BACK ISSUES - JANUARY 2003
Ha! I can beat that! I have done several camps in Wells, Nevada, way up in the Northeast corner of the state, a tiny town on I-80 about 350 miles east of Reno and 190 miles west of Salt Lake City. Visible from the Interstate is the rooftop sign of one of the town's businesses, and one of Wells High School's biggest supporters, Donna's Ranch. (Let's just say Donna ain't runnin' cattle over there.) But Donna is good to the local folks. When the high school sought donations to erect (oops) lights at its football field, Donna's came up with money. When the wrestling team needed new uniforms, Donna paid for them. And for a great fundraiser, the high school kids go over to Donna's parking lot and take pictures of all the trucks idling outside, then they sell the negatives to the drivers when they come out of Donna's. (Just kidding about that last bit. Pretty good idea, though, huh?) *********** Mike Emery announced on Monday that this was it - for now. He was calling it quits - for now. Mike, head coach at Fitch High School in Groton, Connecticut, has been one of the top high school coaches in Connecticut, and without doubt has achieved more with the Double-Wing than any coach in America. Consider: from 1992 through 2002, his record is 92-20-1. Since going with the Double-Wing, his Fitch Falcons were state Class L (large school) semi-finalists (1997), state finalists (1998), state champions (1999), state champions (2000), state finalists (2001). His 1999 and 2000 teams were unbeaten and his 1998 and 2001 teams were both unbeaten until reaching the state class L finals. Put another way, in four years of football, his only two losses were in the state championship game. Mike is a bright guy who listens a lot more than he talks. His is a calm, thoughtful approach to the game. If you didn't know that he was an outstanding football coach, you might think he was a math teacher. In fact he is - he's also the chairman of the Fitch math department. Coming off an incredible five-year run, this year's Fitch team finished 6-5, but winning and losing had nothing to do with Mike's decision to "retire" - for now. After my Providence clinic last year, Mike discussed that fact that with 16 starters graduating from a state finalist team, last winter would have seemed to be the right time for him to get out. A lot of people would have thought so. But Mike had a great staff at Fitch, and he looked forward to working with them and with a new group of kids. I all has to do with a promise he made years ago. Back when his son, Brian, was three, Mike vowed that if his son were ever to play high school football, he would be there to watch his son's games, even if that meant getting out of coaching. Next year, Brian will be a freshman at nearby Montville High, and he plans on playing football. Mike Emery is a class act, and he knows his stuff. I am hoping he will agree to come to the Providence clinic and say a few words. (The "for nows" are mine. Mike is only 45 years old. He'll be back.) *********** Didn't I tell you that "my" governor was a stiff? that he'd be a pushover for the Prez? Did you happen to listen to any of his lame-ass "rebuttal?" It was taped! In advance! He taped it before he even heard what the President had to say! In football terms - he mailed it in! *********** (I just knew I was going to get something like this) Coach Wyatt , I used to have a high opinion of your great adopted state of Washington, but after that moving speech by your Governor last night and after that "stunt" that liberal "wacko" terrorist sympathizer broad senator pulled off, you guys are becoming a bigger embarrassment than the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, which I thought was impossible. My deepest sympathies to you poor SOB's in the Great White North- see ya Friday, John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts (Ouch. So it's come to this. You know your state has hit rock bottom when a guy from Taxachusetts, the land of the Kennedys, tells you he feels sorry for you. HW) *********** A coach wrote in and told me of some advice he got back when he first became a head coach. Said that in his first scrimmage, his team was handled, by a score of 26-0 or something like that, and afterward, the coach of the other team, an old-timer, was kind enough to pass along some advice on the subject of offensive play: "do as little as possible to lose. And only practice and use what works in battle". Very well put. My guess is that that old coach didn't lose too many games that his kids were good enough to win. *********** There is zero chance I'll watch any of the Pro Bowl this Sunday. (It is Sunday, right?) Actually, looking at the Raiders on the field and on the sideline, I thought I was watching the Pro Bowl a week early. *********** Coach I finally saw the Office Linebacker, commercial..... I was CRYING laughing!! I only have one question.....how can I get a High School Hall Linebacker!!! Joe Daniels, Sacramento *********** "I agree, the office linebacker commercial was the best one of the Super Bowl. I'm glad Mr. Tate is not in this office or I wouldn't be able to send you this email." Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois *********** Poor Rich Gannon. He discovers shortly before the biggest game in his career that, not only is he facing one of the best pass-rushing fronts fours in recent memory, but his Pro Bowl center just went bugf**k on him in Tijuana. Think that would affect your performance? Ted Seay, U.S. Embassy, Suva, Fiji Islands *********** Indianapolis Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt makes $1.5 million a year to kick (!) but he has graciously agreed to join Katie Hnida on the poster I will be using in my Program to Eliminate Weenie Kicking Specialists (PEWKS - pronounced "Pukes.") This guy knows why the Jets kicked the Colts' ass in their wild-card playoff game: Peyton Manning didn't holler enough, and Tony Dungy is too nice. Oh, and many of the other players "lack passion." Pouring out his soul to a Canadian cable network, he said, "I'm not a real big Colts fan right now, unfortunately. I just don't see us getting better." He said he didn't think that the team was sufficiently fired up, and he's told them so. "I've gone over there to the offense and said, 'Come on.'" he said. "They're just like, 'Mike, go sit down. You're the kicker.'" Now, anybody who's ever spent any time around a pro football team could have called that one. Kickers are simply not looked on as football players. (Maybe that's because, for the most part, they're not.) They're simply not considered a part of the team. It's why I've never believed in having a place-kicker or punter who didn't do everything asked of everyone else on the team, including scrimmaging. Would you enjoy looking over at the keeker, kicking the ball into his little net while you're sweating your ass off practicing football? He said that he tried to get Manning fired up before the Jets game. "All week before the Jets game I'm like, '18, we're going to handle it, me and you we're going to win this game.' And he's like, 'Yeah, yeah, OK.' (Did you get that, "me and you, we're going to win this game" bit?) He said he told the quarterback, "Peyton, show some enthusiasm, you're the quarterback and we need to win this game." He said the Colts' offense desperately needed an emotional leader - "we need somebody who is going to get in people's face and yell and scream," he said - and "I just don't see it from him." Dungy? "He's just a mild-mannered guy. He doesn't get too excited, he doesn't get too down and I don't think that works either. I think you need a motivator, I think you need a guy that is going to get in somebody's face when they're not performing well enough. Peyton and Tony are basically the same guy. They work hard, they mark their Xs and Os and go out and execute. If it doesn't happen, there's nothing we can do about it." Not that anybody's really interested in his opinion. It reminded me of an incident years ago, in my first year of high school coaching. I was caught up in pre-game preparations, and some first-year senior who had never played football before and scarcely played (even though we had only 20-some kids out for football in the entire schoo), came up to me as I was taping some kid's ankles and out of rthe blue said, "I see some things on this football team that I don't like." Now, I was a little tight, and no, I hadn't yet learned the right way to talk to a high school kid, and yes, I still had a good bit of my pro football vocabulary, and I looked up at him and said, "Who gives a f--k what you see?" I have a feeling that Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy put Mike Vanderjagt in that category. Boy! I'd sure love to be around that team during training camp! You think that keeker ain't gonna have a practical joke or two played on him? *********** Coach, The other day a fellow coach asked me about the tight splits. I gave him the usual reasons for the splits and I told him about other offenses that use tight splits. The first that came to mind where the single wing and the wing-t. He then said "this is kind of like that tight-T that George Halas and Clark Shaunghessy ran back in the day." That started me thinking about that Dewey Sullivan fellow you mentioned in one of your "news" post and that the guy is the winnigest coach in Oregon. I was just wondering if he runs his splits as tight as the DW. Do you know of any good books on the tight-t? John Carbon, Panama Dewey Sullivan, of Dayton, Oregon - winningest coach in Oregon high school history, employs "normal" splits because although he runs a full-house T, he runs the Belly-T, the forerunner in many ways of the wishbone, and it does require splits. The two best books I've seen on full-house belly-T football are "Bobby Dodd on Football" (by Bobby Dodd, of course) published in 1954 by Prentice-Hall, and "Offensive Football - the Belly Series,"by Jordan Olivar. Ronald Press, 1958. Neither specifically mentions splits, although all diagramsshow them. An excellent book on the full-house T is "Notre Dame Football - the T Formation" by Frank Leahy, Prentice-Hall, 1949. Leahy advocated 8-inch splits in the "A" gaps, 1-foot splits in the "B"gaps, and 1-yard splits in the"C" gaps. (I assume that he had the time and patience - and assistants - to police those 8-inch "A" gaps.) The two best books on the split-T, first of all T-formation option attacks, are "Football - Secrets of the Split-T Formation"by Don Faurot, Prentice-Hall, 1950, and "Oklahoma Split-T Football," by Bud Wilkinson, Prentice-Hall, 1952. (The split-T is so-named because it called for splits of at least one yard, and up to 3 yards between the tackles and tight ends. As for Clark Shaughnessy - I have a photograph of his 1940 Stanford club, considered to be the first modern T-formation team, and the linemen are foot-to-foot, although it is possible that it was just for the purposes of scrunching them in tighter to fit everybody into the photo. *********** Hugh, In response to your most recent coaching tip regarding the use of 2- or 3-point stances for the wingbacks, we have had better success with the 3-point stance in that it reduced the number of illegal motion ("leaning") penalties for us to virtually zero (in both practices and games) the year we used it. Last year, we went back to the two point stance and, it seemed to me, we were having two or three motion penalties per practice and at least one per game (generally by the same players who must have thought they were getting or needing an advantage). While I do prefer the 2-point stance because of the better vision it affords the wingback, I would use the 3-point stance because, for us, it has cut our illegal motion penalties to zero. Sincerely, Mike O'Donnell, Pine City, Minnesota (Point well taken. I have always stressed, in the two-point, that guys much not lean forward - a coaching point is to make sure they keep their heels on the ground. But this is one of those areas that isn't worth fighting over, because the important thing is what works best for you. HW) *********** A coach whom I happen to have played against a couple of times wrote to tell me he'd been fired. I was surprised, because he'd always put good teams on the field and his kids played hard, clean football. I felt he did as well as anyone could have done with the kdis he had. So I asked him to fill me in, and here's what he wrote. I was the head coach here for 13 years. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. A school board member's son was the quarterback and we only won 2 games. Our kids played hard and we had a great time, but we only won two games. Like I mentioned I purchased a lot of equipment myself because we needed it. For 2 seasons I got zilch for my budget and our uniforms were falling apart and we were running out of helmets because of the automatic cull that reconditioners do. I was trying to do what most coaches do - buy 5 to 10 sets of uniforms every year and 10 to 15 new helmets. But we got a new AD a few years back and the money just quit coming. I tried to raise money with fundraisers but this district makes it very difficult. They really discourage fundraising because of all the bookkeeping and paper work that goes along with it. So I just said to hell with it and bought stuff we needed myself. (With my own money.)The district gods didn't like it at all. So here I am looking for a new coaching job. I'll find one. Actually I believe there is a job out there looking for me and somehow we just need to find each other. A friend of mine who coached in Oregon once told me that you're bound to make one enemy a year, and if you stay at a place 10 years you'll acquire 10 enemies. In a big district, they go their separate ways - they have other fish to fry. But in a small town, they don't forget, and they tend to find each other. 10 enemies in a small town is more is more than enough to bring you down. But here's the rub - they can't fire you until you lose. Then they pile on. I've always said that you don't get fired for losing (unless you do it a whole lot , which is not true in this coach's case). You get fired because you pissed somebody off at some point, and losing gives them the cover they need to get rid of you. And makes it harder for your supporters to come to your defense. *********** Great comments on the Super Bowl - commercials, game, etc. Been reading the Tony Canadeo book. Adam Wesoloski (The Tony Canadeo book, "In Search of a Hero," by David Zimmerman, Eagle Books, 2001, is a great look at the history of the Green Bay Packers and one of the players who played such a big part in that history, helping to keep the franchise together through good times and bad.) *********** I have to give the Tampa fans credit. Very little problem with the crowds of fans, and only two arrests for minor violations. When did this ridiculous practice of rioting after a sporting event begin? Seems like there are a lot of folks that need to get a life. Tom Hinger, Auburndale, Florida *********** My Raiders sure could have used ANY running game, wishbone, I, Stack...pitiful! Joe Daniels, Sacramento, California *********** I just want to thank you for joining forces with the Black Lions, with the Holleder award. It is great to see so many Black Lions willing to travel and be a part of the program, and young people learning a little about our history and the many sacrifices have been made to enjoy this freedom we have today. This has been a great way to get this message out, and it appears that another great benefit is the association of many Black Lions with various football groups throughout this country. I know at Umatilla our players always look forward to Doc Hinger coming to any of our games, and are very respectful when his name and the whole Black Lion award is mentioned. I am letting as many of them that want to read "The Beast was Out There," because I think it is important for them to experience that. But again, I just want to thank you for making this whole union with the Black Lions possible. It is a very positive situation for everyone involved. Ron Timson, Umatilla, Florida NEXT ISSUE: MO CHEEKS, THE PARENT WHOSE LITTLE CHILD CAN DO NO WRONG... OREGON GOES BOTTOM FISHING - AND COMES UP WITH RODNEY WOODS... JOHN IRVING ("THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP," "CIDER HOUSE RULES") WRITES ELOQUENTLY ABOUT TITLE IX... AMAZINGLY, I FIND MYSELF DEFENDING (SOME) AFFIRMATIVE ACTION...
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January
30, 2003 - "You cannot do a kindness too
soon, because you never know when it will be too
late." Ralph Waldo Emerson
***********
Glade Hall added, at the end of his list of fund-raising
ideas, "I had one more source of money that I neglected to
mention, on purpose. If you're bold enough and hard up
enough and morally corrupt enough, go visit your local strip
joints. They give plenty. I think they may feel prompted to
give so they can have a better image or something. The
problem comes up when your QB's mom finds out the gear her
son's wearing came from "Sugars" on Aurora. Watch it or
you'll end up with "Savana" behind center. Casinos can be
another source. There's so many of them, take your pick.
;-)"
***********
For years, General Jim Shelton, one
of my Black Lions friends, worked on a book on his
experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the
bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which so many Black Lions
died, Don Holleder along with them. It is now in
print.
THE
PHOTO AT THE LEFT is what the Black Lion Award is all
about - connecting outstanding young men of today with
the men who've served. Shown here is Cody Allen, of Las
Animas High in Las Animas, Colorado, and Mr. Ernesto
Vargas, a Black Lion. Las Animas coach Greg Koenig
contacted Mr. Vargas, who was happy to take part in the
award ceremony. Mr. Vargas, by the way, was awarded the
Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. On the left front of
his jacket, from bottom to top, are badges of the Black
Lions (28th Infantry Regiment), the Big Red One (1st
Infantry Division) and the Combat
Infantryman.
*********** Anybody else notice that the two big winners this year were the Bucks and the Bucs? *********** You guys in the northeast will appreciate this... NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, trying to suck up to lawmakers in New York and Washington, did his best to ignore the ice in New York Harbor and the snow on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and continued to insist that a Super Bowl in a northern city is still a good idea. He has been talking about New York or Washington, D.C. in 2008. Of course, maybe by then Al Gore will have been proven correct on global warming, but in the meantime, it was 19 degrees in New York on Super Bowl Sunday. (Yes, but it was a dry cold.)
