*********** "Coach, Thanks for the explanation of the Belly series. This has been a staple of the Wishbone offense that I have been asssociated with for the past 15 + years. The major difference is that we read the Belly. We will run it as either an Inside Veer Belly or as a Midline Belly. It is a great way to read an unblocked defender and have a Fb/Hb play that hits straight ahead. It is great to use when you don't have enough speed to live by the Triple Option." Dennis Metzger - Connersville, Indiana *********** Coach, One other I was surprised to see you elide over, in terms of belly success stories, was the domination of Div III football by Augustana of Rock Island, Illinois. During the 1980's, no other team dominated college football like Augie. The primary attack was, of course the inside belly series. Richmond Flowers I was liberal indeed. So liberal that during the 50's and 60's as Alabama AG he started to attack the existing Jim Crow laws of Alabama. In the efforts to thwart him, elements of the controlling political machine had him convicted, on trumped up charges, of election and campaign law violations. This had much to do with his son going to Tenn. He later received a Presidential pardon. One of the lost heroes of the 60's. Mark Kaczmarek, Davenport, Iowa Coach- You're right about the belly as a part of Augustana's attack, but it was as a component of Bob Reade's version of the Wing-T, and so I wouldn't call his a "Belly" offense per se. In fact, it was as a wing-T coach that we had him out to do a clinic in the Northwest several years ago, and I still have the notes. (I remember some of the guys being disappointed - not me - because we were Delaware adherents and his offense was not the pure thing!) Sports Illustrated ran a nice article about the Flowers family not too long ago. What the elder Flowers did was in its way as courageous as the work of the SLCC. *********** Coach Wyatt, I just went out and purchased a new iMac DV SE in hopes of being able to do digital editing on my football game tapes. After loading the game footage into the iMac, I found that after I had exported the edited footage into my new Sony GV-D200 digital vcr that there was noise and visual glitches in the dubbed footage that does not exist on the original tape and also doesn't exist in the footage I viewed in the iMac before exporting. I found an iMovie message board that reports this as a common occurance. A phone call to Apple revealed that my digital vcr (which is so new that it's not yet listed on Sony's website) is not a "compatible" vcr, despite the fact that it has a Firewire port. So now I'll either have to add a new "compatible" camcorder to the mix, despite having bought this $600 vcr a month ago to exclusively perform this job or return the iMac and go with a Sony Vaio PC. I thought you might want to make a mention in your article on your website about digital video editing to make sure that the camcorder or vcr you purchase to do your recording is actually listed on Apple's website as being compatible to their iMacs. It could save somebody some aggravation. Sincerely, Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina - Coach - As with all such applications, there is always the chance that the equipment will not be compatible. I have never encountered the sort of problem you describe. I suspect that Apple, in its iMac advertising, may have oversold the idea of "open the box and start making movies", without pointing out that there are always going to be some compatibility issues. It is nearly as simple as they advertise it, but with computers, nothing is foolproof, especially when you get involved with peripheral hardware - scanners, camers, printers. I came onto the computerized editing scene with considerable experience in analog editing, and so I am prepared for the worst, aware that not everything works together smoothly the first time - if ever. I am not aware of the VCR unit you describe, and I am surprised to hear that SONY makes one for as little as $600. I have one which I use to edit and it cost me close to $3000, and, probably because it is not a consumer-level item and not commonly found in homes, it was not recognized by my first version of iMovie. So I just managed to work back and forth between my camera and my computer. Now, with iMovie 2, that little problem is resolved. My question for you would be this: what are you doing your shooting with? I am surprised that returning the $600 tape deck wasn't one of the options you described, because I really don't see the absolute need for one. Assuming that you are shooting with a digital camera, why you don't just go back and forth between your camera and your computer, using the same FireWire connection? I couldn't tell you a thing about the SONY Vaio system, other than the fact that for a computer system with video editing capability it seems reasonably priced, and reviews of the editing software it uses have not been very complimentary. I have not seen it, much less used it, so I can't say that it wouldn't work fine for your purposes. I do not own Apple stock and none of my relatives or close friends works for Apple, but I have been reasonably happy with its products, and while I stop short of pushing them, I must come to Apple's defense in this case. It seems to me that it is not the fault of Apple if its programmers failed to anticipate every subsequent product that would down the pike, particularly a product so obscure that SONY hasn't even publicly announced it yet. The fault, I suspect, lies with SONY. Surely its engineers/marketers were aware that iMac/iMovie users would make up a significant portion of the market for this product, and they had ample opportunity to test for the problems you describe. So I think that if they are not aware of the problem, they are incredibly ignorant; and if they are aware of the problem and have not clearly informed consumers of it, they are incredibly negligent. To say the least.
