(UPDATED WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT - BUT USUALLY ON TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS) 
January
30, 2004 - "I couldn't wait
for success, so I went ahead without it." Jonathan
Winters
FIRST 2004 CLINIC SCHEDULED - ATLANTA, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 Click Here ----------->> 
<<----------- Click HereA LIST OF SOME TOP DOUBLE-WING HS TEAMS *********** After seven years at Rich Central High School, in suburban Chicago, Jon McLaughlin has decided to make a move. Pending school board approval when it meets in February, Jon will take over at Crystal Lake Central, in Crystal Lake. It is not a move Jon made without a lot of thought. He had things in great shape at RC, with a solid staff, all in the school building, a good bunch of kids and a supportive AD. He is trading all that to go to a school one level up (6A) that has won only four games in the last five years. What swung it for Jon, ultimately, was the fact that in making the move from the far southern to the far northern suburbs - a drive of at least an hour and a half in "normal" traffic - Jon and his bride, Angie (they were married over Christmas) will be a lot nearer family. It didn't hurt any to learn of Crystal Lake's reputation as a great place to teach, and to discover how well he hit it off with the principal and the AD. (The interview was not one of those group-grope things - it was the principal, the assistant principal and the AD. Period.)
So after five great years at Rich Central, my Chicago clinic this year will be held at Crystal Lake Central. An added touch of interest to coaches in attendance will be the afternoon session, in which we'll introduce the Crystal Lake Central Tigers to their new coach and their new offense.
*********** Haw! Now it turns out that Howard Dean is broke, Busted, Tap City. He spent it all on a big show, hoping to launch a pre-emptive strike (if he understands what that means), but it didn't work, and now he is stopping all advertising and asking his staff to go without paychecks for a couple of weeks. Haw! This is the guy who's been telling us how well he ran the People's Republic of Vermont, and how well he'll run our country. If we'll just lend him fifty until Friday.
He is just like his idiot followers - school kids who don't have to worry about money because Mommy and Daddy will take care of everything. Actually, after all the talk about how much money he had, he reminds me even more of the fools who put on big, phony fronts when they're really right on the edge of bankruptcy. Their credit cards are maxed out. They buy big homes and don't have any furniture, except for the home theatre. They drive around talking on their cell phones in their leased Lexuses. The world's biggest losers, they're the first to criticize football coaches when they don't win.
*********** TCU is expected to change conferences for the third time in the last 10 years. The Horned Frogs will leave Conference USA to join the Mountain West Conference, starting in 2005. The addition of TCU to Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming will make the Mountain West a nine-team league.
Not only will the Horned Frogs add a strong program to the Mountain West, but they will give it a location in the Central Time Zone, increasing the conference's chances for exposure in the East.
After the Southwest Conference disbanded in 1995, TCU first joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), then moved to Conference USA in 2001.
TCU's departure will be the latest in a series of hits Conference USA has taken recently. Army also announced that it would be leaving after next season, and Cincinnati and Louisville were lost to the Big East, gobbled up by that conference to replace Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech, which were lost to the ACC.
*********** Am I naive to think that while the West Coast Offense was innovative when being operated by the likes of Walsh (who was undoubtedly adapting it to his personnel), as it was copied by so many other coaches, it became like the Motown Sound of the 60's that was poorly ripped off by so many second-rate artists? And that this phenomenon might explain the morbid offenses of teams like the Iggles, or the Lions under Mornhinwheg? (i.e. anyone can copy a playbook, but it takes a COACH to get his guys to run it right and adapt it to his team) Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts
I think that that is exactly what has happened. I liken it to the world of show dogs. Whatever breed wins at Westminster will become very popular, and in order to satisfy the public's demand for puppies, certain breeders will breed anything that can stand up, and the result is that the overall breed suffers.
In football what starts out as the purebred offense often becomes unrecognizeable because (1) too many copycats don't make the effort to learn everything involved, and sometimes they add their own touches to the point that they change the whole concept; (2) it helps to have Montana, Rice, Clark, etc.; (3) there really is such a thing as the "touch of the master's hand." HW
*********** Coach Wyatt - Going nutty this week with all those liberals up the road in New Hampshire. If I have to hear or see one more Dean commercial I am going to puke, but anyway I heard the line of the year so far on one of the local Boston Radio stations. A caller calls up and says " John Kerry is just Teddy Kennedy BUT with a better driving record." see ya Friday coach - John Muckian Lynn, Massachusetts
*********** A sad good-bye to Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, a star at two different Big Ten colleges - Wisconsin and Michigan - and with the Los Angeles Rams, one of the stars of pro football's first real wide-open passing attack.
