyer refers to the act as
"horseplay?"
It's as sick an act of bullying as I can imagine, and if ever a kid -
if convicted, of course - deserved to be labelled a sexual offender,
it's this one.
It happened on a school bus, right here in Washington State. It seems
as if every year we have such an incident out here. For some
reason it always seems to occur in the Great Outback that is the
central part of the state.
No doubt the first reaction of a lot of people is to wonder where the
coaches were - how this could have gone on unbeknownst to them. Well, I
would imagine that they were seated up front, not giving a thought to
the possibility that as they rode, a perverted act was taking place in
the back.
How, without any prior knowledge, could they have been expected to know?
So I suppose it is possible for such a thing to happen in the back of a
dark school bus - provided no one yelled out at being violated, and/or
there wasn't a single other kid on the team with the courage to let the
coaches up front know what was going on.
This is a major reason why I will never - never - go with a team to a team camp, whatever the benefits might be.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/teen-charged-sexual-assault-team-bus-trip-25567712
*********** Coach,
The Elmwood/Brimfield Trojans improved to 3-1 last Friday night with a
48-7 victory over the visiting Havana Ducks. We played well in
all three phases. We rushed 47 times for 431 yards and five
touchdowns. We were 4 of 6 passing for 97 yards and two
touchdowns. Defensively, we allowed 40 yards on 30 carries and
121 passing (73 on one play). Special teams were very good as
well.
I was proud of our boys for handling the game the way they did.
We were by far the superior team and sometimes in those games kids lose
focus and things get a bit sloppy (playground ball). Not the case
for us last week. Our boys maintained a high level of play
throughout.
Your distant, distant, distant relative Layne Wyatt had another good
night. He rushed 8 times for 205 and 3 touchdowns. He also caught
one ball for 20 yards. He's now 77 for 792 and 11 td's rushing
and 7 receptions for 94 yards. Not too shabby. And he owes
it all to "Uncle Hugh" I'm sure.
Good luck this week.
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
*********** Army travels to New Haven, Connecticut this Saturday to
face Yale, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Yale Bowl.
Although the two teams first met in 1893, and have played 45 times
since then (Yale leads in the series, 21-16-8), it will be the first
time the two teams will have met since 1996, and Yale's first game
against an FBS opponent since playing UConn in 1998.
As an old Yalie I should pull for the Blue, but the truth is that I've
always been an Army fan, and my induction in 2003 as an honorary member
of the Army Football Club, the football letter winner's association,
sealed the deal for me. So Go Yale. Play well and play
hard. And Go Army. Beat Yale.
***********
You might say that the Yale Bowl, Yale's larger-and-better answer to
Harvard Stadium, built in 1903 and the first real football
stadium, was the start of the college football arms race that continues
to this day.
The bowl is a great old stadium, and thanks to donations from generous
alumni, it has been nicely renovated and brought up-to-date. When
completed in 1914, the bowl, with a capacity of 71,000, was the largest
stadium in the United States, and perhaps in the world. Its present
capacity is just over 61,000.
In addition to all the Yale football games played there over the years,
it has played host in recent years to some enormous concerts, and in
1973 and 1974, while Yankee Stadium was undergoing renovation, the New
York Giants played their home games in the Bowl.
It was the first bowl-shaped stadium in the US, and inspired both the
design and the name of the Rose Bowl. From it came the names of
post-season "bowl games," and, eventually the Super Bowl. In
addition to the Rose Bowl, other famous stadiums such as Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum and Michigan Stadium (and, as a result, Notre Dame
Stadium) were also inspired by the Yale Bowl's design.
From the outside, it's not particularly imposing. It doesn't rise high
above the ground because it truly is a bowl, its field well below
ground level; as the field was dug out, the fill dirt from the
excavation was used to create a berm surrounding the field in an
elliptical shape. There is no substructure, so fans enter through a
series of portals tunneled through the berm, and they arrive inside
about halfway up the stands.
So meticulously was it planned that the playing field was laid-out so
that by mid-November - when the traditional "big games" with Princeton
and Harvard were played - the sun at game time would never shine in a
player's eyes.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 - "How
prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the
best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose
their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for
mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights
and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of
despotism."
James Monroe
*********** Given their storied past, followed by years and years of bad teams, I want to root for the Browns.
But they sure do make it tough.
First they draft that most unlikeable of players, Johnny Football, and
then on Sunday they actually have the gall to try the old "sleeper"
play, throwing the ball to Manziel, who appeared to have left the field
but had actually stayed just inbounds until the snap, then raced
upfield to catch the pass.
The Browns are off this week, which gives them time to work on more
trick plays, so I suggest that their next opponent, the Titans, get
ready for the "It's the wrong ball!" play.
*********** North Beach is now 3-0. We fumbled on our second offensive
play - our second fumble of the year, which is not pleasing to us - and
we did throw an interception when taking a shot downfield, but
otherwise it would be hard to find much fault with our offensive
performance Friday night, as we defeated Seton Catholic, of Vancouver,
Washington 58-14.
Despite the early fumble, we scored on our second possession, then gave
up a Seton Catholic score and led by just 8-7, but we scored twice in
the last three minute of the first quarter to go ahead, 22-7 after one
period. We led 36-7 at the half, and 52-7 after three.
We had the ball for just 34 offensive plays. We had no long
drives. Six of our touchdowns (two of them passing) were longer
than 20 yards.
Seven different runners combined to carry 29 times for 382 yards.
For the third week in a row, B-Back Cameron Keller was our leading ball
carrier, with 6 carries for 123 yards and two TDs, one of them a run of
79 yards.
Wingback Skyler Wells carried five times for 109 yards and two TDs, and
wingback Jordan Chong rushed six times for 46 yards and a TD.
Quarterback Alex McAra completed three of five for 86 yards and two TDs, and ran five times for 32 yards.
Defensively, their little QB gave us some problems running the ball off
their triple option, and we gave up our first touchdown of the season
to a nicely-executed option on which we momentarily forgot our
assignments and converged on the QB, who then pitched. The second
Seton Catholic score came in the fourth quarter when it was JV against
JV.
So after three games, we've scored 160 points.
We've run only 109 plays, and we've gained 1544 yards (14.2 yard per play) and scored 22 touchdowns - one every five plays.
So much for the bragging. Now the fun begins. Now we find out if we can take a punch.
This week, we play perennial power Raymond, the defending league
champion and state semi-finalist. They've run right over their
first three opponents, who I suspect may have been tougher than ours.
We haven't beaten Raymond in four years, and counting middle school, our seniors have never beaten them.
Three years ago, when our senirs were freshmen, Raymond put a running
clock on us. Likewise two years ago, when they were sophomores.
Last year, our best team in years played Raymond tough for a half but
fell, 28-7.
It's at our place. Get there early. It's easy to get to -
just fly in to Seattle or Portland, rent a car, and then, since you're
still not tired of traveling, drive another three and a half
hours until you can't go any farther.
*********** A lesson on the basic economics of the minimum wage, from my favorite economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell…
"Those who are hired are paid for the value of the work they do. If
their work is really worth more than what their employer is paying
them, all they have to do is quit and go work for some other employer,
who will pay them what their work is really worth. If they can't find
any other employer who will pay them more, then what makes them think
their work is worth more?"
*********** NFL brought a lot of its current problems on itself
with its greedy desire to grab every dollar in circulation in the
United States, if not the free world. To do so, it chose to make
itself more than just a sport.
It couldn't have simply positioned itself as a sport for men and the women they associate with.
Oh, no.
It had to be all things for all the people, even if that meant
occasionally thumbing its nose at its real fan base - the loyal people
who were with them back when baseball was still the National Pasttime.
Look how far we reach in our desire to become All Things to All People!!
Look! Girls compete in Pass, Punt and Kick! Whee!
Look! Every October, we cover everything in sight, even our
players, in pink, to "raise awareness" of breast cancer, because - hold
on, now - every football player has a mother, many have sisters, and
some have wives, girlfriends and daughters. Whee!
Look! We drafted an openly-gay player! Whee!
Look! We've created a special department created just to
deal with "social issues." And you know what? Its four
members are ALL FEMALES! Whee!
Look! And we've created a special vice-presidential position -
and filled it with a woman who's worked in the Obama administration -
on women's issues! Whee!
Look! We held a fashion show just for women, to show off our all-new NFL apparel line! Whee!
Too bad it might all be to no avail, because the NFL marketing geniuses
chose to make themselves bigger than sports, and now, although they've
had wife-beaters and even murderers in their midst for years, they face
the wrath of the wider public that they've so assiduously courted.