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*********** Bob Miller, popular DJ of Portland station KEX, noting that "steak and upside-down-tart" were on the menu when President Clinton and President-elect Bush dined at the White House recently, said "In the Clinton White House you shouldn't be surprised to find an upside-down tart somewhere."
*********** Speaking of Whit Snyder down there in Baytown, he and his Texas Longhorn buddies will like this one: http://www.virtually-anywhere.com/utfootball/index.html - It is one of the coolest football sites I have ever seen, a virtual look at Texas football and the Longhorns' program, including panoramic views (move your cursor and get a 360-degree look) at such things as the Stadium, Bevo the Longhorn Steer, the lockerroom, the weight room, the training room, the players' lounge. Zoom in for a closer look if you'd like. Listen to the band play "The Eyes of Texas" after a game. Ah'm tellin' ya- it's one heck of a recruiting tool. According to the description of the players' lounge, the room is equipped with a kitchenette, a large screen television, a billiards table, comfortable furniture, a stereo system and a video games system, and - are you paying attention, Minnesota? - phones. Pay phones. |
*********** In college football, it is fairly common for a small school to visit a big school and absorb a beating in order to take home a big check; in basketball roughly the same thing happens, except that the beating doesn't leave as many bruises. So it was a bit of a twist Tuesday night when big-time Duke visited Portland to play the University of Portland Pilots. The U of P is a small Catholic school which turns out an NBA player once every generation or so, and other than the odd Oregon or Oregon State home game brought up the road to the big city, the locals don't get many opportunities to see big-time basketball (unless you count the NBA). As a result, a chance to see the nation's top-ranked team drew more than 15,000 people to the Rose Garden and earned a pile for the Pilots. It was the largest crowd in the history of Oregon to watch a college basketball game, and at least five times the size of a good crowd for Portland, which drew 833 to watch it play Sacramento State only three nights before. The game was arranged because of a promise Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made to Mike Dunleavy, Jr. (whose dad coaches the Trail Blazers, and hosted the Duke team for dinner Monday night) when he recruited him out of Beaverton, Oregon's Jesuit High two years ago. He promised, as he does all his recruits, that Duke would play a game in Dunleavy's home town. It is not a hard promise for Coach K to keep. There isn't a school in the country that wouldn't like to have a home game against the Blue Devils. *********** Jack Reed, author of numerous books on youth sports, is a West Pointer. Jack also is his own man, and speaks his mind, and doesn't have a lot of use for a lot of the people in the Pentagon, most of who have worked their way to the top by playing politics - sucking up, and avoiding making any career mistakes by avoiding having to make tough decisions. As a result, the higher-ups often tend not to be warrior types - those guys are out in the field carrying out their orders. Of course, it bothers Jack as it does most military people, but it doesn't worry him. He figures that anybody we'd have to fight has the same bureaucracy at the top as we do. As a result, he says, "it's our bureaucrats against their bureaucrats." *********** Coach, Just thought I would drop you a note to let you know how the Huskies fared this year running the double wing. Sorry I didn't update you during the season but I tend to have that "deer in the headlights" look throughout the season. Although our record was not as I had hoped (5-5), the team really enjoyed the offense. I was amazed at its adaptability. We basically ran from tight all year and were quite successful in the running game in all but one game. Our best and most physical lineman was about 178 pounds and we consistently faced opposition of 230 lbs per man across the front. That said, for the most part we were able to play ball control and limit other teams opportunities. I really enjoyed the trap and 6-G. It seemed that whenever we pulled one of those out that it was a huge gain. I did get frustrated with the offense on occassion but that was more a product of my inability to recognize and exploit my opponents weaknesses as opposed to the sets limitations. I am a definite convert and can't wait to learn more. Usually by now I would be getting pumped up for next year but I am not sure when I will get the opportunity to coach again. I am leaving on January 3 to attend Army Officer Candidate School - seems I'm going to be an Armor Officer. I have always wanted to serve my country as an officer (already experienced the enlisted route). More so though, I really want some experiences to share with the young men that I hope to coach some day. Talking with veteran coaches such as yourself has made me realize that coaching is a lot more than the x's and o's. I need to be able to bring more to the table than my knowledge of football. The best coaches seem to be the ones that can impart wisdom that they have attained throughout the years in several arenas. Additionally, I'm hoping to use the time to get certified. I've got the bachelors but not the pesky certification.
*********** "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercize thereof." Thanks to the badgering tactics of so-called "civil liberties" organizations, that simple statement, the first clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, has been twisted to mean that our schools now shut down for "Winter Holiday" instead of "Christmas vacation"; that there can be no manger scenes or even Christmas trees in public squares; that city bus drivers can't wear any sort of decorations on their clothing that might be connected with Christmas; that schools are more likely to deck the halls with drawings of Rudolph and Frosty, and "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree" is about as close as the "Winter Concert" gets to a Christmas carol - er, wintertime faith-based song. Things have passed well beyond the point of nonsensical nuisance and far into the realm of harassment of Christianity. Come on - Congress has never come close to anything resembling an "establishment of religion" - requiring membership in a specific, state-approved religion in order to receive the full benefits of citizenship. No one is legally kept from voting or driving because of their religion; similarly, no one is deprived of a job and no one's kids are refused admission to public schools for religious reasons. No matter. The "civil liberties" activists and anti-Christians press on, attacking centuries-old American Christian-based traditions on the grounds that they make some people "feel uncomfortable."