*********** Coach Wyattt, Hello coach, my name is Jason Ayer. I just wanted to drop a thank you line for your help this year. 'This year was my first year as a head coach in the Oak Harbor Youth Football League on a team of 9 and 10 year olds. I was a little worried about what to implement as an offensive scheme (even though last year as an assistant I felt like I knew "everything" that needed changing ) and after reviewing your website I purchased the Dynamics of the Double Wing video and the playbook. I must have watched the video 20 times the month prior to the beginning of the season and was continuously scanning through the playbook. I showed my plan to my assistant coaches a couple of weeks prior and received nothing but negative feedback ranging from "this will be easy to defend" to "the scheme is much to hard for 9 and 10 year olds." I went back to the tips on your site looking for help. In the end I chose 10 plays with the C, G-O, Power, and Wedge blocking schemes to begin the season. To make a long story short by the 3rd week through heavy group work (beginning with the line of course) we had a 25 play offense the we could effectively run to either side (effectively not perfectly ). In the end we went 10-0 won the league title and scored 360 points even though after leading by 19 in a game the play calling being limited to between tackle running. Due to the policy in our league next year I will be assisting again for a coach who has been in the league much longer than I but have been told that I will have the offense. Once again I would like to say thanks for the information and materials that you provide. I will be sending an order for the next tape in my building library shortly. Sincerely, Jason Ayer, Oak Harbor, Washington
*********** Lou Orlando, from the Boston area, attended a Patriots' playoff game with one of my former classmates, whom I hadn't seen in over 40 years. We did play freshman football together, but it was a large enough school that we rarely saw one another after that.
Anyhow, he got my e-mail address, and asked me if I remembered the "scouting report" that our freshman coach, Gib Holgate, read to us before the Harvard (or was it the Princeton?) game.
We all sat in the locker room before practice, while Coach Holgate (I think we just called him "Gib") told us that he had something important to share with us. (Actually, people didn't use touchy-feely eduspeak words like "share" back then, but you get the idea.)
He told read a letter to us from an alumnus, who said that he had found something which was enclosing along with his letter because he thought that perhaps Coach Holgate might be able to use it to good advantage.
Naturally, we all looked at each other and wondered what it was that this alumnus had found.
Unfolding what appeared to be several mimeographed sheets of paper, Gib said that what he'd been given was nothing less than Harvard's (or Princeton's) scouting report. On us. We all edged a little bit forward on the benches, eager to hear what others thought about us.
Unfortunately, as he began to read, we discovered that they thought we were a bunch of pussies. I'm not sure anybody escaped a lashing. I forget what the report said about me, but I'm sure it wasn't complimentary.
I do remember, however, what it said about Bob O'Connell. He was a big fullback from Notre Dame High of nearby West Haven, and I thought he was a pretty good football player, but what did I know?
The report ripped him - "no guts, no fight - no heart - no nothing."
Something very close to those exact words.
The letter didn't affect me one way or the other. Like most of the guys on the team, I was still wet behind the ears. It was just six weeks or so into my college life, and it was the longest I'd ever been away from home. Culture shock had not yet worn off, and between classes, my job in the dining hall and trying to understand stuff I'd never read before, getting to live in a college environment and playing football, I spent most of my time in a sort of daze anyhow, just trying to make it from day to day. I was just waiting for Coach Holgate to finish so we could get out on the field.
I didn't give the letter another thought, until Matt Freeman said something about it. Matt was our captain. He was a year older than most of us because he'd spent a post-graduate year at a prep school, and he was a lot wiser than I was.
What was Gib thinking? Matt asked. Huh? I asked. The letter, he said - it was obviously phony. I'd never given that possibility any thought at all, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew Matt was right. It was a hokey attempt to fire us up, something straight out of Rockne.
And what did it accomplish? Matt said that he'd looked over at Bob O'Connell when Coach Holgate got to what the "report" had said about him, and Bob just sagged. He was crushed.
Hmmm. That was the point when I began to become skeptical about coaches.
Some motivational stunt. Whichever game it was, Princeton or Harvard, it didn't matter. We lost 'em both.
Not to say that Coach Holgate's talk didn't motivate somebody.
Bob O'Connell didn't play any more football after freshman year. But he did go on to become Director of World Wide Product Planning and then Corporate Controller for General Motors. Maybe he was motivated by Gib Holgate.
*********** Coach Wyatt, Greetings from Minnesota, the high temp today was 14 below zero. I read your "Early Days of Professional Football" excerpt from the web site. Hope you are still considering the book idea, I think it would be great. We have a Minnesota author, Ross Bernstein
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0931714877/qid=1075419178/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/103-7739160-6253429?v=glance&s=books
who has made quite a niche for himself. He has written a Minnesota football book, basketball, baseball and hockey as well as a coaching greats book and a tribute to Herb Brooks. I think you would really enjoy the football book, there was a large segment about the Duluth Eskimos and Ernie Nevers.