By the way, coaches - how many of you have ever taught any flag etiquette? How many of the kids you teach and coach know that? Uh-oh. You say your teachers never taught you? *********** There were those who questioned whether the Raiders were really into Sunday's game. Maybe it was because they'd spent so much time at home the past several weeks that they acted like little kids when they went a couple of hundred miles down the road to San Diego. I began to wonder when I read about their antics on media day. If there is one thing that the NFL is very, very good at, it is taking care of the people who have stories to write and broadcast time to fill, and Super Bowl week shows the NFL's PR people at their best. Reporters by the hundreds flock to the Super Bowl city to send stories on every imaginable angle back to their homes, and the NFL does its best to accommodate them. Don't kid yourself - it wasn't Bronko Nagurski, or Sammy Baugh, or Johnny Unitas or Jim Brown that made the NFL what it is. It was the media - the people who wrote about the NFL, and talked about the NFL, and brought its heroes into our homes. In my lifetime, I've seen the NFL go from being a game that certain ex-college players played on Sunday - the day after the real football games were played - to the point where ithas become the biggest thing the sports world has ever seen. And what has fueled that growth has been the nation's written and broadcast media, and the NFL's skillful manipulation of them. Midweek, the NFL holds media functions, during which players of the two teams are seated for an hour or at various places, the better for sports writers to find them and get the quotes or stories or whatever it is they came to San Diego for. It's a relatively painless thing for the players, who, considering how much money they are making compared to how much Bronco Nagurski, or Sammy Baugh, or Johnny Unitas or Jim Brown made, ought to be kissing the reporters' rears, instead of the other way around. Yet the players often bitch about the duty, and this year the Raiders carried it to the extreme, some of them sitting in the wrong places, others wandering around videotaping the proceedings with camcorders, many blowing off the media session entirely. They did it on Wednesday. For this, the Raiders' organization was fined $50,000 by the league office. And then, hardly contrite, they did the same thing again on Thursday. Now, if there is a scummier organization than the Oakland Raiders, show it to me. Okay, okay. Beside the Portland Trail Blazers. Few people will ever accuse Raiders' owner Al Davis of doing anything with the good of the league in mind, but this past week, his organization totally dissed the league and the people who made it what it is today. Make no mistake - those Raiders would not have done what they did without the knowledge - the blessing, more likely - of Al Davis. He loves what that sort of thing does for his maverick image. But before you guys out there in your silver and black start saying, "Yeah! Right on, Al!" - before you start chanting, "Raiders! Raiders! Raiders!" - I'd like you to stop for a minute and think about the arrogance, the greed, of an organization that will fork over $50,000 in return for the opportunity of letting its players put it in the league's face. To put the Raiders' attitude into perspective - just last week, a coach wrote me from Minnesota and said that the people in his town hoped to get tackle football started in their junior high. But first, they had to raise $10,000-$15,000, a daunting prospect in any small town. Yet the Raiders were willing to piss that much and more down the drain just so they could put on their act for an hour or so. Now, $50,000 is chump change to the Oakland Raiders - or any other NFL club. But in the real world, $50,000 spent correctly could help a lot of people. Just think - the Raiders could have said, "We thought about letting our players act like jackasses and flout the NFL's rules, and then we'd just pay the fine. But instead, we're going to honor our professional obligations, and follow the rules, and donate $50,000 to youth football organizations in the East Bay." I've worked in public relations. I know how hard you have to work to interest sports reporters in the fact that you have a team and, um, you're playing a game this week, and, um, if you could just print something about us... "Yeah. A pro football team. Really. Right here in town. No, I'm not kidding..." So don't diss the media, Raiders. They're the reason why you were able to pay a $50,000 fine and laugh about it. And don't forget that what goes up can come down. You were once the laughingstock of the AFL - and that's saying something. It could happen again. Sunday's performance in the Super Bowl was a start. *********** With all the singers we have in America, they hire a Canadian to sing "God Bless America." Nothing against Canadians - but I'll bet that they'd rather have a Canadian sing "O, Canada" before the Grey Cup. And as for that "arrangement" by some damn Grammy Award winner - Kate Smith would have done a lot better. And she's dead. *********** And then the Dixie Chicks came along and sang the Star-Spangled Banner about as well as anybody could possibly have hoped for, given recent trends. *********** The camera lens they were using down on the field just before the coin toss made the '72 Dolphins look as if they were standing in front of one of those old fun-house mirrors. *********** "See, the Raiders have three wideouts, so Tampa Bay has its nickel unit, which means Ronde Barber's got the slot..." John Madden, doing his best to help the casual viewer understand the game. *********** Now, the Tampa Bay Defense... "Simeon Rice... School of Hard Knocks." Cute. More about his education later. But is the NFL really well-served by having these guys "introduce" themselves? *********** That first Tampa Bay "fumble" - reversed, thankfully, on review - was about as badly blown a call as you'll ever see. Can you imagine if there had been no challenge available? *********** Boy, did the League and ABC tiptoe around the story of the missing Barret Robbins, or what? In a Super Bowl-eve story matched only by Stanley Wilson's cocaine bust or Eugene Robinson's getting nailed while trolling for hookers, an all-star player goes AWOL the day before the championship game - and TV makes a non-story of it. Michaels and Madden chatted for five minutes before oh, by the way, telling us that Melissa had the story. Yeah, Melissa had the story - she told us that (1) he'd been sent home; (2) he was still in San Diego; (3) he was still in San Diego, but he was in a hospital. Hell, I didn't give a sh-- where he was on Sunday. I wanted to know where the f--k he was on Saturday. They sent him home? He's not a college kid at a bowl game. He's a grown man, making more money than most of the guys who read this page - put together. Raiders' coach Bill Callahan told the Raiders' radio network before the game that when Robbins showed up - late - for a team meeting Saturday night, after being absent all day and skipping that morning's walk-through, "He wasn't right physically, he wasn't right mentally." In 1996, Robbins missed the last two games of the season after receiving treatment for what a Raiders' spokesman described at the time as a "chemical imbalance" brought on by the flu, and by a reaction to medication. Hmm. "He wasn't right." How much you wanna bet there's a bigger story here, and that it's in everybody's interest to hush it up? Sent him home? My guess is, they got him out of town. *********** BEST COMMERCIAL: I think that "Terry Tate, Office Linebacker," would cure a lot of what ails corporate America. I don't think that Terry Tate, Vice-Principal would be a such a bad idea, either. I'll take a dozen, to start. *********** WORST COMMERCIAL: Bud Light's "Beer in the Anus" spot. So many Bud Light spots are so good that they're bound to miss occasionally. This one was way over the top. I suspect it sprang from the mind of a teenager. If you've ever tried teaching high school kids how to produce TV comedy, you'll understand. Everything has to be a "dick joke" or potty humor, and since they have yet to grasp the concept of subtlety everything has to be quite explicit. Come to think of it, that pretty much sums up modern TV sitcoms, doesn't it? *********** I am going to go contrary to popular thinking and say the Super Bowl outcome was attributable almost as much to the Raiders' offensive deficiency (inability or unwillingness to run the ball) as it was to the Bucs' defense. *********** You would like to think that you could watch the Super Bowl with your little kids sitting next to you. But you'd be wrong. Unless, of course, you planned on answering all sorts of questions like "Why is that lady dressed that way?" or "What are those people doing?" All Sunday afternoon and evening, ABC dished out wall-to-wall sex on its network promos. "Alias?" "Are You HOT?" (Starts February 13th.) Can't we just give Al Qaeda the addresses of the three major networks, and directions, and see if that'll hold them for a while? *********** Gee, as funny as Jimmy Kimmel is, and as much time as ABC gave him on the Super Bowl pregame show, they really should consider giving him his own show. Oh, now I see that they have! Never mind. *********** Did you see the "tackling" by the Raiders' DB's on Michael Pittman's run down to the Oakland one? Did you see the ducking, lame-ass close-your-eyes-and-hope-for-the-best shoulder that Raiders' LBer Eric Barton threw into Mike Alstott on the Bucs' first TD? He looked as if he either didn't know how to tackle, or he just plain didn't want to take on Alstott. *********** Those f--king idiots down on the field in the halftime audience - the ones doing all the clapping and jumping jacks? They did leave the stadium afterwards, didn't they? Please tell me they didn't have tickets. *********** Last, week, I was bitching about hip-hop. But this week, after giving us hip-hop at halftime of both conference finals, the NFL must have felt it had to whiten things up a bit for the Super Bowl audience. So they gave us a bunch of Droids. Thanks a lot. Five minutes into the show, I found myself shouting, "Enough, already! Bring back Ja Rule and Ashanti!" *********** Simeon Rice, who despite his claims to the contrary during player introductions actually spent some time in and around the University of Illinois, was talking about teammate Derrick Brooks: "He did what he do." Said it twice. *********** They spend bazillions on the Super Bowl production and can't find Lynn Swann a microphone that works. *********** For those of you who are politically inclined, the President of the United States will address the nation tonight. As is the custom, the Democrats will be given a little time afterward for their "response" - their rebuttal of the President's speech. The Democrats must either be expecting Mr. Bush to deliver a blockbuster on the order of Franklin Roosevelt's Day of Infamy speech following Pearl Harbor, in which case they have no shot at rebutting him, or else they're expecting him to fall on his face, in which case anybody will serve to make their point for them. Considering how many Demo pups have been wagging their tails trying to get our attention these days, lining up for the run for the 2004 nomination, I'm betting they wouldn't pass up a chance like this unless it's the former. In any event, they have selected a real lightweight. Take it from me. I oughta know. It's "my" governor, the Honorable Gary Locke, of the Evergreen State. I wonder where the party thinks his level of expertise lies? Can't be domestic issues - Washington is sorta screwed up these days: Roads are in need of repair, state parks are closing and inmates are being released before their terms are served. Washington has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the United States, but at the same time, one of the highest minimum wages. So dire is the state's economic situation that he's actually gone and reneged on a voter-approved statewide teacher cost-of-living increase. That leaves foreign affairs. Maybe he's an expert, and all this time none of us out here knew it. Maybe. But it looks to me like a case of none of the Democratic presidential candidates being willing to take on the Prez. Not just yet, anyhow. So instead, they serve up, in boxing lingo, a palooka. A tomato can. The Bum of the Month. Kid Locke. Or, to use another sports metaphor, here it is a mere two days after the Super Bowl, and it's Gary Locke against the President of the United States. I don't even know what the line is, but I know Gary Locke, and with inside information like that, I'm taking Bush and giving the points. *********** The next time I watch some jackass professional athlete carrying on, I need to remind myself that age and maturity can sometimes do miraculous things. As evidence, I submit Andre Agassi. *********** Hugh; I wonder if the" I don't have a running game Raiders" could have used some double wing or wing-t running plays yesterday? If you live by the pass, you die by the pass! Did you notice the power running play that the Bucs were running. It was very Super Power oriented. They had a man in motion across the formation. The fullback in what I call a heavy set(set over away from the tailback) A toss to the back, fullback kicks out, the man in motion stops and blocks out and they pull I believe the center and backside guard. The Bucs made some nice yardage on that power play! They ran it 8 or 9 times. One time they ran it 2 times in a row! Imagine a pro coach running the same play 2 times in a row. I wonder what the pro boys would think of us old high school coaches who sometimes run the same play about 10 times in a row? Like Wedge and Super Power! I felt that if they (Oakland) were not going to run the ball a few times, they should have used a dash pocket. I am referring to Joe Gibbs version with the Redskins. Did you ever even see a screen pass to slow the defensive ends or the blitz? I didn't!! Not much of a game in my opinion. I picked the Bucs based upon defense. As an old defensive coach, I love good defense! I also wanted to commend you on your astute observation about Donovan McNabbs throwing motion. He may be a great athlete, but he needs a great deal of work on his basic quarterback mechanics. If he had the ball us to his ear in a ready position to throw instead of winding up, Philadelphia might have won. Those two turnovers were huge in that game. Great call Hugh!! David Crump, Owensboro, Kentucky ( So you also noticed that Oakland's refusal to even consider running the ball finally did them in! Tampa Bay's DE's came off that corner with never a worry about having to play the run. And Gannon, who is relatively mobile as passers go, never left the pocket. And what a passing game - dink, dink, dink. For all the credit people are giving Tampa Bay's defense, I didn't think their offense did that bad a job, either. It's probably too late to do anything about Donovan now, don't you think? HW) *********** Hi Hugh, I'm sure you'll get a couple of thousand of these today but I'd like to throw my 2 cents in: 1). The Dixie Chicks did a good job with the National Anthem. (AGREED. HW) 2). What the hell are Shania Twain's handlers doing to her?! She was dressed up as some sort of comic book super here (or villain). Not only do these morons screw up sports, they wreck a clean looking country singer as well!( SHE LOOKED LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF AN S&M STORE CLOSEOUT SALE. ) 3). Why do we have to have Jon Bonjovi wreck a post game interview? (BECAUSE THE PERSON WHO BOOKS THE TALENT FOR SUPER BOWLS HAS COMPROMISING PICTURES OF COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE) 4). Typical of the newspapers around here with voting for the best commercial the day after. They don't even list my favorite one. Terry Tate of Tampa Bay running around the office knocking people around for little things like getting the timesheets in on time, etc., etc.. Man that was great! (I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT. "TERRY TATE, OFFICE LINEBACKER!" I LAUGHED MY ASS OFF. UNFORTUNATELY, ONLY WHEN IT WAS OVER DID I REALIZE THAT I HAD BEEN SHAMELESSLY ENJOYING MYSELF WATCHING SOMEONE COMMIT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. PLEASE FORGIVE ME.) 5). How about those Buccaneers running some good ol' fashioned power sweep (pulling the center no less) and even some misdirection! (WHO WILL VOLUNTEER TO TELL THE NFL'S OFFENSIVE GENIUSES THAT YOU NEED TO HAVE AT LEAST TWO BACKS IN THE BACKFIELD IN ORDER TO DO THAT?) 6). You can glorify the passing machines all you want but the fact of the matter is two remain the same at every level: 1). Play solid defense and 2) run the ball! (IF MORE TEAMS COULD RUN THE BALL, WE WOULDN'T SEE SO DAMN MANY FIELD GOALS; CONVERSELY, IF THEY WERE TO DO SOMETHING TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF FIELD GOALS - SAY, REDUCING THEM IN VALUE TO TWO POINTS - THE NFL WOULD GET SERIOUS ABOUT RUNNING THE BALL.) Looking forward to tomorrow's News! Sincerely, Matt Bastardi, Montgomery, New Jersey *********** I had to laugh listening to Matt (Learnin' on the Job) Millen, World's Least Qualified Pro Football GM, announcing the firing of Marty Mornhinweg - a full month after the Lions said he'd be retained, but a mere week or so after the Lions learned Steve Mariucci was available. Millen was poundin' his fist, and usin' the F-word for emphasis. And I heard him say, "Whatever it takes to win - we'll do." Presumably, that means, then, that Mr. Millen, the GM of a DETROIT professional sports team, will be moving from his home in Allentown, Pennsylvania to DETROIT, Michigan, home of the Lions. (Whatever it takes, big guy. I got it on tape. ) *********** Any black assistant who wants an NFL head coaching job - you might want to check with Marty Mornhinweg first. I hear tell the job's not all it's cracked up to be. *********** "Coach Wyatt, I just love the DOUBLE WING and what it does for football teams. I have now coached the DOUBLE WING for two years in the 12-13 year old division and have won two championships (only losing once in that two year span). I plan to coach a 10-11 year old team this year and use it again and I may add some Wildcat to spice things