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***********
Just so you know I try what I write about... What you see
on the left is a fresh-outta-da-oven (outta our
oven!) turducken, sliced clean through. We had one sent
to us by our son-in-law, Rob Love, who couldn't make it
to our recent family wedding, preferring instead to
remain in Durham, North Carolina and deal with power
outages. He sent along the turducken in his place, and
given oour choice between having the turducken and having
Rob there, Rob would win out. Narrowly. The cross-section
here reveals delicious white-meat turkey, cajun stuffing,
chicken, duck and sausage, and an outer coating of cajun
spices. To use the title of a cook book from down there
in Cajun country - "Talk About Good!" Ah done tol'
you 'bout a mont' ago where you kin git sum o' dat
turducken fo' yo'self, but ah guess ahma have to tol' you
some mo':
*********** .*********** In more and more American colleges, it's called the "Hour of Power." It's the time interval between midnight on the day a college student turns 21, and the time the bars close. Actually, it may be more than an hour, but even so, for the birthday boy (or girl) participating in the increasingly-common ritual of consuming 21 drinks before closing time, it's not nearly enough time. "There's no way that amount of consumption of alcohol could be done responsibly," Fulton Crews, director of Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina, told the Durham Herald-Sun. "I would say that any person who drinks 21 drinks in a day is certainly at risk for causing brain damage and perhaps killing themselves." The effects of the alcohol depend on the period of time over which which the person consumes the alcohol, the person's size and weight and the amount of food also consumed, Crews said. But a person generally metabolizes only three-quarters of a drink to one drink per hour, so "Even over a six-hour period, you're still only talking about metabolizing five drinks," he said. Which means that, although people commonly think that once the drinking is finished, that's as drunk as the person is going to get, there's still alcohol in the person's stomach, and it will continue to be absorbed into the blood stream. Which is usually what happens when well-meaning friends take a drunken companion home and put him (or her) to bed. And while he's sleeping or passed out, his blood alcohol could rise to lethal levels. "It's a progressive thing, from a stupor to a coma to death," said Crews, explaining what has happened in cases where students have been put to bed drunk, then discovered dead the next day. Vomiting may save lives, Crews said, because in doing so, the drinker is purging the stomach of alcohol that would otherwise have been absorbed into the bloodstream. "If they vomit, that might level it off, but if they don't they might die," he said. "It's just lucky a lot of people vomit." *********** A coaching friend wrote to tell me about a slight problem he had with his AD. Seems he'd told his kids earlier in the season that if they made the playoffs, he'd letter everyone on the team - starters and scout team players alike. His AD knew of his promise, but didn't give it any further thought, since the school has never made the playoffs. But guess what? This year it did, and when he reminded the AD about his promise to his kids, the AD said, "Nothing doing." He said that the main problem was the extra cost of the additional awards. So our coach then proposed having the Booster Club pay for the extra letters, and the AD consented. A big objective in salesmanship (I was a salesman in an earlier career) is to "find the hidden objection" - to find out if the objection you are being given is the real objection. The trick to finding this out is to say, in this case, "in other words, then... if I can solve that objection - if I can find a way to pay for the extra awards, you don't have any problem with lettering everybody?" And at that point, he either says, "If you can do that, go right ahead," or else he winds up letting you know immediately that there is another objection - a "hidden objection" - that he wasn't telling you about. Something else besides the "extra cost" is really standing in the way. The cost objection was just a smoke screen! *********** Coach Wyatt, How nice to read about my alma mater (Oklahoma State) in your news. Seeing those 43 national championship banners hanging from the rafters of Gallagher Iba Arena is an impressive sight. Actually it's just 42 right now. The 43rd will probably be hung sometime this basketball season when last years championship golf team will be honored. Those banners will be doubly impressive in the newly remodeled arena. Us Cowboys like to rub all those titles in the faces of our brethren to the South in Norman. We normally call them squatters (why would they name themselves after cheaters????). They have a couple of sweet 16 banners hanging in their arena. Naturally all they want to talk about is football. "Did the article you read mention how the new arena was built around and over the old one and the two connected after the roof and walls of the old arena were demolished? University representatives were once told that would be impossible to do. Leaving the old structure in place allowed the architect to "grandfather" in the steep pitch of the seats and close proximity of the floor seating making it "one of the most