*********** Har, har, har. Tune in an NFL game and you'll likely hear
announcers noting the way NFL players and coaches are now using
iPads to watch video during the games.
Har, har, har. The joke is on Microsoft.
Microsoft reportedly paid $400 million to be the "official sideline
technology sponsor of the NFL," and that means those "iPads" are
actually Microsoft's Surface tablets.
But Apple wound up with all the good pub. Good planning,
Microsoft. Way to get the word out in advance to the TV
guys. Duh.
Maybe you should talk to the fellas at Nike about protecting your brand.
Jimbo Fisher can tell you about that. Florida State is a Nike school,
and when the Nike suits saw Fisher's 9-year-old son wearing another
apparel company's shirt, they made him take it off.
And now, Microsoft, you know why.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/la-fi-microsoft-nfl-surface-ipad-20140913-story.html#page=1
*********** Coach,
Following a tough 35-28 loss last week to a very good team we rebounded
this week against the Knoxville Blue Bullets. It was one of those
games in which things went well for us and provided some "good
medicine" for our boys to get back on track. The final was 39-7.
We rushed 55 times for 415 and were 6 of 12 passing for 84.
Running back Layne Wyatt is one of those special talents that you
are lucky to have once in a while (fortunately, we've had a run of them
recently). He rushed 18 times for 255. On the season he is
averaging just over 180 yards rushing per game and 200 all-purpose
yards per game. Teams have loaded up to stop 88 and Layne has
made them wish they had game planned differently. Our quarterback
is a first year starter and is still getting comfortable. I told
him we will continue to throw the ball because at some point we will
really need it and can't expect him to produce if he's never gotten
real game experience. As always, the goal is to throw efficiently
and as you say "throw when they don't expect us to, and don't throw
when they do expect us to."
I hope the Hyaks are performing well. Good luck this week.
Todd Hollis
Head Football Coach
Elmwood High School
Elmwood, Illinois
NIce going, Coach!
Last Friday's quote by Warren Spahn is applicable to our passing game.
PS - Please tell Layne that he's doing the family name proud!
*********** Some 8,000 Atlantic City casino workers have lost their
jobs this year, with additional casinos threatening to close.
When my parents moved to Atlantic City (actually to Ventnor, the next
town down on the island), there was no industry in the area, and 90 per
cent of all non-governmental jobs were seasonal. It was like a
ghost town in the winter - no tourists, and a lot of the hotel and
restaurant people in Florida until the spring. My parents
actually liked it that way. I didn't understand it at the time,
but now I know.
When the casinos came in about 1978-79, it was like striking oil. Everything perked up.
They built an expressway from Phila to AC and the crowds came. Hundreds
of buses every day shuttled gamblers from New York, Philly and
Baltimore.
And then the Indians in CT built a couple of casinos. And Pennsylvania
got wise and started building casinos of its own. And now Maryland and
New York are getting in on the act. Add in online gambling and there's
no longer much reason for people to go to Atlantic City.
Other than the ocean. But it's not as if Atlantic City is the only Jersey Shore beach resort.
The thing that really established Atlantic City as "The World's
Playground," as it once styled itself, was Prohibition.
While most of America was legally dry, Atlantic City was wide
open. Once repeal came, and people could drink legally
in New York, Philly and Baltimore, there was no longer
much reason for people to go to Atlantic City.
And Atlantic City started to become the backwater that it was until the casinos came.
The bigwigs weren't smart enough to see the end of Prohibition coming,
and they weren't smart enough to see the oversaturation of casinos
coming, either.
Interestingly, The Biggest Wig of Them All, Governor Christie, has a
solution. It's build another New Jersey casino - but in North Jersey.
(Just in case there's anybody left in North Jersey thinking about
going to Atlantic City to gamble.)
With close to 10,000 casino workers out of jobs, there's just one very
small upside to this whole disaster - it's not a bad area to live, and
there's going to be some nice real estate available at clearance prices.
*********** Joe Biden got himself into a bit of trouble recently by
referring to people on the homefront who took unfair advantage of
deployed soldiers as "shylocks."
Shylock was a character in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice."
Shylock, a Jew, was a loan shark, a money lender so coldhearted
that in the play he tells a merchant named Antonio that if he fails to
repay a loan, Shylock will exact from him "a pound of flesh," one
of many Shakespeare phrases that live on in our language.
The term "shylock," meaning a money-grubbing lender, is considered
offensive by Jewish people because the character fed the stereotype of
Jews as money-obsessed.
That is, those Jewish people who know the derivation of the term.
(For those Americans under 40 who probably have never heard of William
Shakespeare, he's a dead white European male whose works have
been tossed aside in favor of more "diverse" authors.)
*********** Selfishness - a friend who coaches in an inner-city school
noted that "there were some selfishness problems" in their game
Friday night.
I noted that based on my experience, with no studies to back me up,
selfishness seems to be a bigger problem when there's so little to
share.
A lot of these kids are kids who haven't had much, so when they do get
something it's normal to want to keep it to themselves before someone
else grabs it and takes it. Not unlike the pet who's given a
treat and takes it off someplace where nobody else can come after it.
*********** My son, Ed, was first to bring this to my attention, and
surely it deserves a place of honor in the Polish-American Sports Hall
of Fame:
Every point scored in Sunday's Patriots-Raiders game was scored by a guy whose name ended in "kowski."
For the record, Gronkowski (touchdown), Gostkowski (three field goals and an extra point) and Janikowski (three field goals).
*********** What great people Americans are - and they sure do love their children.
Why, based on what they've heard about studies of the brains of
deceased professional football players, they'll keep their kids from
playing football, on the outside chance that it might have
adverse effects on them 40 or 50 years from now.
But they'll let them play video games and get fat.
And they won't make them put the video games away and do their homework.
Thinking about their future, don't you know?
*********** John McEnroe was a talented tennis player but such a
spoiled brat that he set US men's tennis back back in a way that it's
never really recovered from him. Now a commentator, he
supposedly has he's renounced his a**hole past - but in a recent
commercial he's made, he doesn't seem to mind being taking a sponsor's
money to act like a middle-aged version of the young a**hole he once
was.
*********** Time to stop the nonsense from spreading.
Look at any alphabetical list of names - look under "Jones" for example
- and you'll find the Jrs, the III's and (for those who are into it
that much) the IV's, where they apply. But you'll see that they
refer to the first names, and that's where they're placed: Jones,
Arthur Jr… Jones, Benjamin III… Jones, John Paul IV
I've got news for devotees of this latest look-at-me fad: the
generational tags are not a part of the last name. Otherwise,
we'd look in the phone book for lists of Jones, Jr., or Smith, III (or,
for that matter, Griffin III).
The trend hit its most ridiculous note on Saturday when I saw a Florida State player named "WILLIAMS SR."
*********** It was a Patriots' running play, and damned if Tom Brady didn't take a shot at a guy's knees.
The announcers. of course, were all over it. Great block. Tough guy. Blah, blah, blah.
But wait a minute, says I - That was a f--king quarterback!
The NFL does everything but put a skirt on quarterbacks when they've
got the ball, and even after they've thrown it. Defenders can't
hit them above the shoulders or below the knees. When they "run" the
ball, they're allowed to surrender by hook sliding, and defenders are
expected to stop in their tracks. And when they're chased "out of the
tackle box," they can avoid being tackled by throwing the ball away.
So how f--king fair is it that Brady, who's protected as well as the
Pope, is allowed to threaten a defender's career by block him at his
knees?
*********** Going into the Clemson game without Jameis Winston was a no-lose proposition for Florida State.
Florida State wins and people think, "They're so good they can win without the Heisman Trophy winner."
And their chances of making The Playoff are improved.
Florida State loses to Clemson and people think, "Well, yes, they lost, but they didn't have Winston."
And their chances of making The Playoff are unharmed.
That's what I thought. And then Florida State had the incredibly
bad judgment to allow a player who should have been a pariah to
occupy their sidelines, and gave credence to the argument that at
its core, college football is as corrupt and perverted as the NFL.
You think Roger Goodell is bad?
Florida State's administration makes him look like David Stern.
In the apparent absence of anyone in control at the top of the
university, the responsibility of dealing with this utterly despicable
individual fell to his coach, Jimbo Fisher, who then fell even further
by allowing Winston to bask in the spotlight on the sidelines.
*********** Most people seem upset because what Jameis Winston said and did was disrespectful of women.
Well, yeah, but more to the point, what he said and did was
disrespectful of public decency and further shreds the the veil of
civility.
Send him packing to the NFL. In the area of conduct at least, he's ready..
*********** ABC, as you know, is owned by Disney (which also happens to
own ESPN), so it shouldn't have surprised anyone that a camera was on
Jameis all night - call it the JameisCam - and he made it all worth
their while.