up. "I am writing to you today to add a response to Mick Yanke's email looking for money to help with his football league. Our league, has in the past, gotten in touch with the American United Way. I am not sure of all the details, but I do know that they have given us money in the past. I hope this helps and I hope he can get the money he needs to get his program off on it's own feet. Thank you for all the hard work you do for our youth." Joey Scarbrough, Hopewell, Virginia *********** Greetings Coach. Nice little lesson for me. Thanks for making a point thru Serena Williams. I was looking back, to learn more, at last year's only loss in my season. (Just happened to be in the championship game.) I made a similar mistake of not chipping away - just tried to go for the home run ,and it cost me. I learn, I learn. Anyway I'm already preparing for this coming season.Will know at what level I coach in March. God willing definitely going to Durham clinic.What new stuff you working on for us? Wish you a great clinic season.Hope all is well, Armando Castro, Roanoke, Virginia (We can learn a lot from winners in other fields - and not just sports, either. There are lessons for us in business and in the armed forces as well. HW) *********** While channel surfing, I came across a football game being played in St. George, Utah. It was called the "Paradise Bowl." Now, St. George Utah is a nice enough place, but Paradise? Anyhow, as soon as I saw it was one of those doofus all-star games where everybody wears a different helmet, but guys swap helmet decals back and forth and and stick them on backward, upside-down, etc., I hit the channel button. Anybody watch it? *********** Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said we can whip Iraq and North Korea both, with one arm tied behind our back. Okay, he didn't exactly put it that way, but he did sort of warn the North Koreans not to get the idea that while we were occupied with Iraq, they could slip into South Korea or invade Japan. But what if that were to happen, and while we were having to deal with Iraq and North Korea, a third war broke out elsewhere in the world? It is not a pleasant prospect. Yet as I write, the warning signs of conflict are coming out of one of the remotest places in the world, and between two of the world's unlikeliest combatants at that. Police in Auckland, New Zealand have threatened to ban Swiss boats from New Zealand waters after one of them, a "support boat" for Switzerland's America's Cup yacht Alinghi, despite police warnings, sailed right through the middle of a Team New Zealand training course. (Sounds like those a**holes who let their teams walk through your team while you're going through pre-game stretching, doesn't it?) Perhaps President Bush will address the matter in his State of the Union address, but I suspect he's just hoping it will go away on its own. I suggest that stronger action is called for - he should head off this impending crisis by immediately calling for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council. There, in front of the world, he should demand that Switzerland, a mountainous, land-locked nation, explain what the f--k it's doing racing ocean-going yachts. *********** OK. This is going to sound like something from the twilight zone... but it is very true, creepy, but true. So for the past 2 years or so I have been trying to put together a football library, as I told you before. Many times I browse through eBay to see what is on hand. 2 Weeks ago I won an auction for a book. The auction gave no photo and the title was simply, "1962 Vintage Football Book". It may sound stupid to bid on this kind of auction but that's what a lot of people think and chances are you get a lower price. So, I win the auction for 10 bucks. Fast forward to our e-mails about the book list. Yesterday morning you send me your list "in no particular order except for #1 - Dave Nelson's "Football: Principles of Play." I go home to find my winning auctioned arrived. Opening it I discovered my own copy of this 1962 Vintage Football Book... AKA Nelson's "Football: Principles of Play." Sam Knopik - Kansas City (Talk about not knowing what it was worth! Of course, that's probably all a used book store would pay for it. Generally speaking, useful books by coaches stopped being published sometime in the late 60's. At the time, it was a way for them to augment their income. Now, of course, they have found other, more lucrative ways of doing it. Can you say "shoe contract?" HW). *********** Coach Wyatt, Here's what the Zeller family does while watching NFL (and even college) games on TV: we turn off the TV during the commercials. I'm sure some people think that we are "shielding" our kids from these things, and think that you have to expose your children to them. I think my job is to maintain my kids purity until they are adults. It's getting tougher. We talk to our kids about what are on the ads, and we also tell them that we're not just protecting them, but that we don't want to see that crap either! I was watching Dynamics IV last night and saw the part on the stack I. Then I started watching the Seattle Bowl this morning on the Air-Dyne. Wake Forest was running some out of the stack I! I remember Gerry DiNardo running it at Vanderbilt. He came to the Michigan Clinic to talk on it. I'm going to have to review those notes. I was just thinking, knowing how feel about keeckers, you must have loved the WFL. The Action Point! John Zeller, Sears, Michigan (I actually don't remember whether the "action point" - a run or a pass for one point, from 2-1/2 yards out - ever made much difference. It doesn't seem to have made a lasting impression on me. One thing wrong with the concept is that by potentially devaluing a touchdown - reducing the likelihood of getting an automatic seven points when you score one - you inflate the value of a field goal. I wouldn't mind seeing a field goal reduced in value to two points. A field goal certainly shouldn't be worth more than a two-point conversion, which NFL coaches would have a shot at every time they got off their asses and went for a touchdown instead of a field goal. HW) *********** YOUR OPINION SOLICITED: Just out of curiosity... what would your reaction be if you were ever to learn that a major college planned to run the Delaware Wing-T? Would you be excited? Would you automatically follow that team? Would you go to a clinic put on by its coaching staff? Would you recommend that players go there? E-mail me your thoughts! RESPONSE: 1) what would your reaction be if you were ever to learn that a major college planned to run the Delaware Wing-T? I would become an instant fan, possibly even buy a hat with their logo.... LOOKING FOR A JOB IN SUNNY ARIZONA? Coach Wyatt, I know you don't do it often, but I believe I've seen a couple of job ads on your site before and was wondering if you'd post some information. If not, no problem, I understand that job postings are not the intent of your site. As you know, La Joya High school opened as a brand new school with 450 freshmen this year and running the double wing finished with an inaugural season record of 6-1-1. With the growth of our school, (next year we'll add 600 freshman) our administration will be looking to hire over 30 teachers for next year. Naturally, I'd like to get as many coaches as possible on staff here at the school, and I'd love to have some Double Wingers. We will have full time teaching positions in virtually every area and will be posting jobs, interviewing, and offering contracts as soon as next month. Some information...We will play a J.V. and freshman schedule next year and possibly add Varsity the year after, although that decision hasn't been made yet. Administration is the best I've ever seen... Athletic Director is former 25 year head football coach who loves the double wing. Principal is former PE teacher/coach who's dad is in Arizona's high school coaches Hall of Fame as a football coach. Currently have 5 coaches on our staff and looking to add at least 3 more. It's the middle of January and we've had 3 weeks of highs in the 70's (watch the Phoenix Open next weekend). Pay in our district is above average for the Phoenix area and housing is very reasonable... If anyone is interested please have them contact me at mike.waters@tuhsd.org and I will send them more information. Thanks coach, Mike Waters - Head Football Coach - P.E. Department Chair - La Joya Community High School - Phoenix, AZ - 623-478-4478
"The only model I had to follow," he said, "was your Philly clinic and how you handled it. So, based on your lead, the Conclave now lives. And I thank you for your example on how to correspond, present, loosely format, etc." Wow. Anyhow, it was successful enough that he is doing it again this year. The 2nd Eastern Single Wing Conclave, 2 days of presentations & video by youth and high school single wing coaches from across the US, will be held March 7th & 8th, at Burke Auditorium on the campus of King's College, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Both days' sessions will, of course, be followed by the usual after-hours sessions. There is no registration fee, but Todd said that some meal fees will be mandatory, to cover the costs of putting on the clinic. For further info, e-mail Todd Bross --- tabby@infonline.net
|
***********
The sight of someone disrespecting our flag - sitting on it,
as Serena Williams is doing in the photo at left, posing
with her Australian Open trophy - saddens and enrages me,
but I don't blame Serena Williams for this. I doubt that she
has the slightest idea of flag etiquette. She and her
generation - and the one just before and the ones coming
along - are the products of an "education" system infested
by great numbers of America-hating left-wing bastards who
drive around with "question authority" bumper stickers on
their high-fuel-economy cars and think it is their duty to
teach our children how to protest rather than how to honor
and respect their country - how to burn their flag rather
than respect it. (Which includes never letting it touch the
ground, much less sitting on it.)
*********** I'm a native and have used the "Kush Drill" albeit a toned down version when my O-Line gives up sacks... The O-Lineman Stands with ball in hand ready to pass... my best tackler will then get a 3 yard free shot (Kush legend has it he would allow his guys 10 yds.) to let him know what the QB feels... you have a great site keep it up!!! Max Ragsdale, Apache Junction, Arizona (Hah! That's great! You're still getting away with that, and some of us are afraid of being sued if we so much as embarrass a kid! HW) *********** BE SURE TO LAUGH AT ALL THOSE IDIOTS WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOUR JOB IS TO "PREPARE PLAYERS FOR THE NEXT LEVEL" WHEN YOU WATCH RICH GANNON AND REMEMBER THAT HE WAS A WING-T QUARTERBACK AT DELAWARE! *********** Double-Wing coaches couldn't have found a better example of what it takes to win than tennis player Serena Williams. Thursday night, she was dead on her ass in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, losing to Belgian Kim Clijsters in the third set (of a best two of three sets match) 5-1. Clijsters needed to win only one more game to take the third set - and therefore the match - 6-1. Twice Clijsters had what's called "match point" - win just one point and the match is over. But Williams just wouldn't die. When things were bleakest, she played her hardest, and kept from being put away. And then - the lesson that tennis teaches Double-Wingers when they fall behind - she started chipping away. I've heard tennis people say "there's no grand slam home run in tennis" - there's no way you can get it all back with one swing of the bat. You can't win by throwing long bombs. You have to hang tough, play every shot as if it's your last, and chip away. And damned if Serena Williams didn't do just that, and fight her way back to win the set, 7-5, and the match. Asked after the match about what she was thinking when things looked hopeless, Williams said, "I really didn't think I'd win it at that stage. I just kept fighting, one point at a time. Next thing I knew, the match was over." *********** "If you don't like Keyshawn Johnson," said Keyshawn Johnson, in that annoying manner some public figures have of referring to themselves in the third person, "you have a problem with yourself." Okay. So I have a problem with myself. (Actually, that's the least of them.) But so do a lot of other people, including Warren Sapp - or at least, he used to. It's been no secret that teammates Johnson and Sapp were not in the habit of attending each other's birthday parties. But for the good of their team, they have buried the hatchet, and have not allowed their own differences to interfere with the job at hand. Bucs' safety John Lynch said one of the biggest reasons was former All-Pro Ronnie Lott. Earlier in the season, Buccaneers' coach John Gruden asked Lott to talk to the team. " One of the things that Ronnie talked about," said Lynch, "was to put yourself in this opportunity to win a world championship, you've got to put egos aside and all be about the same things." Earler this season, Gruden put the spat into perspective about as well as anyone ever could: "I've got 53 players to worry about, not two. I say get over it." *********** Don't know what he majored in at Boston College, but it sure as hell wasn't math... Raider Bill Romanowski, talking about the Raider Mystique, told USA Today, "they've won world championships three times, and there's a lot of teams that wish they'd done half that." *********** For years I've been saying that the Bucs would be in the Super Bowl when hell freezes over. The forecast for tonight here in Central Florida is the mid 20s with a wind chill of around 10 so I guess I was right. Go Packers! Tom Hinger, Auburndale, Florida *********** "I heard that a group of Philly fans were arrested for tying to set the Vet on fire by starting some kind of blaze that was quickly extinguished. Ummm... the last time I checked, concrete is not flammable. And being that the Vet is mostly composed of concrete, I'm not sure these people were the sharpest tools in the shed." Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania (My guess is they set some paper on fire so then when they were arrested for public urination, they could say that instead of a fine, they should be given medals and cited as heroes. HW) *********** Coach Wyatt, -21 F, this morning in Minnesota. We have definitely become soft. Our 5th / 6th grade flag football program is looking into the possibility of going to tackle football, through our Community Education program. Comm. Ed will handle the money mgmt. and liability insurance, but our 1st big challenge will be to raise some funds to cover initial equipment purchase & startup. The directors of the program had figured 10 - 15 thousand to begin with. Would you or any of your readers have any information on grants or programs available to help us get started. We don't mind writing letters, or filling out grant applications. Our two towns are small, and they already support Youth Basketball, Youth Wreslting and Youth Baseball organizations, as well as the varsity football boosters. The cost is more than what the FB boosters can swing. We just passed the big levy last month, and are reluctant to go banging away with another fundraiser. It's a perception issue, " the school is always asking for money, " that kind of thing. I know a lot of your readers are youth coaches, any information you or they could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Mick Yanke Social Studies / Driver Education Dassel-Cokato High School (I'll post your note, but I would imagine that the response you'll get will still be (1) knock on doors (2) hold bake sales (3) knock on doors (4) wash cars (5) knock on doors. HW) *********** I honestly don't know how you guys with young kids can sit their with them and watch NFL football games. What do you do when those T & A beer commercials come on? I have heard young dads on talk shows likening it to taking a six-year-old to a strip joint. I have also heard them tell about writing to the NFL, and about just turning off the TV and listening to the games on the radio. *********** A retired military leader who presented the Black Lion Award at a youth banquet not long ago told me how impressed he was with the energy and effort of the organization's coaches, and he went on to say, "what was most interesting was the fact that there was a good mix of black and white well behaved kids interacting with one another." What a great thing to hear. But it's no surprise to most coaches. There is a lot more of that going on in youth sports - football especially - than the mass media and professional race baiters care to admit. The rest of America could learn a lot from football coaches. Thank you, Dr. King. *********** You've no doubt heard me bitch about TV's tight closeups, so that those of us who know a little bit about football get to see only glimpses of what's actually happening. Well whaddaya know? We're not the only ones. As Buster Olney writes in the New York Times, "Television's preoccupation with quarterbacks, coaches, nutty fans and cheerleaders can frustrate coaches, players and executives watching the game. They are accustomed to studying wide-angled game film, to seeing the whole defensive alignment and the entire routes of the receivers." As Tampa Bay tight end Ken Dilger told him, "You can't see the whole play develop; you can't see who's blocking downfield, who's running a great route. The fans are missing out on a lot of good football down the field." Maybe we need a separate channel for that. If we get one, I'm buying. *********** YOUR OPINION SOLICITED: Just out of curiosity... what would your reaction be if you were ever to learn that a major college planned to run the Delaware Wing-T? Would you be excited? Would you automatically follow that team? Would you go to a clinic put on by its coaching staff? Would you recommend that players go there? *********** Boy, it's amazing what you can do with the English language. I heard them say on ABC News Wednesday night that 87 per cent of American counties have no - get this - "abortion provider." Abortionists have really come up in the world, haven't they?