intimidating venues in the country". Dick Vitale's words not mine. The architect and project manager (both OSU graduates) said two of their primary goals were to retain the high decibel potential (once, light bulbs in the ceiling started bursting and popping it got so loud) and to save the thick maple floor Mr. Iba installed when he had the building built. Great pain and expense was taken to leave the floor intact. "Most O-State fans would say Terry Don Phillips is the best thing to happen to OSU athletics since Mr. Iba. He is a lawyer (very appropriate in these times) but he was also a very good lineman for Frank Broyles at Arkansas and coached for a number of years before becoming associate athletic director and protégé under Mr Broyles. When he first proposed the stadium improvements he spoke of the time he was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech. They were expanding the stadium and upgrading facilities even though they could barely half fill the existing stadium. Although he thought they were crazy it has proven to be the best thing they could have ever done. I would say hiring Frank Beamer and giving him ample opportunity to win would be a close second. It didn't hurt to recruit Michael Vick either. Terry Don also spoke about the time they traveled to play Miami and the poor facilities they were forced to use. There was no hot water in the locker room and they had to sit on bags of lime because there were no benches. He used both points to illustrate how much worse the situation was at Virginia Tech and Miami than it is at OSU. Both are now very successful football programs. The most eye opening reformation / example is probably a couple of hundred miles north of Stillwater in Manhattan Kansas. OSU fans are very aware of how far the "mildcats" had to come. There is no doubt in my mind Terry Don will get the funding to rebuild Lewis Field. There are rumors that over half of the money has already been raised by a few big time donors. Some estimates have put the figure to rebuild the stadium closer to $75 million. "I resisted replying awhile back when you listed your ranking of the college head coaching hires. You had Les Miles ranked toward the bottom of your list. That is understandable since he has not proven anything as a head coach yet and didn't appear to be sought after by anyone else. I believe you will be reading great things about him in a few years. He is a very impressive individual and most importantly he was a perfect fit for the job at OSU. Some of the things he has done and said make you stop in awe and just think "WOW". After seeing Les in action the consensus is that Dirk Koetter going to the Arizona State or Arizona (I don't remember which) was the best thing that could have happened. Coach Miles was surprised that deferring some of his salary so his assistants could be paid more was that big of a story. He was more surprised that type of thing doesn't happen more often. Says he has never taken a job for the money and never will. He thinks being raised in Ohio around Woody Hayes might have something to do with his convictions concerning his pay. Coach Hayes apparently regularly turned down salary increases.
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I
have had several people who saw Saturday's Division I-AA
championship game comment on the way Georgia Southern ran
the "Double-Wing," and what a great job they did running the
option out of it. No argument from me about how well they
run their offense. It is great to see a college program
proving that the running game is not dead. But actually,
although Georgia Southern's base formation does look like
our "spread" formation, they are not running what most of us
think of as our "Double-Wing." First of all, the name as
applied to the formation shown on the left is not
technically accurate: a wing, by definition, consists of a
tight end and a back just to his outside. What you are
looking at on the left is not a double wing. It is a
double slot. Secondly, unlike us, they do employ
splits. Splits are essential to running their offense as
effectively as possible. Third, their fullback is
considerably deeper than ours. In fact, although the
formation does look like something we do, our offenses have
different family trees. Our offense's grandpa is the Wing-T.
Georgia Southern is running what you might now call the
"flexbone," the modern generation of the wishbone. The
wishbone, as once run very successfully by Texas, Oklahoma
and Alabama, among others, is based on the triple option,
which starts out by walling off defenders to the inside and
establishing a fullback dive. If the defense doesn't make a
move to stop the fullback, the game is over. At some point,
though, they will get tired of getting their butts run over
by that fullback, and they will do something to stop him.
And that's where Georgia Southern's quarterback takes over
and runs the next two phases of the triple: the option keep
or pitch. By its very nature, any option offense - unlike
ours - has to be very quarterback-intensive. And any option
offense requires a lot of work on the mechanics of the
option itself. This is not to say that you can't run a
triple-option package within our Double-Wing system, but one
of the beauties of our offensive system is that it frees you
from having to rely on a gifted quarterback, and having to
spend the time and effort involved in making an option
offense work.