A**hole even went out on the field at least once to "counsel" his replacement.
*********** In one sense, Jameis Winston has done the American justice
system a great favor, because the next woman who finds herself in
his company when things go awry sexually will have a very difficult
time convincing a jury that she didn't know what she was getting
herself into.
***********
Bad shotgun snaps - one by Mississippi State almost let LSU back into
the game; another, just minutes later, likely cost Clemson the winning
TD against Florida State.
In the case of Mississippi State, there was less than two minutes
remaining - almost take-a-knee time - and I found myself resolving that
if I found myself in a similar spot, I would have a "safety" about 10
to 15 yards back of my QB, just as the under-center guys do at
take-a-knee time.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014 - "One
of the good things about going to Brown is that I was able to become
the President of the College Republicans on campus almost immediately.
The other Republican student at Brown was the Vice President." Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
************* A coach whose team is off to a bad start told me he remains optimistic because his kids are young.
I wrote him,
We are kicking a little ass right now, but three years ago, when we
took over the program, this year's seniors were freshmen, and we didn't
have a lot of upperclassmen to show them the way. Besides, our veterans
had already been through two years of being kicked around themselves,
so we found ourselves on the wrong end of some serious whuppings.
Two years ago, we had three running clocks put on us. We didn't
really start to change to becoming the ass kickers ourselves until just
last year. Part of the explanation was our opening up of the
Double Wing, but part of it was a great improvement in our defense,
which can only be attributed to our kids growing older, stronger and
more confident. With those things came toughness and
aggressiveness. In all that time, though, our practice routine and our
fundamental drills have never changed.
***********
Sounds like things are going well for you. Just wondering if you
got this sent to you by the big bad NFL reaching out to help. They
can't even run their own lines. I'll be damned if they'll run
mine… Hey, I should write a song.
Allan Peterson
East Jordan, Michigan
DATE: September 16, 2014
FROM:
Matt Birk, NFL Director of Player
Development
RE: PLEASE LET US HEAR FROM YOU
Dear Coach,
Three
things in my life have made me who I am- my faith, my family, and
football. I was fortunate to play 15 years in the NFL, and now
feel honored to be working in the League office. But I didn’t
accept the position because I wanted a job. I did it because I
believe in the game of football and the impact it can have on the lives
of those who play it and society as a whole.
In
my short time working here one thing became obvious- we at the NFL can
do better in supporting you. You hold a unique position of
tremendous importance in the lives of the young men you coach. We
should be doing everything in our power to make sure you have
everything you need to make high school football a transformational
experience for your players. I cannot imagine a more important
initiative at the NFL, as it relates to our game or our future, than
supporting our high school football coaches. You have the
platform to instill and teach the values into young men that will last
a lifetime. I believe you have the most important job in America.
The
National Football League HSPD Program and its director, Jerry Horowitz,
are here to help you, support you, and equip you. High school
football should be used to prepare young men- the husbands, fathers,
and leaders of tomorrow- for the path that lies ahead. There are
1.1 million high school football players in our country. There is
great potential to have enormous impact.
We
are asking if you would please HELP US to HELP YOU by completing a
brief online survey. You can access the survey by clicking this
link: https://nfl1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3eNJX7HnjdKvjuJ or by
copy/pasting the URL into your internet browser. Your answers are
anonymous.
Please
let us hear from you. We understand that you are extremely busy this
time of year. I promise that Jerry and I will carefully consider
what you have to say, and that your input will have a direct impact on
our work – for you – and for the great game of football that we are all
privileged to serve.
Thanks, Coach!
Matt Birk
Director of Football Development- NFL
Hi Al-
Making allowance for the fact that I'm a Yale guy and Matt Birk went to Harvard...
I do think that he's a good guy and he
means well, but the company he works for - the NFL - doesn't. It
is not interested in promoting the game of football. Its sole
interest is in making money, which means promoting the game
ofprofessional football, and it cares about other levels of the game
only to the extent that it can enrich or glorify itself.
Now, though, it's in a fight for its life, and it's looking for all the help it can get.
Screw the NFL.
If it wants to know what it can
do to support our great game at the high school level, I'd suggest it
set a better example for younger players by doing as good a job of
teaching their players the fundamentals as most high school coaches do,
and by cracking down on players' obnoxious antics on the field and
felonious conduct off.
Otherwise, though, any NFL involvement
in our game is a potential cancer, and the best thing The League can do
for us is to just stay the hell away from our game. We play different
games and we don't want to go down with them. Let them take all
their "High School Coach of the Week" crap and other NFL efforts to buy
our good will and leave us alone to play real football.
And if they want to help youth
football - enough of the photo-op "clinics" and "camps" they put
on, which are purely PR stunts designed to get them feel-good spots on
TV. And stop - immediately - this crap of their stooge
organization USA Football telling gullible parents to make sure that
their kids' coaches are "USA Football certified."
I've been saying for years - the NFL is one hell of a bunch to be telling us how to teach and play the game of football.
*********** Players from North Plainfield (New Jersey)High, with
a mostly African-American roster, said members of the Summit High
team taunted them with bananas before their game last weekend.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. SIck, sick, sick. If true, this would seem to
call for perhaps a suspension of the Summit program as a means of
teaching those kids that this kind of crap has no place in America.
(Unfortunately, that would also punish teams that Summit was scheduled
to play.)
But then I read on, and the story became a little difficult to swallow.
According to the article in CBSNew York, "The North Plainfield players
said they were so traumatized that their coach had to console them."
What???? Um, why am I skeptical that in this day and age of
previously unimaginable grossness and bad taste in music, videos and
movies, teenage boys - football players yet - were "traumatized"
by some stupid, sophomoric, racist stunt pulled by a bunch of (probably
rich, spoiled, white) ignoramuses?
Oh, well. Since we're on the subject of insensitivity, it should
be noted that North Plainfield High's nickname is - the Canucks.
Hey. My grandmother came from Canada - New Brunswick, to be exact - and that offends me. Traumatizes me, you might say.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/09/15/cbs-2-exclusive-north-plainfield-h-s-football-players-say-they-were-racially-taunted-with-bananas/
*********** Speaking of New Jersey and a lack of good taste…
Rutgers
athletic director Julie Hermann apologized in a statement Monday for
the "classless display" that she said does not represent the New Jersey
school's views or its fan base.
Several
photos posted on an official Rutgers football Facebook page showed fans
wearing T-shirts that read "Beat Ped State." Hermann says the photos
were removed.
There
also was a sign that showed what appeared to be stick figures of a man
and boy engaged in a sex act, with "Penn State" emblazoned across the
top.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/rutgers-apologizes-to-penn-state-for-offensive-signs-shirts-091514
The real story is - they wore those shirts and survived. At an NFL game
you can get your ass whipped just for wearing the wrong team's jersey.
*********** Educators might attribute the general ignorance of the
American public - especially people under 40 - to the fact that they're
"visual learners."
We all know that young people do not get their news the hard way - by reading.
Since they were able to sit up, they've been propped in front of the
set while mommy and (maybe) daddy slept; they've been "educated" by
video after classroom video; and they watch YouTube videos on
their cell phones.
So consider the impact of video on two current issues - ISIS and Ray Rice.
Not so long ago, Hamas was just a bunch of fellas just like you and
me, maybe a little more violent, trying to live their lives while
dodging missiles shot at them by those nasty Israelis. After all,
that's what American TV showed us.
But then along came ISIS, a group not unlike Hamas in its aims.
But ISIS treated the world to a YouTube video of them beheading a
western journalist or two and, why, they're savages! Anyone
can see that!
Then there's Ray Rice. For months, everyone's known that he
dragged his unconscious fiancee out of an elevator in an Atlantic City
casino. Now, unless she slipped on a wet spot on the floor, it
was pretty much accepted that Rice had sa fair amount to do with her
unconscious state.
But a lot of the reaction was of this sort: That's not the Ray we all
know. Or, Ray, we don't do those things. Or, Ray and the victim
are working things out. In fact, she's now his wife. Or, Ray needs help.
And, of course, he was given a suspension by the league.
Yes, there were those who complained about the suspension. Some of the
complainers were angry with the commissioner's seeming disregard for
the seriousness of what Rice had done, but quite a few others
were mainly pissed that he got less than some guys did for smoking weed.
And then came the video of The Punch. The left hook that dropped his fiancee.
And Ray Rice, who up to then had "made a mistake," was suddenly transformed into a monster.
Because we're visual learners.
*********** For about four years now, we have snapped the ball on "GO."
We start motion on the QBs foot (or, if we're in Wildcat, his hands).