In the photo on the right, Mike Stubbs, (left), a Black Lion and a veteran of the battle of Ong Thanh, drove up from Charlotte to present the award to Jonathan Skinner of the Hope Mills Falcons, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (That's Jonathan's dad in the middle) Coach Ray Knagge wrote of Jonathan, "He put his own goals and needs aside to shore up the team where it needed the most help. During practice and games he is always coaching his fellow kids to make them better. He has made practice even when sick. I told his parents to let him stay home but he insisted. He practiced and was not at all less than 110% as always.During our last game of the regular season he played for the first half causing 5 rushed passes off the QB, 2 tackles and was blowing his "man" off the line when on offense. Well at half time we learned he sprained his ankle 2 days earlier and was in pain. He never mentioned it to the coaches. When asked why not tell us, he merely had that "Coach the team needs me and I can't let them down" attitude." Mike Stubbs was really impressed with Jonathan. He wrote me, "Just talking with the young man after presenting him with the award gave me a good feeling about him, He was very humble. Meeting and talking with his parents, you could tell he was well disciplined. His father had recently retired from the military." Mike went on, "This is a wonderful award that you have created and I hope I have many opportunities to represent the BLACK LIONS and present this award. I was a squad leader with Delta Company, 2/28th during this operation and lost many friends on the 17th." To give you an idea of the special kind of kid Jonathan Skinner is, read this note he wrote: "Coach Ray and The Black Lions, 28th Infantry Division, US Army, I want to thank you very much for awarding me the "Black Lion Award". This is more than an award. It is a great honor! I cannot express in words just what this award means to me. I am 11 years old and love football. I felt like I was awarded the "Heisman trophy". To me, this is a great honor! On behalf of my family and I, we want to thank you for this great honor. Just hearing about the heroism of Captain Don Holleder brought tears to our eyes. We will always cherish and uphold this Award! thank you, and God bless you! Jonathan Skinner, Hope Mills, NC *********** Hello everyone. Always be careful for what you wish for. I wanted a change and now I have one. My guard unit is being deployed and I dont know how long. I go on active duty 23 Jan. My plans are to kick ass and take names. Take care and I should still have access to email. Bye for now, Joel Bickford, Wahpeton, North Dakota *********** John Muckian, of Lynn, Massachusetts ("all the way in from "BALMY" Lynn, Mass on the North Shore ,where it's a "comfy" 8 degrees") wrote about Frank Kush, "I guess he was the Woody Hayes of the West, wonder why he never left for a more high-profile job?" I think he stayed around for the same reason he punched that kid - because he was so powerful. He was the biggest thing in Phoenix, maybe in all of Arizona. In Phoenix, there was nothing bigger than ASU football and Frank Kush had put it up there. Phoenix was growing like crazy, and other than the Suns, ASU football was the only game in town. He'd seen ASU football grow from when it was averaging 15-16,000 people a game to over 70,000. It was as high profile a job as he could ever want. *********** I read that a highly-rated Texas high school QB has decided to go to Iowa, after first having given a verbal commitment to Texa A & M. I read that the reason was that A & M had fired R. C. Slocum, and replaced him with "run-oriented" Dennis Franchione. Would that by any chance have been "pass-happy" R. C. Slocum? *********** "The Raiders fan (who said, "get out the f--kin' way" on camera) was hysterical...I'm surprised it doesn't happen more. Rob and I decided that Sunday must have been the censors' day off, because the same thing happened twice on NBC later that night, watching the Golden Globes. An Irish actor on the red carpet noted that this year was his first ever to be there in person, but he'd watched "this sh--" at home all the time; and later, when U2 won an award, Bono accepted saying it was "f--king unbelievable". Needless to say, the censors missed both...Rob and I were rolling. As for that horrendous halftime, I was so proud of that Philly crowd!" Cathy Tiffany, Houston, Texas *********** Coach Wyatt, I thought that I could have authored today's "News You Can Use." Dierdre & I were sitting on the couch watching the halftime "highlights" of the Eagles-Bucs game when "Ja Rule" and "Ashanti" popped on our screen. Deirdre: "Whatever happened to the real halftime shows, where you got to see the bands marching?" {Dr. Pepper commercial appears) Me: "What the hell was that?" And please--no more Deion Sanders or nude Nike guy on TV EVER again! Then we watched the Titans-Raiders game. I couldn't BELIEVE I heard Phil Simms praise Romo for HOW he keeps himself in condition (oh, brother). And when Simms remarked, "He must have SAW it himself," Deirdre & I just stared at each other: Deirdre: "Can you believe that? 'SAW it himself.' Good grief." As for Joe Nedney getting his ass run over by a real football player when ol' Stanislavski Joe tried to kick the runner, that was my weekend highlight! Coach Wyatt, I think you're giving Joe the benefit of the doubt when you said he was trying to "trip" the runner. That pansy-ass was trying to kick him. After all, kicking is his only skill. I wonder how many gray hairs Rasheed Wallace gave Dean Smith when they were at UNC together? I do know that when The 'Sheed told The Dean he was turning pro early, Dean couldn't have been happier. Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina *********** Dear Coach: I was very pleased to see your 2003 clinic schedule. I'll be at the Minneapolis session. I attended last year there, too; best money I ever spent. Respectfully, Skip Bennett, Southwest Jr. High School, Lawrence, Kansas *********** Coach, While I do think your one-kick rule would be fun but the NFL would never consider it, I may have stumbled upon a flaw in your scheme. As poorly-coached as some of these teams are and as poorly-played as a lot of games are, can you imagine how much worse it would be if teams had to dedicate some of their practice time to finding more keekers? Yikes ! Larry Hanson, Rochelle, Illinois (Actually, if you've ever seen what happens when you don't have a real honest-to-God kicker and you line up in field goal-PAT formation and announce that you're going to have tryouts, every kid on the team gets in line. HW) LOOKING FOR A JOB IN SUNNY ARIZONA? Coach Wyatt, I know you don't do it often, but I believe I've seen a couple of job ads on your site before and was wondering if you'd post some information. If not, no problem, I understand that job postings are not the intent of your site. As you know, La Joya High school opened as a brand new school with 450 freshmen this year and running the double wing finished with an inaugural season record of 6-1-1. With the growth of our school, (next year we'll add 600 freshman) our administration will be looking to hire over 30 teachers for next year. Naturally, I'd like to get as many coaches as possible on staff here at the school, and I'd love to have some Double Wingers. We will have full time teaching positions in virtually every area and will be posting jobs, interviewing, and offering contracts as soon as next month. Some information...We will play a J.V. and freshman schedule next year and possibly add Varsity the year after, although that decision hasn't been made yet. Administration is the best I've ever seen... Athletic Director is former 25 year head football coach who loves the double wing. Principal is former PE teacher/coach who's dad is in Arizona's high school coaches Hall of Fame as a football coach. Currently have 5 coaches on our staff and looking to add at least 3 more. It's the middle of January and we've had 3 weeks of highs in the 70's (watch the Phoenix Open next weekend). Pay in our district is above average for the Phoenix area and housing is very reasonable... If anyone is interested please have them contact me at mike.waters@tuhsd.org and I will send them more information. Thanks coach, Mike Waters - Head Football Coach - P.E. Department Chair - La Joya Community High School - Phoenix, AZ - 623-478-4478
"The only model I had to follow," he said, "was your Philly clinic and how you handled it. So, based on your lead, the Conclave now lives. And I thank you for your example on how to correspond, present, loosely format, etc." Wow. Anyhow, it was successful enough that he is doing it again this year. The 2nd Eastern Single Wing Conclave, 2 days of presentations & video by youth and high school single wing coaches from across the US, will be held March 7th & 8th, at Burke Auditorium on the campus of King's College, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Both days' sessions will, of course, be followed by the usual after-hours sessions. There is no registration fee, but Todd said that some meal fees will be mandatory, to cover the costs of putting on the clinic. For further info, e-mail Todd Bross --- tabby@infonline.net
inscribed on the wall of the 1st
Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois
THE BLACK LION
AWARD ARE YOU A BLACK LION
TEAM? |
BLACK
LIONS PRESENTATIONS IN THE CAROLINAS: At the far left,
Captain Wilder, a Black Lion from Fort Jackson, was kind
enough to present the award in Summerville, SC to Justin
Reese of Sumerville Sertoma. Justin's coach, Jody Hagins,
wrote, in nominating him, "He did everything he was asked.
He moved around on defense, played B-Back, and when we had
more injuries late in the season, he played on the offensive
line, without even a hint of dissatisfaction." Fort Jackson
is the home of the 28th Infantry - The Black
Lions.
*********** Jim Sinnerud is one of many good friends I've been blessed with since I started doing whatever it is I do (I have a terrible time trying to explain it to strangers). Jim, a Jesuit priest, is also a knowledgeable football man. He has coached at high schools in Oregon, Arizona and Nebraska, and at the present time he's a teacher at Creighton Prep in Omaha. Jim also played football at Stanford, where one of his teammates was Paul Wiggin, who, you will remember, was a "Legacy" question a while back. Jim thinks very highly of Paul, and the two have stayed in touch over the years. After reading what I'd written about Paul Wiggin, Jim wrote, "I'm happy to hear that you, too, have such high respect for Paul Wiggin. To see what he's been through during his coaching career makes it easier to believe that he has played the role of the noble man who has dealt well with stern adversity in his areas of interest. He has adapted and moved on with seeming tranquility, competence and dignity. It has been football's loss that his coaching aspirations have been derailed. He has so much human insight and football competence to bring to coaching. I can easily think that in the divine scheme of things I was privileged to play at a college where he was a star and a friend who opened the door for me when years later I came knocking. I'd love to change the results of past years for him and see him move along a different trajectory . . . but alas. As you indicated, he does not fit the stereotypic coach's mold, thank the Lord." *********** "I still laugh when I think about the time I did a DW presentation at our state coaches association annual summer meeting and put the plays I'd discussed in video format (then with Avid Cinema) and showed them at the conclusion of my presentation. It was complete with college fight songs and everything, end zone shots I'd taken and all. The Iowa State line coach that spoke after me commented on what a tough act I was to follow, commenting, "That coach has too much time on his hands""! Don Capaldo, Keokuk, Iowa *********** Jack Del Rio has just been hired to coach the Jacksonville Jaguars. (Excuse me - Jag-wires, as the TV guys like to say.) Hey - "Del Rio" sounds Hispanic to me. Is that a minority hiring? Does Johnnie Cochran count that? *********** Not that there is room at the Super Bowl for that many real fans, anyhow, but it would have been fun to see the Eagles against the Raiders if only to watch the antics of the Eagles' fans and Raider's fans. I would pay good money to watch those two groups go at each other. Beer bottles at 20 paces. *********** Coach, once again the Black Lions Award was a huge hit at our awards banquet on Thursday. For the second year in a row the award winner received a standing ovation, it was great. Thanks for bringing this award about, coach, and honoring a true American hero who deserves to have his story told all over the country year after year. Greg Gibson, Orange High School, Orange, California *********** The Portland Trail Blazers, sounding as if they've been getting coaching from Hillary Clinton and not Maurice Cheeks, are blaming Rasheed Wallace's latest dagger to the heart of his team - a seven-game suspension for accosting a referee in the basement parking lot of the Rose Garden last Wednesday night - on a vast, right-wing conspiracy. The referees and the league, see, are out to get the Trail Blazers. It has nothing to do with the fact that the Trail Blazers, with few exceptions, are a bunch of low-life, law-breaking, dope-smoking, referee-baiters. (Wallace himself holds records for technical fouls in a season.) Wallace, who scarcely helps his case by his refusal to talk with the media, is actually being praised by one and all in the Blazers' organization because he has cut down on the technicals this year - he's trying to quit. But he shouldn't have any. I mean, you should praise the alcoholic because he's down to a fifth a day? You should praise the child molester because he's trying to quit? On the night in question, Wallace had had a near-career game. But in the third quarter, he was called for a technical by a referee who felt that after Wallace had been called for a foul, he'd fired the ball back to the official a little harder than was called for. Now, everybody on the Blazers says Wallace is a smart guy (I have yet to see evidence that supports that claim, incidentally) but he sure missed a chance to show it right there, by not remembering who he was and what his reputation was, and immediately saying, "Whoops - sorry! Didn't mean that." But this is Rasheed Wallace. He has pride. And he is never wrong, so he never needs to apologize for anything. So 'Sheed said nothing - and got the "T." And then, as is his custom, he bitched, and then he brooded. Why, he'd been disrespected! They can't do that to him! An hour later - an hour - despite scoring 38 points in a Portland win, he was still brooding, still living back in that moment of humiliation and disrespect, and he had no choice but to go over and tell that referee what he really thinks. Maybe - who knows? - even threatens the official, throwing in a little profanity for good measure. QUESTION: Back on the playgrounds of Philly, where he grew up, playing "call your own foul", how did they ever manage to get any basketball in when Rasheed was playing? OBSERVATION: The Trail Blazers sound like all those pathetic parents - mostly mothers - we've all had to deal with when their little darling has been nailed for breaking a rule and we've dealt out punishment. You always know you have them backed into a corner, fighting for any little crumbs they can get, when they say, "Sure, he's done wrong, and he knows it, and he deserves to be punished... but the punishment shouldn't be so severe." (Those of you who follow politics might remember something similar: "Yes, he's done wrong, and he knows it, and he deserves to be punished... but this doesn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense.") *********** Couple questions about the thousands and thousands of peace marchers this past weekend... 1. They all seemed to be shouting that the President should listen to them, but these are the same sore losers who raved and ranted about his winning the election. Some of them have been able to get on with their lives, but many of them still write letters to newspapers challenging the "legitimacy" of his presidency. So here's my question: do you think there was there a single person in all those marching mobs who voted for George W. Bush? 2. Do you think they changed the mind of a single person who wants us to kick Saddam's ass? *********** Now, THAT'S incredible... I watched an entire women's tennis match Monday and didn't hear a single grunt.
"We finally got a minute to write you. Hope your season went well. Ours could have been a little better. We lost three games by a total of 5 points, ending our season at (3-6) well below our expectation. (You need 6 wins to qualify for the state playoffs). But we won more games this year than we did the previous (1-9) and the kids had a lot of fun doing the double wing. We would just like to thank you for all your help. "We had 2855 yards rushing. Our A and B backs rush for over 1,000 this season and our C back rush for nearly 500 yards. We averaged 409 yards of total offense per game, 317 of those yards rushing and 23.6 points per game. We tied a school record for the most points in a season with 213. (Our defense gave up 24.8 points per game). We had 6 players make the all city team - from a school with a losing record. That was a first." *********** It may be "The Playoffs," and it may be "The Most Won-der-ful Time of the Year," but the NFL continues to deliver playoff games that don't come close to living up to the hype. Most of the six games the past two weekends have been over by halftime or shortly thereafter. Only one - the Steelers-Titans - had enough to keep a disinterested fan watching down to the end. Sunday produced two bummer games, but two excellent performances by the winning teams. Actually, Tennessee didn't play that poorly overall but damn - they sure don't know how to take care of the football! Philadelphia finally succeeded in making a pocket passer out of Donovan McNabb. Unfortunately, he's not worth a damn when he stays in the pocket. It had to be the ankle still bothering him. I can't believe the Eagles would deliberately have designed an attack like that. It may be a dark secret that he shouldn't have been playing, but after all that McNabb has done to lift that franchise, and considering the way he is loved in Philadelphia (did you see all the white guys in the stands wearing Number 5 jerseys?), it would have been political suicide to have kept him on the bench. But the correct football decision might have been going with A. J. Feeley, because McNabb was not his normal mobile self. He appeared to be wearing combat boots. Come to think of it - it seems to me that was my complaint about their playoff loss last year - McNabb didn't run more.
*********** Lou Orlando, who had a cup of coffee with the New York Giants, after four years playing center at Yale, is now a Boston businessman (and former youth football coach). After the Giants' end-of-game fiasco against the 49ers, the result of a bad center snap, he wrote me, "The Giants paid dearly for their mistake 23 years ago after the 2nd pre-season game." *********** Philadelphia deserved to be in the Super Bowl if for no other reason than Philly fans dared to do the politically incorrect thing Sunday. Like the little kid who alone dares to say that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes, Philly fans actually booed at the conclusion of their halftime act, a bit of hip-hop grotesquery called Ja Rule and Ashanti. Who was the genius who thought that the same fans who have booed the best of them would sit still for that garbage? *********** What is this sudden obsession with hip-hop? The NFL foists two rappers on us at both halftimes Sunday, and then Dr. Pepper seems determined to go out of business running a rap commercial which, it announces at the end, is dedicated to some guy with a weird rapper-style name who, presumably, is now dead. Probably not of natural causes. Wow. A soft drink commercial dedicated to you. Is that immortality, or what? *********** 1. What demographic does Deion Sanders at the half cater to? The egotistical, unable to speak wannabe pimp sector? 2. Do we really need to see 10 minutes of LL Cool J? I think I would rather watch some ordinary Joe trying to kick field goals to win cash. One time at a game in Mpls. they had the little dogs running the hurdle races, that was entertaining, no sarcasm. I'm sure the dogs would work for a much more reasonable appearance fee than LLCool J. Take care, looking forward to the BSM clinic in March. Mick Yanke, Dassel-Cokato, Minnesota *********** Hmm. Warren Sapp doesn't block too bad, either, does he? (Just getting my NFL Double-Wing team lined up.) *********** If you slow down Donovan McNabb's passing motion, you will see that the two fumbles caused by pass rushers batting the ball out of his hands were actually the result of the long, low, baseball-type windup he took. It would never have happened to someone with a shorter, more economical stroke - and, consequently, a faster release. Dan Marino is the first one who comes to mind. *********** I didn't tape the Eagles-Bucs game, but I swear that on the interception by Ronde Barber (he had a pretty good game, wouldn't you say?) on which he's given credit for screwing up McNabb's read by his faking of the blitz, McNabb was guilty of looking at Barber and assuming he was blitzing, and that the receiver therefore was "hot," (left uncovered by the blitzer). but then looking away from Barber at the time of the snap, and failing to notice that Barber had actually faked the blitz and dropped into a position to intercept *********** Phil Simms said it: "He must have saw it himself." *********** If Steve Mariucci gets his ass canned after being hammered by the Bucs, why is Andy Reid safe? (Just kidding.) *********** NFL Coaches beware: both Super Bowl coaches are in their first years with their clubs. (Think your owner's gonna give you more than two years to win?) *********** I haven't heard anyone advance this theory before, but I wonder if it has ever occurred to Eagles' fans that their team has been cursed. If it's true that the Red Sox are burdened by the curse of the Bambino, I think it's fair to say that the Iggles are suffering from the curse of the Dutchman - Norm Van Brocklin. Van Brocklin always insisted he'd been promised that if he came to Philadelphia, he would succeed Buck Shaw as coach when Shaw retired. With Shaw coaching and Van Brocklin quarterbacking, the Eagles won the NFL title in 1960 - last time they've done so - and following the game, Shaw retired. But instead of giving his job to Van Brocklin, the owners hired a guy named Nick Skorich. Bitter and angry, Van Brocklin retired as a player, and wound up as the first-ever coach of the expansion Vikings. He was just nasty enough to have put a curse on the Eagles. *********** Remember this? "If you're a youth football coach or high school coach and your kids aren't getting water every 15 or 20 minutes, you should not be coaching." That was Titans' coach Jeff Fisher, quoted in USA Today, August 8, 2001.