Fitch Coach Mike Emery and his captains, seniors Matt Maddox, Michael Hall, Ryan Milton, Andrew Berggren and Dan Carey, will receive the Kelly Trophy, at the 34th annual Walter Camp National All-America Awards Dinner Feb. 10, 2001, at the historic Yale University Commons in New Haven. The Walter Camp Football Foundation is named for Yale graduate Walter Camp, called "The Father of American Football" for his many innovations that essentially created our game out of what had been rugby. "We want to salute coach Emery and his team for their outstanding season and the success they have enjoyed over recent years,î said Bernard Pellegrino, Walter Camp president, in a statement Friday. Also honored on the same night will be the 2000 Walter Camp All-America college football teams, as well as other special award winners, including Walter Camp Player of the Year Josh Heupel of Oklahoma, and Coach of the Year Bob Stoops, also of Oklahoma. *********** AS LONG AS WE'RE STILL ON THE TOPIC OF ELECTION REFORM... The three quarterbacks selected to represent the NFL in the Pro Bowl game are Daunte Culpepper (no problem there), Jeff Garcia (he has led his team to a 6-9 record) and Kurt Warner (who did a great job last year and has been selling lots and lots of Campbell's Soup, but hasn't played much this year - he has missed five games). I am not going to get into poorly designed ballots or dimpled chads or polling-place irregularities. I know this is going to cost me in the public opinion polls, and I know I am going to be accused in the media of being "mean-spirited," but I am going to come right out and lay the blame where it belongs - not on ballot design or voting machines but on voter stupidity. How else do you explain choosing Garcia and Warner ahead of Donovan McNabb? *********** "Coach, We won it all! Thanks to your system and a lot of hard work, our team went 14-0, won the SYFC championship, and the Day of Champions tournament in Raymond James Stadium! Thank you Coach, and we hope you can make it to this area soon. Head Coach Denis Gillen, Dunedin Falcons, Clearwater, Florida" *********** So the Broncos are punting into Kansas City's end of the field. And as a Bronco sprints toward the goal line to try to down the ball inside the KC 5, an alert member of the Chiefs' return team - I'm not going to bother trying to figure out how much he's paid for this kind of brilliance - turns his back to the line of scrimmage and as the ball soars high overhead, he sprints full bore toward his own goal line, in an apparent attempt to block the Bronco. Except that, based on his angle of approach, all that could have resulted was a clip. Perhaps the Chiefs' special teams geniuses figured out that if he had clipped, the penalty would have been minimal. But they failed to consider what can happen when a return-team man gets inside his own 10. Or loses sight of the ball. This punt hit our Chief and was downed, not inside the five, but in the end zone for a Broncos' touchdown. *********** The NCAA has put SMU's football program on probation. Again. It wasn't all that long ago that the Mustangs became the first - and so far only - college program ever to receive the death penalty, to have to padlock the locker room doors and actually discontinue football - for cheating so extreme even that even by Southwest Conference standards it was over the edge. This time, though, I don't get it. This time, they couldn't even cheat right. I mean, the only justification cheaters have is that it helps them win. So how does SMU, which cheated and still got a football program that basically sucks, justify what they've been doing? *********** That old guy Aesop knew his stuff. The Greek storyteller told of the dog who lay in the manger full of hay, and snapped at the ox who tried to eat the hay. The hay was of no use to the dog, but he still wasn't about to let someone else have it. The story of Mike Riley, still head coach of the Chargers, is a modern-day example. The guy's neck was said to be on the block a short time ago, and no one was making any firm statements of confidence in him - until he was mentioned as a possible successor to Paul Hackett at USC. Suddenly, in classic dog-in-the-manger fashion, once Riley appeared to be desirable to someone else, he became desirable to the Chargers. They proceeded to announce that his contract with them was unbreakable, and there was no possibility of his being released to coach anywhere else. Now I have no problem with the sanctity of contracts being upheld. But how much you wanna bet that no matter what the Chargers say, now that the USC job has been filled by Pete Carroll, the Chargers will cut him loose? *********** The Washington Interscholastic Actitivities Association, ruling body for the state's high school sports, has "instructed" its basketball officials to call 'em close. I applaud their efforts to enforce the rules as they already exists, and return basketball to the skill game it once was, but it is going to be painful to watch, as coaches, players and fans adjust to touch fouls and ticky-tack calls. Many high schools have taken to making pre-game P-A announcements explaining the new rules emphasis to fans, and asking them not to get on the ref when they can touch fouls. The pre-season has really been fun for Southwest Washington coaches when they take their kids across the river to play non-league games in Oregon, where officials have not received similar instructions from their state's association. *********** My oldest son, Andrew, a 9 year old, played football, tackle, with pads, in a little league, his second season on the "BEARS" and I coach the team. Well, he also