Any advantage we may have had saying "Ready Hut!" Is more than offset by the fact that we rarely jump.
Of course defenses know when we're going to snap the ball. More
important, though, so do we. One less thing for our players to
concern themselves with.
Oh - and by the way, defenses, we can - and do - snap the ball on
"second GO" at any time. We work on it, so you'd better. Be ready for
it any time. It's an easy five yards.
*********** I don't know yet how the vote for Scottish independence
will turn out, but it's hard to believe that 16-year-olds took
part in the voting.
I'm half Scots-Irish, so I suppose I should favor Scottish independence
from England - Braveheart and all that - but I'm also a realist,
and seeing how wonderfully well the 18-year-old vote has worked for us
I'm afraid I don't see much of a future for any nation that
allows 16-year-olds to vote.
************* Hoosic Valley (New York), which just over a year ago was
about to lose its football program to poor football and community
apathy, moved out to 2-0 this year with a 47-14 win over Fort
Edward. Hoosic Valley, running Coach Pete Porcelli's Double Wing,
amassed 414 yards total offense.
*********** Truett Cathy, who died last week at 93, opened a small
diner in Hapeville, Georgia in 1946 with his brother, Ben. In 1961 he
introduced the chicken sandwich that would make him rich and make his
company, Chik-Fil-A, a billion-dollar business.
In a time when many seem to have lost the ability to dream big,
and even more so the willingness to work hard enough to turn those
dreams into reality, Mr. Cathy's example shines like a beacon.
In addition to his company's deep commitment to supporting college
football, there are lessons for any coach in the things that made Mr.
Cathy successful.
Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, knew Mr. Cathy well. In
last Saturday's Wall Street Journal, Mr. Kent listed six
characteristics that he saw in Mr. Cathy that in his words, "defined
the way he approached business, people, and the communities he served."
First, he believed in himself. "He was convinced that he could make something of himself. And he did."
Second, he worked hard. "A child of the Great Depression, he saw work as a privilege, and made a point of enjoying it."
Third, "Truett embodied the culture of service that he wanted to build.
He was devoted to serving others, from his customers and employees to
young people and others in his community."
Fourth, "Truett never stopped innovating." Mr Kent cites the sandwich
itself - "it's still one of a kind."Next, the fact that Mr. Cathy made
individual restaurant owners not just franchisees, but partners in his
business. And then there was his decision in 1967 to locate the
first Chik-Fil-A stores inside malls.
Fifth, Mr. Cathy was generous, from endowing foster homes for younger
kids to establishing a scholarship program that has awarded more than
$30,000,000 to company employees.
Sixth was my favorite one of all…
"Truett stayed humble. He and his wife, Jeannette, lived in the
same modest house near Atlanta for decades, and he never took himself
too seriously. When asked about what was so smart about creating his
chicken sandwich, he would reply, invariably, 'Nothing. That's why I
was able to do it.'"
*********** Imagine Barack Obama as a football coach, tipping off the
opposition by telling the media: "I won't ask our players to risk
their bodies running the football between the tackles."
*********** Brace yourself, NFL. With all the problems
you're facing now, there's more on the way. Jameis Winston will soon be
yours.
According to reports, young Mister Winston, who this time last year was
being eased out of rape charges by cooperative police investigators,
stood on a table in the Florida State Student Union and uttered
vulgarities so repulsive to civilized people that not even internet
reporters quitted hi verbatim.
He is being severely reprimanded - held out of this weekend's Clemson
game for the first half. Interesting that the University, which faces a
federal investigation of the way it handled the Winston rape
accusation, would allow the football coach to handle this issue.
Winston himself apologized for his actions. Sort of. Actually, he issued a "statement."
"First of all, I just want to apologize to the university, to my
coaches, and to my teammates. I'm not a 'me' person, but in
that situation that was a selfish act, and that's not how you do things
around here. So I really want to apologize to my teammates because I
have now made a selfish act for them, and that's all."
Jameis Winston's statement, eh? Reads more like the work of an
"academic counselor" to me. You know, the people who write all
the other papers for these guys.
I mean, come on - do you really think that anyone so dim that a year
after barely escaping rape charges he'd stand on a table in a public
place and holler something described as "lascivious" (good word - look
it up) would have the intelligence to write that statement himself?
And mean it?
PS. You looking for a statement on America's values? I'm betting
that a loud cheer will go up from the FSU fans when their
f--king hero enters the game in the second half.
*********** From a friend in the Midwest…
We beat the only bad team on our schedule last week 40-0. Bad spread
team that never punts and onside kicks every time. You know the
type.
Anyway here is to those that say special teams is 1/3 of the game…
We did not punt;
went for two on all PAT;
had one KOR which was our hands team since they onside only;
did not use punt return since they do not punt.
The only special team we used was KO team after scores.
This last Monday we had to line up all our special teams just to make sure everyone remembered where they were going.
*********** A friend who's in his first season at a new school - small town in the West - told me this story…
Last Saturday I was at the local grocery store when a woman behind the
counter asked me if I was the head coach. I said yes and she asked me
if my team was going to play physical football.
I said that is the plan.
She said "I have no son out there but I like football and I go to see action."
I said we will try.
She told me "If I don't see hitting and I see what I saw the last few
years of patty cake football I am going to find you and get my money
back."
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 - "Tell me who your enemy is, and I will tell you who you are." Carl Schmitt, German Philosopher
*********** I like Kirk Cousins a lot, and I'm happy to see him get his shot with the Redskins - er, "Washington Football Team."
But I'd rather it didn't have to come about because of another injury to Robert Griffin.
I think of Robert Griffin and I worry, because then I think of Steve
Emtman, a U of Washington teammate and close friend of my head coach,
Todd Bridge.
Steve Emtman was as good a defensive linemen as I've ever seen in
college, and it wasn't just me - he was the first player taken in the
1992 draft. Unfortunately, a series of major injuries, starting partway
through his rookie season, prevented him from having anywhere close to
the sort of career everyone predicted for him.
NEWS YOU CAN USE - CONTINUED
**********************
The North Beach Hyaks moved to 2-0 Friday night with a 54-0 defeat of
South Bend in front of a large (it's all relative, guys) and
appreciative home crowd.
The Hyaks were slow starting, but scored three times in the last 4:39
of the first period, and scored twice more in the second per to to lead
at halftime, 38-0.
The first score came on a third-and-short when the Hyaks lined up in
some kind of formation with two right ends and two wingbacks and gave
the ball to their fullback up the middle, with the linemen all seeming
to converge on the middle of the defensive line, like some sort of snow
plow. Whaddaya know - Cameron Keller broke loose for a 36 yard
TD. Maybe we'll run that one again.
A minute after recovering the following (sorry, "ensuing") kickoff, the
Hyaks scored again on a 9-yard run by Elijah Towery, set up by his
26-yard run two plays earlier.
The final score of the first quarter came with under a minute to play
when Alex McAra hit Skyler Wells with a pass good for 15 yards and a
TD. It was McAra's first of three TD passes on the night.
Barely two minutes into the second quarter, following a South Bend
punt, McAra hit split end Gabe Hernandez on a 20-yard touchdown pass,
and just before the half threw a 25-yard scoring pass to tight end
Steven Fry.
After spending the halftime intermission figuring out how to get all of
our kids some significant playing time in the fourth quarter, we came
out and kept up the pace.
Midway through the third quarter, Keller broke loose on a 79 yard run,
to start the running clock, and Jordan Chong closed out the scoring
with a two-yard run with 2:11 remaining in the third.
With reserves playing the fourth quarter, the defense held firm. It was
the Hyaks' second shutout of the season, as they held South Bend's
split-back veer attack to a total of 30 yards offense in 35 plays.
Eight different Hyaks carried the ball for a total of 317 yards on 29
carries. For the second straight week, fullback Keller led all
rushers, with 10 carries for 181 yards.
Quarterback Alex McAra, in his second start, completed nine of ten passes for 136 and three touchdowns.
This week, it's Seton Catholic, of Vancouver, Washington. It's a long
trip - 3-1/2 hours. I should know - the game's being played at
Camas High School's stadium, across the street from where we live.
It will be a good test for our kids. Seton Catholic, 1-1 on the season, is one classification higher than we are.
*********** Life at the beach…
It was uncharacteristically warm when we took the field Monday afternoon - sunny and 73 degrees (for us, that's warm).
It was one of those rare days when I was able to coach in a
tee-shirt. My wife bought some popsicles to give the kids after
practice.
An hour into practice, the sun disappeared. The fog started
blowing in off the Pacific, and the temperature dropped to 58 degrees.