*********** Christopher Anderson writes from Cambridge, Massachusetts, "A lesbian couple in suburban Boston has been denied the adoption of a child because they own a German Shepherd. Child Protective Services thinks having such a dog around the child could be unhealthy for its upbringing. (Imagine if they kept a gun in the house. HW) *********** Rush Limbaugh said he expects Johnnie Cochran to sue the NFL for forcing Marvin Lewis, a black man, to coach the Cincinnati Bengals. *********** Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the BLACK LION AWARD and its meaning as it relates to the unit that sacrificed the many lives back in October of 1967 and specifically former Army great - Don Holleder. I can appreciate your enthusiasm for wanting to spread the word among former Army football players in hopes of propelling the award throughout the country. I just happened to be a member of the 1967 Army football coaching staff when Head Coach, Tom Cahill received word of Don's death. Needless to say, he was devastated with the tragic news. Ironically, Don Holleder and I competed against each other in football and basketball back in 1952. I was attending The Manlius School as a post-grad (Tom Cahill was our head football coach) and Don was attending Rochester Aquinas. We competed against each other in football and basketball. He was an outstanding athlete as I recall. In the next couple of weeks, over 600 former Army football lettermen will be receiving the January Issue of THE PLAYBOOK - a publication that we put together and send out twice a year. I would be more than happy to share with our lettermen the information about THE BLACK LION AWARD and how it relates to Don Holleder and his unit that was gunned down in Vietnam back in October of 1967. I could suggest to each football letterman to make contact with the local football coach as well as their own high school and promote the idea of presenting this award to a deserving young man. I know that I would be happy to start this award at my high school - Olmsted Falls and would be happy to send letters to area high school football coaches as well here in the Cleveland, Ohio area inviting them to consider presenting such an award. I would prefer that you author the letter, however. In addition, we have an annual Army Football Lettermen's Golf Outing every year at West Point and we could mention this award possibility at the Awards Banquet held later in the evening. We generally have about 150 former players attend this event. Bob Novogratz could make a pitch to the troops at this affair. I await your response and will be happy to include whatever in THE PLAYBOOK. Jack Hecker, Strongsville, Ohio
*********** An Oregon State defensive back was given an 18 months' suspended sentence last week after pleading no contest to a charge of possession of steroids. Why'd you take the drug? the judge asked the kid. "I don't know," he said. "I thought that it was performance-enhancing." Now, who told the kid that? LOOKING FOR A JOB IN SUNNY ARIZONA? Coach Wyatt, I know you don't do it often, but I believe I've seen a couple of job ads on your site before and was wondering if you'd post some information. If not, no problem, I understand that job postings are not the intent of your site. As you know, La Joya High school opened as a brand new school with 450 freshmen this year and running the double wing finished with an inaugural season record of 6-1-1. With the growth of our school, (next year we'll add 600 freshman) our administration will be looking to hire over 30 teachers for next year. Naturally, I'd like to get as many coaches as possible on staff here at the school, and I'd love to have some Double Wingers. We will have full time teaching positions in virtually every area and will be posting jobs, interviewing, and offering contracts as soon as next month. Some information...We will play a J.V. and freshman schedule next year and possibly add Varsity the year after, although that decision hasn't been made yet. Administration is the best I've ever seen... Athletic Director is former 25 year head football coach who loves the double wing. Principal is former PE teacher/coach who's dad is in Arizona's high school coaches Hall of Fame as a football coach. Currently have 5 coaches on our staff and looking to add at least 3 more. It's the middle of January and we've had 3 weeks of highs in the 70's (watch the Phoenix Open next weekend). Pay in our district is above average for the Phoenix area and housing is very reasonable... If anyone is interested please have them contact me at mike.waters@tuhsd.org and I will send them more information. Thanks coach, Mike Waters - Head Football Coach - P.E. Department Chair - La Joya Community High School - Phoenix, AZ - 623-478-4478
"The only model I had to follow," he said, "was your Philly clinic and how you handled it. So, based on your lead, the Conclave now lives. And I thank you for your example on how to correspond, present, loosely format, etc." Wow. Anyhow, it was successful enough that he is doing it again this year. The 2nd Eastern Single Wing Conclave, 2 days of presentations & video by youth and high school single wing coaches from across the US, will be held March 7th & 8th, at Burke Auditorium on the campus of King's College, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Both days' sessions will, of course, be followed by the usual after-hours sessions. There is no registration fee, but Todd said that some meal fees will be mandatory, to cover the costs of putting on the clinic. For further info, e-mail Todd Bross --- tabby@infonline.net TECHIES' CORNER...
Anyway, I thought you would be interested to know that among the linux community (open source operating system developers), the Mac notebooks are becoming the notebook of choice. Note that most serious developers have notebooks because we can never leave our work behind -- it is a passion like coaching. If you happen to go to any of the conferences where real geeks can be found, you will find them running either linux, or using a MAC notebook. While the other company shuns open source and such, Apple has greeted it with open arms, and they are reaping the rewards as well. We have large budgets for computers, and each individual can get whatever he/she wants. I do not think anyone orders anything other than linux and Mac these days... Jody Hagins, Summerville, South Carolina (I appreciate the observations. I have always considered Macs to be something like the Double-Wing - just because everybody else is running something different, that doesn't make me wrong. HW) *********** How is Jaguar? Right after we got the OSX stuff, Jaguar was coming down the pike and we haven't upgraded to it yet. I like the OSX system as well. It will be even nicer when Classic is out the door though. I have to bounce back and forth between the two a lot but it's pretty seamless. The 'Force Quit' is quite handy too. There's still some quirks in 10.1.5 but I don't mind at all. Mac is still the way to go in my book. I have OS 8 at home too but my wife gets a little frustrated because she's not as used to it and we have to look a little harder for learning games for the kids and such peripherals. I worked on the Dark Side for a brief period doing multi-media design in the mid-90's and it was a pain dealing with the Windows environment - so 'cold'. I came sprinting back to Mac when the opportunity presented itself. One of the best inventions ever is the .PDF file. Do you use them at all? We use them all the time for proofs. Since everyone else in the world is Windows-based it allows for a Mac generated file to be viewed by Windows users. I make my playbook in Adobe Illustrator, import the drawings into QuarkXPress and generate a .PDF file for screen viewing with all my cross-country coaching friends. Nice and small files. Someday I hope I can get into the video capabilities at home too. But not a high priority yet. What else do you like about the OS? Probably a boring e-mail so I'll bow out right here, Adam Wesoloski, Pulaski, Wisconsin Not boring at all. I have begun to use Adobe Acrobat to make pdf documents because I find myself needing to send a fair number of diagrams. (I had been using a page on my web site.) What do I like about OSX? Hmmm. Where to start? How about being able to open - and leave open - any number of programs, regardless of RAM? How about never getting that annoying "please allocate more memory" notice? I like the dock, as well. I don't particularly like having to run the old programs in Classic, but I appreciate the fact that at least I have that option, and I can do it without having to reboot. And it does serve as an occasional reminder of how much better OSX is. For more reasons why I think OSX is really slick, check out Mac OSX Killer Tips by Scott Kelby. (www.scottkelbybooks.com) It is great.
inscribed on the wall of the 1st
Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois
THE BLACK LION
AWARD ARE YOU A BLACK LION
TEAM? |
Following the Detroit clinic last spring, I wrote, "Detroit
Osborn High was represented by coaches Antonio Pride and
Darrell Williams. (shown here at left) They are going into
their third year of a serious rebuilding program - Osborn
has now gone 15 years without a winning season, but the hope
is that the Double-Wing can make a difference... Part of the
reason for the move to the Double-Wing has been the success
of their feeder organization, the Detroit Knights, coached
by Jerome Anthony, Alex Jones and Dennis Lee, all in
attendance at the clinic" Naturally, I wondered how they'd
done, and last week I heard from Coaches Pride and Williams.
They report progress:
BE INFORMED! HOT WEATHER FOOTBALL TIPS (THERE IS PLENTY MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE WEB IF YOU DO A SEARCH ON "HEAT STROKE") |
***********
The Bucs and the Eagles will meet Sunday in the
last football game ever to be played in
Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium. The New York Times
has called The Vet "a place of leaky pipes,
unreliable heat and glacial elevators, a dank arena
where a mouse-chasing cat once fell through the
ceiling onto the desk of an assistant coach; where
visiting players looked through a peephole into the
dressing room of the Eagles' cheerleaders; and
where the upper deck has gained a reputation as a
hostile tier of taunting, public urination,
fighting and general strangeness."
Coach
Babb wrote back: You're the best at bringing up
fond memories. In my opinion, that Texas/Arkansas
game was the best of the "Game of the Century"
games. I remember gnashing my teeth throughout the
contest because I was a huge Texas fan. What a
comeback! I also remember the Sports Illustrated
article that followed. Accompanying the article was
a picture of the cutest cheerleader I'd ever seen.
Not even the swimsuit edition has topped that
picture for me.
"Tennessee took the opening kickoff in overtime and McNair - the first of the scrambling, playmaking quarterbacks who are all the rage now - drove the titans from their own 20 into field goal range." First of all, as you've noted, there's no other kickoff in overtime except the first one. Second, I must have been mistaken - when I saw that ESPN Classic footage of Elway and Tarkenton running around, and Starr and Fouts and Marino throwing TDs, they weren't scrambling or making plays. Forgive me for thinking there was football before Satellite TV and Coors Light ads. Then again, those guys were before THE PLAYOFFS. (I bet the word Scrambling is being trademarked as we speak.) Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts My respect for McNair is great, but he is NOT the first "scrambling, play-making" quarterback. Without spending too much time thinking about it, you might call him the first of the current generation of "scrambling, play-making" quarterbacks. But Tarkenton was much more of a scrambler than McNair. So was/is Flutie. And, yes, at least in his younger years, Elway, too. Going way back before any of them, there was Eddie LeBaron. Actually, I think that McNair is less of a scrambler - and more of a classic pro QB - than is the general perception. Yes, he is big and strong, and he can and does run effectively, but he can stand in the pocket, too. But regardless, welcome to the land of old farts. It can be an unpleasant place at times, because you have to share it with a lot of ignoramuses who think God didn't start the world until they were on board. *********** Will people please get off Trey Junkin's ass? He's the 41-year-old guy the Giants brought out of retirement the week before the 49ers' game, specifically to snap on field goals and PATs. In 19 years of playing football, he made five bad snaps. The fifth, unfortunately, came at the end of the Giants-49ers game, and the resultant botched field goal attempt cost the Giants the game. "I'd give everything in the world, except my family, to have stayed retired so these guys could have had a chance," he said afterward. People have tried to make Junkin the goat for that last-second field goal fiasco. Nice try, but first maybe somebody in the Giants' organization can explain how, in these days of the 50-man roster, they wound up without a damn soul in town who could make that snap. You want a goat? What about that jackass Shockey, who bobbled a sure touchdown, probably because his mind was racing, busily planning his touchdown celebration? But what the hell - now that all is said and done, it's hard to believe all that fuss over the Giants' loss to San Francisco, when what it really did was spare them an ass whuppin' by the Buccaneers.
Just a couple of observations. Both Unitas and Conerly executed beautiful fake handoffs, and carried out the bootlegs on their dive and sweep plays. Baltimore had a lot of studs on the offense, Ray Berry, Lenny Moore and Alan Ameche. I loved how both teams would throw it deep at least once on every series. Mick Yanke, Dassel-Cokato, Minnesota (And don't forget - In addition to executing their plays so beautifully, Conerly and Unitas didn't have radio receivers in their helmets - they called their own plays!) *********** Coach Wyatt, Hello. I want to thank you for getting the videos I purchased out to me. It was a nice surprise to see your season highlights tape included. I received both packages on December 24th, they were a great addition to a great Christmas for me. My wife has not found a particular liking to the videos, but she does agree with me that the quality is excellent. I gave our 5th and 6th Grade coach the season highlights tape to show him how the D/W is supposed to look, and more importantly work, and he loved it. Both of our teams, the J/V (4th, 5th, and 6th graders) and the Varsity (7th and 8th Graders) will run your system next year. The tapes have helped take away the fear and apprehension I had about being able to coach the D/W. I honestly can say that the Safer and Surer Tackling video is the best tape I have seen. Very informative, very safe, and it seems VERY easy to introduce to the kids. It makes me wonder what I have been doing the last four years. Finally, I am looking forward to your upcoming clinic in the Chicago area. I believe that we might actually have a "contingent" of our coaches at the clinic this year. Everyone is excited, the coaches and the kids, we all love smash mouth football and we think that we will have a big set of stones for this upcoming season. Thank you, Bill Murphy, Queen of Martyrs Wildcats, Chicago, Illinois *********** A 10-10 tie between the Jets and Raiders just isn't enough. That's fine for the hardcore fans, maybe, but face it - they're going to watch, no matter what. What about the casual fans, who'd rather be shopping? If we're going to draw them in, we need a halftime show - which is why we interrupt a football game to show you some scuzzballs who look as if they've just been let out for a few minutes of fresh air and sunshine after spending most of their lives in a dungeon. *********** Isn't it exciting when the pros get into overtime and everything they do is dedicated to positioning for a field goal? "Sudden death" my ass - it is a slow, painful, lingering death - a wasting away. It is the football equivalent of preparing the IV - to slowly, peacefully euthanize the patient with an overdose of a sedative.
But I can say that if I were LeBron James, I would take one look at that car and say, "So exploit me. Please" *********** Coach, I hope this finds you well. Not only has the NFL invented "The Playoffs" this season, they have also given us "Five Seconds". I wonder if the NFL is now eligible for some kind of Nobel Prize for their contributions to society. Now if we could just get other sports to be as thoughtful of their fans as the suits from the NFL. God Bless Paul Tagliabue, for giving us the playoffs and five seconds to make our lives all better. Larry Hanson, Rochelle, Illinois (I can't imagine five more seconds of Tampa Bay-San Francisco. "No! Not the Playoffs! Stop! I'll confess! Anything! Just stop the game!" HW) *********** Not content with trashing our national anthem, the NFL is moving on to "God Bless America." Before the Dixie Chicks show us how they think the "Star Spangled Banner" should sound, Celine Dion will sing "God Bless America." The official NFL announcement reads, "David Foster, who has won 14 Grammy Awards, will create the arrangement to 'God Bless America' for Dion. " Did you get that? Create the arrangement! A song that every red-blooded American knows - and can sing - and not only is it going to be sung by a Canadian ( "I'm honored to be asked to sing this 'meaningful song,'" she said) but it's going to be given the foo-foo, blow-dry treatment - an arrangement - by a Grammy Award winning composer. Is nothing sacred?