played for 2 seasons for a Flag Football Division, I also coached, called...the "REDSKINS". Now, his younger, 7 year old brother James also just finished his second season with the "REDSKINS" and will move up to the "BEARS", and Andrew moves up to the next division, with out me. Anyway, we had practice for both teams at the same school. I know, very smart of me (LOL). James' practice was not as long, so when he was done he would come over and "help" me by donning my whistle, wearing his "BEARS" baseball cap and, particularly, during the "sprint" portion of practice, stand at the end of our little relay race barking commands to the two racing players, not like a spoiled little "coach's kid" but with just the right amount of encouragement and boot-in-the-ass. Well, the first day he does this he says, "Dad, I have something to say to the team." I cringed a little, understandably, hoping to blow it off and he would forget about it, I walked away and started the sprints routine. When we finished, he ran up and said, "Dad, remember I have something to say to the team." Now, I'm stuck, right? So, all the players know James, so it was simple enough. I turn to the crowd of players at my feet and say, "Guys, this, you know, is my son James, he's my assistant, so you can call him 'Coach James.' He has something he'd like to say to you. Go ahead James, say your piece." Coach James, eyes aflame, finger waving with every emphasising word said, just like Knute Rockne, "Listen you guys, I play for a flag football team, just like most of you have. When we had our first game, we had more players than the other team, so when the coach, my dad, asked for 2 players to sit out for a few plays, I volunteered. We kicked off and you want to know what happened? I watched the other team run the kick off back for a touchdown. Do you know how come? NOBODY STAYED IN THEIR LANES!!! (Something he had heard me holler during our own kick off practice drills not a few minutes earlier). "So", he continues, "STAY IN YOUR LANES! That's all I have to say." Anyway, the next game, we win a great, close game with Coach James administrating the water bottles and running out to the field to retrieve the kicking tee. He was in his glory. The following game was our first play-off game, against a team, the JETS, that just beat us like step-children, 12-0. Here's our chance for vengeance(?). So, I'm tense (what an idiot), the assistant coaches are tense, and about 1/2 a dozen kids are running around our bench and have no business being there so I ask them to leave and, much to my chagrin, I instruct Coach James he better leave too, since it is a Play-off game. I didn't know this, but he sat down next to his mother and when she asked what happened, he told her and when she suggested he return, James said, "No he's the Coach". After the game, I'm sooo bummed we lost. Things went not so good for the BEARS that night and as I'm walking off the field, the smallest player on the team, walking behind me, saying repeatedly "Coach, Coach". I turn around, he says "Are you mad at us?" I was so humbled, you can't imagine. I place my arm around him and say "You guys are "Highly Motivated Champions" (our Team Motto) and now, even after the loss, I'm on top of the world, right? Keep reading.
*********** Somebody must have liked Bobby Knight. Indiana's basketball crowds are off an average of 5,000 a game so far this season. *********** "10-0 for the second consecutive year. That's pretty amazing since in the 28 years I've coached I'd never had an undefeated team. As my Friend, Paul Prince wrote you last year, it was a real blessing to come across your approach to the doublewing. We have taken to calling it the "Wyatt" doublewing since we played three teams this year that take the traditional "markham" approach to the Double-Wing. Funny thing about a "ball control offense" is that we threw for more TD's (27) than we rushed for (25). Defenses would pinch, we would throw or run counter. . . they would back off, we would toss, trap, G or O. With our success last year, our Varsity program used virtually the same offense and you guessed it, they went 10-0. Now all our Pop Warner teams are using it and for the first time in their existence a team made it to the championship game. As Paul Prince wrote you last year, we felt blessed to come across this material and the Dynamics III video allowed us to run a better G and we used the x over split exclusively for our goal line offense and no one could really stop the 6-G or the Super O off of it. Thank you so much and God Bless you. Tom Pipes J.V. Coach- Lassen High School, Susanville, California" *********** "Coach Wyatt: Please add Griswold High School (Class S Connecticut) to your ever increasing list of State Playoff teams. We made our school's first ever Playoff appearance this season. We won the semi final game 7-6, but unfortunately lost in finals 18-15. This was our second year running the double wing and it certainly has benefited the type of athletes we field on a year to year basis. Our staff is looking forward to attending your clinic this spring. Sincerely, Bob Brackett - Head Coach - Griswold Wolverines - Jewett City, Connecticut" *********** Anybody watch the Division III title game, between Mount Union and St. John's - won by Mount Union on a (what else?) last-second field goal? Anybody listen to it? It had to be the lamest broadcast I've heard since that meaningless end-of-the season NFL game years ago when NBC experimented with no audio at all. Actually, an absence of sound would have been preferable to having to listen to Pam Ward doing unbelievably monotonous play-by-play, Don