*********** Coach,
Got several flags and warnings this past weekend on the how far back my
Line was off the LOS. I have been teaching for years that the need to
have there helmet break the centers waist. I've looked and looked for
an online version of the NHSF rules but can't find any info - or I'm
just not looking in the right place.
Can you send me the rule so I can question our officials group....I wasn't aware that the alignment rule changed.
Coach-
The rule hasn't changed. The top
of the linemen's helmets need to penetrate an imaginary line drawn
through the center's waistband.
Rule 2, Section 32, Article 9
"A lineman is any A player who is
facing his opponent's goal line with the line of his shoulders
approximately parallel thereto and with his he'd or foot breaking an
imaginary plane drawn parallel to the line of scrimmage through the
waist of the center when the ball is snapped."
One thing that should change is your association should require that its officials know the rules.
*********** Some twerp in Vancouver, Washington, wrote this in a letter to the Vancouver Columbian.
"I am writing a report on the use if derogatory and racist imagery in public school mascots."
He's whining about the local Columbia River High Chieftains. He
wants the Vancouver School District to change the nickname and mascot.
That little worm. His liberal social studies teacher must be
so-o-o-o-o proud of having sent him off on this noble quest for justice
(and also attention), armed with the self-righteous belief that they
are uniquely qualified to be the judges of what is "derogatory and
racist."
And hey - the kid got his letter published 'n' everything!
Just what our country needs - another f--king activist..
*********** Jonah Goldberg asks us to imagine President Obama delivering one of Winston Churchill's most stirring speeches…
"We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall
mitigate on the beaches, we shall degrade them on the landing grounds,
we shall reduce them to manageable problems in the fields and in the
streets. . ."
*********** You may not like Oregon, and you may hate what they've done
to football fashion, but if you've got a youngster in your family, I'll
bet he'll thank you for showing him the…
OREGON DUCKS FOOTBALL UNIFORM MACHINE
http://extra.oregonian.com/ducks/uniforms/dressaduck
*********** In Ventura, California, Chik-Fil-A agreed to donate 200
meals for a high school booster club to sell, in its efforts to raise
$1,600 for the school's football team.
But not so fast. It is California, remember, so the principal, as you
might have expected, has banned the club from selling food made
by a company whose chief executive once promoted - omigod - traditional
marriage.
The principal, a person of indeterminate sex who goes by the name
of Val Wyatt (WTF?) said that dealing with a company that
espoused such a belief could offend some students and parents.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/09/11/chick-fil-a-banned-from-ventura-high-school-campus-over-stand-on-gay-marriage/
*********** Coach , We're having trouble with the corner coming hard on 88-99 G Reach, not letting us get outside.
Coach,
If a defense is clearly taking any play away from you, that means it's not a good call.
A sweep is not a signature play, one
that you expect to be able to run against any defense. Unlike
most other Double-Wing plays, a sweep carries with it the potential to
lose yardage.
If they're selling out to stop it, it's not going to work. Simple as that. You can't force it if it isn't there.
It's a play that you run when the
defense is giving it to you. You will know when that is when they are
tightening down to shut you down off-tackle.
A key element of any offense is that,
given relatively equal ability, the defense can take a play away
from you. (Of course, if they're just a lot better than you, they
might take your whole offense away. It happens.) Actually, they can
maybe take two or even three plays away. But they can't take them
all.
When they take a play way, they're making themselves unsound someplace else, and giving you something else.
You should have a pass play to take advantage of that aggressive corner. And you definitely should not be going outside.
Seems to me that if a corner is coming
hard to stop a sweep, he will take himself out of the play by
overrunning it when you run off tackle (88-99 Super Power).
*********** The number of routs taking place early in the season remind
me of a story an old friend named John Naylor, from Fort Worth, once
told me.
He knew a guy named Lance Van Zandt, a career coach who'd worked at a number of big-time programs.
From 1977-1980 he was defensive coordinator at Nebraska. (A
native Texan, he's given a lot of the credit for recruiting Turner
Gill.)
Nebraska at that time was beating up on all the then-Big Eight teams,
going 9-3, 9-3, 10-2, 10-2 in his four years there. Only Oklahoma had
any success against the Huskers. To be blunt, most of the other
conference teams were mediocre at best; Kansas and Kansas State were
the worst of the worst.
Following the 1980 season, Lance Van Zandt hired on to coach the
secondary for Bum Phillips, who'd just taken the job as head coach of
the New Orleans Saints.
These were the days of the "Ain'ts," when fans put paper bags over
their heads as if to say that they were embarrassed to admit that they
were Saints' fans. In 1980, the Saints finished 1-15.
According to John Naylor, on his first day on the new job, Coach Van
Zandt was looking over the schedule and said to Coach Phillips, "I
don't see no Kansas State on here."
Replied Bum Phillips, "Lance, we ARE Kansas State."
*********** Saturday, when we turned to Fox, which advertised that it
would be carrying the Washington-Illinois game, we got instead the
Yankees-Orioles, still in progress.
You don't realize how f--king slow baseball is until you're waiting for
a f--king game to end so you can watch the football game that was
supposed to be televised but isn't because the f--king baseball game is
taking so f--king long.
*********** The New York Times which, since football is a masculine
pursuit, seems to have the sport in its sights (if it weren't
anti-gun), ran an article last week on the dangers of concussions. Even
one. (Concussions" Dangerous? Who knew?)
Needless to say, there were the usual football-condemning responses
from readers, many of whom I imagine still resent the fact that back in
grade school they were taken last when the best athletes chose up sides.
But one guy, identified only as "Roger" from "Milwaukee," wrote one of the greatest defenses of football I've read yet.
To
those who would ban the sport, consider the perspective of the player.
First of all, as legal adults who are passionate about a game they
excel at, they are choosing this path. The average NFL player earns
more in one year than the average American will earn in a lifetime, not
to to mention the fame and the women. I doubt that many of them would
appreciate you taking this choice away from them, even if you think you
know what is best.
Could
the NFL better educate incoming players about the risks? Sure. But that
is likely to be about as effective a deterrent as telling a Navy Seal
that his job is dangerous.
Some people choose a life of glory over a life of quiet desperation, and I think that's okay.
*********** A study by the Camelot Health Authority has found
that retired knights suffer far more debilitating injuries in old
age than the rest of the population, attributable directly to their
jousting days.
At the heart of the problem seems to be the culture of "gallantry," in
which a knight wears a scarf or similar piece of apparel belonging to a
fair lady of the court, presumably with the understanding that honoring
her by winning the tournament will also mean winning her heart.
A major issue seems to be the insistence of knights, after having been
unhorsed, on getting right back onto their steeds and returning to the
competition. The study suggests that many of them, spurred on no doubt
by lust for the lady, may return to action before it's safe to do so.
"We've got to change the culture," said Timothy the Timorous, an
opponent of jousting and an advocate of pillow fighting as an
alternative.
"Yes, winning a jousting tournament has its feel-good aspects -
glory and gallantry all that - but it's all over so quickly, and
at what price? Is the heart of any fair maiden worth a lifetime of sore
limbs?"
***********
Back on August 20, before the start of the college football season, the
Wall Street Journal ran a listing of coaches from the Big Five
conferences, and their career records against Top-25 opponents. (The
figures haven't been revised to reflect this season's results)
I
took the figures and arranged the coaches into three categories: those
with winning records; those with .500 records; those with losing records
And I ranked them all by total number of wins.
TOP COACHES WITH WINNINGRECORDS IN GAMES AGAINST TOP-25 OPPONENTS
Steve Spurrier 62-52-1 (18-23 at SC)
Bob Stoops 50-23
Nick Saban 50-35
Les Miles 40-31
Mark Richt 34-31
Urban Meyer 25-12
Brian Kelly 15-11
David Shaw 14-4
Jimbo Fisher 9-5
Chris Peterson 8-4
Kevin Sumlin 8-7
Gus Malzahn 5-3
Mark Helfrich 2-1
THOSE WITH .500 RECORDS
Gary Patterson 14-14
Jim Mora 5-5
Charley Strong 2-2
TOP COACHES WITH LOSING RECORDS IN GAMES AGAINST TOP-25 OPPONENTS
Frank Beamer 43-50-1
Bill Snyder 23-43
Kirk Ferentz 19-34
Rich Rodriguez 16-26
MIke Gundy 15-20
Gary Pinkel 15-37
Bobby Petrino 14-17
MIke Riley 13-39
Mike Leach 13-38
Mark Dantonio 12-25
Brett Bielema 10-20
Dabo Swinney 9-13
David Cutcliffe 8-25
Steve Sarkisian 8-18
Paul Johnson 7-20
Pat Fitzgerald 5-15
Dana Holgorson 5-6
Brady Hoke 4-20
Charlie Weis 4-20
Will Muschamp 4-11
MIke London 3-6
Paul Chryst 3-4
Dan Mullen 2-21
Gary Anderson 2-8
Hugh Freeze 2-8
Kliff Kingsbury 2-3
Randy Edsall 1-24
Butch Jones 1-11
James Franklin 1-8
***********
For some time now, it's been obvious that former players who get
announcing gigs are coached beforehand to use their hands - really,
really use their hands - as they speak. John Gruden is a
classic example. Watch him and tell me you've ever in your life had a
conversation with someone who uses his hands like that, unless it was
an Italian fish monger.