*********** I'm sure you have heard this one before. As you know, since Air Force and Navy, run what I call Flexbone, my offense has been questioned by onlookers and the ones that know better than I. I wanted to share this with you, because it brings up a question about origin. Basically, I was told that I am not running the "True Double-Wing." I do not know what the True Double-Wing looks like. After our championship game, I saw the value of an effective fullback, one that gets 5 yards a carry. I was advised to move my fullback back from the quarterback. Not wanting to get into a huge discussion since we had lost the game. I think because our offense is different, people want to grab on to a clutch and place the blame there. We ran our A-Back 23 times that game, and he accounted for all our scoring. We lost because defense broke down. Players missing their assignments, poor tackling, not staying in lanes, etc. What I did wonder, is I do understand our DW got it roots, from the Wing-T. In a scrimmage, a coach told me that he runs a little of the 500 series wing-t. But the only similarity that I have noticed is the set. I did see line splits, the fullback was set back. A good friend of mine that will be converting to the DW that beat us in the championship two years ago is a big believer in the offense after scrimmaging an older team. He told me that he has emailed you and will be at your next clinic in Maryland/Pa. I know this is long winded, but as I improve knowledge wise, and engage in conversation such as this I need to bone up to defend what I run. Can you give me a little insight into what the "TRUE DOUBLE-WING" is if one exist. (I have talked to Derek Wade about this, and he couldn't believe that someone said there is such a monster and to bring you into the subject). Not being to fluid with the Wing-T, can you sum up the 500 series - to put me in the ballpark. Couple of things: Air Force and Navy are running something that resembles our Double-Wing but only superficially. They are running a wishbone offense. The wishbone requires large line splits in order to (1) create a crease for the fullback and (2) widen the QB's keys. Second of all, was the championship game yours to lose? Is it possible that there were other reasons why you lost? As for the "true" double-wing... who in your organization knows so much football that he would care to tell me what, exactly, that is? I think it might have to be Pop Warner's, which was a direct-snap offspring of his unbalanced single-wing, except that instead of a blocking back, it had a wingback on the short side as well as on the long side. Actually, as I explain on my site, any formation is by definition a double-wing if it has two tight ends and two wingbacks. That means that the Delaware "500" formation is a double-wing formation, since it has two tight ends and two wings. Unlike us, though, the Delaware Wing-T has fairly conventional line splits, and the fullback is approximately four yeards deep. I was running that long before I saw a tighter version and saw the value of running the Delaware Wing-T with tightened up. I know that you have been to my clinics and understand why we have tight splits and why our fullback is up close. I feel that you have accomplished enough that you don't have to waste your time on kibitzers and sec ond-guessers, but if you want to get ignorant people off your case, tell them that there are 10 times as many people running our version of the double-wing as any other version, so that probably gives it as good a claim as any to being called the "true" double-wing. You are in the ballpark. Your critics are in left field. *********** Some time back, I got an order from a youth coach whose name sure sounded familiar to me - Vern Von Sydow. At risk of sounding stupid, I asked him why I would have heard of him, and he told me that it was probably because he'd played at Navy. That was it. Yeah, he'd played at Navy. He sure had. He'd been a a helluva player at Navy, a starter on a couple of those great teams Wayne Hardin turned out. There were only 180 trading cards put out by one gum company in 1961, and he was on one of them - a guard and linebacker, yet. And then, not so long ago, I was looking through a great book I'd bought, "Field of Valor," and found quite a bit about those great Navy teams of the 60's, including a mention of Vern Von Sydow and his service as a "much-decorated helicopter pilot in Vietnam." I wrote him about it and back came the reply: Not familiar with book - will have to get a copy. *********** As many of you know, I am an Apple MacIntosh guy. I realize this puts me in the company of a lot of, uh, "artistic" types, but Macs are so.. elegant. And Mac people are so... loyal. The latest Apple campaign has featured various real people - including world-renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma - telling why they'd switched from Windows to Mac. The Windows people are powerless to retaliate with a "making the switch" campaign of their own, because we Mac people are just too damn loyal. There was a time not so long ago when it appeared that Apple Computer might not survive as a company, and psychologist Ross Goldstein was commissioned by a rival computer manufacturer to figure out how to appeal to Apple users who would be left stranded if the company were to go under. So Goldstein went out and recruited a number of Apple users to form a focus group. First, though, as a requirement of joining, they had to agree that they would consider moving to Windows if Apple were to go out of business. No sooner had the session started, though, than they all had misgivings, saying they'd never consider switching. "They were steadfast in their resistance to moving over," Goldstein said. "It was humorous. They were picked because they might switch, but they all said, 'I'll be an Apple user until my dying keystrokes.' The degree of loyalty to the platform, and everything it represented, was so profound. It was fascinating." Goldstein said that the participants' left brain, their logical side, was telling them they might have to switch if Apple went under. But the right brain, their emotional attachment to Apple, got the upper hand, and said "Nothing doing." . There was, Goldstein said, "a profound sense that Apple was one of them -- counterculture, grassroots, human, approachable." "Apple really appeals to the humanistic side of people," Goldstein said. "The image of the brand, the heritage, the experience. It really spoke to who they were."
*********** Coach Wyatt, In your most recent "news" you said, "I am saddened," he went on, "by The Columbian's coverage of the Rose Bowl and lack of coverage of the world peace movement." Next time you think about loading the wife and kids in the van and heading west to Oregon or Washington - to God's Country - think about sharing it with people like that. .....and don't forget Patty Murray, that fine senator from WA....Bin Laden is such a humanitarian, building all that infrastructure, maybe she could be his undersecretary or something like that.....hopefully she'll be in big trouble in 2004.....of course we have Ted, 'my head is as big as a bushel basket' Kennedy, so I can't give you too much of a hard time. Again, I really enjoy your commentary....especially your comments about the schools, the male principals, etc. I liked the stories that my dad used tell about when he was a teacher.....you know the ones where some knucklehead drug dealer criminal type was getting the tar beat out of him in the hallway because he was harrassing some guy's younger sister, and the teachers used to walk slower than a chain gang to get to the fight to break it up. Or the stories my brother the cop (6'6" 250 lbs) tells...where the next thing that happens to a crim after he speaks the words "go f*** yourself" is a lesson in physics, usually in the form of an open handed whack to the chest that brings him parallel to the ground...every, and I mean every guy who he did that to apologized later on (sometimes in the ER) that they were a jerk, etc. We really have lost perspective sometimes... Also, good advice to the guy asking about how to run a no-contact clinic....I used tons of stuff from your practice without pads video when I ran my youth clinic last summer (your kid-sized shields were used extensively as well). Have a nice day. Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts *********** POSITION WANTED - A youth coach in New England wrote to tell me he will be relocating soon to the Cocoa, Florida area, and since it is obvious that he's going to miss football and is going to want to hook up with a program in his new place, I offered to let people in the area know that he's interested and available. He is hard-working and says he's willing to take any position. I know him - he's been to my Providence clinic - and I am impressed by his desire to learn the game. If you'd like to get in touch with him, e-mail me. *********** I read your column today and as usual...it's great....except for the Ealey story and while I agree with your opinion of the writer and her motives I do take exception to the notion that black kids at that time didn't want play quarterback because they didn't see any. Coach, from personal experience....yeah, I know, hard to believe, but I started out as a quarterback...also I tend to believe my grandpas, dad and uncles when they tell of stories where coaches have flat out said " That type of thing just doesn't go on here' . 20 years ago Mike Vick would have been a WR, DB or RB. I am happy you cited Gilliam and "Shack" Harris - you could not believe the pride these guys brought to us when we saw them play. Now you know me well enough to know that I will play a Green woman with one leg if she can spin, pitch and lead on the Toss and lead my team. But in "those days" black boys just didn't play QB if there was a white kid that could play it also. I'm glad times are changing and now it seems to be who can get the job done and produce. Joe Daniels, Sacramento, California My saying what I did - and maybe I didn't say it strongly enough - was that in exploring various reasons why there weren't many black quarterbacks at any level - not just professional - back in those days, maybe there were young black kids who saw that there were no black QB's in the NFL and figured, "what's the use?" and went out for another position. But there's no question - there was a belief common among NFL types that you couldn't win with a black QB, because black QB's just "didn't have the discipline" to stay in the pocket (wonder how those people feel now, every time Michael Vick leaves the pocket), and besides, "they relied on their natural ability and not their brains," and besides, "white players wouldn't follow the lead of a black QB." All of that, of course, has since been proven false. At this point, the possibility exists that we could see two black quarterbacks - Donovan McNabb and Steve McNair - leading their teams into the Super Bowl. Remember, though, that in the time of Chuck Ealey, it wasn't just QB's - there were still coaches then who would play a white DB ahead of a black DB even if the black guy had more ability.
*********** I have great admiration for leaders in other fields, and natirally I am constantly finding for things that I can learn from military men. So while visiting my son-in-law, a submariner, I was thumbing through a book on the history of submarine warfare, and I came across a section on submariners who'd been awarded the Medal of Honor. One of those was a commander named Eugene Fluckey, who in 1945 was cited for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." Let's just say he put his life at risk (as all submariners routinely do, anyhow) in Japanese waters. Commander Fluckey went on to make admiral before retiring.. In 2000, in "Undersea Warfare," the official publication of the Navy's Director of Submarine Warfare, he explained his philosophy of command: "Serve your country well.
inscribed on the wall of the 1st
Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois
THE BLACK LION
AWARD ARE YOU A BLACK LION
TEAM? |
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A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Most of us who
remember him remember the glasses and
the bow tie.
The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the battle for the Circuit City National Championship, sure was a good game. Both teams played hard. Not to take anything away from Miami, but I thought Ohio State was especially well-prepared. Miami's Kellen Winslow (where have we heard that bame before?) is terrific. On one occasion, even the TV people knew he was going to get the ball - they actually circled him with the telestrator - and Miami still got it to him. I was impressed by the way Miami just went about business without any of the usual sideshow. I found myself, as a result, pulling for them. I hope they don't get the idea that but cutting back on the trashy behavior they somehow weakened themselves. And I was sorry that they hurt themselves with those turnovers, but it is fair to say that four of the five were caused by aggressive Ohio State play. It pissed me off to hear Dorsey being blamed for his turnovers - one of them an interception after a hard throw, drilled into a tight spot, deflected off the receiver's hands - and another a"fumble" in which his protection broke down and the ball was batted out of his hands. And as for Clarett stealing the ball... why didn't anyone question the greedhead he stole it from? The guy intercepted a pass in the end zone and then had to big-dog it and try running it out, Wasn't stopping an Ohio State drive and getting the ball out on the 20 good enough? I wouldn't go so far as to say that the game was decided by an official's call, because Miami did have a chance to win it after that, and the Canes did come up short on a final fourth-and-one, but I didn't think there was a lot going on between the receiver and the defender, and I didn't think that the so-called interference had any bearing on the receiver's missing the pass. Some called it a courageous call. I would call it foolhardy. The delay caused by the apparent indecision didn't make it any more palatable. I don't think I saw pass interference, but I did think that I saw defensive holding prior to that. Of course, if it had been defensive holding, we'd have seen the flag thrown a lot more quickly, wouldn't we? *********** Ohio State did a masterful job of using the one man no one normally accounts for - the running QB. *********** Say what? I'm not sure what exactly Keith Jackson was saying, but I heard him say, "This is Jim Tressel's second year, but I don't know how many seasons like this he can go through..." Uh, Keith - were you meaning to say that a 3-8 season would have been easier on him? In Columbus? *********** For any of you who've never seen a college game before... It's very much like an NFL game except there's more action - less downtime between plays - and a lot less of the celebration and dancing. And a real overtime in which both teams have a chance to win. *********** As dumb as it gets... I swear I heard the halftime interviewer say to Jim Tressel, "so you're not going to concede victory until it's over..." *********** One reason why the college championship supplies more suspense than the pros, and affords a better chance of a competitive game: the two teams seldom have a common opponent, and there is no possibility whatsoever they would have played each other during the regular season. *********** I couldn't believe the halftime show of the Fiesta Bowl. Instead of the T & A show put on the night before at the Orange Bowl, we got John Saunders and Terry Bowden interviewing Eddie George and Warren Sapp. *********** Lord, I wish that they'd do away with the stupid "halo" rule that awards so many free 10-yard returns. What was so tough about enforcing the old fair catch rules? *********** I like college fight songs. Unfortunately, about the only time you ever hear them played is after the team scores, and unfortunately, that's when they send us to the commercial.
*********** I watched the New York Giants - a professional football team - go down in flames Sunday when a mishandled center snap on a field goal attempt caused the holder to abort the mission. I looked for receivers going out on the "Fire" drill, but all I saw were guys wearing jersey numbers in the 60s. Okay, all you high school coaches out there... Raise your hands if you teach your ends (or wingbacks) to routinely release downfield after blocking for a set time, just on the chance that the holder may have to throw the ball. Just as I thought. Everybody. (Did you see how long it took the Giants' #69 - lined up on the end - to decide it might be a good idea to go out?) And all of you guys who teach your linemen not to go downfield on an extra point or a field goal - raise your hands. Yup. Just as I thought. Everybody. You might want to dust off the old resume and send it off to the New York Giants. They're paying a guy a lot more than you're making to coach their special teams, and he didn't do either one of those things. *********** THE PLAYOFFS are here! And what excitement! Jets 41, Colts 0. Falcons 24, Packers 0 at the half. But hey- lemme let you in on something. I think I've figured it out. Here's what I figure: all this marketing attention the NFL is suddenly giving to THE PLAYOFFS - running promos, painting THE PLAYOFFS logo on the field and wrapping it around the goal post, even airing a Coors Lite commercial ("It's the most wonderful time of the year", as if this were the first year they've ever had playoffs - is what the military would call a preemptive strike, designed to nail the enemy before it can even get started. The enemy, in this case, is college football. Specifically, the much-discussed college football playoff. See, if there ever is a college playoff, as seems inevitable, it will almost certainly extend the college season into January, and into the NFL's domain. But what will they call it? Not THE PLAYOFFS. Not a chance. That belongs to the NFL, ever since they started telling everybody about it at the end of the 2002 season. THE PLAYOFF (singular) I rather doubt it - sounds too much like the NFL. *********** Coach, As I was watching the debacle of the SF/NY Giants football game yesterday, I kept on thinking that I couldn't wait to read your commentary on the game. It was disgraceful. I can't help but wonder if the NFL is destined to follow the path of the NBA and become unwatchable? On another note, I didn't get to see the whole Miami/OSU game but saw the beginning and the OT (flight from Tampa to Boston cancelled, but don't get me started on the airlines). I saw the "tackle" and subsequent knee injury sustained by the Miami RB and it was difficult to watch to say the least. I suppose that there was nothing illegal about the the tackle but it just didn't seem like the kind of tackle that you would teach. Of course, none of the commentators would touch this with a 10-foot pole however. Lastly, I saw OSU run some nice power plays pulling the backside guard......I'm just a youth coach and a relatively inexperienced one at that, but for the life of me I just can't see why an 88SP wouldn't work well at the college level. Anyway, I enjoy your commentary as always (and looking forward to reading your next one especially) and here's wishing you a happy and prosperous new year. See you in Providence. Rick Davis, Duxbury, Mass. (That was a nasty-looking tackle, wasn't it? I really didn't watch it carefully enough to see if the guy was leading with his head, but if he was, so what? As long as it's low, the announcers will say, "Great Tackle!" Only when a pro kills himself doing that is there even a chance that anyone will take notice. It's interesting how excited everybody has become over helmet-to-helmet hits, but the rules are pretty clear about hitting anywhere with the helmet, and they - officials and commentators alike - continue to ignore it. As for running the ball... Major colleges - pros, too - could run our stuff. Of course, since you watched the NYG-SF game yesterday, you remember the people booing whenever the 49ers ran the ball. HW) *********** As a spectator, it sometimes gets to be a bit of a nuisance dealing with three sets of football rules - four, if you add Canadian football. And as a high school coach, it can be a royal pain in the ass when your officials forget that you're not playing by NFL rules. But it was a lot worse in football's early days, when there was no set of rules whatsoever. In "Anatomy of a Game," wrote Dave Nelson, "Football was governed by whatever rules the competing teams negotiated." *********** Have you ever seen worse secondary play in your life - at any level - than the display the Steelers put on Sunday? At one point, a Steeler defensive back, looking like a guy who'd never played in the secondary before, turned his back on the play and let a Browns' receiver make an easy catch way down the field. But Phil Simms excused him. "He's a safety - he's not used to having to play man-for-man coverage that far downfield."