McPherson, who normally is fairly good, sounding like her stooge, and the hopeless Holly Rowe on the sideline ("Does it ever get old?" she asked the Mount Union coach about all the national titles he's won, and breathlessly we waited for him to say, "Well, to be honest with you Holly, yes.") I mean, did they have to give us this crew for a national championship game? Is that all they think about Division III? The best part for me came following the Mount Union field goal that ended a frustrating day for both offenses and put them on top, 10-7, with exactly 0:01 remaining. As the two teams lined up for the kickoff with exactly one second left on the clock, ace announcer Ward asked her partner, "Any hope left for St. John's, Don?" *********** "Coach, I read your web page Wed. and noticed that a coach from Drain, Oregon wrote about his football team. I wanted to tell you that its a small world. A student at their middle school sent a letter to our school asking for some info about Georgia. I am a Georgia History teacher. Many of my students have written back to the young lady who sent the letter. Grace Thomas should be getting about a dozen replies in about a week. The mail will be at her school when she returns from Christmas break. On another note, I know you like teams from your coast, but I wouldn't pick against Georgia Southern. I haven't checked the records but I would put their record against any team in America over the last 10 years. I think they have won about 5 or 6 national titles in Division I-A." Dan King, Evans, Georgia (Okay, okay - you remember that I did admit to prejudice where Montana was concerned. But I would never have bet against Georgia Southern. They are very tough - a first-class program, as my buddy Joe Gardi at Hofstra assured me after playing them.) *********** The Dallas Cowboys, down 17-13 after the Giants kicked a field goal with just under four minutes to play, had no timeouts left and rookie quarterback Anthony Wright under center. Now, presumably he has some ability or they wouldn't have kept him on the squad, and they did have a week to work with him, and they are, after all, pros, but the geniuses who run the Cowboys' offense came up with a four-play series that would have gotten a high school coach fired. If they were that dumb. But most high school coaches would have been a lot smarter than that. They would have taught their players to get out of bounds on first down, and after a second-down pass play came up a yard short, to get up on the ball fast and spike it on third and three. But the geniuses in Dallas gave up without without a fight, calling two straight running plays - a sneak on third down (it was stuffed) and, on fourth-and-four, something that looked like a trap (it, too was stuffed).
*********** We had a wedding in the family this past weekend.. Our son, Ed married Michelle Howden of Melbourne, Australia, and we've been happily hosting her parents (who preferred having the wedding here because it's a convenient excuse for Michelle's dad, Frank, to go on to Las Vegas, his favorite place on earth). The reception/party at our house went on a little while, and toward the end, Mike Gastineau, one of Ed's pals who as "The Gasman" hosts a Seattle sports-talk show, decided to take my full-size cardboard cutout of Joe Paterno and hide it under the covers in the newlywed's room, with a Post-it attached saying, "Hey kids, be careful. Joe." *********** I have an a great idea for a new fragrance, and I doubt that too many people will try to copy it. As one of my daughters and her husband approached our town Friday, my nine-year-old grandson, Will, caught a whiff of the Georgia-Pacific paper mill in the heart of town and said, "that smells like Coach!" I'm sure he meant that he associated the unique aroma of a paper mill with past visits to Camas, and not with my armpits. But he has given me an idea, and I will soon be in contact with Tommy Hilfiger. One of the ideas already contributed by our family - Coach on a Rope. Look for it soon at a store near you. |
***********
With the Holiday Season fast approaching, I thought it
appropriate to show this Holiday advice (LEFT) that an
Australian Football team, the Richmond Tigers, has given its
rooters (which in Australia are known as "barrackers" and
not rooters, because to "root" in Australia is to, uh,
copulate). One bit of irony here is that Richmond led all
teams in the Australian Football League in alcohol-related
incidents last season. The other is that this advice is
printed on the back of a beer coaster.
Most Oklahoma high school football coaches receive extra-duty pay on top of their teachers' pay. Extra- duty pay for football tends to be much higher than that for other sports and activities, and football coaches are frequently reimbursed additionally for such football-related extra duties as supervising weightlifting, running summer programs and assisting lower-level football teams. In a recent statewide poll sponsored by the World, fifty-four percent of respondents said Oklahoma's high schools place too much emphasis on sports. "My personal opinion is it looks like in some cases there is an overemphasis on football," said Keith Ballard, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. Whoa. Not so fast. Unlike many states such as Washington, whose association gobbles up all the revenues from playoffs and tournaments and then barely reimburses the participating schools for their travel expenses, Oklahoma's playoff teams derive significant revenues from playoff appearances. Last year the two 6A finalists, Jenks and Union high schools, divvied up more than $89,000 in profits from the final game.