For
another example, watch the Monday Night Football post-game show on ESPN
and turn off the audio. You will laugh your ass off watching those guys
- especially Trent Dilfer - looking like manic puppets as they bob and
weave and gesticulate.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 - "A pitcher needs two pitches. One they're looking for, and one to cross them up." Warren Spahn, considered by many to be the best left-handed pitcher of all time.
***********
I turn on the radio and I hear the Brave Knights of the Air Waves
calling for Roger Goodell to resign. Or be fired.
The argument? Whatever goes down with this Ray Rice deal,
Goodell's the Man in Charge. He's either incompetent or he's been
deceitful.
I hear the comments and I want to ask, "Why weren't you working for the
New York Times when Fast and Furious went down? When the IRS singled
out conservative groups? When four Americans were left to die in
Benghazi?"
If you'd been on those cases the way you're on Roger Goodell's , Eric
Holder and Lois Lerner would be in prison, and a certain former
President would have a lot of free time to play golf and give speeches
to raise money for his presidential library.
********** The Ray Rice incident is why I'm a college football fan.
You don't hear about college players doing all the nasty things that pros do.
You don't hear about them using performance enhancing drugs or, for
that matter, recreational drugs, or driving drunk, or getting into
brawls in campus watering holes and then resisting arrest.
Not that they don't.
But when a college player is suspended from the team, or kicked off,
the schools merely say it's for "violation of team rules," and that's
the end of it, as far as we the public are concerned. Student
privacy and all that.
And you rarely hear about college players beating their wives.
(Mainly because at that stage, they're still "Fiancees.")
*********** If you think the NFL is bad now, imagine how it would be
if, like the NBA, they signed guys after one year of college.
But at the same time, college football (and colleges
themselves) would be a lot better off without some of the cretins
they falsely try to pass off as "student-athletes."
*********** Any hopes anybody might have had for doing away with the
NFL's annual October Pink-Out have been dashed, thanks to the Ray Rice
incident.
In the words of Rush Limbaugh, "We're gonna see a lot of pink."
Expect the NFL to launch a massive PR effort to try to assure its
growing female audience that NFL players really do care about women and
their problems, and that in their spare time they help old ladies
across the street and work at shelters for abused women.
*********** Marvin Barnes is dead. What an amazing character. What a monstrous waste of great athletic talent.
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/content/20140908-pc-basketball-great-marvin-barnes-dead-at-62.ece
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/10/sports/basketball/marvin-barnes-enigmatic-basketball-player-dies-at-62.html?referrer=
*********** I saw a show advertised on Animal Planet called "Pit Bulls
and Parolees" and, knowing absolutely nothing about it, my first
thought was, so that's what they do with all the outtakes from
"COPS."
*********** Nothing against Virginia Tech, but after watching the
Hokies beat Ohio State Saturday, I propose that someone endow a
trophy to go to That Player Whose Absence From His Team Has Had The
Greatest Impact on College Football.
This year's winner - you can start engraving the trophy - is easily
Braxton Miller, the injured Buckeyes' QB, whose team is very ordinary
without him.
Has there ever been another weekend when the Bills, Dolphins and Jets all won - and the Patriots lost?
*********** So most of the sanctions against Penn State have been
listed. The Lions are now eligible to play in a bowl game - THIS
YEAR!
Now, Almighty NCAA, will you please get your heads all the way out of
your anuses and restore those wins that you unjustly stole from Joe
Paterno and his players?
*********** Notice the way the brave, courageous members of the news
media go after targets like Joe Paterno and Augusta National Golf Club
and Roger Goodell? Notice how they go after people and institutions
whose defenders tend not to be raucous and disruptive? Notice how
they wait until it's safe to attack, without fear of counterattack?
*********** I wish somebody had simply given Mo'ne Davis Geno Auriemma's phone number so she could call him.
nstead, Auriemma, coach of the UConn Huskies' women's basketball team
(in case you didn't know) called her - and in so doing, committed an
NCAA violation. Or so they say.
It started when the young lady reacted to all the fuss over her, and
reposed to speculation about someday playing in the major leagues by
saying that her real dream was to play basketball for UConn.
Word got to Auriemma, of course, and after getting clearance from
UConn's NCAA compliance folks (every school needs such a department,
just to try to stay on the right side of the most complicated set of
rules this side of the US Tax Code), he gave Mo'ne a call to
congratulate her.
Not that UConn will get the death penalty or anything like that, but it's typical of the way the NCAA nitpickers operate.
Said Auriemma, “There’s guys playing college basketball driving around
in cars that cost more than my house, and we’re worried about a phone
call that I made?”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/sports/ncaa-says-auriemma-violated-a-rule.html?referrer=&_r=0
*********** The NFL denied that it called around the league to try to
persuade one of its 32 teams to - please - sign Michael Sam to a
practice-squad contract.
And I guess I believe them.
Unless, of course, it turns out that they've been lying about their knowledge of the Ray Rice knockout video.
In which case, all bets are off.
*********** When is "dropped passes" (or "percentage of passes caught")
going to be a stat? I know it doesn't mean anything to the
Fantasy guys, but few of them are real football fans anyhow. But for
real fans of the game, isn't it important to know how reliable a
receiver is? And for casual fans, wouldn't it be
interesting to discover that the guy with the biggest mouth, the guy
with the most elaborate end zone dance, is actually the least
dependable receiver on the team?
It's not a hard stat to keep. Baseball scorers having been
routinely making hit/error calls, decisions critical in some cases to a
pitcher's ERA or a hitter's batting average.
*********** Last spring, a friend of mine took a job at an inner-city
school that's had its share of hard times. Since then, he's
been fighting the good fight, working his tail off to get kids out for
football. And to keep them out. He figures just being able to field a
team this coming Friday night will be a big win for the program.
Problem is, this is the second week of the season. He had to forfeit the first game.
The bigger problem has been the opposing coach, who was undoubtedly
licking his lips at the prospect of putting a big score on my friend's
small bunch of inexperienced players.
He was very displeased at the idea of a forfeit, even going so far, my
friend says, as to pressure him to play with only nine men. My
friend declined, and then it started.
First it was the public badmouthing of my friend and his AD.
Then, the guy went so far as to report the "score" of the non-game to
the local newspaper and to MaxPreps as 62-0. I know, because I
saw it when I checked to see how my friend had done. (The score for a
forfeit is 2-0, the score now appearing on the schools' MaxPreps sites.)
That a**hole lied! He smeared another school, its coach and its program.
I imagine that the newspaper now knows what kind of creep they're
dealing with, if they didn't know before, but I suggested that my
friend report the guy to the state association for this breach of
coaching ethics, and to his school (did I mention that it's a church
school?) for what is surely a violation of the things that the church
stands for.
(Unless "bearing false witness against thy neighbor" is no longer a commandment. In today's America, anything's possible.)
*********** Mr. S. Truett Cathy, Founder of Chik-Fil-A, died last week
at the age of 93. Mr. Cathy started out after World War II as owner of
a small-town Georgia diner, and built the chain made famous for its
delicious chicken sandwiches and its ads featuring cows urging us to
"eat more chicken."
Mr. Cathy was a devout Christian, and he lived his message. In a
society devoted increasingly to Mammon, his Chik-Fil-A
restaurants remain closed on Sundays.
Mr. Cathy's son, Dan, now runs the company, and he caught particular
hell from certain groups when he dared to defend the fairly clear,
age-old concept of marriage as an institution bonding a man and a
woman. Although all sorts of libtards attacked him and called for
a boycott of his company, loyal customers of Chik-Fil-A (and defenders
of traditional marriage) responded by flocking to his restaurants.
The late Mr. Cathy's message to all of us:
“We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the
important things have not changed, and the important things will not
change if we keep our priorities in proper order.”
***********
Identifying Steve Garvey: Steve Garvey- KC Smith - Walpole,
Massachusetts; Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin (who sent me the
photo of the cards)
***********
I couldn't help noticing that after the Lions beat the Giants, Matthew
Stafford did his post-game interview with his cap on the way God
designed baseball caps to be worn.