On the topic of vintage head coaches, Bud Grant was on a radio program recently, and no, he will not be coming back.
I really enjoyed watching Carolina's run, through the playoffs. It is refreshing to see linemen pulling and knocking the hell out of guys.
ake care enjoy your weekend.
Mick Yanke, Dasell-Cokato HS, Cokato, Minnesota (Did you happen to catch the photo in the middle of last week's Sports Illustrated? Two Panthers' linemen were blocking and neither one was using his hands! HW)
*********** "I was listening to Tony Dorsett talk about tackling in the NFL. He was asked if he would like to play against the bigger, faster, and stronger athletes in today's game. His response was he would love to because nobody can tackle. He went on to say how horrible their form is and that he, obviously, thinks today's players are very poor tacklers. Duh. Take care. "John Lambert, La Center, Washington
*********** Sounds like the Air Force guys in the Pentagon, beset by claims that the Air Force Academy has been harboring rapists in its midst, and furthermore has given athletes breaks, have decided to cave in to perceived pressure and discontinue its longstanding "Professional Sports Separation Policy."
Essentially, the policy has made it possible for certain Air Force graduates to request "excess leave," so that they might be able leave service early in order to pursue "national level sports careers."
Says the Air Force report, "a thorough evaluation has been conducted, and in light of world events and current/future operational requirements, the Professional Sports Separaton Policy is terminated at the direction of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. Requests for excess leave/separation to pursue professional sports will not longer be accepted or approved."
I think that this new policy is shortsighted. So maybe one or two guys a decade - Chris Gizzi, Chad Hennings - go to Air Force and graduate and are good enough to make a professional sports team. I mean, the policy has really been abused, right?
My guess is that one Chad Hennings making it to the NFL makes thousands of young Americans more aware of the Air Force Academy and a career in the Air Force. The folks at the Pentagon don't seem to disagree - as part of their recruiting efforts, they have been running ads promoting the hell out of Chad Hennings as the kind of well-rounded person the Air Force Academy produces.
*********** A year or so ago, in Sports Illustrated, Patriots' tackle Chad Eaton had this to say this about Bill Belichick:
"People make the mistake of thinking that a coach motivates you through emotion or locker room speeches,";he said. "It's not true. Nothing motivates you more than the feeling that the guy really knows what he's doing. And with Belichick, you feel that he's smarter than the people you're playing. He tells you they're gonna do something, and they do it, and when this happens over and over again, well, that gets you psyched." Paul Brown and Chuck Noll come immediately to mind. Of course, it helps when the players truly want to win. First you have to make sure of that. It doesn't matter how much the coach knows if the players are a bunch of louts.
*********** The Double-Wing's counterpart in basketball is the Princeton system. Ah, the Princeton system. Pass-pass-pass-pass-cut-uncontested layup.
It works. Year in and year out, Princeton finishes near the top of the Ivy League - big deal - and then enters the NCAA tournament and gives somebody fits. Big deal. Somebody big. Some big-time program, with five guys sitting on their bench wno are talented enough to start for Princeton. (Of course, those five guys combined probably couldn't come up with an SAT score to get one of them into Princeton, but that's another story.)
Detractors will say that the Princeton system only works against Ivy League teams - that it won't work against first-class opposition. And it only works with Ivy-League kids, who are smart enough to figure it out, and untalented enough not to complain about the discipline the offense requires.
So at the time I write this, there's Northwestern using it. And winning games. Northwestern, for God's sake! When's the last time they've done anything in basketball? Yet in the last month, the Wildcats have upset both Illinois and Iowa.
There's N.C. State, tied for second in the ACC at 11-5.
And there is Air Force. Service teams can't win in basketball, right? Why, there's Army, losing to the likes of Lehigh, a school better know for great wrestling teams, and getting trounced, 56-23 by mighty Bucknell. But there's Air Force - YES, AIR FORCE! - playing Utah, New Mexico, UNLV and that bunch. And winning. Air Force is 14-2, undefeated in the Mountain West Conference play after Tuesday night's 62-49 win over Utah. Air Force uses the Princeton system. Air Force coach Joe Scott played for and coached with Pete Carrill at Princeton.
"People don't want to play half-court basketball in America," says Air Force guard Hood. "All the passing and cutting drives teams crazy. I heard somebody say once that every team seems to play its worst game against us, how we make good teams look bad. You know what? I think that's kind of cool."
Me, too. Does that sound like the Double-Wing or what?
*********** So Wesley Clark isn't content to suggest that, in the absence of proof either way, maybe Michael Moore is right when he calls the President a deserter.
That's bad enough. But then Wesley had to go and attack the President's college!
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Yale is also the college of Howard Dean, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman. But damnit, Wesley, that's my college, too!