*********** Oregon State's Ken Simonton is one heck of a runner. He is the first player in the history of the Pac-10 and its member schools to rush for 1,000 yards in each of his first three years. He has another year of eligibility left, and if he has a typical Ken Simonton day against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, he will establish himself as a contender for next year's Heisman award. Only one problem. No, it's not the fact that he plays in football's boonies. LaDainian Tomlinson did, too, in a far lower-profile conference than the Pac-10, and he was a finalist this year. And no, it's not the fact that he plays in a section of the country which has fewer Heisman voters. No, those aren't the problem. The problem is his mouth. It's not foul, and it's not disrespectful. And he's rather well-spoken. It's just that he does have some very strong opinions - which he's not reluctant to share with anyone close by - and some of them go right to the core of what college football is all about. One of his favorite topics is a pay scale for college football players. At a press conference prior to the recent Oregon-Oregon State game, he was asked if this was as good as it got - Oregon State being 9-1 for the first time in history and all that. "It can get more fun," he said, speaking from the bully pulpit he'd been given. "We could get paid to do this." Pressed to describe what this season had been like, presumably after all those years of futility, he went on, "Well, I still only get $600 a month, so I still have bills to pay." Now, I am not going to argue with him or suggest that if it's money he wants, he should take his chances with the NFL. I generally believe that scholarship athletes should thank the Lord in their prayers every night that they are getting a free pass on an education that their less athletically-gifted schoomates sometimes have to go into hock to pay for, but I'd have to be a fool not to see a problem being created by the enormous contracts being given to their coaches. Players are given shoes and then told to wear them - and display their logos - because their coaches are being paid generously to see to it that they do. Increasing calls for player salaries are inevitable. And when they get too loud, the solution will not be to pay them - you know that the gender-equity folks are not going to stand by and let football players get paid when volleyball players, or softball players, do not. You also know that college athletic departments, already financially strapped by Title IX compliance issues, do not have the money to pay salaries, however small, to all of their scholarship athletes, male and female, revenue sport and non-revenue sport. No, when the time comes that player compensation is inevitable, then it will be time for colleges either to de-emphasize their football programs - eliminating scholarships entirely - or to spin them off from the colleges entirely. Give them their independence and set them up as semi-pro operations. Give them the right to use the school nickname and colors. Charge them rent for their offices, practice facilities and stadia. Let them negotiate their own TV contracts and sponsorships and sell their own tickets. Let them pay the players and the coaches whatever they can afford. And let the players - those who qualify academically, that is - attend the college. Paying their own way, of course. Financial aid would be available as it is to any other student, after first figuring in their football salary.
*********** "Coach Wyatt I ordered the Dynamics of the Double wing Video & Playbook with the Installing the System, Dynamics II, III, IV from you early last year. This was my first year as a youth league head coach after being a defensive coach for the last 5 years and this has been a Blessed year for me and my kids to finish with a 8 - 0 record and win the B league County Championship..I wanted to know about ordering the Troubleshooting the Double-Wing tape. I really enjoyed learning this system and like to get a like more info on this system....Thanks, Coach Rob Moore, Mitchellville, Maryland" *********** Pull down the Steel Curtain. This Sunday's game between the Steelers and the Redskins will be the last football game ever played in Three Rivers Stadium, due, after 31 years of fabulous times, to come down in February.
*********** UCLA, Southern California and Stanford lead all colleges in most NCAA titles won. I'd probably have guessed them. Anybody want to guess who's fourth? I'm going to have to tell you, because you'd never guess otherwise. It's Oklahoma State! That's right - Oklahoma State! Admit it - the Cowboys never even crossed your mind, and the reason, I'll bet, is because, despite a Barry Sanders here and a Thurman Thomas there, it's had so many dismal football seasons over the years. Says OSU Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips, "If you walk across state lines, our program is not respected to the extent it should be. That's primarily because the lack of success in football taints everything else." Oklahoma State is planning to do something about it. After spending some $40 million on Gallagher-Iba Arena for basketball and wrestling, OSU now intends to spend about $50 million to redo Lewis Field for football, installing luxury suites, enclosing one end, and a bricking-up the exterior to cover the bare steel beam that critics call an "erector-set."
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TRIVIA
ANSWER: At 6-2, 210, Ernie
Davis, nicknamed
"The Elmira Express" for his hometown of Elmira,
New York, played wingback in Coach Ben
Schwartzwalder's unbalanced wing-T attack at
Syracuse. He was a slashing runner with speed,
power and deception ("slickest-running halfback
in the nation," Sports Illustrated called him),
a great receiver and blocker, and a very good
defensive player, too. As a sophomore, he helped
Syracuse win a national championship, and the
teams he played on were 24-5 in his three years
there.
***********
This year's Golden Screw Award goes to a surprise
last-minute entry, the University of Toledo Rockets. Toledo
became Golden-Screw-eligible when Oregon State dropped out
of the running as a result of its Fiesta Bowl bid, and
Oregon did, too as a result of being elevated to play in the
Holiday Bowl. Toledo rocketed (you should pardon the
expression) to the top as a result of its failure to be
named to play in any bowl, despite a 10-1 record that
included wins over Penn State - at State College - and
Marshall, and a top-25 finish. At least 15 teams that
finished below Toledo in this week's USA Today/ESPN Top 25
Coaches' Poll are headed for a bowl game. And adding to the
pain, coach Gary Pinkel is leaving, headed to Missouri. I
have a lot of respect for Coach Pinkel, who played for the
great Don James at Kent State and served on his staff at
Washington. I thought Washington should have hired him when
they hired Rick Neuheisel. Still do.