*********** With aologies to friend Jody Hagins, a diehard South
Carolina backer, Kurt Fleming, an Army brat who nearly went to West
Point, gives me some reason to follow Clemson…
http://www.tigernet.com/story/football/Kurt-Flemings-punishing-running-style-accident-13017
(Thanks for the link to Will Hawthorne, of Columbia, South Carolina - deep in the heart of enemy territory)
*********** With all the bullsh-- we constantly hear about the lack of
representation of women in this field and that, my wife (a retired
elementary school teacher) asked, "Where's all the uproar about the
lack of men in teaching?"
*********** Monday evening, a time when most youth coaches were
practicing, in Wichita, Kansas an argument about a kid's playing time
devolved into six men beating on the coach. One of the critics was
said to be employing brass knuckles.
To the rescue came the coach's wife, who drew a gun and fired it into
the air. This apparently stopped the beat-up, and the coach used the
break to go to his car and get another gun.
By the time police arrived, the coach's six critics had bailed.
I couldn't find out whether the coach will find an expanded role for the kid in question.
Or whether the team is now looking for another coach.
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Shot-fired-during-fight-at-Wichita-youth-football-practice-274479151.html?llsms=971281&c=y
*********** I know absolutely nothing about Ray Rice's background, but
I truly believe that somewhere in the young life of any NFL miscreant,
there had to be at least one coach so obsessed with winning, so set on
making his mark as a legendary youth football coach, that he would
excuse any form of misconduct that might otherwise have called for a
curtailment of his star's playing time.
As most readers know, I'm no fan of the NFL-USA Football combination,
but so long as they're going to be out there telling parents to
insist that their son's coaches are "USA-Football Certified", and so
long as they claim that they're actually capable of "certifying"
coaches, I suggest that they include in their "coaching certification"
program a VERY important section:
"Have the Balls to Discipline Your Best Player."
Yes, coaches, it may cost you a win. Big F--king Deal.
It could even mean that you won't be National Youth Football Coach of the Year.
But guess what? This isn't about you. It's about what's in the best
interest of the player, and his development as a decent human
being.
If that matters to you.
*********** Was it a game, or wasn't it?
A. Idaho showed up at Florida as agreed to, and the ball was kicked off. (GAME)
B. The game was suspended because of weather and then cancelled and ruled "no contest." (NO GAME)
C. Idaho went home with a game check. (GAME)
D. Florida gave refunds to all ticket holders. (NO GAME)
E. Florida coach Will Muschamp ruled that three Florida players who'd
been suspended for "one game" had been punished enough, and lifted
their suspensions, so the Gators can be be at full-strength for this
week's game against Mighty Eastern Michigan. (GAME)
*********** New University of Washington coach Chris Peterson is trying
to right the ship by suspending players - players recruited
by fthe Huskies' former coach.
Peterson's latest suspension was corner Marcus Peters, considered by
many to be an NFL prospect - and also considered by many to be an
undisciplined trash talker.
Writes Larry Stone in the Seattle Times…
...Peters
has been suspended for the Illinois game. A team that gave up seven
passing touchdowns (admittedly with Peters on the field for five of
them) will apparently play Saturday without a player rated by many as a
future first-round draft pick.
The
disciplinary action stemmed from an unsportsmanlike call against Peters
in the third quarter that negated a key Husky defensive stop on third
down, and Peters’ subsequent reaction on the sideline. He was seen
arguing with assistant coaches and throwing his gloves and helmet to
the ground, a no-no in Petersen’s book.
I
wish Petersen had been more forthright Monday in talking about his
handling of an incident that was witnessed by a television audience,
not to mention fans in the stadium. He said, instead, that he would
keep any disciplinary measure “in-house.”
But
it’s more important to be forthright and decisive in your actions, and
Petersen has done that. Peters would be the eighth player he has either
suspended or dismissed from the team since February. That includes his
starting quarterback, Cyler Miles; a wide receiver of tremendous
potential, Damore’ea Stringfellow; and a starting linebacker, John
Timu, for an incident that took place when Steve Sarkisian was still
the coach.
Those beauties were all recruited by Steve Sarkisian, who's now at USC.
Good luck with Sark, Trojans.
Fight on.
http://seattletimes.com/html/huskyfootball/2024494684_uwfootball09xml.html
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 - "The more laws, the less justice." Marcus Tullius Cicero
*********** Bruce Levenson is going to have to sell his share of the Atlanta Hawks because of some "racist" email he sent.
Hey - he told his GM and a couple of the other owners that he thought the club needed to do more to attract white fans.
Does that make him racist?
Damn shame that he isn't a black guy, because he could have said the
same thing and it would have made great business sense. So maybe he'll
wind up selling to a wealthy black person, who will then, in all
likelihood, send his GM and fellow owners an email saying that they
need to do more to attract white fans.
And nobody will complain that he's being racist.
*********** At North Beach High, we were 7-3 last season, and although
we did lose our quarterback to graduation, we returned our entire
offensive line and several very quick wingback/receiver type kids. The
key was whether the next guy up - the player designated to become our
quarterback, could develop the way we needed him to. After
a very good spring, including more than holding our own in a jamboree
against three larger schools, he was playing well enough that I figured
that we had a chance to be pretty good this season.
But pre-season camp was frustrating. We just weren't as sharp as we
should be, I felt. We often just seemed to be going through the
motions. The usual enthusiasm was missing. Was it
overconfidence? Complacency? Boredom? Lack of
conditioning? Coaching?
Turns out, we needed a game.
Friday night, we opened at Ilwaco, a fishing town down in the far
southeast corner of the state, near the mouth of the Columbia River,
and came away 52-0 winners.
The Ilwaco Fishermen, having moved down a level in classification
this year, were playing their first game in our league, and may have
been caught unprepared for the level of competition played by smaller
schools. They didn't play badly: they fumbled just once and had
very few penalties and executed fairly crisply overall.
But to be frank, we had just too much size up front, speed in the backfield and experience overall for them to stay with us.
For those who will tell you that time of possession matters, consider
this - we had only 30 rushing plays and seven pass plays. Ilwaco
actually ran more plays.
Part of the reason for the small number of plays was the running clock,
in play for the fourth quarter, but part of it was our offensive
execution: we had 457 yards rushing and 66 yards passing, and 21 of our
37 plays were for ten yards or more. Counting our JVs, who played an
offensive series and actually scored a TD, ten different players
carried the ball.
We led only 14-0 when we forced Ilwaco to punt with 2:19 until
halftime. Taking over at our own 40, we drove the 60 yards in
five
plays. QB Alex McAra completed two of three passes to Steven
Fry,
and wingback Skyer Wells carried twice for 27 yards, crossing the goal
line from 15 yards out with :29 remaining.
The two-point conversion sent us in with a 22-0 lead and it had to deflate Ilwaco.
It took us just two plays at the start of the second half to turn the
game into a rout. On our first offensive play, Jordan Chong raced 55
yards for a score, and after Ilwaco put on a nice drive that stalled at
our 15, slotback Elijah Towery broke off tackle for an 85 yard
touchdown that made the score 38-0.
A very pleasant surprise for us was the showing of 6-1, 180 pound
B-Back Cameron Keller, who spent most of last season watching from the
sidelines. Friday night, he was a horse, carrying off-tackle and
up the middle nine times for 145 yards.
QB Alex McAra was as cool as I could have hoped for, getting the calls
from the sideline without a hitch and handling the ball flawlessly. He
completed six of seven for 66 yards, and threw for two PATs. He
ran the ball three times for 12 yards and a touchdown, and he added two
PAT conversions.
We came out of the game injury-free, and a couple of our JVs played well enough to earn further looks.
Next Friday, we play the South Bend Indians at home. As happens
in small schools, South Bend has had its ups and downs in recent
years. It won the state title in 2010, but since then the talent has
dropped off. We now enjoy a four-game win streak over the
Indians. We played them twice last year and put running scores on them
both times.
I don't know whether South Bend is better than last year, but I know we are.
*********** The Pac-12 can thank God for Oregon's impressive win
over Michigan State. Oregon jumped out early in typical, dazzling
fashion, but MSU took over in the second quarter, scoring 24 points and
and giving the Ducks a lesson in power football.
At halftime, the mighty Oregon offense had only 14 yards rushing, and the game appeared over.
But the Ducks nutted up in the second half, putting the lie to the
commonly-held belief that being flashy means they're soft, and they
wound up beating a very good Michigan State soundly, in the air and on
the ground.
Meantime, though, there's the rest of the league:
USC over Stanford doesn't count, because they're both Pac-12 teams.