*********** A legacy of greatness... Rex Grossman's announcement that he'll be foregoing his senior year at Florida might break the hearts of Gator fans, but it's sure to set hearts racing in the NFL, at the thought of yet another in the long line of stellar Florida quarterbacks in the NFL, going all the way back to the great Steve Spurrier himself. *********** One of the things I hate about the NFL is its obsession with tight closeups and clever camera angles. The a**holes at CBS have always been the masters of it. They don't want us to see what the fans in the stadium see. Oh, no. They have to give us more. They want to impress us with the number of cameras they have. So they cut from a closeup of the home team coach to a closeup of the visiting team coach to a crotch shot of a stripper - er, "cheerleader" - to another closeup of the quarterback'es eyes. In the meantime, the ball has been snapped, and we are jarred back into the football game by a quick cut to the wide-angle camera. Ever notice what happens when a return man fields a kick and heads upfield? You got it - tight shot of the runner. Think he might have a chance of going all the way? Hah. Only the people in the stadium can see that. For all we know, there could be a Sherman tank just out of the picture, waiting to crush the guy. We never get to see the play of more than one or two guys. Sunday, when the Steelers lined up for the two-point conversion that would just about clinch a win over the Browns, CBS was up to its usual stuff. We couldn't see what the fans in the stadium saw. Oh, no. We had to get in close. So infatuated with closeups were the artsy-fartsy TV guys that they got the shot they wanted - but they missed one of the great plays of the year - the Steelers' single-wing-type run-pass option, with the ball snapped back to Antwan Randle-El. We had to take the announcers' word for what happened, and when you're dealing with guys who call ordinary buck sweeps "reverses" and "end arounds," you know what a risky propositon that can be. And then, worst of all, they didn't even have a good replay to show us! Guess we'll have to watch it on ESPN. *********** Coach Wyatt, I finally found a player in the NFL that is more despicable in my opinion than Terrell Owens. In fact he makes T.O. look like a choir boy. Giants TE Shockey. What a thug. Nothing but trash talk 100% of the time. At least Owens is creative in his showboating. Another baffling newsclip from the NFL. How does Julius Peppers win Rookie MVP when he was suspended for 4 games for taking a banned substance? What kind of message does that send? Unf%&*ingbelievable. Greg Stout, Thompson's Station, TN (Jeremy Shockey is in a class with Terrell Owens - a great talent but a real a**hole. In fact, Shockey may be in a class by himself. Owens is the hot-dog football player taken to the extreme. Shockey, on the other hand, reminds me of a crazed pro wrestler, with all that that implies. he is good very, but he is a Richard Cranium. Not glad to see the Giants gone, but glad to see his season over with. HW) *********** Not that there weren't a few of us cheering for Giants' safety Shaun Williams when he went after Terrell Owens on the sidelines Sunday, but his total lack of self-discipline in doing so cost his team dearly. The Giants could use the Walkaway Drill. (You guys who've seen "Practice Without Pads" know what I'm talking about.) *********** I was watching a little of that stupid Army high school all-star game later Sunday and I heard Trev Alberts - is it too late for me to take back my earlier evaluation of him? - say "high school football is 90 per cent physical and ten per cent mental - when you get to college, it's more like 50-50." Yeah, Trev. And by the time you get to the pros - at least if you play for the New York Giants - it's about one per cent mental *********** Coach Wyatt: Have you noticed that NFL defenses give a less-than-maximum effort in trying to block extra points? My 12 year old son noticed it. "Hey Dad, how come those guys on the outside of the defense get down in a stance, but don't rush? They just stand there and look." Could it be that they fear a two point conversion attempt and therefore do not sell out to block the kick, or have they decided that the odds of them actually getting to one are so low that they won't waste their energy? Personally, I believe it is the latter, which in my mind would be inexcusable and symptomatic of the "Randy Moss" syndrome, but perhaps reading your column for the last three years has shaded my judgement. Also, did you agree with the "celebration" penalty called in the Fiesta Bowl against the Miami player after the long TD? Granted, he didn't just run into the endzone and hand the ball to the referee, but it wasn't exactly a Terrell Owens routine, either. Mark Rice, Beaver, Pennsylvania (I think the PAT slothfulness is typical of the NFL's "why bother?" attitude at its worst. If I have been able to bend your thinking in that direction, then my living shall not have been in vain. I did not agree with the penalty against Miami. I marvelled at the Hurricanes' hard but sportsmanlike play, and was disappointed that they turned the ball over so many times and cost themselves the win. HW) *********** Hey Coach, Love the Website. I read your News all the time and enjoy your "takes" a lot. I've just finished reading Jim Dent's book "The Undefeated" which is all about The Oklahoma Sooners, Bud Wilkinson and that amazing forty-seven game winning streak they had in the 50's. Good read. Actually it's even more amazing when you realise that from the second game of their 1948 season to the eighth game of the '57 season the Sooners went 94-4-2 and within that time had streaks of 31 and 47 games! Wow...anyway my question regards the swinging gate formation that they mention from time to time. It seems as if it was a "trick play" perhaps similar to the "lonesome polecat" that I have read about on your site. I know that for part of that time in the 40's and 50's the 2 pt.convert hadn't become a rule yet so I don't think it was used for 2 pt.plays only. Can you help? Thanks a lot! Martin McDonnell Maple Ridge, B.C. Canada Glad you like the site. By the way, feel free to enjoy Jim Dent but don't count on him for a lot of accuracy. His writing style is that of a guy with a few drinks under his belt (okay, more than a few) sitting around swapping a few tales with his drinking buddies, with all the embellishments and inaccuracies you might expect. I certainly did not appreciate the number he did on Bud Wilkinson, portraying him as a lecherous goat. I'd like to think I did my part to help expose his "Junction Boys" as a bit of a fake. Anyhow, the swinging gate play, although rarely run, is often shown by teams prior to kicking an extra point. If the defense lines up to defend it, the offense shifts into normal extra-point formation and proceeds with the kick. Navy does this, and then shifts into an unbalanced kicking formation, with two linemen and two backs on the right of center, and four linemen on the left.
To the left of these four men, over on the other hash, are the other seven players - six linemen, with one back lined up a yard or so behind them. The trick here is that on the right, where there are four players, they are all eligible. The "center" has an elIgible number, and he is on the right end of the line, so he is an eligible receiver. If the defense doesn't allow for the fact that they can easily be outnumbered - or outskilled - on the short side, they could be looking at a pass or an option. If the defense gangs up to stop those four, it is legal for the "center" to "snap" the ball underhanded to that single back on the left, who can run a wedge-type play behind the blocking of the six linemen. More often than not, the kicking team merely takes a look and then shifts into kick formation. I remember seeing someone run it in a bowl game - I believe it was Florida against Michigan. They tried to run the play to the left - they were unsuccessful. *********** Maybe there is justice after all. Maybe the pendulum is swinging back. But it sure did seem to me that the bowl winners were the teams that could run the ball successfully. You wonder why the Pac-10 did so poorly in bowl games? There wasn't a single Pac-10 team that averaged 200 yards rushing this year. Don't those guys know that they can hold on running plays, too? *********** Coach Wyatt, Here are some bowl observations. They are a little slanted by the fact that the only bowls I can watch live are the ones on over the air TV, and by the fact that the only ones I've watched so far on the Air-Dyne are the Houston Bowl and the Outback Bowl. Watch out for Purdue next year, Big Ten. Watch out for the Big Ten next year Notre Dame. Carson Palmer is special. Larry Johnson padded his stats against the Big Ten's worst. Do you think Washington actually pays somebody to be their line coach? You had to love the Bowden-Richt interview before the Sugar Bowl. Isn't it great to see a school win a national championship whose QB went 7 of 21?!? I love watching a good punter. Ohio State's Groom and Michigan's Finley are two of the best. I loved the Houston Bowl! I thought it was a competitive, hard fought game. The Southern Miss. QB Almond was a tough, hard nosed kid. So was Ohio State's Krenzel. It's about time for Michigan fans to accept John Navarre for what he is; a fine quarterback. John Zeller, Sears, Michigan *********** On every single leg of our vacation trip to Denver and Houston, my wife and I were taken aside and sent off to the X-ray machine to have our checked baggage inspected. On every single leg, one or both of us was nailed at either passenger screening or the gate and put through the take-off-your-shoes-and-raise-your-arms-up-from-your-side-and-cough routine (Okay, I made up the bit about coughing), and I started thinking, what the f--k kind of airport security is this, singling out an old fart football coach and his trophy wife? And then it hit me. One of the things the Transport Safety Administration looks for is people flying with one-way tickets. And because my preferred airline, Northwest, doesn't fly between Portland and Denver, I had done a little creative travel planning, flying Frontier to Denver, Continental to Houston, and America West back to Portland. Three back-to-back one-way tickets. I might as well have worn an Al-Qaeda tee shirt. *********** There is a good reason why Houston ranks consistently among our most overweight cities - there are so many good restaurants. I think I've noted it before, but you can't travel around Houston without getting the impression that it has more restaurants per capita than any city on earth. And the food is so doggone good and varied. Whatever it is you want, whether it's the steak you'd expect to find in Texas, or Mexican, as you'd also expect to find in Texas, or seafood from the nearby Gulf, or BBQ, or cajun from nearby Louisiana, or dozens of ethnic cuisines, Houston's got it. One of the most recent and most popular types of restaurants, I'm told, is Brazilian steak house, at which waiters circulate throughout the restaurant carrying large steaks and slicing off slabs of meat for you unless you tell them not to. *********** One of the highlights of our Christmas trip - besides seeing a lot of our kids and grandkids - was an afternoon on the beach at Galveston. I looked up at the sea wall and I swore for an instant I saw Glenn Campbell sitting up there. *********** Another highlight of our trip was a visit to Aggieland - Texas A & M - and the George Bush Library there. It is a really impressive place, and I came away with a great feeling, including a healthy respect for a great man, a true representative of the Greatest Generation. *********** Al Babartsky died last week at 87. Officially, he was Al Bart, but he was Al Babartsky, a kid from the coal mining town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, back when he played right next to Vince Lombardi on the Fordham line made famous as the Seven Blocks of Granite. This past spring, he returned to the Fordham campus to receive an award from Wellington Mara, co-owner of the New York Giants and a Fordham alumnus of the same time period. Following that, he was also scheduled to speak to the Fordham football team prior to an intrasquad game. Sadly, he suffered a heart attack during the visit and was unable to give his talk. "He'd been waiting seven months," Fordham coach Dave Clawson, the Fordham coach, told The Journal News of Westchester County. "This meant a lot to him." In his prepared speech, Mr. Bart had written, "All I can tell you boys is that I wish I could turn back the clock and put on the pads and be one of you. Those were great years." *********** Now, Antwan Randle-El earned the right to hook slide. *********** One of our local high school bands was "invited" to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade. You may know how the scam works. The school breathlessly informs the local newspaper that it has been given the great honor of being selected to represent the state of (fill in the state). Also that it is going to take a large sum of money to send the band to Pasadena. So let the fund raising begin. Finally, the Big Day arrives, and a good time is had by all. I'm sure all that travel - Disneyland, etc. - is very educational. But the biggest chance to make a teaching moment of it was blown before they even left town. The day they were set to depart for sunny California, band members assembled at the school at 4 AM, as they'd been told. They'd known about this for weeks, of course, but still, not all of them made it. "We did have to call one or two of them to get them to school that morning," the band director confessed. Now, for me, that would have been a teaching moment. "One or two of them", I gar-ohn-tee, would have missed the bus. Or, in this case, the plane. Simple as that. "One or two of them" would have learned a lesson they'd never forget. So, for that matter, would the rest of the kids. Of course, the school district would have been sued by those "one or two" kids' parents, and I would have wound up being reprimanded. Maybe even fired. The lawyer would argue that knowing high school kids, I should have called everybody at 3:30 to make sure they were on their way, and in the case of those who didn't answer their calls, driven to their homes and gently awakened them. Which is basically what the school did. Which is why businesses complain about the work ethic of the kids they hire. Which is why you and I complain about the quality of service in America. *********** If I could get the word to the Earth Liberation Front people that they're burning timeouts inside football stadiums, harming the environment and endangering the ozone layer, they'd go out and firebomb a press box or two, and then we wouldn't hear that stupid, overworn cliche any more. *********** "I cracked up at the your news with the first baby in your area to be illegitimate and the ones in Washington DC who are Lesbians. I think I will have another Beer." Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho *********** Nice story about Ron Timson's assistant coach. He's a really nice guy and adds a lot to the Umatilla program. I agree with you that it takes a REAL coach to hire someone with more knowledge. Yes men add little to any organization and are a dime a dozen. !!!! Black Lions Sir! Doc. (Tom Hinger) Umatilla, Florida *********** Hugh, Am I missing something or did you think the Hapless Hawks Iowa) performance last night was soooooo bad to warrant their absence in your playoff seedings in this morning's post? I have been reading it and at this writing I'm not finished but I see no mention of the Hawkeyes in your top 16 seeds! Please tell me it's a typo! I can't believe that their performance (defense on the field for at least 2/3 of the game) was that bad to warrant their absence in the field. USC outplayed them but they are 16 seeds better! Don Capaldo, Keokuk, Iowa That was a hypothetical seeding of bowl winners only (losers out, just the same as it would be if we had a "true" playoff). That means Penn State is out, Washington State is out, West Virginia is out, Notre Dame is out, and Miami is out. Sorry about your Hawks. I have been similarly bummed for days now. *********** Coach Wyatt, Happy New Year. Hope you and your family had a great Christmas season. My wife and I traveled to Scotland to visit her family. A very nice trip, much warmer than Minnesota, but it is good to be back. It reminded me again, that we are truly blessed to live in this country, despite our country's challenges. We flew back to the U.S. on Mon. 12/30. I knew I would be messed up time wise, so I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. to watch the live broadcast of the ESPN Sunday night game Bears v Bucs. Now I had spent my entire week watching soccer with my inlaws, and complaining about how dull it all is, so my wife's uncle also stayed up and watched the NFL game with me. Needless to say, this wasn't the greatest display of American football. Sadly there is no college football to be seen in Scotland unless you have a dish, or the Sky Sports package which includes ESPN. Coach, what did you think of the hit on McGahee? I hope that the Buckeyes were not trying to deliberately take him out, but the tackler just launched himself into his legs. It's not good football. It could have just as easily been the tackler laying on the ground, if McGahee's knee or thigh had slammed his helmet and crunched his neck. The BCS sort of gets bailed out by a good game between OSU and Miami, otherwise the games were fairly dull. Oklahoma, USC, Texas all looked very tough. What happened to Tennessee, they have plummeted. I was happy that the Gophers won, but I don't know if we will ever catch up to OSU & Michigan. We play a super soft preseason, try to go .500 in the Big Ten and go to a lesser bowl game. It's hard to break out of that cycle. In the last 10 years Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue have had their day in the sun. Actually Wisconsin and Purdue have been pretty consistent under Alvarez and Tiller. Mick Yanke, Dassel-Cokato, Minnesota It is not easy for the Gophers. I remember reading an excellent article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune last summer detailing what they are up against in the arms race. And yet, bailing out of the race is simply not an option because big-time football at Minnesota props up so many other things - most important of all, membership in the Big Ten.HW *********** Coach Wyatt -- Happy New Year! You've got to love that Miami / Ohio State game. What a great effort by both teams and a superb effort on the winning TD run, not to mention the courage of the official to call pass interference on what could have been the final play. Having a passing game is nice, having a running game is better and having a good defense keeps a Coach sane. Doug Gibson, Naperville, Illinois *********** Coach Wyatt - another excellent job reviewing the bowl season! How does Ralph Friedgen of Maryland run so much "stuff"? That guy is AMAZING!! , If I was a Def. Coord. facing the Terps, I wouldn't know what the hell to do and where to start. Also Coach Wyatt I hope some day, we can get back to the "old" bowl system, where playing in a bowl was an honor and a privilege and the " national championship" was not the " be all and end all".- John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts (I could almost deal with all the new bowls, but I think this idea of tying in with conferences, so you have the 8th place team in this conference playing the 7th place team in another is one of the reasons we see such crappy games. And conversely, I would like to see the major bowls go back to their match-ups of conference champions. I'd like to see 20 bowls max, but of course, as long as coaches have large bowl bonuses written into their already-fat contracts, you're going to see 25+ bowl games. HW) *********** Coach: Greetings and Happy New Year from the other side of the International Date Line. To put Coach Jason Krolikowski's success at San Francisco Lowell in perspective, you need to know that Lowell has one of the great academic traditions in the U.S. -- alumni as notable and diverse as Nobel laureates Albert Michaelson (Physics, 1907) and Joseph Erlanger (Medicine, 1945), current Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and feminist author Naomi Wolf. Lowell has been accepting students on a competitive academic basis since at least the early years of the last century. For whatever reasons in recent years, this has meant a student body rich in Asian females -- great for girls' volleyball, not so hot for football. Coach Krolikowski was too modest to note that the most recent previous Turkey Day victory for Lowell came 26 years ago. Congratulations to him for a magnificent achievement. Regards, Ted Seay, U.S. Embassy, Suva, Fiji Islands *********** The cute little thing who sang the national anthem before the Colts-Jets game set a new world record. For the time it took to sing it. Brent Musburger, of course, had to add, "beautifully sung." Yeah, beautiful. Also tedious. Do they pay these female singers by the hour? *********** Not to sound unpatriotic, but I hope those "Singing Sergeants" can fight better than they can sing the national anthem. *********** Nothing nauseates me more than hearing someone refer to an athlete as a hero. A hero is a person who does something heroic: something bold, daring and, above all, altruistic - unselfishly concerned for the welfare of others. Saturday's Portland Oregonian contained a story that defined better than any dictionary could exactly what a hero is. Last Monday, in the North Pacific about 20 miles off the Oregon coast, the 99-foot seagoing tug Prima Brusco, with a crew of five, began taking on water in high seas, and sank. The five crewmen managed to get off, three of them in a lifeboat, and two of them, with life rings, went into the chilly water. The distress call from the tug came into the US Coast Guard station at Newport, Oregon about 3:00 AM, and by 3:30 a rescue helicopter with four crewmen was on its way, whipped by 60 mile-an-hour wind and rain. "We couldn't even see the ocean until we were in a 60-foot hover" recalled Roman Baligad, a Coast Guard Rescue swimmer whose job it is to go out on such missions and snatch stranded sailors from the ocean. Using night vision goggles, the crew scanned the ocean and saw three strobe lights, but unable to see anything else, they lowered Baligad on a cable 25 feet below the helicopter. One strobe light turned out to be an empty life ring (belonging to a crewman whose body was later found); the second came from a floating locator beacon; the third, though, came from a life ring with a man's head and arm poking through it. The guy was alive. The hoistman on the helicopter lowered Baligad even closer to the ocean, a job complicated not only by the fact that the winds were whipping and spinning Baligad, out at the end of the cable, and by the fact that the helicopter itself, buffeted by winds, rose and fell as much as 50 feet in its hover, but by 30-foot waves. Three times Baligad reached the water, and three times huge waves washed over him. The third one hit him in the back so hard it knocked off his mask and snorkel. "I've never been in that kind of sea state before," Baligad, a 12-year Coast Guard veteran later told the Oregonian. When a fourth wave passed over him, Baligad recalls thinking, "this isn't going to work." Here's where it got downright hairy. Knowing that the helicopter's fuel supply was running low, Baligad disconnected himself from the cable and dropped into the ocean, intending to swim to the stranded tug crewman and remain in the sea with him should the helicopter have to return to shore to refuel. Not until they reeled in the cable did the crew of the helicopter realize he had disconnected, but even knowing Baligad's intentions, the pilot wasn't exactly sure that he'd be able to refuel and return successfully. "We had such a hard time getting there," he said. "I didn't know if I'd be able to pick him up. It was at or above my skill level." Yet once the fuel reached what they call "Bingo", or in this case 33 gallons - an amount sufficient to get them back to shore under the conditions - the helicopter would have to pull out, a pretty tough prospect for the pilot, who remembered thinking, "I can't tell Roman's wife I left him." Baligad, meanwhile, had landed in the ocean about 30 feet away from the stranded man. While he swam to him, the hoistman, back on board the helicopter, readied a rescue basket. Baligad found the man to be okay - without the survival suit he was wearing he'd have been long dead of hypothermia - but snarled in the life ring's rope, which he'd wrapped around himself so that in the event he couldn't be saved, his body would be found. Untangling the man, Baligad then used a light to signal to the helicopter to lower the basket. Once it was lowered, despite their being washed over by a huge wave, the men managed to climb into the basket and then were hoisted aboard the helicopter. At that point, it was exactly three minutes to "Bingo." "I was fully expecting them to leave me on the scene," to go refuel, said Baligad, but he said it never occured to him that he and the man he rescued might be lost at sea. He said he just remembers looking down and seeing someone down there hanging on to life, and knowing that if the Coast Guard were to go off and leave him, he might abandon all hope.