Not that I exactly bleed blue, understand. Not that I really give a big rat's ass one way or the other whether Yale beats Harvard or not.
But what the hell - he insulted my school, so who am I to pass up a chance to pop him one? With a weasel like that, any excuse will do.
Listen to what Wesley, trying to sound as if he was born in a log cabin, had to say: "I grew up poor. I didn't go to Yale. My parents couldn't have afforded to send me there. I went to West Point. I paid my own way. "
My Republican rebuttal:
General Wesley Clark: "I grew up poor."Citizen Hugh Wyatt: What a coincidence, General. So did I.
GWC: "I didn't go to Yale."
CHW: I did. (Nyah, nyah).
GWC: "My parents couldn't have afforded to send me there."
CHW: Neither could mine - but you know what? The same financial aid that was available to me - grant, loan, job - was available to you, too. Assuming, of course, you could have gotten in. (Hmm?)
GWC: "I went to West Point."
CHW: You got me there. I often wish I had, but I didn't.
GWC: "I paid my own way."
CHW: Technically, soldier, you're full of sh--. I paid your way. While you were at West Point, I was working and paying my taxes, like a good American. Not complaining, understand, but you got a great education at taxpayer's expense. It didn't cost you a nickel. In fact, you were actually paid to go to college. On the other hand, unlike you, but like lots of the Yale people you sneeringly dismiss with your shot at your political opponents, I did pay my own way - or roughly 2/3 of it. It took me more than ten years to pay off the last of my student loans. Don't try to paint all Yalies with the same brush, General. After all, I don't judge all West Pointers by what I've seen in you.
*********** "Striving mightily to win is not the problem. It's wanting to win so badly that principles of decency, ethics and honor are ignored. It's the brazen adoption of gamesmanship strategies and the 'whatever it takes to win' attitude that's the problem. It's valuing cleverness so highly that those who get away with breaking or bending rules are admired. So athletes fake fouls, taunt or illegally hold opponents while lawyers assert groundless claims, confuse honest witnesses and use delay.
"Gamesmanship tactics are so prevalent that some find it hard to imagine anyone being effective without them. But that's self-serving nonsense. Many people in both fields believe that no victory is real or worthy if it's achieved without honor.
"The game of sports is about playing by the rules, not fooling referees or intimidating opponents. And law is not a game at all. The high road is not the easier road but it's the only road for a person of character." Michael Josephson, "Character Counts"
*********** There is integrity, and then there is Cincinnati football. One of the first moves made by the Bearcats' new head coach, Mark Dantonio, was to renege on all offers made to high school kids by the previous coach, Rick Minter, and lots of kids were left high and dry as their coaches scrambled to try to find places for them.
*********** I went to a clinic this last weekend in Battle Creek, and guess who was a featured speaker, Dennis Creehan. It was great and I had a chance to talk with him after. Coach, it was like seeing our playbook time after time he drew up plays. I told him I was in the Hugh Wyatt cult and that I knew the secret handshake. After that, we both had a great laugh when he was drawing up the seemingly limitless plays he has in that fertile football mind, and the formations he has out of the "Single Back Wing T" he specializes in. Looks a lot like our DW, coach. Anyway, he asked me to give him any defense, and I jokingly said "5-2 Monster." We shared a laugh on that one, both knowing 50 points was coming the offense's way. Enough rambling for now coach. Happy new year! David Livingstone Troy, MI
*********** So Mike Price at UTEP has signed Tyler Ebell, eh? Unless there is some character problem that surfaced at UCLA that I'm not aware of, he is a prize recruit. He is worth waiting a year for.
"The
Beast Was out There," by General James M. Shelton,
subtitled "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the
Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967" is available
through the publisher, Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois.
to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/
and click on "Publications and Products")
Or contact me if you'd like
to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give
you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) General
Shelton is a former wing-T guard from Delaware who now
serves as Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions. All
profits from the sale of his books go to the Black Lions
and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, , sponsors of
the Black Lion Award).- I have my copy. It is
well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains
in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and
"Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all
those military terms, so that guys like you and me can
understand what they're talking about.
Coaches - Black Lions teams for 2003 are now listed, by state. Please check to make sure your team in on the list. If it is not, it means that your team is no enrolled, and you need to e-mail me to get on the list. HW
--- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS
SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003
"NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST"
inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois
BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM
THE BLACK LION AWARD
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: At 6-5, 290, Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier
would be a big man even today, but in the 50s and 60s,
when he played in the NFL, he was giant. He was a great
football player, but he was many more things as well - a
singer, a songwriter, an actor, a TV personality, a
minister, a confidant of the politically powerful. And he
may be the only person on earth besides O.J. Simpson to
know who killed Nicole.
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Jack Pardee was a Junction Boy.