Arizona State in a romp over New Mexico. Well, yeah…
Cal in a romp over Sacramento State. Well, yeah…
Utah in a romp over Fresno State. Well, yeah...
UCLA over Memphis. Barely.
Arizona over Texas San Antonio. Barely.
Colorado over UMass. Barely.
Oregon State over Hawaii. Barely.
Washington over Eastern Washington. Barely.
Washington State over Nevada. Make me laugh. That would be Nevada over Wazzu.
*********** There can't be a more anxious AD in the country than
Washington State's Bill Moos. His hiring of Mike Leach, at a time
when no one else would tough the guy, was seen by most Wazzu supporters
as a master stroke.
Leach probably wouldn't have been hired if WSU had gone through the
usual hiring-by-committee process, with all sorts of professors, female
coaches and community activists sitting on a "search committee," but
when people asked Moos about a search committee to find a football
coach, he said, "You're looking at him."
The money Moos agreed to pay Leach may have seemed unusually high to
Cougar fans used to being outspent by their more glamorous Pac-12
rivals, but after all those years of mediocrity or worse, they were
willing to concede that maybe Bill knew what he was doing.
I hope he does. I like Bill Moos, and I like Mike Leach, but the
fact is the Cougs are now 0-2, with ugly losses to Rutgers and
Nevada. They have shown little defense and no running game.
(This is, after all, a Mike Leach team.)
What's it going to look like against Oregon, Stanford, USC, Arizonal
... Oh, well, the good news: Next week, they play Portland
State.
But then the bad news: The week after, they play Oregon. At least it's at home.
Meanwhile, a sampling of comments from the Cougs' nearest thing to a local paper Spokane Spokesman-Review.
WHAT the hell is going on at WSU? BILL Moos needs to tells us why we
spent so much money on a one-dimensional coach, who writes books vs
putting together a winning game plan.
Pass,
pass, pass, and more pass. Little defense and never a formation with a
traditional running game. Without at least an attempt at a running game
it will be a long season and should be the last for the way overpaid
coach.
Let's
see 65 million dollar football facility, millions to coaches and end
result more of the same pathetic uncompetitive teams. Yikes like
someone said 3 years of this and nothing to show. It really seems worse
now. The myopic tunnel vision that goes on in terms of no apparent view
for defense, running game ,special teams will only result in more of
the same regardless of patience, money, or will. At this point not sure
the Big Sky would see them as competitive enough to be allowed to join.
*********** So you think you're a comedy writer. Your challenge? Fill in the punch line:
Back in training camp, Texas coach Charlie Strong removed the
Longhorns from the Texas helmets and made the players earn them back...
My entry: So where did all those guys playing BYU buy all those Longhorn decals?
*********** Things can't be rosy in Meeshigan, either. That
beat-down by the Fighting Irish was the Wolverine's first shutout in 30
years.
They play Utah next week. The Utes can score. Can Michigan?
*********** Do you suppose announcers are under instructions not to
comment on the officiating? On Saturday I saw some horrendous
examples of pass interference that went uncalled by the officials, and
the strongest comment I heard from any of the bullsh--ers in the booth
was something on the order of "you could call that one either way."
*********** You know Stanford's David Shaw had zero confidence in his
kicker (who had already missed two earlier attempts) when, down by
three to USC and with more than enough muscle to drive into tying field
goal range, threw caution to the wind and threw, and threw, and threw -
in vain - for the winning TD.
*********** Stanford essentially lost the game to USC when, behind
13-10, they completed a pretty touchdown pass - only to have it called
back by what the officials called a :chop block."
Not that I expected anyone in the booth to anal;use and explain,
because most of those clowns think a "chop block" is any block thrown
below a defender's knees.
In this particular case, it may technically have been a chop block
within the strictest definition of one, but to call it required a
total lack of understanding of the penalty, and why it was put in the
rule book.
Originally, back in the days when everybody was playing a five-man
line, it became common practice for offenses to have their center stand
up a nose guard, while seconds later a guard (or tackle) would hit him
at or below the knees. Effective, yes, but devastating to the
careers of nose guards.
What happened Saturday was that as the Stanford QB prepared to pass, a
rusher came in unblocked. A Stanford back and a Stanford linemen both
recognized this, and hustled to block him. One went high and one
went low. It was the first time I'd ever seen a chop block
performed against moving target, scarily the dangerous tactic
that the rules committee intended to eliminate.
Theoretically, an act which calls for a penalty should be one which a player can avoid.
There was no way the Stanford players could have avoided that one.
They tell me here's a nice, warm place in hell reserved for officials like the one who called that one.
*********** Tell me what I'm missing here…
31 of 32 NFL teams pass on Michael Sam, ostensibly because they don't want the distraction.
NIck Saban, as distraction-averse as any NFL coach, brings in Lane Kiffin as his offensive coordinator.
*********** The NFL denies that it called league teams to plead with
them to - pretty please - sign Michael Sam to a practice squad
contract.
If this turns out to be true - if the National Football League asked
its member teams to put aside considerations of talent and need and
sign a gay player, in an obvious attempt to cater to America's enormous
number of gay football fans - I'm not sure that the NFL can survive the
revelation.
And I'm not sure it should.
*********** Pete Porcelli, of Troy, New York, has been doing
double-duty, coaching a top-notch semi-pro team, the Troy Fighting
Irish and, since late last season, Hoosic Valley High School.
The Hoosic Valley job has been the bigger challenge. By
far. When Coach Porcelli took the job last season, the Indians (I
guess it's okay for me to print that) had lost or forfeited their last
14 games, and just prior to the start of the season, the community had
seriously debated dropping football altogether.
Accepting the challenge, Coach Porcelli managed to pull off the
near-impossible, installing his Double Wing on short notice and
managing to steer the Indians to two wins in their final three games.
On Saturday, the Indians came from behind to win their opener, 14-6.
http://www.troyrecord.com/sports/20140906/indians-post-emotional-victory-in-opener
*********** Ho Hum. New season, same old NFL.
In Sunday's 13 NFL games, no fewer than 55 field goals were
attempted. Put another way, that's 55 failed offensive drives,
compared to 59 offensive touchdowns (returns don't count).
Not to say that NFL kickers are automatic, because they're not.
Just almost. Out of 55 field goal attempts, 47 were
successful. That's an 85 per cent success rate. Oh, the
suspense. Be still, my beating heart.
In seven games - more than half of the 13 games played - at least five field goals were attempted.
You want excitement? The Bengals led the Ravens at halftime, 15-0. All the Bengals' points came on field goals.
The NFL keeps trying to figure out ways to make the "game day
experience" better for the paying fans, seemingly oblivious to the fact
that every successful field goal means another three-minute commercial
break, with absolutely nothing going on down on the field. At
least at home you can go to the bathroom or the fridge.
***********
You may not remember this MSU Spartan defensive back from the late
1960s, but I bet you'd know who he was if I told you he was a two-time
MVP in another sport.
*********** George Crume, a League City, Texas businessman, is a former
college football coach and a long-time honorary Black Lion. Clay
Crume, the third of George's sons to play college football, is a senior
long-snapper at the University of Rhode Island.
And he's a mentor to a very special young teammate, Evan Huddon.
Evan is only four feet, two inches tall. And he's just an eighth
grader. Evan suffers from spina bifida. He's undergone 21 brain
surgeries in his short life, and he's confined to a wheelchair, but
thanks to an organization that works with college teams to "adopt"
children with serious medical conditions, he's been a Rhode Island Ram
since last season.
And Clay Crume is Evan's mentor.
"He's (Evan) been in a wheel chair his whole life and he's still the
most positive person you will ever meet," Crume said. "It's incredible
how someone with such misfortune of what he's gone through is so
positive and loves life and every day is just a blessing for him and he
knows it."
Crume said, "This past year, we've become really close and we talk on Facebook and every time he comes to practice we talk."
For his part, Evan said he loves spending time with Clay Crume.
"Clay is awesome and is like a big brother to me," Evan said. "He
treats me with so much respect."
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x573966209/Boy-with-Spina-Bifida-is-No-1-in-Rhode-Island-program-and-hearts#.VAmiS-H-9nU.twitter
*********** I have to go along with Joel Klatt of Fox, who asked, not
exactly in these words, WTF is Pat Haden, AD of USC, doing on the
Playoff selection committee???
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 - "It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." Winston Churchill
*********** I had no idea that Michael Jordan was a fan of tennis. Neither did I know that he and Roger Federer were buds.
But there Jordan was last week, in Federer's personal box at the US Open.
Wow, I thought. That is so cool. Two of the best in the world at what they do/did, hanging out together.
And then I found out that I'd been had. You too, if you saw them and thought they were chums.
Turns out they'd only met the day before. The introductions