Joe Foss was a World War II Marine flying ace and a winner of the Medal of Honor (seen around his neck in the photo at far left). He served as Governor of South Dakota for two terms, and as President of the National Rifle Association. He was active with Campus Crusade for Christ. He was the first Commissioner of the American Football League, (succeeded by Al Davis).
inscribed on the wall of the 1st
Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois
THE BLACK LION
AWARD ARE YOU A BLACK LION
TEAM? |
Before
the shift, it consists of one man over the ball, to center
it. Outside him, toward the near sideline, is a receiver.
Behind him, aligned normally as if to kick a PAT, are a
holder and a kicker.
America
lost another great one when Joe Foss died last week. God
bless him and men like him.:
*********** I feel as if I'm entering a tunnel. The darkness of winter is setting in, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a sick economy, two female senators, and now - four bowl losers. The economy I can deal with. The ditzes I can ignore. Life will go on. But the losers? We're talking real losers, too - bad losers. All four of our teams! Considering the great ride we'd had the past three or four years, I guess it just had to happen, but I wasn't prepared for them all to get fat-headed at once. Here amid the great trees of the Northwest, the land of tough-as-timber loggers, I had the feeling I was watching a redo of Michael Palin's cross-dressing lumberjack routine: "I cut down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra..." It's hard to say whose performance was most embarrassing - the Brainless Beavers of Oregon State, the Drooping Ducks of Oregon, the Heartless Huskies of Washington, or the Coachless Cougars of Washington State. Where to start? Three of them - Oregon State, Oregon and Washington State - playing a total of 180 minutes, led for a total of one minute, fifty-nine seconds. That's how long Oregon held an early 3-0 lead before Wake Forest answered with a touchdown. How about this for heart - Washington led, 17-0 after one quarter, but didn't score again until the fourth quarter as Purdue took total control of the game. Did I say heart? The four Northwest teams were outscored in the second half by a total of 82-31. And even that is deceiving, because Washington State, unable or unwilling to play football the old fashioned way, hit the lottery twice toward the end, and was only outscored in the second half 17-14. Brains? Oregon State and Washington State kept rolling the dice and going deep. In OSU's case, it was a matter of consistently overthrowing open receivers. (Coaching tip for Beavers QB Derek Anderson: take a little off the ball next time, Derek.) In WSU's case, it was a matter of a lame - literally - QB lobbing softballs into a faster secondary than the Cougars had seen all season. And also not even trying to run (21 "carries" for 4 yards). Brains? With the Beavers in the shotgun, Oregon State's center snapped the ball too soon, and it went whizzing past the QB's ear. Brains? Did Washington State really want to try a 51-yard field goal? And after Oklahoma took advantage of the field position the Cougar miss gave them and drove to take a 10-0 lead with 1:51 left in the half, didn't the Cougars, backed up on their own 15, want to take more than 40 seconds off the clock before having to punt? The punt return sent the Sooners off at halftime ahead 17-0, and sent the Cougars to an early grave. You wanna talk physical? How about this - the four of them combined to rush 106 times for 181 yards. Their opponents rushed for 636. Wake Forest mauled Oregon, rushing 66 times for 256 yards. Everybody expected Pitt to be able to run, but Purdue? Purdue rushed 40 times for 117 yards against Washington. The once-mighty Huskies (were you watching, Don James?) "rushed" just 24 times for 44 yards.
*********** Heather Cox (sideline bimbo) interviewed Cael Sanderson on the sideline at the Humanitarian Bowl. He's perhaps the greatest wrestler who ever stepped on the mat, finishing with a 159-0 record at Iowa State. Said Heather, "You've just concluded your playing career..." Playing career? Can't blame the poor girl. I mean, with all the colleges dropping wrestling, how was she to know? She probably thinks its played with a ball, six men to a side.
*********** Observations from Australia... *Pac 10 is proving itself the most overrated conference in America.
*********** I used to work as a guest coach at the University of Oregon's camp when Rich Brooks was head coach there, and I can tell you that Rich was there. He wasn't there all the time, but he was always somewhere nearby, and he made it a point to show up every day. That's not always the case these days, as I was reminded by this letter from a high school coach, describing a camp run by a major college coach (whom we will call "--- -------"), reveals: "Let's just say at the --- ------- Skills Camp there were no skills taught and no --- ------- around. I asked his secretary where he had been, and here was his agenda: Mon--on lake on his boat, Tues--Playing Golf, Wed--Entertaining a friend, Thurs--he showed up for 30 minutes to give the --- ------- Awards. "I don't know if you read sports illustrated (not capitalized on purpose), I don't very often. If you do, you probably saw the article on recruiting at these "camps". All this camp was was a mini combine. If you weren't one of their "guys" you were nothing, literally. I was ashamed to see how little was taught to the younger players."
*********** Tom Bauer writes, from Mondovi, Wisconsin, "some interesting bowl games! i really question some of the coaching! you would think that with the amount of time they have to prepare that they could come up with some better blocking schemes! the problem is that they want to send everyone out to catch the pass that never gets thrown!!! just run the ball and take your time!!" (Actually I find it interesting (based on what I've seen people do to our spray-it-all-over Pac 10 teams) to see so many teams winning with powerful running games and running QB's! HW) ************ Coach, Happy New Year and the best to you and your family in the coming year. I must tell you about an experience I had the other day. I think I told you about hiring Coach Bill Peck this past year to be my defensive secondary coach, and the fact that he was just turning 76 years old and had been teaching and coaching for 51 years. Well, he was just a wonderful addition to my staff, and the secondary improved dramatically over previous years, but most of all he is one of the best teachers for players and coaches I have ever been around. He is like having a football historian within your grasp, and I enjoy having him accompany me on trips to exchange films, etc., even if we get talking too much and we get lost and go 50 miles out of our way. He became like a father figure to my defensive backs, and he took them out to meet for breakfast, and he made sure they had transportation to the summer passing leagues etc. He had been the head coach at Middle Tennessee State in the early 70's and they won a couple of conference championships and this year they had a 30th anniversary for his 1972 team. It occurred the weekend of our first playoff game and he said well I am not going to be able to go, and I said hey, "You must go to this as this is an incredible honor and they have gone to a lot of trouble to put it together, and I promise you we will win and still be in the playoffs next week." Well, he did and 36 of his players came back, along with all of his former staff. It was a wonderful weekend and they were honored at the football game and he was very glad he went. We won and he was still coaching when he got back, so he was really happy. Now, the other day he calls and says let's go over to Orlando tomorrow morning and watch Penn State practice. I said how are we going to get in, I hear they are having closed practices. He said let me worry about that. Well, we got there and sure enough they stopped us at the gate and said that practices were closed and when the team came out we were going to have to leave. About that time one of the managers drove Coach Paterno through the gate in a golf cart and let him off. Coach Peck, hollered out, "Hey Joe, it's Coach Bill Peck." Well, you would have thought they were long lost brothers. Coach Paterno came over to us and Coach Peck introduced me and Coach Paterno talked to us about 10 minutes, and told us to come on inside and we could stay until they started the team portions of practice. He said then he would have to ask everyone to leave, not because they were doing anything special, but because of the room constraints. They were practicing on a baseball field next to the Citrus Bowl. During the pre-practice and inividual time he stopped by where we were at least two more times to talk to us, and was most gracious with his time. I was very impressed with him, and he told me that he first met Coach Peck when Coach Peck was an assistant at Columbia and Coach Paterno was an assistant at Brown. He told me that back then coaches wore Fedora hats to practice and they talked about some of the old names in the profession. He told Coach Peck he needed to come to Happy Valley and spend a couple of days so they could really have some talks about old times. The next day there was a picture in the Orlando Sentinel of Coach Peck and Coach Paterno, with a caption saying they were old friends and that Coach Peck was an assistant at Umatilla High School. It was a wonderful time and I was so impressed with how Coach Paterno treated us. It surely shows that coaches never forget each other and what a great brotherhood we are a part of. Just wanted to share that with you. Oh yes, a local reporter had just done a nice article on Coach Peck the week before, talking about his lengthy career and how he might be the oldest active coach in the state of Florida. It was a very nice article and he even interviewed his wife and all. He is a wonderful man, and may be the absolute best assistant coach anyone could wish for. He is already excited about the off season and what he wants the defensive backs to work on. Looking forward to a great year. Ron Timson
*********** Not that you would expect the liberal media to tell you so, with all their warm, fuzzy "History Being Made" stories, but the whole Katie Hnida deal has been a phony, a set-up, a sham, from Day One. Call it affirmative action run amok. Sounds like something Rick Neuheisel would pull. Katie Hnida is a native of the Denver area, and her historical performance had its roots when she was a high school freshman, and attended some sort of "Fan Appreciation Day" at Colorado. There, former Buffs coach Rick Neuheisel (wouldn't you know?) saw her kick a field goal and, according to Hnida, told her to stay in touch. He may have been joking, but fellas, Dad knew what he was talking about when he told you to be careful what you tell a girl. The girl believed him, remembered what he'd said, and stayed after him. In addition to placekicking for her high school team, she was also her high school's homecoming queen, a pretty girl with a blonde ponytail who'd been featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd," so when the time came, Neuheisel, never one to pass up a PR opportunity, invited her to walk on. And then he skipped for Washington, leaving it to his successor, Gary Barnett, to salvage a sinking program - and deal with Katie Hnida. Thanks a lot, Rick. Barnett, although admitting that he was not all that enchanted with the deal, decided it would be wise to honor the former coach's commitment. (In view of the $2 million awarded to one Heather Sue Mercer, a wannabe field goal kicker who claimed she was unfairly cut by Duke, it is hard to argue with his decision.) The major problem with Neuheisel's stunt is that colleges are limited in the number of players they can invite to walk on, and they normally restrict those precious invitations to real football players whom they hope will eventually help the team. Such was scarcely the case with Hnida, who did kick a lot of PAT's in high school, but made only four field goals, none of them particularly long. "You have a limited number of people who get this opportunity," Barnett said at the time. " And those who get the opportunity really need to earn the opportunity." He added that as many as 100 high school seniors had expressed interest in walking on at CU that year. "I think because Katie is a female, and I think because the arrangement was made prior to me being here, Katie got a special situation. I'm a little uncomfortable telling 15 other guys who may or may not be better kickers than Katie is, 'No, you cannot walk on here, we have more than we can possibly handle.' That was my issue." Asked whether he would have extended Hnida the invitation to walk on if he had been in Neuheisel's shoes, Barnett answered, "It doesn't make any difference." Barnett wisely refrained from further comment on the matter, and despite some fuss about Hnida being the first female ever to wear a uniform at a Division IA game, she never got close to any action. By all accounts, she just plain wasn't good enough. Not even close. (Her only chance of actually getting to kick in a real game, wrote a Buffs' observer named Brian Gwynn at the time, would be if "the first string kicker breaks his leg, the second string kicker stubs his toe, the third string kicker gets the flu, and the fourth string kicker is carted away to Shady Acres mental institution.") Finally, Hnida announced - on a Web site - that she'd had it. She was leaving Colorado. Said she "was not happy with the way she was dealt with" by Barnett. (Probably because no one had the guts to say, "Katie, you suck. Hit the road.") At first, still evidently delusional about her ability to kick at the Division IA level, she hinted that she might wind up at USC, although possibly that was connected to the fact that USC had been recruiting her younger brother. (He wound up at Oregon.) Instead, it appears she spent some time at a California JC, before walking on at New Mexico this year. Which brought us to Christmas Day, and her historic, if pathetic, missed extra point attempt. She wasn't any better than the Lobos' number three kicker, yet New Mexico coach Rocky Long, whose team was by any standards a poor bowl participant, chose to make the grandstand play and let her attempt the kick after the Lobos' first touchdown. (She missed - feebly - and that was the last we saw of her the rest of the night.) Long was unapologetic afterward. "I heard I'm getting some flak about it, but you know what? I don't care," he said. "We allowed quite a few players to play. But if we were in a playoff system, or fighting to go to a bowl game, then they wouldn't have played. This game was a reward for everyone. Katie was one of those who deserved her one shot in the limelight." Funny - that's not the way he sounded a couple of weeks earlier, when he was asked if she might get into the game against rival New Mexico State. Back then, he was still talking like a football coach, telling the Albuquerque Tribune that he wasn't likely to play her. "I won't play her just to play her," he said. "I don't think that would be fair to her or to anyone else on this team. If you are one of the best players, you play. If you are not one of the best players, you don't play. We try really hard here not to treat her any different." Yet that's exactly what he did in the bowl game - he "treated her different," allowing a female who was his team's third-best kicker to cut ahead of others in the line and "make history" - and in the process, contribute to his team's defeat.
Jim has been kind enough to provide me with early drafts, and I have read most of it with great interest. It provided me with a very interesting look at the inner workings of an Army under combat conditions, and although Jim would eventually rise to the rank of Brigadier General before retiring, it is not written in the jargon that military people often seem to use when communicating with each other. In the interest of complete authenticity, the description and the dialogue can get gritty. Here's an excerpt (If you can't deal with the way real people sometimes talk under less than ideal conditions, consider yourself forewarned.) A one year tour of duty had been established for all US forces in Vietnam, causing the turnover phenomenon, and very few men would volunteer to extend. This was not surprising. The tempo of operations in the 1st Infantry Division was phenomenal, and the work wasboth physically and mentally exhausting. Asoldier who spent a year there, particularly in an infantry battalion, was worn out. There were exceptions to this, but the grueling pace in a grueling environment took its toll on the stamina of all men.
inscribed on the wall of the 1st
Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois
THE BLACK LION
AWARD THE BLACK LION
AWARD |